Carrara 8.5.0.172 Beta Now Available for Download

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Comments

  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited January 2013

    Hey, don't knock tinfoil hats. It's the only way to stop them damn space aliens from turning our brains into mush

    Unfortunately, they don't work worth a damn against those weird looking clowns with yellow pajamas who keep knocking on my door and asking for Hubert.

    Believe me, I've tried it.


    That explains a lot actually...


    Later,
    Hubert. ;-)

    Post edited by evilproducer on
  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited January 2013

    Joe, do you by any chance own a tinfoil hat? Just curious...

    Anyway, the point I was trying to make was that people lately only assume the worst when it comes to DAZ. The truth is though that DAZ has always been much better at creating content than software. I was one of the few who rooted for them when they decided to make Studio free because I knew it would boost content sales and therefore turn their focus back to making the best content available.

    That being said, I do not believe they just abandoned all hopes of creating a fully featured program that will make people sit up and take notice. You want bad news? Okay, here's bad news then. Carrrara will be scratched. Bryce will be scratched. Hexagon will be scratched. Why am I saying this? Because of Genesis. Daz Studio 4 was created from the ground up as a framework for Genesis. DAZ might have created an exporter but I doubt they want their own software to jump though hoops to work with Genesis.

    So where does that leave us? It's very simple. Instead of having to develop for and support 4 software products and various exporters I predict that DAZ will opt to develop one program that does it all. And it will be most likely Studio. But it will be Studio with all the landscaping tools of Bryce, all the modelling tools of Hexagon and all the animation abilities and special effects of Carrara. Ans yes, I know Carrara does a lot of those things already. But it can do it so much better and it will be easier for DAZ to write their own code than to continue to keep old technology together with duct tape while gluing on the occasional new tool.

    So there's you bad news. Now you can all run screaming into the woods and lament the unfairness of the universe.

    Important Note - None of the above is based on any facts. It is all conjecture and speculation on my part and is not to be taken as fact.


    It is no secret that I am a huge fan of Carrara Pro. That's me.
    But if somebody created something better? I'm not a bigot - of course I'd try it - especially if they offer incentives for those who own software purchased through Daz3d. I haven't really tinkered with D|S lately. Just opened it up to update the CMS database, which I used to remove. Just haven't done that yet, since I installed 4.5 Pro. Anyways, who the hell has the patience to wait that fricken long every time the software opens? I thought Photoshop was bad!
    If Daz3d can develop something like Daz Studio, and do what they did to create (basically re-write) Carrara 8 Pro 64 bit, I personally think they do a pretty good job.

    But if they simply drop their software lines except for D|S, without an adequate replacement for Carrara... (~snip to avoid high blood pressure~)
    Well, they better not drop Carrara Pro. And that's that!
    Edit:
    If they do drop Carrara prior to 8.5 Pro final, I'll likely just quit upgrading. I can actually do what I want in 8.1 Pro. I'd certainly hope that somebody else picked it up and kept it alive, however. It truly is the only beast of its kind!

    Post edited by Dartanbeck on
  • wetcircuitwetcircuit Posts: 0
    edited January 2013

    If they do drop Carrara prior to 8.5 Pro final, I'll likely just quit upgrading...

    Uhhmmm. If they drop Carrara at C8.1, I suppose none of us will be upgrading, since there would be no further upgrades to get? :P

    Anyway, the first time the serial number was "forgotten" I figured it was a behind-the-scenes manipulation and someone was about to quit. Office politics aren't very hard to figure out.

    Post edited by wetcircuit on
  • Harry DresdenHarry Dresden Posts: 376
    edited December 1969

    Hah, I just got an idea for a render to lighten the day. All this seriousness makes my head hurt. Stupid aliens... :/

  • DartanbeckDartanbeck Posts: 21,583
    edited December 1969

    If they do drop Carrara prior to 8.5 Pro final, I'll likely just quit upgrading...

    Uhhmmm. If they drop Carrara at C8.1, I suppose none of us will be upgrading, since there would be no further upgrades to get? :P

    Anyway, the first time the serial number was "forgotten" I figured it was a behind-the-scenes manipulation and someone was about to quit. Office politics aren't very hard to figure out.I actually meant something else... but now I'm so busy feeling like an ass, that I can't remember what it was! lol

    Thanks holly... 'tis awesome!

  • JoeMamma2000JoeMamma2000 Posts: 2,615
    edited January 2013

    Hey, don't knock tinfoil hats. It's the only way to stop them damn space aliens from turning our brains into mush

    Unfortunately, they don't work worth a damn against those weird looking clowns with yellow pajamas who keep knocking on my door and asking for Hubert.

    Believe me, I've tried it.

    That explains a lot actually...

    Later,
    Hubert. ;-)


    Let's see...

    Lately in this forum I've been called an ass, a jerk, obnoxious, a village idiot, a troll, and a few other heart warming descriptions. And that's just in the last week.

    So one more personal attack can't hurt, right?

    Oh, but it had a winkey smiley, so it's okay, right Evil?

    Post edited by JoeMamma2000 on
  • evilproducerevilproducer Posts: 9,050
    edited December 1969

    Hey, don't knock tinfoil hats. It's the only way to stop them damn space aliens from turning our brains into mush

    Unfortunately, they don't work worth a damn against those weird looking clowns with yellow pajamas who keep knocking on my door and asking for Hubert.

    Believe me, I've tried it.

    That explains a lot actually...

    Later,
    Hubert. ;-)


    Let's see...

    Lately in this forum I've been called an ass, a jerk, obnoxious, a village idiot, a troll, and a few other heart warming descriptions. And that's just in the last week.

    So one more personal attack can't hurt, right?

    Oh, but it had a winkey smiley, so it's okay, right Evil?


    Just carrying on the jokey dialogue. Maybe if I had signed off as Harvey? Meh.

  • JoeMamma2000JoeMamma2000 Posts: 2,615
    edited December 1969

    Just carrying on the jokey dialogue..

    Right. All good intentions, I'm sure.

  • RealtimeRealtime Posts: 95
    edited December 1969

    I have some suggestions for some very practical (easy) but powerful way to improve Carrara.
    I'd really like to see some internal defaults updated:
    (1) the shaders in the plant room - the plant room is capable of producing awesome results. But no one would know that by using the default shaders. To be honest, until I figured out how to use and where to get better shaders, I was always very unimpressed by the realism of the trees. I know there are work-arounds. That's awesome for adding additional content. In my opinion, Carrara should be enabled to produce realistic trees out of the box. For me, if I create a tree, I'd like for them to look real. I know I'm not the only one. This could be easily remedied with new default plant shaders.
    (2) Offering updated presets (Sky, scenes, lighting, Terrain). I've have always liked the convenience of presets. For new users it's a great way to begin exploration.
    (3) Shaders - no one can ever have enough shaders. Shaders could stand and update.

    Long long ago in galaxy far far away...
    When Carrara was new, there was considerations that had to be made for computer resources, i.e., ram, processing power.
    correct me if I am wrong - but that should not be the main consideration now.

    Carrara content update - what a nice and easy new addition to the new feature list of an upcoming release of Carrara.

  • namretteknamrettek Posts: 168
    edited December 1969

    I uninstalled Carrara and Daz Studio from my system about three months ago. There have been so many "updates" that the two pretty much chewed up my computer.

    I bought a new hard drive(ssd drive that I got myself for christmas) and reinstalled my OS, Zbrush, Photoshop, Vue, and Poser. Everything is working great - living in Harmony. Poser pulls directly into Vue, Poser and Zbrush GoZ very nicely.
    Have there been ANY improvement on the whole DS Carrara front in the last three months?

    I seriously LOVE Carrara but in the end I could barely get anything to work - hardly any of my genesis content worked - I was supposed to redownload everything (about 5 gigs worth!!) . and it crashed ALL the time (beta) and it was roughly the same with DS 4.5. I felt just like a monkey caught with its hand in a jar unwilling to let go of the peanut.

    SOOOOO...

    with my new pristine Hard Drive, with everything singing in Harmony, should I dare to install DS and/or Carrara??

    Is it still too early to install DS 4.5 or Carrara Beta on my computer?

    Yes, no, debate amongst yourselves.

  • wetcircuitwetcircuit Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Realtime said:
    I have some suggestions for some very practical (easy) but powerful way to improve Carrara.
    I'd really like to see some internal defaults updated:
    (1) the shaders in the plant room - the plant room is capable of producing awesome results. But no one would know that by using the default shaders. To be honest, until I figured out how to use and where to get better shaders, I was always very unimpressed by the realism of the trees. I know there are work-arounds. That's awesome for adding additional content. In my opinion, Carrara should be enabled to produce realistic trees out of the box. For me, if I create a tree, I'd like for them to look real. I know I'm not the only one. This could be easily remedied with new default plant shaders.
    (2) Offering updated presets (Sky, scenes, lighting, Terrain). I've have always liked the convenience of presets. For new users it's a great way to begin exploration.
    (3) Shaders - no one can ever have enough shaders. Shaders could stand and update.

    Long long ago in galaxy far far away...
    When Carrara was new, there was considerations that had to be made for computer resources, i.e., ram, processing power.
    correct me if I am wrong - but that should not be the main consideration now.

    ...


    I am going to disagree with you about 50%, but I don't want to seem confrontational about it because I also agree somewhat...

    Ultra-high shaders should not be the "default". IMHO no ultra-high settings that slow renders should ever be the "default" anything.... As you state perfectly, you have not delved into the settings and didn't for a long while, and you assumed that lower quality was how things "are" -- that's a limitiation of the newbie, not Carrara. In the FlipMode Universe other newbies would potentially assume the trees (or Carrara in general) is high quality but very slow - like a Howie Farke's scene, so slow you can barely use the interface! That would be a disaster to learning, and a royal cockblock to ever figuring out your own scenes.

    I was considering your idea about adding high-end (slow) content to the free content so you would have a choice..., but after thinking about it I feel this sort of "premium" content is exactly how the store should be useful to Carrara. As a showcase for high-quality premium presets which you pay extra for.

    I know that's not the "best" for the newbie because they have to spend more money, but I think it's the best for Carrara in the long run, and you are encouraged to try to figure it out on your own before you spend the money (or you just spend the money).

    There use to be a freepository for Carrara with links to Tim Payne's free skies/lighting... I guess we lost all that with the forum "makeover".

  • wetcircuitwetcircuit Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    namrettek said:
    I uninstalled Carrara and Daz Studio from my system about three months ago. There have been so many "updates" that the two pretty much chewed up my computer.

    I bought a new hard drive(ssd drive that I got myself for christmas) and reinstalled my OS, Zbrush, Photoshop, Vue, and Poser. Everything is working great - living in Harmony. Poser pulls directly into Vue, Poser and Zbrush GoZ very nicely.
    Have there been ANY improvement on the whole DS Carrara front in the last three months?

    I seriously LOVE Carrara but in the end I could barely get anything to work - hardly any of my genesis content worked - I was supposed to redownload everything (about 5 gigs worth!!) . and it crashed ALL the time (beta) and it was roughly the same with DS 4.5. I felt just like a monkey caught with its hand in a jar unwilling to let go of the peanut.

    SOOOOO...

    with my new pristine Hard Drive, with everything singing in Harmony, should I dare to install DS and/or Carrara??

    Is it still too early to install DS 4.5 or Carrara Beta on my computer?

    Yes, no, debate amongst yourselves.



    Monkey with his hand caught in a jar is very funny, but we are not laughing... There has been no new beta update (movement) in 3 months while Genesis is becoming Poser-ready.

    If you are only trying to use Genesis in Carrara then I would expect you to have a miserable time. It's not supported. You are holding Carrara back because you can't let go of that peanut.... Even if you install everything all over gain, if you insist on using the unsupported figure traveling through TWO beta programs... Yeah, you know what is going on, I'm just confirming it.

    Even if these are the very last betas, you will be downloading and reinstalling eventually when the releases are final.... I hear you that Genesis is the mostest tastiest peanut in the world, but if you can't eat it, then it will never satisfy....

  • namretteknamrettek Posts: 168
    edited December 1969

    namrettek said:
    I uninstalled Carrara and Daz Studio from my system about three months ago. There have been so many "updates" that the two pretty much chewed up my computer.

    I bought a new hard drive(ssd drive that I got myself for christmas) and reinstalled my OS, Zbrush, Photoshop, Vue, and Poser. Everything is working great - living in Harmony. Poser pulls directly into Vue, Poser and Zbrush GoZ very nicely.
    Have there been ANY improvement on the whole DS Carrara front in the last three months?

    I seriously LOVE Carrara but in the end I could barely get anything to work - hardly any of my genesis content worked - I was supposed to redownload everything (about 5 gigs worth!!) . and it crashed ALL the time (beta) and it was roughly the same with DS 4.5. I felt just like a monkey caught with its hand in a jar unwilling to let go of the peanut.

    SOOOOO...

    with my new pristine Hard Drive, with everything singing in Harmony, should I dare to install DS and/or Carrara??

    Is it still too early to install DS 4.5 or Carrara Beta on my computer?

    Yes, no, debate amongst yourselves.



    Monkey with his hand caught in a jar is very funny, but we are not laughing... There has been no new beta update (movement) in 3 months while Genesis is becoming Poser-ready.

    If you are only trying to use Genesis in Carrara then I would expect you to have a miserable time. It's not supported. You are holding Carrara back because you can't let go of that peanut.... Even if you install everything all over gain, if you insist on using the unsupported figure traveling through TWO beta programs... Yeah, you know what is going on, I'm just confirming it.

    Even if these are the very last betas, you will be downloading and reinstalling eventually when the releases are final.... I hear you that Genesis is the mostest tastiest peanut in the world, but if you can't eat it, then it will never satisfy....

    Thanks for the reply, even if it is sad news. I actually don't NEED genesis. I haven't even used it for months. But IF DS and Carrara worked with it I WOULD love to use genesis (not just because of all the money I spent...)

    I love Carrara. It is easier to use than Vue and renders just as well (maybe not for animation I only do stills). It has a fast and easy render set up. But it just doesn't fit very well with what I am doing right now. It doesn't play well with zbrush - even with GoZ. Poser works so much better.

    And since vue and poser work well together... Oh well Beta Hell continues.

  • tylerzamboritylerzambori Posts: 79
    edited December 1969

    namrettek said:

    Thanks for the reply, even if it is sad news. I actually don't NEED genesis. I haven't even used it for months. But IF DS and Carrara worked with it I WOULD love to use genesis (not just because of all the money I spent...)

    I love Carrara. It is easier to use than Vue and renders just as well (maybe not for animation I only do stills). It has a fast and easy render set up. But it just doesn't fit very well with what I am doing right now. It doesn't play well with zbrush - even with GoZ. Poser works so much better.

    And since vue and poser work well together... Oh well Beta Hell continues.

    Do you know if there are any external renderers with plugins for Vue?

  • wetcircuitwetcircuit Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    namrettek said:
    And since vue and poser work well together...

    ...but with Genesis?

    Or are you just saying you have a working path that you are using so why change...?

    I would expect if you are using any figure earlier than Genesis in Poser/Vue, you might have a revolution just using Carrara. For instance if you are using V4 or other Poser-compatible figure, posing and texturing in Poser, then moving to Vue for environment and final render..., you would maybe be pleasantly surprised at just using V4 in Carrara.

    Most of these discussions about Carrara's current limitations are only about Genesis. If you haven't used Genesis for months (because you went back to the Poser/Vue method?) you might simply try your favorite figure natively in Carrara and skip the whole two-software process altogether.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,233
    edited December 1969

    oddly enough after losing my smart content I have been having considerable more success with Genesis via the file import loading method. character presets created in Daz studio load as do material presets, stuff autofits without error etc.
    I found just using the smart content browse frequently crashed it, had an error occur or froze Carrara unrecoverably.
    there is content in my smart content tab under default still but not the dangerous interactive type that filters upon selecting a figure, it is this that caused many of my woes.

  • bighbigh Posts: 8,147
    edited December 1969

    need new serial code - please

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,233
    edited December 1969

    still got two days!!
    my work cannot tell me one week to the next what my roster is and which day out of six is my RDO
    and lately do not know which day they will collect my garbage.
    or when my new credit card is arriving so I can update paypal details
    or even what I got paid last fortnight as work did an estimated advance that does not show on my slip!
    life was not meant to be simple.

    damn, next you will want to know when the beta is finished :roll:

  • wetcircuitwetcircuit Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    oddly enough after losing my smart content I have been having considerable more success with Genesis via the file import loading method. character presets created in Daz studio load as do material presets, stuff autofits without error etc.
    I found just using the smart content browse frequently crashed it, had an error occur or froze Carrara unrecoverably.
    there is content in my smart content tab under default still but not the dangerous interactive type that filters upon selecting a figure, it is this that caused many of my woes.

    :ohh: But that means ManStan was correct all along... not just paranoid.... :ahhh:

  • namretteknamrettek Posts: 168
    edited December 1969

    namrettek said:

    Thanks for the reply, even if it is sad news. I actually don't NEED genesis. I haven't even used it for months. But IF DS and Carrara worked with it I WOULD love to use genesis (not just because of all the money I spent...)

    I love Carrara. It is easier to use than Vue and renders just as well (maybe not for animation I only do stills). It has a fast and easy render set up. But it just doesn't fit very well with what I am doing right now. It doesn't play well with zbrush - even with GoZ. Poser works so much better.

    And since vue and poser work well together... Oh well Beta Hell continues.

    Do you know if there are any external renderers with plugins for Vue?

    Sorry, don't know. Vue's render engine works pretty well. I find Carrara's easier and faster...

    I have Vue Complete.

    But since vue has a version that plugs into maya and/or 3d studio max my guess is there aren't a lot of pre packaged plugins for rendering outside of Vue.

  • namretteknamrettek Posts: 168
    edited December 1969

    namrettek said:
    And since vue and poser work well together...

    ...but with Genesis?

    Or are you just saying you have a working path that you are using so why change...?

    I would expect if you are using any figure earlier than Genesis in Poser/Vue, you might have a revolution just using Carrara...

    I used to use Carrara to do nearly all of my images especially with gen4 and landscapes. Actually I find Carrara much quicker to use than Vue, MUCH faster to render and the quality - about the same. The terrains in Vue are much nicer, but since I almost always have vegetation - you don't really see the bare terrains, and most of my landscapes are bg.

    I uninstalled Daz Studio and Carrara due to problems with the beta verisons.

    I'm sure eventually I will reinstall Carrara 8 or 8.5 but right now I am mostly using Zbrush. I had quite a few problems getting Carrara and zbrush to play nice. Of course I CAN do it, but all I have to do with poser is hit the GoZ button... I have GoZ for Carrara too, unfortunately it does not work half as well as the Poser version (crashes quite often!!).

    And since most of what I do in Zbrush is - just sculpting I only use vue and poser once in a while. Once I start getting good enough at sculpting I'm sure I will revisit Carrara for building scenes again. (Maybe by then the beta hell will be over...)

    I include two images for comparison. The one with Rawarts Tauran was done with Carrara and the gollum like picture (with a genesis figure) was done with Vue.

    LakesideGoll_FinDEV.jpg
    1920 x 1080 - 1M
    Tauran_SM.jpg
    1469 x 2000 - 889K
  • YofielYofiel Posts: 204
    edited December 1969

    I requested a redownload, and tried to install the 64-bit Windows beta version of build 172. I downloaded it twice. For both downloads, I got a file-read error reported during the installation, and a fatal crash. .I've installed prior betas before successfully, but they are expired. What do I do?

  • Kodiak3dKodiak3d Posts: 223
    edited December 1969

    Once again, new serial #, no new info. Let me look into the crystal ball...

    ...I can see the future...
    ...it's February 21, 2013...
    ...I see A NEW SERIAL NUMBER!

    ...and nothing else.

  • bighbigh Posts: 8,147
    edited December 1969

    Kodiak3D said:
    Once again, new serial #, no new info. Let me look into the crystal ball...

    ...I can see the future...
    ...it's February 21, 2013...
    ...I see A NEW SERIAL NUMBER!

    ...and nothing else.

    wow how do you do it :roll:

  • e-brinke-brink Posts: 2
    edited December 1969

    HI, can anyone tell me where the download links for this version is. I haven't updated since .132.

    Also, did anyone have occasional crash issues when saving in the above version and is it likely to have been fixed in this newer .172 version? I keep getting 'An error has occurred' when using 'save as' and have to use the dialog box - it doesn't seem to like this stage. I have a Mac Running Lion 10.7.5.

  • e-brinke-brink Posts: 2
    edited December 1969

    I looked to see if my Carrara 8 upgrade would provide it on a reset but it didn't.

  • YofielYofiel Posts: 204
    edited January 2013

    I got the .13 and .17 builds of the 64-bit PC version. The .13 build is timebombed out, and the .17 build reported file errors during the installation. I posted a request to know if others had similar problems, but I see the same quesitons as before: where is the download lind? Answer: reset Carrra 8 purchase and go to downloads for customer support. It showed up for me there, and the file reports as downloaded successfuly, but it reports compression errors during the installation. I didn't try was disabling the antivirus software or running the installer as administrator.

    I've enjoyedc Carrara since version 5. I tried Poser 2012 and after 45 minutes on the phone with staff there, got a refund within the trial period. Carrara is still superior, and I dfscovered with some delight the mesh tools in 8.1 work quite well at fixing clothing poke-through. I hope the product continues to be supported.

    Post edited by Yofiel on
  • WadeWattsWadeWatts Posts: 0
    edited January 2013

    I have had no luck getting 0.172

    I reset my Carrara 8 Pro Upgrade (I have no sign of Carrara 8 in my list of items) and I got...

    Carrara_8.5.0.132_Mac64

    But no 0.172

    Sorry for sounding like a noob, but does anyone know how I can get 0.172 ?

    Post edited by WadeWatts on
  • wetcircuitwetcircuit Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    Dell said:
    I have had no luck getting 0.172

    I reset my Carrara 8 Pro Upgrade (I have no sign of Carrara 8 in my list of items) and I got...

    Carrara_8.5.0.132_Mac64

    But no 0.172

    Sorry for sounding like a noob, but does anyone know how I can get 0.172 ?


    I think there were problems for Genesis in .172, so the current available beta was regressed to .132 (I may be wrong, I don't use Gen, but was trying to follow the progress...)

    I have both installed but on different computers. 132 seems a little more stable (but it's running on a much newer computer).

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,233
    edited December 1969

    I use 8.5.0.149 because that one works with the Mimic plugin and Genesis facial morphs, the other later one did not.

This discussion has been closed.