What to buy?
I want to use Daz to create an indie game where the player will be in a Medievil/Fantasy style world is there any products or bundels you would recomend that I could start on my project as quickly as possible without having to buy every item that catches my eye I am willing to spend the time to build my own worlds as I want them. Thank you for any advice you can offer as I am new to Daz.
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That is a pretty tricky thing to answer without more information. In general terms, I would imagine for any decent kind of game you would need a lot of assets in general and so pointing out any particular ones may not be too helpful.
However, assuming this would be a "Visual Novel" style of game where it would be text-based over a series of images/renders, then perhaps it may be best to focus more on the clothing and immediate props/weapons. Depending on your story/locations you "MIGHT" be able to get away with using free HDRIs for the backgrounds/environments. That won't be as good or flexible as proper 3D environments but it may enable you to get started quicker and with less initial outlay on assets?
If the game is an actual 3D type of game then you'll just have to buy everything along with the interactive licences for them which will probably get expensive fast!
Your post is kind of vague. You say you are new to DAZ, are you new to game design?
I would say to decide what engine you plan to use and then go look in that engines store first for assets that are made specifically for that game engine (Unreal or Unity).
Get familair with the engine and get your basics down and then you can worry about trying to get DAZ assets to work in that engine and for your project.
Think of it this way, you are trying to make spaghetti and meatballs. The Unity and Unreal stores will sell you the premade spaghetti and meatbals and sauce and you just toss them together and cook. DAZ sells you the ground beef you can use to make the meatballs, or a hamburger, or tacos meaning DAZ sells 3D assets for use in Daz Studio with options to use them in other applications like Unity or Unreal, it is not a store focused on game design.
That being said, the assets sold in the store vary in terms or complexity and features, so some will take quite a bit of work to get them to work in your game and others not as much.
Yes I would like to make a visual novel style game but it will be more explorable using still backround images I will make from Daz assets I plan to buy. As for the engine I plan to use Godot.
There was a program I really liked on steam called 'Worldmaker' its asset library wasn't huge but it did have the base assets required to basically make whatever you want both on a natural landscape and the conected textures for floors and walls. Which I am more than willing to buy on the Daz Store.
However there was a few items that were invalubale mostly the building base blocks like a plank of wood or blocks that I could arange and turn into whatever I wanted I have been looking through the store and while I did find several buildings and things that look cool I don't know if they are deconstructable to the point that I need just to make whatever little detail I want. Preferably it would be a group of basic shapes I can overlay textures on but if I have to buy diffrent blocks, planks and logs I am also fine with that but I haven't really found anything like a starter kit that you can use to enchance your worlds with using your own creativity or are all assets you buy on the store completly deconstructable to that point?
Thanks again for your answers it is a big help.
Well, the visual novel approach is good as it means that the Daz products will only be used to distribute 2D rendered images and thus you will not need to worry about the interactive licence. Make sure you do not use any of the handful of Editorial Licence products tho as you won't be able to sell you game if you use those. Also, if you get assets from other stores then check the licences for those to make sure they are OK to be used for commercial renders.
In terms of using basic shapes as building blocks, Daz studio does have a few basic pimitive shapes and there is Everyday Morphing Primitives which would add a few more although not sure how much those would be useful for a Medieval-style time period. You can probably also use something like Gescon to modify those pimitives further maybe? Alternatively, you may have more luck trying to source free OBJ shapes and importing those. Either way it sounds like you should consider bying some relevant Shader packs, e.g. unpainted wood and stone ones would help quite a bit I imagine.
Perhaps you could check out a few of the products by Faveral, particularly the MICK (Medieval Interior Construction Kit) products which could possibly be considered a "starter kit" for Medieval buildings?
In general terms, I feel the majority of Environment products sold on the store do have a healthy amount of individual props and accessories that can be used to "kitbash" something else or change from the intented use quite a bit. Check out the "What's Included and Features" section on the main product pages which should give you an idea of the individual items that the product contains. For a more detailed view you can look in the documentation centre, for example here is the filelist for the main MICK product.
Thanks these look good I will try them out but I thought I had to buy an interactive licence for anything I plan to use comercially? I was initially planning on buying the base assets package and then buying the licences later for any assets I use in the final product.
Well, I am not a lawyer, but my understanding is that the standard (non-edititorial) licence for products purchased on the Daz store allow you to use those products in any 2D rendered image commercially. The interactive licence only comes into play when you are exporting the products in a "3D object" format - e.g. you were using them as a controllable character in a game you were making with Unity or Unreal Engine etc. The difference is that in the first use you are using the paid products as "tools" to produce your image which is the thing you are then distributing and in the second you are technically distributing the "tools" as-is in a format that someone else could probably extract.
Thank you that actually saved me a lot of wasted money in the long run then as I have no intention of creating a controlable character as of right now.
No problem, although don't focus too much on the use of "controllable" - more so the 2D vs 3D part of that example. Perhaps using Sprites & Backgrounds vs Mesh would be a more suitable game-based example.
Yes, it's the data included that matters rather than what you do with the data. Generally visual novels would be fine.
I was planning on just using the rendered images for the games creation if there is a controlable explorable section like a dungeon I would prefer to do so in pixel form or through the use of images much like a story board with choices and an image with text. Haven't decided yet will probobly prodotype both and implement whichever feels more enjoyable.
Generally having the script and story laid out, will help inform what locations you need. Some products have everything in the set locked together in a single figure that you can't tear apart but only hide the various elements. Since they can't be deleted, they add to the over all resource totals always. Other products are assembled and parented but are individual props that can be separated and deleted. Those tend to be more efficient, because your scene will only inlcude what needs to be there.
Without knowing what genre your writing in, its hard to make suggestions. So for example if your doing something medieval since you mentioned a dungeon, Castle Creator has component parts that could be assembled in various ways. https://www.daz3d.com/castle-creator-for-daz-studio
That looks very good thanks. It seems to have a lot of 'building blocks' I can use to make stone based structures. Thank you.