DAZ Store For Newbies
Is there a tutorial anywhere which explains in detail for the totally clueless nube how buying things in the DAZ store works? I don't get many of the terms used in descriptions. The photos often look great, but it seems that to achieve those looks one typically has to buy a number of other products. So far I'm unable to picture what exactly I would get if I purchase an item, or what I could do with it once I had it.
Remember, totally clueless nubes have money too, but when confused they tend not to spend it. :-)
Many thanks.
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No, there's no tutorial in how to use the shop. Everyone wants something different, so everyone needs different suggestions. It mostly boils down to "What do I intend to create?".
So, here's the gist from what I learned rendering a 3D comic (needing environments, characters, clothing, hair, vehicles, poses....):
Why don't you post a link to a product or two that you're confused about, perhaps we can explain things better on a concrete example?
(It's also worth noting that you can return any product within 30 days without giving a reason. You will get the money back in store credit.)
BeeMKay, thank you for your detailed response. The link to the freebies was helpful as it allows me to experiment with downloads. I did succesfully download a free dress for Gen 2 female via download manager. However, while I did used to have Gen 2 female, now she's gone, or I can't find her anymore. The dress is there, I can see that, but it doesn't work on any of the female characters I currently have. The female character section of my DAZ has now changed, no idea why.
One key problem with the store (for newbies) is that the photos don't represent what you're actually buying. Instead the photos typically depict the product being sold, plus ten or more other products. Thus the photo doesn't really help me understand the product itself, but instead confuses the issue further.
Thank you sharing this, but honestly, these kind of sales structures almost seem deliberately designed to inspire nubes like me to vanish. I have no idea what your explanation means, but it's not your fault, as I assume you are representing the DAZ system accurately.
There won't be a lot of frustrations along the way if a newbie decides that the DAZ system is simply more bother than it's worth, which I'm guessing is what happens 90%+ of the time.
It seems the best course for me is to continue experimenting with the DAZ software, and just forget about the store until maybe someday later when I understand the terminology better. DAZ wants to sell to you, but not to me, and I'll just respect that until I'm more like you, should that ever happen.
I'm not at my rendering PC right now, so I cant give you a screen shot. By the way, in case you didn't have a look at them yet, check out the tutorials: https://www.daz3d.com/help/help-daz-3d-video-tutorials
As for the store, it would be best if you bring your concerns to customer support, so that they can bring them to the marketing department. Putting them here in the forum will have very low chances of them being read by anyone from the store. https://www.daz3d.com/help/help-contact-us
However, promotional renders also are supposed to give you an idea of how the product can be used. The "Bling" so to speak. Honestly, I've even had a product sold to me because of a full scene render someone did here in the forum which gave me a suggestion that I hadn't in mind before and it turned out the product was exactly what I needed.
As for sales percentages, I just mentioned it because it comes regularly up in threads, and is something new users often struggle in understanding, even though it's something that is commonly used in retail in the USA, I was told.
As fou "being more like you" (and I try to not take that as an insult, regarding all the things you have to say about the store)... If the system is worth it, that's your choice... but there are not so many other shops outside of the DAZ store. You have Hivewire, Renderosity, for example, that cater to the same crowd. Feel free to check out their system and purchase there if it's easier for you to use. That is entirely up to you.
You have to think of the window display, or shop display of your average High Street Shop.
You get a very professional display in the shop window, but once you go inside you will find a section with the shirts, another section with the trousers, etc etc. if there's a sale on some items may only be found in the bargain basement.
So lets start with one of todays New Items
https://www.daz3d.com/pina-hair-for-genesis-3-and-8-females
So that is easy the title says it all
However lets break the store page down
On the right You can see what figure(s) it is designed for
On the left you can see Details of the item, and what is included in the package
BeeMKay, I certainly didn't mean to insult you in anyway, and I apologize if poor writing on my part made it seem that way. You're trying to be helpful and that is appreciated.
So here's the latest drama. I downloaded an installed a freebie as discussed above. I did this in one user account on my Mac.
Then I went immediately to another user account on my Mac where I actually work in DAZ. That install of DAZ appears to now be dead. I'm getting this error:
What doesn't work is that I no longer have ANY content of any kind, nothing whatsoever, in that install of DAZ. No characters, no assets, no clothes, absolutely nothing. I can still open DAZ files I've saved, but there is no way to create anything new.
If there's an easy fix to this I'd surely appreciate some help. If there isn't an easy fix there's a good chance I won't be asking any more questions about DAZ.
So you have 2 user accounts on the same computer?
Yes, both Mac and Windows offer an unlimited number of user accounts.
Try doing everything from one account?
Hylas, thanks. That does seem a good suggestion, even though no Mac app I've used since 1995 has such fatal problems. I can't recall a single time in 25 years that doing something in one user account killed the same app in another user account.
Anyway, I'm going to have to pause and consider here. I don't yet know how to fix the problem. Even if I did I will hereafter be quite wary of doing anything in the DAZ store. And if I'm not going to use the DAZ store, why am I using DAZ software?
Members are right that DAZ or any 3D system requires a big time investment. I do get that. But should I make such a big investment in a system where ALL my content can go poof without warning? Imagine if you would that I had $1000 worth of content in DAZ and it all just magically went away. Not sure how much deeper I want to get in to that kind of realm.
Your content is still there, it is in the other account. You do need the CMS (Content Management System) installed in the same account as the content, and you do need the content in the account you are using to create projects to render.
In the past, when I have had several accounts on the same computer is has been done that way so that those using the other accounts could not use my account and specifically the content on it.
I am told
To put it simple.
Preference data (Application Support) can be saved with two dfifferent targets on Mac OS X (which is different from the pre X versions of Mac OS where there were only one user, one system folder and one preferences folder.
The two options (which is controlled by the application itself ) are ~/Library/ and /Library, the difference (if you do not speak fluent unix path) is that ~/Library is located in the users home directory, while /Library is located in the root volume.
So, how will that effect you? First some history. Apple have been enforcing stronger and stronger that Application developers do not use the /Library unless there is a really strong reason for that, but to use ~/Library when handling application per user preferences. So, DAZ Studio has it's per-user settings in –/Library, which is in the home directory of the user. If you switch user, the home directory of the new user will not contain that information.
So, the tip of the day, Use the same user while installing as when using.
To go a little more technical, I will still try to keep this simple, DAZ Studio is a fairly complex system, I've been using Macs since 1984 (a Mac 128k) and I've been developing on Mac OS since 1987, so when I say complex, I do mean it. There is a lot of things going on to make things easy for the user, but those rely on many things, that will break hard if you juggle users back and forth. It can of course be done, you just need to know the ins and outs of Mac OS X internals, know what files to move where to keep the two users synced.
I'm working with a mac, and I used to work with two user accounts in the past (before I knew DAZ). I had a lot of music in the iTunes library of my main account. When I opened iTunes from my secondary account, the library was empty, which makes perfect sense to me. It's the same situation here with DAZ, I'm guessing.
This is not something that generally happens, and I don't think it's what happened to you here. But anyway, in case all your content somehow disappears from your harddrive - let's say your computer exploded, or it got stolen - the DAZ store "remembers" which products you have bought, and you can download them all again without paying.
Anyway, I don't think DAZ is a particularly intuitive program overall, and it does take some time to get used to it.
My best guess (se my post above) is that he swapped user, the new user did not have any info for the CMS, so the smart content failed to load.
Hi guys, thanks for your inputs.
It seems the solution here is to just reinstall DAZ from scratch. A bother, but not a fatal crisis.
I agree, I don't think the content is gone. My guess is that Install Manager screwed up some file paths somewhere, thus making it impossible for DAZ to find the content. For what it's worth, please note that content in BOTH user accounts was affected. In one account only some of the original content is missing, while in the other account all of the original content is missing. That is, Install Manager failed to operate properly in all instances. But, it's a free program, and certainly worth what I paid for it.
I'll reinstall and stick with the original default version of DAZ which has always worked correctly in both user accounts. My main interest is in learning 3D animation, and I was happy to discover that DAZ has a variety of ways to animate. I don't really need the DAZ store or Install Manager to learn animation. I didn't even really want to buy anything now anyway, I was just trying to learn the system, and I learned what I need to know.
Thanks again!
Thanks for your experienced information Totte. Yes, I am aware of the different libraries, global and local, though you expressed that better than I have.
If DAZ had installed the new data only in one user, and required me to install it again in the second user, that would have made sense, and I wouldn't have complained. If DAZ had installed the new data in both users, that would have been OK too. If DAZ had thrown up an alert telling me to do something else, I would have done so. All this would have been normal expected behavior. No problem at all.
While the focus of the thread has largely been on what I did or should have done etc, there is a far simpler explanation for what happened. DAZ is not a mature enough software to deal with Mac user accounts correctly. That's really all there is to it. That failure is not a crime, I'm not going to sue :-) and it is a free program after all. So life goes on.
The thing is, the file format is still based on the old Poser format, although updated, but content references are still paths. The old Poser file references was just HFS+ local paths (HFS+ being the old Mac OS file system), that's why old Poser paths has : as path separator.
Paths are local which means they all points "downwards" from the Content root. And when yiu say content disappeared, I'm pretty confident it did not, just the CMS was not correctly updated (wrong user, wrong CMS data). The content sits where DIM installed it, but if you have different configurations on different users, it was installed where that users config told it to go.
Okay, glad to hear it, because I really wasn't certain there.
I hope you get your issues with your Mac solved, you're in good hands with Totte.
Great, happy we made that clearer. When I said "people like you" I meant people who know what they are doing. :-)
Hey Totte, how do you suggest I uninstall DAZ (so I can reinstall) on a Mac? Chohole suggested I ask you, and he mentions using Install Manager to uninstall. Sound good to you? Thanks MacMan.
DIM is good at this, but remember that if you had different settings for different Users then maybe need to uninstall from both users.
But I think uninstall of content is not needed, just check install paths from DAZ Studio do a Reimport Meta DAtat in the CMS and you are good to go, unless you have really installed content to a multitude of directories.
I didn't know some of these things too! Thanks :D
For what it may be worth, here's additional breath taking breaking news detail on the "download from Store" crisis. This is SO exciting isn't it? :-)
I haven't reinstalled DAZ. I now see this.
If you open DAZ in one Mac user account, and then quit DAZ...
And then launch DAZ in a second Mac user account, DAZ is broken, no content. Or at least this has been the case since I did the download from store.
However, if you restart the Mac, the original default content is restored in both user accounts. But what I downloaded from the Store is missing.
I'm not really asking for a fix or advice. If a restart will restore default content I can go with that. I just felt obligated to report the situation as accurately as I can, to the best of my knowledge.
That can probably be explained:
Content is not gone, it's just that the Content Manager Database is started from Useracount 1 and when in DAZ Studio you look at the Smart Content Pane, it can find it , but then yiu log in as user two, and it can't and it points wrong. Its still three, if you look at the Content Library Pane, not the Smart Content Pane.
Hi Totte, a few details summarized from above.
1) DAZ is now showing a CMS error when you go from one user account to another. Restarting the Mac fixes that, until I again try to use DAZ in multiple user accounts (not at the same time, quit one instance and then launch another).
2) None of this was happening until I used Install Manager to download from the store. I can't find that content anywhere in any user account.
I talked to the President of DAZ and he said he would push a button to make me instantly the best animator on the Net without any effort or learning of any kind, so I've decided to accept that resolution of the problem, though I will miss the whining. :-)
So, is that Smart Content Tab or Content Library Tab, that are two completely different things.
If it's gone in Smart Content, CMS connection fails
If it's gone in Content Library, the Content Library Config is not the same on both accounts.
Like I said, when the issue occurs, DAZ is specifically reporting a CMS connection failure in an error popup.
Nothing at all in Smart Content.
Here is the error message:
https://postimg.cc/0zCRb2XP
As best I can tell, it happens like this:
1) login to USER 1, launch DAZ, quit DAZ
2) login to USER 2, launch DAZ, get error above
If I restart the Mac I can go to any user and launch DAZ without error.
This is my best understanding at the moment.
I would just reinstall DAZ to restore the previous happy setup, but it's not a huge problem, and I still don't understand what caused the problem, other than it started after I downloaded from Store using Install Manager.
Everyone gets sometimes similar errors. I asked befofe and a guy told me exactly what to do:
1. When you get such error open the smart content tag
2. Look at the left bottom part. You will see a button which is not there when Daz works normally. Click on it and the smart content will appear.
3. Restart the program
Thanks Handel, I've saved that info and will try it the next time the error appears.
More store questions...
1) How do I search the store for products which don't require other products? How do I find only those products which will work with the default Gen 8 characters on their own?
2) How do I see what such products look like on the default Gen 8 characters, WITHOUT all the other products which are used in the promo images on the sales page?
Imagine that I'm a car dealer and I show you a photo of a really nice looking car. But then in the small print it says that your car will only look like that if you also buy tires, windshield, doors, trunk lid, hood, grill etc. Wouldn't you like to see a photo of what it is you're actually buying?