[Released] ManFriday's dForce Companion [Commercial]

ManFridayManFriday Posts: 569
edited March 2020 in Daz PA Commercial Products

Today my fifth plugin for Daz Studio has hit the store!

https://www.daz3d.com/dforce-companion

ManFriday's dForce Companion for Daz Studio is a new plugin that will simplify your work with dForce (hair and cloth). It provides a new "dForce" pane in your Daz Studio user interface with two main features:

  • The pane shows you all the figures from your Scene tab that have a dForce modifier in one place. Especially with hair, it's often not immediately clear which node has the dForce modifier with the important settings in the parameters. No more clicking through the scene tree to find the item that has the dForce settings!
  • For each such figure, you can only simulate that figure (and freeze the simulation for others), as well as turn on/off the "Visible in Simulation" flag and the smoothing modifier, if present. You can also quickly reset the simulation data for each figure.

This greatly speeds up setting up dForce simulation, especially if you have multiple cloth or hair items in the scene that you want to simulate separately. No more simulating the wrong item accidentally!

I have attached the PDF user manual below so you can have a peek at what the product can do! After installing, you can view the manual inside Daz Studio by pressing F1 and selecting "dForce Companion" under "Plugins" in the window that shows up.

Note: This plugin is for Windows 64-bits only. A version for the Mac may be added at a later time.

 

pdf
pdf
dForce Companion Manual.pdf
70K
Post edited by ManFriday on
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Comments

  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,124

    I have the product in my cart now. Happy to see your thread is here.

    Thanks, 

    Mary

  • Ryuu@AMcCFRyuu@AMcCF Posts: 668
    edited March 2020

    please delete this

    Post edited by Ryuu@AMcCF on
  • Ryuu@AMcCFRyuu@AMcCF Posts: 668

     

    Now HE's what I call the purrfect valet! laugh

  • LauritaLaurita Posts: 222

    Bought. And very happy about it. This is a functionality DAZ should have included from the get go.

  • N-RArtsN-RArts Posts: 1,496

    This maybe a dumb question, but will this work with items that aren't dForce (i.e. if they just have a dynamic surface applied to them)?

  • ManFridayManFriday Posts: 569
    N_R Arts said:

    This maybe a dumb question, but will this work with items that aren't dForce (i.e. if they just have a dynamic surface applied to them)?

    Any figure that has a dForce modifier will show up in the pane. Whether that is from a dForce product in the store or whether you added a dForce modifier yourself doesn't matter: it will show up either way (and disappear when you remove the dForce modifier, and come back when you add it again).

    Does that answer your question?

  • N-RArtsN-RArts Posts: 1,496
    ManFriday said:

    Any figure that has a dForce modifier will show up in the pane. Whether that is from a dForce product in the store or whether you added a dForce modifier yourself doesn't matter: it will show up either way (and disappear when you remove the dForce modifier, and come back when you add it again).

    Does that answer your question?

    It does. Thank you ^^

  • Hurdy3DHurdy3D Posts: 1,047

    The dForce Bed product does not shown in the tab.

     

    https://www.daz3d.com/ultimate-dforce-single-bed

    dforce bed.png
    2124 x 1291 - 818K
  • SoneSone Posts: 84

    It is great. I finally got control of dForce now. Thanks for making it. :)

  • Lothar WeberLothar Weber Posts: 1,611

    Instant buy. Thank you for that yes

  • ManFridayManFriday Posts: 569
    gerster said:

    The dForce Bed product does not shown in the tab.

     

    https://www.daz3d.com/ultimate-dforce-single-bed

    The bed probably isn't rigged. The dForce Companion only shows figures in the technical Daz sense, i.e. objects that have geometry and rigging. Can you convert the bed to a figure and see if it shows up then?

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,249
    edited March 2020

    Does this mean that if I add dForce to a plane to drape it, it won't show up in your new tool?

    Post edited by barbult on
  • Lothar WeberLothar Weber Posts: 1,611
    edited March 2020

    Cant find product after install...  Found it - my fault blush - remember, read the f... manual wink

    Post edited by Lothar Weber on
  • Hurdy3DHurdy3D Posts: 1,047
    edited March 2020
    ManFriday said:
    gerster said:

    The dForce Bed product does not shown in the tab.

     

    https://www.daz3d.com/ultimate-dforce-single-bed

    The bed probably isn't rigged. The dForce Companion only shows figures in the technical Daz sense, i.e. objects that have geometry and rigging. Can you convert the bed to a figure and see if it shows up then?

    If convert it into a figure the prop looses all it's simulation settings. So I have to convert into a dForce Figure again, totally sucks. indecision But than it shows up in the pane.

    If possible, please scan all dForce scene items to the Companion, otherwise it's only have as usefull as it could be.

     

    Post edited by Hurdy3D on
  • ManFridayManFriday Posts: 569
    gerster said:
    ManFriday said:
    gerster said:

    The dForce Bed product does not shown in the tab.

     

    https://www.daz3d.com/ultimate-dforce-single-bed

    The bed probably isn't rigged. The dForce Companion only shows figures in the technical Daz sense, i.e. objects that have geometry and rigging. Can you convert the bed to a figure and see if it shows up then?

    If convert it into a figure the prop looses all it's simulation settings. So I have to convert into a dForce Figure again, totally sucks. indecision But than it shows up in the pane.

    If possible, please scan all dForce scene items to the Companion, otherwise it's only have as usefull as it could be.

    You know, if the tool "totally sucks" then Daz has a 30-day return policy. Many other people apparently disagree.

    But I'll have a look whether I can add something that scans all items with geometry instead of just figures. I originally did that for performance reasons but that probably wasn't ideal.

  • ManFridayManFriday Posts: 569
    barbult said:

    Does this mean that if I add dForce to a plane to drape it, it won't show up in your new tool?

    At this time, yes. But if you do "Edit" -> "Object" -> "Rigging" -> "Convert prop to figure" on the plane it will show up.

  • Hurdy3DHurdy3D Posts: 1,047
    ManFriday said:
    gerster said:
    ManFriday said:
    gerster said:

    The dForce Bed product does not shown in the tab.

     

    https://www.daz3d.com/ultimate-dforce-single-bed

    The bed probably isn't rigged. The dForce Companion only shows figures in the technical Daz sense, i.e. objects that have geometry and rigging. Can you convert the bed to a figure and see if it shows up then?

    If convert it into a figure the prop looses all it's simulation settings. So I have to convert into a dForce Figure again, totally sucks. indecision But than it shows up in the pane.

    If possible, please scan all dForce scene items to the Companion, otherwise it's only have as usefull as it could be.

    You know, if the tool "totally sucks" then Daz has a 30-day return policy. Many other people apparently disagree.

    But I'll have a look whether I can add something that scans all items with geometry instead of just figures. I originally did that for performance reasons but that probably wasn't ideal.

    I didn't say that the tool totally sucks. I said that DAZ earase in the progress of Convert prop to figure erease all dForce settings totally sucks.
    My statement about the tool was, that it's only half as useful for me as I could be, with the current restrictions.
    And yes, I know about the 30 day return policy.

    If you don't find an performace algorythmen to scan all items in a scene, you can maybe add an optional checkbox for that with a warning that it may slow down?

  • Hurdy3DHurdy3D Posts: 1,047
    edited March 2020

    an other idea would be that we could a postfix to the name of scene items, to enforce a scan.

    Like "plane [dForce]".

    Post edited by Hurdy3D on
  • ManFridayManFriday Posts: 569
    gerster said:

    an other idea would be that we could a postfix to the name of scene items, to enforce a scan.

    Like "plane [dForce]".

    That's a good idea. But let me make some performance tests how bad it really is if I scan all items. The scan is not completely inexpensive because I'll have to look at each item in the scene and then run through its modifier list to find the dForce modifier by name, and there can be hundreds of modifiers in each item, but maybe it isn't so bad. I'll run some tests. Thank you for the feedback. :-)

  • TethosTethos Posts: 10

    Definate thumbs up here.

    It's managed to speed up the whole process and make things a lot less iritating.

  • QuasarQuasar Posts: 638

    I just had to get this, especially with the Madness discount. After trying it out in a simple test, I can see right away how helpful it will be in any scene with multiple dForce items. Thanks for making it. 

  • SoneSone Posts: 84
    Quasar said:

    I just had to get this, especially with the Madness discount. After trying it out in a simple test, I can see right away how helpful it will be in any scene with multiple dForce items. Thanks for making it. 

    Yes! The biggest bug-a-boo I had with dForce and ManFriday fixed that. It's great now!:)

  • ManFridayManFriday Posts: 569

    Thank you all for the kind words and for the purchases! Much appreciated!

  • I have several versions of Daz on my machine, and I can't find this program when loaded. Please can you tell me where I SHOULD be able to see it? It's not mentioned in my Plugin Section so I have no PDF to consult. Is there any way to define where it should load to?

  • SoneSone Posts: 84

    I have several versions of Daz on my machine, and I can't find this program when loaded. Please can you tell me where I SHOULD be able to see it? It's not mentioned in my Plugin Section so I have no PDF to consult. Is there any way to define where it should load to?

    It is in the Pane where such things as Scene, Parameters and such are to pin. Right click and stick it. It is simply called dForce in the drop down menu to pick from.

  • QuasarQuasar Posts: 638

    I have several versions of Daz on my machine, and I can't find this program when loaded. Please can you tell me where I SHOULD be able to see it? It's not mentioned in my Plugin Section so I have no PDF to consult. Is there any way to define where it should load to?

    Click the attachment on the first post at the top of this thread. The PDF explains it well.

  • Okay thanks, I found it. I didn't realise I had to close the program and re-open it for it to show up in the Windows/Panes. All is good now.

  • RGcincyRGcincy Posts: 2,834

    I've found this to be a useful product when you have multiple items in a scene that need to be simulated in sequence. Much easier to make selections in the new dForce pane then going back and forth to the scene and parameter panes trying to be sure all is set right. I wrote up a brief tutorial showing this being used to create a stack-up of clothing on a chair. Find it here.

  • UthgardUthgard Posts: 863
    ManFriday said:
    gerster said:

    an other idea would be that we could a postfix to the name of scene items, to enforce a scan.

    Like "plane [dForce]".

    That's a good idea. But let me make some performance tests how bad it really is if I scan all items. The scan is not completely inexpensive because I'll have to look at each item in the scene and then run through its modifier list to find the dForce modifier by name, and there can be hundreds of modifiers in each item, but maybe it isn't so bad. I'll run some tests. Thank you for the feedback. :-)

    Hi, any news on this? I would also be interested in having a more comprehensive tab.

  • GordigGordig Posts: 10,072

    I don't know if this is something that would be feasible within dForce Companion or would have to be a seperate product, but here's something I would find extremely useful: dForce Hierarchical Simulation (working title). Select a character and run the script, and it will simulate all items with collision layer 1, hiding objects with higher collision layers. After that sim is done, it freezes simulation on layer 1 objects, unhides layer 2, and simulates those, repeating as needed. It's kind of like Render Queue applied to dForce.

     

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