[RESOLVED] Mac user just purchased a PC for DS: easy to transfer DS and content?
Mac user just purchased a PC for DS: easy to transfer DS and content?
So I am less of a hardcore Mac user than I had imagined... I finally caved and purchased a Dell laptop (with Nvidia 2060) with the sole purpose of using DS on it.
In your experience, is it troublesome to load my Daz content onto my new Dell? Will I need to download a new DS Win-64 and get a new license number?
Are there any perculiarities that I should be forewarned of with using DS on Windows?
Thanks for your insights! I am so excited to finally "get with the times"... slow Mac renders have been the biggest pain in my rear over the last 2 months since I started learning DS in earnest.
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I would suggest that you install Daz Install Manager (DIM) (NOT Daz Central that so many people have had problems with). Before you install anything else with DIM, open its settings and configure all the paths where you want applications and content to be installed. Then use DIM to install Daz Studio and the supporting files like the CMS. Then install your content. You can selectively check the boxes of content you want to install or select everything and let DIM install it all. Just be sure you have your paths properly configured first.
Does your new laptop have adequate cooling to do long Iray renders?
I don't think you need a new license. There is nothing in the serial number that appears to be OS specific.
@Barbult
All my purchased content are currently stored in an external HDD and I am hoping to just be able to configure my DS(PC) to use the content from there instead of having to redownload everything...
I purchased the Dell G5 which is a gaming laptop with rather good reviews for the 2060 and cooling qualities... I hope... it's my first PC and this is going to be used only for DS and nothing else. I decided not to splurge on the 2070/32GB RAM as this is just my travel notebook... one day when I get serious enough I should get a tabletop PC with 2 GPUs and 32GB which I heard is the ultimate configuration; but for now, as I move about too much, I cannot be held back by a tabletop unfortunately.
There are guides in the forum for using an external HDD with a different computer. I don't have a link.
Thank you very much! With this new PC, I think my Ultrascenery will work even better than before :) :) :)
I did the same step like you. Many years I used a Mac Pro 5.1 for working with DAZ Studio but the sad situation with NVIDA-Cards in Macs brought me to change to Windows. I installed DAZ Studio on my Windows-PC and used the external HDD I had with macOS before. But you have to install a driver for WIndows first, that enables Windows to read the Mac HFS+ or APFS- format (excepts you formattet your external HD in FAT32). I bought this driver from paragon (paragon-software.com).
For the Windows-PC I had to download the DAZ Studio 64 for Windows and installed it. The licence-number was the same like I had for Mac.
Networking should be possible even if it is just between your external drives, I have two PCs and can access shared drives from both even over wifi, I am pretty sure with a Mac it's the same, while I have DIM on both and separate libraries I can actually add the library from the other computer that is on an external with sharing enabled.
Thank you so much for the insights Peter_DA and WendyLuvsCatz ... I am just so excited to finally be able to render super fast (well, anything compared to a Mac CPU render would be considered "super fast")
Prior to purchasing the Dell, I was considering getting a top of the line Mac Pro but figured that there's nothing I can do to improve render speeds without NVidia so it was a no go.
Congratulations on your new computer! Happy rendering.
When I set up my Windows system, I ended up connecting the two systems directly with a gigabit ethernet cable and copying via network. I cannot recall exactly which software I used to execute the transfer.
I am still saddened by the course Apple has chosen; but we have to live with it.
Finally received the Dell today and through DIM, installed DS, CMS etc... I had also purchased a Seagate 5TB external HDD which I formatted as exFAT so that it could be freely used between the Dell and my Mac. At the moment as I speak, DIM is downloading all my content and installing them onto my Seagate. It will be for a couple of hours to download and install so I will take the dog out for a walk and hopefully return to a new Daz experience! Will share any interesting findings along the way if this might help somebody else in the same situation. Thank you everybody for your kind insights, advice and thoughts!
I'm eager to hear how it goes for you. I hope you have a wonderful experience!
So far it seems to be taking forever and a half... been exactly 4hours since I started DIM and we are now at 25% downloaded. I clicked off the "install once downloaded" option hoping to improve speeds. At this rate, I wouldn't be sleeping much tonight as I can't wait to do a first render on a PC!
I do have a long way to go because I also intend to reformat my Mac and upgrade to Catalina (and remove all traces of DS) once my DS is up and running faultlessly on the PC.
They say patience is a virtue, but I can't vouch for that.
DIM should show your download rate in the lower right corner. Does it seem reasonable? Every now and then the Daz servers get overloaded or something and download rates drop to drastically low numbers. I haven't had that problem today, though. Do you have your external drive attached to a reasonably fast interface, like USB 3? Do you have any security software that is slowing things down by scanning everything?
The new update of UltraScenery appeared in DIM today. Be sure to get that one installed.
lol thanks for the chuckle! ... meanwhile, I have given up hopes of playing with Win-DS tonight... it's been 7h total now and I am at 40% downloaded of the total 250GB. The registered speed ranges from 25-50 mb/s and I do have a USB3.0 HDD. No security anything - this PC is going to be 100% dedicated to DS and absolutely nothing else. I simply can't wait to compare my before- and after-nvidia DS experiences and have sky high expectations... imagining a flawless UltraScenery (I took advantage of the recent sales and almost completed my collection of Howie's UltraScenery stuff... only thing left is that big bundle of vegetation)!
If only Daz could have spoiled us today with hourly flash coupons like yesterday, in which case my loooong arduous day today would have at least been super exciting!!
If it were me, I'd start playing with Daz Studio and UltraScenery right away. Let DIM run in the background or stop it and restart it when you go to bed. Why wait? Just install the most important things now (UltraScenery stuff
) and get the rest later. You want to be sure the system is working before you invest a lifetime in downloading, right?
Whatever you decide to do, DON"T install Daz Central. DIM users have had way too much trouble with Daz Central messing up their DIM paths.
That's precious advice from you which I retained since the beginning! As well as ensuring that all my installation paths are as desired prior to starting DIM!
HEY! Why didn't I realise that I could actually have used DS while DIM was working in the background? Never thought of that until you mentioned it!! duhhhhh... going right now to try it!!
The only issues that I am aware of with any Daz Studio and DIM conflict are:
Well in the end to avoid any conflicts, I decided to leave DIM alone to install while I headed off for an early night yesterday. It was done by 8am this morning and then I started with the installation. Lesson learned: the downloaded products should not be on the same disk as the installation directory. My installation was excruciatingly slow and took another 10h because the downloaded files and installation destination were in the same external HDD... I guess the poor HDD had to unzip, read and write simultaneously which was a tall order especially for a non-SSD.
I finally managed to play around with DS-Win a bit this evening but got a little tired of trying to get used to a PC hahaha so I am heading off for another early night. Tomorrow shall be a new world!