Is Daz Studio (as we know it) Heading South?
ArtAngel
Posts: 1,797
in The Commons
After the introduction of Daz Central ... one has to wonder. Will there be a DAZ 4.13 or will there be a new animal in the barn?
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Well, if DAZ Central is an example of the future, I'll stick with the past.
I've always thought Studio 5 should be based on Blender. With Blender's introduction of long term support from 2.83, it is very viable.
... I can't see it happening though.
I certainly hope not.
I hope they go South... Draper is South of Salt Lake City... They were lots more fun in the Draper days.
Bad DAZ/geography joke.
Also 2020 has me pining for happier times... basically any year that isn't 2020 ...or more specifically 2016-2020.
Yeesh.
What, is Daz moving to New Zealand...?
Whin?
I think to some degree the store has been changing some things. Pro bundles are changed. They have a quicker release schedule. I have found more bugs in products. The QA team is not resolving bugs in bug tracker.
I think to some extent the changes appear in my opinion to be generated more short term cash flow.
The problem for me, is the quality has diminished. Making every item dforce rather than to provide fits, means clothing takes a lot of time to use. Overuse of Marvelous designer means the outfits have less realism.
I think the store needs to work more on producing quality items, and throttle back the rapid release schedule. But as long as people buy it, I'm sure it is quick cash.... It will continue to happen.
In my experience, dForce has been catastrophic to animation in Daz Studio. (Someone inevitably chimes in with, "Well, DS isn't really made for animation," which I studiously ignore for too many reasons to list—including Daz's own promo videos for DS that showcase animation).
In the future we will refer to this time as, "2020, the year that was cancelled".
At least one of which demonstrates quite effectively that DS is not made for animation.
From what I remember of the last time I tried Blender, you'd have to type ctrl-alt-7 to select an object, pressing the up arrow would save a file, and a mouse click would shut down the app. It was as if they rebelled against anything working as expected. And buying a book on the subject was futile because by the time the book was published the entire interface would change to something completely incompatible with the version the book was based on. I've seen posts on this forum that say Blender has gotten better since then. But I wouldn't want to risk being stuck with the one interface that makes DAZ Studio seem well done.
I never could figure out what they had against CUA but it kept me from using it for a long time and has kept from using it frequently.
Ctrl-Alt-7 to select? That must have been some version before I tried Blender several years ago. It used to be Right-Click to select but now it is Left-Click by default, just like most other applications out there. Nevertheless, I do find Blender intimidating, mainly because of the sheer extent of tools available from a single interface. Well, they have tabbed different versions of the interface to cater for different tasks but it would take me years to have a comprehensive familiarity with all of Blender. Not that overall familiarity is essential - I gather many people just use it for the task at hand and ignore the rest. So it can be learned piece-meal. Two things I would miss if I had to transfer from DAZ Studio to Blender tomorrow: I like the way I can maniplulate the cameras in DAZ Studio in that the viewport is the view from a camera instead of, as with Blender, some independent observer who has to switch to camera view to see what the render will look like. DAZ Studio is also much better at posing and moving stuff around the scene - at least for me it is - but then I've been using DAZ Studio for 15 years so that's not surprising.
This is digression, however. There's a dedicated Blender sub-forum here now so maybe this part of the discussion should be taking place there. As for DAZ Studio itself, I am very concerned that development seems to have dried up and am hoping that it is merely the quiet before the explosion of a major new release with soft-body physics and a working animation timeline. One can but dream.
She was obviously being hyperbolic.
Indeed but it was an excuse to make the point I made.
To get back to ArtAngel's questions, Daz Central's introduction had nothing to do with how Daz Studio works. I think there are many reasons to believe that there will continue to be incremental changes to Daz Studio, and so we will see a 4.13, 4.2, and so on. I suspect they are working on making something more useful for animation. Whether that will be a future iteration of Daz Studio or a new app with a different name, flip a coin.
Yes, dForce has been a mixed bag. Yes, the Pro Bundles are arriving pretty much every week. Those don't seem to be doing much to expand the envelope of possible renders, but if I were in the business, I would do what I could to milk cash cows at the end of the product cycle for Genesis 8 (A new line of figures is a topic for another thread.).
Complaints about quality control and standards are not new. My guess is that Daz feels that additional investment in QC just isn't worth it. The vast majority of products range in quality from satisfactory to brilliant. A notable few can have annoying bugs, and a few are unusable. The refund rate is probably low enough to live with it.
Considering DAZ Central's only reason for existence that I can see is to manage content for DAZ Studio, I am not clear on the logic jump that goes towards thinking it is a sign that they will be... moving away from DAZ Studio?
I've also ignored DAZ Central too, so I don't know if there's something within the software making it look like they are moving another direction.
Yeah, there's no reason to think that DAZ Central has anything to do with waning DAZ Studio support or that the program will change in any significant way. As far as it being more like Blender, I'd much prefer they just keep adding features to the bridge (well, I'd actually prefer they look into whether a real-time Substance Painter bridge like the one UE has would be possible). :)
The weekly new character bundles used to bug me a bit because I remember a time when a new Victoria or something like Lee was a huge deal. Now I just think of them as product-heavy release days with a DAZ Original texture. In my opinion, the texture quality is improving (despite my complaints about Babina and Sahira having tan lines, they're both excellent textures), but the clothing releases seem rushed - not bad products, but as if the PA was on too tight of a schedule to do their best. Looking to Artstation talent has been beneficial, but I wish they could come on as regulars rather than giving us a single very good but very stylized product.
I don't understand this question...
My problem is the influx of whiney users and some who have been around for years and should know better. We still don't know how the pandemic has affected Daz. But I guess it has as most businesses have been affected. Thankfully they are still in business.
Since a new shop software is coming, I am assuming changes are also coming for daz studio. Maybe daz studio will be more integrated with different 3d packages. I do hope for generation 9 though.
I don't see any reason to expect them to be linked.
Then there's the whiney people who complain about whiney users...smh... Welcome to the internet....
I could totally see a version of Daz Studio based on Blender... Especially seeing that everything else in 2020 has gone "bottom over breast", why not add one more thing to that list... >_>
ONE DOES NOT SIMPLY WALK INTO MORDOR.
I wish.
There is a lot of stuff still coming for Daz Studio, I can't guarantee a 4.13 release because we might skip it and go straight to 4.14. The changelog shows some stuff that has been more or less completed and there is other stuff in the early R&D phases that I think is exciting as well.
I am also excited for the new store software, but it isn't holding up new features in Daz Studio, and Daz Studio isn't holding up the new store. As far as the COVID-19 goes, the Daz Studio team has transitioned to working from home really, really well and we have even brought on new staff.
Thanks for being interested in what's coming next in Daz Studio.
Always appreciated when you drop in to comment even if you don't give much away. I was kinda hoping a skip to 5.0 but, given the prolonged wait for an update to 4.12, hopefully skipping to 4.14 will have been worth the wait. I think a lot of software developers are working from home, even here in New Zealand where we don't have quite the pandemic crisis that other countries are suffering. I believe there was a boom in computer sales when the lockdowns started so these guys are now well equipped to carry on the work.
Nah mate Daz has to be heading for Australia, where the sun is hot and the funnel web spiders live in your shoes (actually true) and the drop bears attack on sight.. lol
I just wish my two hottest friends, Daz Studio and Blender, would stop flirting and get together already.
Some interesting entries in the Change Log. Several mentions of Filament, for example.