Loading...
> >

GUIDE - What To Buy On The Daz Store?

245

Comments

  • LenioTGLenioTG Posts: 2,118
    Chohole said:
    scorpio said:
    LenioTG said:
    scorpio said:
    LenioTG said:
    Drip said:

    Whether it's a good idea to purchase product specific textures or not depends on a lot of things:

    1. How good are you at photoshop, or do you have suitable seamless textures available?
    2. How are the materialzones arranged on the item? Does the item even have multiple materialzones in a suitable configuration?
    3. Is the texture product more or less what you're looking for?

    It boils down to: how much time will it take to create your own textures, and is that time worth more or less to you than the cost of the texture product. I'm pretty bad at photoshop, and not all outfits have an extensive material zone layout that would make the use of seamless textures possible. Effectively, that means it could take me a day, or even several days, to create a new texture for it. If a texture product offers me something suitable for ten bucks or even less (quite common with discounts), then that's totally worth it to me. Rather that, than spend ten hours making something myself that might not be as perfect as I'd like.

    Hi Drip, what textures are you talking about?

    I often purchase textures, in shader presets packages.

    When I refer to textures in the guide, I'm talking about specific packs that are only usable on a specific outfit, hair etc.
    In that case, to me 10$ is a lot of money for such a product. I think that people who have that budget on something that they'll use on just a couple of renders don't need any guide, because they make very few renders as a hobby, or they can afford everything they want on the store, good for them! :D

    Honestly people do all sorts of things pigeonholing people really isn't at all helpful and a bit insulting.

    For example if you are telling a series of stories where one  character always wears a black coat then using a texture set often looks better than a shader preset as the texture set will have details included that the shader preset won't and thats hoping that if you want a rib or stripe for example the coat has been made so the rib stripe will run the correct way. Shader presets are not the solution to everything especially some of the ones you linked to.

    Of course you could save even more money and make the shader presets yourself. They take a matter of minutes.

    What is pigeonholin? Sorry, I'm not a native speaker. I read the word "insulting", and believe me, insulting anyone is really not my goal. I've just spent 7 hours to gift people something I would have really like to read when I started.

    ...

    Sorry your English is excellant, I didn't realise it wasn't your native language. I know you aren't trying to insult but when you talk as if the things you find useful etc are ''the thing to do'' ''the right way'' it can come across a bit like that

    I'll try to explain - its putting things people ideas etc into a certain box leaving no room for variety.

    Sorry I'm not very good at explaining things.

    pigeonholing

    1. 1.

      assign to a particular category, typically an overly restrictive one.  (from the concise OED.)

    Thank you Chohole!

    I had googled it, but I hadn't understood that description.

    Luckily scorpio was pretty clear! :D

  • ZaiZai Posts: 289

    Don't feel bad Lenio....I thought it was an excellent guide for someone new to DS and you went to a lot of trouble to make it. There were lots of points in there that were spot on. Most people can judge for themselves what parts they agree with or not and act accordingly. You've been very patient :)

  • LenioTGLenioTG Posts: 2,118
    edited September 2020
    Zai said:

    Don't feel bad Lenio....I thought it was an excellent guide for someone new to DS and you went to a lot of trouble to make it. There were lots of points in there that were spot on. Most people can judge for themselves what parts they agree with or not and act accordingly. You've been very patient :)

    Thank you very much Zai! :D

    Post edited by LenioTG on
  • DripDrip Posts: 1,206
    LenioTG said:
    Drip said:

    Whether it's a good idea to purchase product specific textures or not depends on a lot of things:

    1. How good are you at photoshop, or do you have suitable seamless textures available?
    2. How are the materialzones arranged on the item? Does the item even have multiple materialzones in a suitable configuration?
    3. Is the texture product more or less what you're looking for?

    It boils down to: how much time will it take to create your own textures, and is that time worth more or less to you than the cost of the texture product. I'm pretty bad at photoshop, and not all outfits have an extensive material zone layout that would make the use of seamless textures possible. Effectively, that means it could take me a day, or even several days, to create a new texture for it. If a texture product offers me something suitable for ten bucks or even less (quite common with discounts), then that's totally worth it to me. Rather that, than spend ten hours making something myself that might not be as perfect as I'd like.

    Hi Drip, what textures are you talking about?

    I often purchase textures, in shader presets packages.

    When I refer to textures in the guide, I'm talking about specific packs that are only usable on a specific outfit, hair etc.
    In that case, to me 10$ is a lot of money for such a product. I think that people who have that budget on something that they'll use on just a couple of renders don't need any guide, because they make very few renders as a hobby, or they can afford everything they want on the store, good for them! :D

    I do mean the product specific ones.

    I really am not very good at photoshop and the like, and while using generic shaders sometimes works, they are not always a good solution. Like, I might want a pair of grungy looking ripped jeans in my image, but the basic product only has normal jeans, while the texture pack does have some ripped jeans, well, then ten dollars for the texture pack is a good investment for me, as it would really take me a lot of time (at least 3 hours, but it could be days) to make such a texture myself. The time I need to make that texture is worth more to me than 10 dollars, so 10 dollars is the cheaper option. Rendering is a hobby to me. Using photoshop is not, I really don't enjoy using photoshop, and prefer to spend those hours it would take me to change the texture on other things.

    Someone who's good at photoshop, and enjoys using photoshop, might be able to change that texture in ten minutes, and would have less use for texture add-ons. But, that's not me, so texture add-ons are necessary for me.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,673
    edited September 2020

    On the subject of what to buy less of

    Too many Expressions with dials can load up your studio directory quite quickly with tons of expressions that probably would look hideous on the majority of figures. I have thousands. Just keep the ones you like by pas you like and trust, but ditch the ones you'll never use.  I have a billion angry yells and a ton of constipated grins. I removed them all.

    Posemakers who bulk up pose sets with mirrors poses and partials and standing variations. There are easy to make pose utilities that can do that sort of thing. Don't pay extra for mirrors and partials or pose filler.

     

    Post edited by Serene Night on
  • LenioTGLenioTG Posts: 2,118
    Drip said:
    LenioTG said:
    Drip said:

    Whether it's a good idea to purchase product specific textures or not depends on a lot of things:

    1. How good are you at photoshop, or do you have suitable seamless textures available?
    2. How are the materialzones arranged on the item? Does the item even have multiple materialzones in a suitable configuration?
    3. Is the texture product more or less what you're looking for?

    It boils down to: how much time will it take to create your own textures, and is that time worth more or less to you than the cost of the texture product. I'm pretty bad at photoshop, and not all outfits have an extensive material zone layout that would make the use of seamless textures possible. Effectively, that means it could take me a day, or even several days, to create a new texture for it. If a texture product offers me something suitable for ten bucks or even less (quite common with discounts), then that's totally worth it to me. Rather that, than spend ten hours making something myself that might not be as perfect as I'd like.

    Hi Drip, what textures are you talking about?

    I often purchase textures, in shader presets packages.

    When I refer to textures in the guide, I'm talking about specific packs that are only usable on a specific outfit, hair etc.
    In that case, to me 10$ is a lot of money for such a product. I think that people who have that budget on something that they'll use on just a couple of renders don't need any guide, because they make very few renders as a hobby, or they can afford everything they want on the store, good for them! :D

    I do mean the product specific ones.

    I really am not very good at photoshop and the like, and while using generic shaders sometimes works, they are not always a good solution. Like, I might want a pair of grungy looking ripped jeans in my image, but the basic product only has normal jeans, while the texture pack does have some ripped jeans, well, then ten dollars for the texture pack is a good investment for me, as it would really take me a lot of time (at least 3 hours, but it could be days) to make such a texture myself. The time I need to make that texture is worth more to me than 10 dollars, so 10 dollars is the cheaper option. Rendering is a hobby to me. Using photoshop is not, I really don't enjoy using photoshop, and prefer to spend those hours it would take me to change the texture on other things.

    Someone who's good at photoshop, and enjoys using photoshop, might be able to change that texture in ten minutes, and would have less use for texture add-ons. But, that's not me, so texture add-ons are necessary for me.

    I absolutely agree with the fact that, for me too, it's not convenient to draw the textures myself!
    Behind the making of a story work, there are already many steps to manage, it's nice not to have to make even more things by yourself.

    I prefer to buy a shader presets, that I can use everywhere, instead of textures specific for just one product, because I may not even end up ever using them.

    But I feel like the texture/shaders conversation has been already too present here. As Zai said, everyone has the tools to form their own opinion.

    Serene Night said:

    On the subject of what to buy less of

    Too many Expressions with dials can load up your studio directory quite quickly with tons of expressions that probably would look hideous on the majority of figures. I have thousands. Just keep the ones you like by pas you like and trust, but ditch the ones you'll never use.  I have a billion angry yells and a ton of constipated grins. I removed them all.

    Posemakers who bulk up pose sets with mirrors poses and partials and standing variations. There are easy to make pose utilities that can do that sort of thing. Don't pay extra for mirrors and partials or pose filler.

    Those are great tips Serene Night: I agree, don't buy a pose package just because it has huge numbers, if those numbers are inflated by mirrors and partials!
    They just flood your library, without bringing any value.

  • BandoriFanBandoriFan Posts: 364

    Thanks for the list it looks really good 

    I'd add Boss Pro Lights and Renderstudio Volumetric Plus to them 

     

    Serene Night said:

    On the subject of what to buy less of

    Too many Expressions with dials can load up your studio directory quite quickly with tons of expressions that probably would look hideous on the majority of figures. I have thousands. Just keep the ones you like by pas you like and trust, but ditch the ones you'll never use.  I have a billion angry yells and a ton of constipated grins. I removed them all.

    Posemakers who bulk up pose sets with mirrors poses and partials and standing variations. There are easy to make pose utilities that can do that sort of thing. Don't pay extra for mirrors and partials or pose filler.

     

    I bought an expensive pose pack and am still kind of mad over there not being left handed poses and I welcome partials. But yeah a lot of expressions look funny tho they can add so much emotion to a render

    The poses I can't stand are the ones that make wild swings whenever you try turning them and they mess up dForce timelines or reset to default position whenever you use it. Like you have default in the first frame, pose in frame 15, but everything in between is wild spinning and turning that would just mess up your dForce

  • HTStudiosHTStudios Posts: 41

    Nice writeup! You mention both Brow Remover and Beautiful Brows for Genesis 8 Female(s). I noticed that Beautiful Brows has a script to remove eyebrows included. Is Brow Remover still necessary/useful if you get Beautiful Brows?

  • GalaxyGalaxy Posts: 562

    This is misleading. Mirrors and partials are useful. Few partials can generate lot of variations. Those easy to make pose utilities are not as easy or as fast as a pose pack with partials and mirrors. 

  • Ron KnightsRon Knights Posts: 1,805

    LenioTG, I admire your effort to produce such a guide. I think there was just too much probability that people would misunderstand or disagree. But many people who disagreed didn't mean it to be "personal."

    I've been working with DAZ content for over 20 years. In the past, I've tried to share my opinions on items I liked. I've had the most success when I just approached it one subject at a time. Unfortunately, in my earlier days I produced some terrible art while trying to promote my favorite stuff. Now that I've matured, along with my abilities, I am still somewhat cautious. But I will always choose to promote individual items that I like.

  • GalaxyGalaxy Posts: 562

    Of course Ron Knights is right many people who disagreed didn't mean it to be 'personal' and also I never mean it to be 'personal', or my actual personal opinion of you is you are a helpful person. And your effort shows it. I also think those disagree inputs are helpful too. Again also if I disagree with a senior member it does not mean it is personal e.g. recent disagree with Seene Night. A senior member is always valuable.

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,673

    When I object to poses being mirrored it is mostly due to the fact that mirrored poses and partials, and even poses for different figures (such as gen 8 male, M8), are simply being used in lieu of more product. 

    If I buy a pose set with 24 poses, I want 24 poses, not 12 mirrored poses. 

    Whether you find partial /mirrored  poses useful or not, has more to do with your skill and work flow. You like them and find them, useful? Cool. Not everyone does. 

  • HavosHavos Posts: 5,400
    Galaxy said:

    This is misleading. Mirrors and partials are useful. Few partials can generate lot of variations. Those easy to make pose utilities are not as easy or as fast as a pose pack with partials and mirrors. 

    You don't need any utilities to use full body poses as partials. If all you want is to pose the lower body, then select the pelvis, and then ctrl-click the pose, and only the legs will move. This is much better in my opinion than having to search though a long list of partial body poses.

  • j cadej cade Posts: 2,310

    And I'm not fond of dForce hair too, in general: they look great in the final renders, but sometimes they make my whole interface sluggish, they are not viewable in the Texture Shaded viewport, and, first of all, they sometimes can occupy more than 1GB of storage.

    I am very confused by this  

    a) you can make dforce hair fully visible in the viewport (though it will slow things down) by hitting "Preview PR hairs" and setting the line tessalation to 2 or 3

    b) Dforce Hair also takes up massively less storage than mesh based hair (mainly due to requiring far fewer textures) It seems almost like you are confusing storage and memory here as dforce hair can require a bit more memory than mesh hair (although again due to fewer textures this isn't always the case)

  • GalaxyGalaxy Posts: 562
    Havos said:
    Galaxy said:

    This is misleading. Mirrors and partials are useful. Few partials can generate lot of variations. Those easy to make pose utilities are not as easy or as fast as a pose pack with partials and mirrors. 

    You don't need any utilities to use full body poses as partials. If all you want is to pose the lower body, then select the pelvis, and then ctrl-click the pose, and only the legs will move. This is much better in my opinion than having to search though a long list of partial body poses.

    Thanks, I am glad today I learned something new.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,582

    my honest advice on what to buy and more precisely what not to buy and what one should buy elsewhere would simply not be permitted on a product forum for said company cheeky

    so yes it varies considerably person to person and Premier Artists would have a vested interest in wanting their products sold too.

    you called it a guide which is good yes

     

  • JamieMJamieM Posts: 356
    edited September 2020
    LenioTG said:
     

    Thank you very much 

    I'm rather shocked at the negative and carping responses from quite a few writers. I'd just like to say that as a near-beginner (learning very fast) I found your thoughts and recommendations extremely helpful. Even if I don't want or need some things, having an experienced user point me in some directions to look is so good. I now have lots of products to check out. I can choose to follow or ignore your advice as I wish. 

    Thanks for all your effort on this.

     

    Post edited by Chohole on
  • LenioTGLenioTG Posts: 2,118
    BandoriFan said:

    Thanks for the list it looks really good 

    I'd add Boss Pro Lights and Renderstudio Volumetric Plus to them 

    Thank you BandoriFan, you're welcome! :D

    I know Boss Pro Lights, and I like it!

    Are you referring to Colm Jackson's product? If so, those gallery previews look awesome, I'll add it to my wishlist!

    Havos said:
    Galaxy said:

    This is misleading. Mirrors and partials are useful. Few partials can generate lot of variations. Those easy to make pose utilities are not as easy or as fast as a pose pack with partials and mirrors. 

    You don't need any utilities to use full body poses as partials. If all you want is to pose the lower body, then select the pelvis, and then ctrl-click the pose, and only the legs will move. This is much better in my opinion than having to search though a long list of partial body poses.

    Absolutely, I agree Havos!

    Galaxy said:

    This is misleading. Mirrors and partials are useful. Few partials can generate lot of variations. Those easy to make pose utilities are not as easy or as fast as a pose pack with partials and mirrors. 

    Havos has already answered to you, Galaxy!

    Thanks for seeing my work as useful!

    Of course, I've not taken any feedback from you personally, you were very kind, and I like to discuss things with polite people! :D

    Ron Knights said:

    LenioTG, I admire your effort to produce such a guide. I think there was just too much probability that people would misunderstand or disagree. But many people who disagreed didn't mean it to be "personal."

    I've been working with DAZ content for over 20 years. In the past, I've tried to share my opinions on items I liked. I've had the most success when I just approached it one subject at a time. Unfortunately, in my earlier days I produced some terrible art while trying to promote my favorite stuff. Now that I've matured, along with my abilities, I am still somewhat cautious. But I will always choose to promote individual items that I like.

    No problem Ron, and I'm happy about your new PC! :D

    I talk about individual products every day! One of the reasons I wanted to make this guide, is that I can now link at it without having to repeat the same things, providing instead a cohesive guide!

    toph said:

    Nice writeup! You mention both Brow Remover and Beautiful Brows for Genesis 8 Female(s). I noticed that Beautiful Brows has a script to remove eyebrows included. Is Brow Remover still necessary/useful if you get Beautiful Brows?

    Thank you toph! :D

    I had actually never noticed that Beautiful Brows had such a script included, thanks for letting me know!

    Yes, I've tried it, and it works! I'll specify it into the guide, thanks :)

    Serene Night said:

    When I object to poses being mirrored it is mostly due to the fact that mirrored poses and partials, and even poses for different figures (such as gen 8 male, M8), are simply being used in lieu of more product. 

    If I buy a pose set with 24 poses, I want 24 poses, not 12 mirrored poses. 

    Whether you find partial /mirrored  poses useful or not, has more to do with your skill and work flow. You like them and find them, useful? Cool. Not everyone does. 

    Absolutely, wise words!
    When I read all those mirrored and partial poses, I feel I'm being played, and I generally value that product less because of that.

    j cade said:

    And I'm not fond of dForce hair too, in general: they look great in the final renders, but sometimes they make my whole interface sluggish, they are not viewable in the Texture Shaded viewport, and, first of all, they sometimes can occupy more than 1GB of storage.

    I am very confused by this  

    a) you can make dforce hair fully visible in the viewport (though it will slow things down) by hitting "Preview PR hairs" and setting the line tessalation to 2 or 3

    b) Dforce Hair also takes up massively less storage than mesh based hair (mainly due to requiring far fewer textures) It seems almost like you are confusing storage and memory here as dforce hair can require a bit more memory than mesh hair (although again due to fewer textures this isn't always the case)

    In my experience, I've uninstalled a few dForce based hair because they weighed too much for the 2TB SSD where I store my library, and sometimes because they were so heavy I wouldn't find my interface snappy anymore.

    Another concern I have is with dForce hair when you're not using dForce, because some of them look less realistic.

    But those are very general statements, I'm happy dForce hair were released, and I currently use many of them!

    A nice solution to the 2nd issue I've encountered, has being solved by some PAs providing posing/shaping even if the hair already has dForce.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,582
    Havos said:
    Galaxy said:

    This is misleading. Mirrors and partials are useful. Few partials can generate lot of variations. Those easy to make pose utilities are not as easy or as fast as a pose pack with partials and mirrors. 

    You don't need any utilities to use full body poses as partials. If all you want is to pose the lower body, then select the pelvis, and then ctrl-click the pose, and only the legs will move. This is much better in my opinion than having to search though a long list of partial body poses.

    and this is why a manual is the one thing really needed

    maybe someone could commercialy produce a comprehensive one since we are not going to get a free one enlightened

    the spiel could be DAZ studio is completely free but you need to pay for the complete manualdevil

  • LenioTGLenioTG Posts: 2,118
    edited September 2020
    LenioTG said:
     
    jimscrivener said:

    Thank you very much 

    I'm rather shocked at the negative and carping responses from quite a few writers. I'd just like to say that as a near-beginner (learning very fast) I found your thoughts and recommendations extremely helpful. Even if I don't want or need some things, having an experienced user point me in some directions to look is so good. I now have lots of products to check out. I can choose to follow or ignore your advice as I wish. 

    Thanks for all your effort on this.

    Thank you very much Jim, your comment warms my heart! :D

    I actually enjoy negative feedback when it's constructive, and I don't let vicious feedback dishearten me too much, because it's for people like you that I put effort into this kind of guides!

    WendyLuvsCatz said:

    my honest advice on what to buy and more precisely what not to buy and what one should buy elsewhere would simply not be permitted on a product forum for said company cheeky

    so yes it varies considerably person to person and Premier Artists would have a vested interest in wanting their products sold too.

    you called it a guide which is good yes

    May I confess a capital sin?
    I've bought 99% of the assets I use on the Daz Store.
    For a particular reason: I am a mess, I do lot and lot of testings, both with hardware and software, I continuously switch things up, and every once in a while I end up formatting everything.
    Since I don't delete the installed packages, I can easily re-install everything I use in a couple of hours (another advantage of SSDs, it used to take much more when I used HDDs).

    But yes, I know there are some other useful stores as well. The average quality looks lower there, but there are some interesting PAs.

    There are also some nice freebies out there, and I'd suggest everyone to start testing Daz with those, as I have done in my 1st year of using it!
    Nowadays, though, I've deleted almost every freebie I've used back in the days, to keep my library cleaner.

    Post edited by LenioTG on
  • FSMCDesignsFSMCDesigns Posts: 12,779

    I still feel the title should be changed to "Recommended items from the DAZ marketplace" or somethinhg of that nature because a new user would probably see the title as is and think this list is what they "need" to be successful in using DS and that couldn't be further from the truth. Heaven forbid a new user sees this and gets overwhelmed with all the items they feel they have to purchase and decides to look at some other hobby..i honestly feel a new user shouldn't buy anything until they have an understanding or how it all works and feels comfortable with DS. How many posts do we see of users that can't find their products because all they know of DS is smart content and don't even know where their products are installed to.

    I also hate the idea of a user becoming dependant on one click products when much of what these products do can be done inside DS or in an image editing program and that is part of the creative journey/process IMO. I was totally blind to how all this worked when I first started with V3 and I have no regrets on any of my purchases or creative decisions since then

  • 3Diva3Diva Posts: 11,744
    edited September 2020

    While I can't read the whole list right now (dealing with a migraine and reading is a bit painful at the moment), I really appreciate you taking the time to compile a list of the things you find most helpful. I'm sure there are things on the list I agree with and ones I disagree with, but that's just because we're all human and have different needs, wants, and personal tastes. For the most part though, I think it's really cool that you spent so much time and energy to try and help out new users like that. :) So, thank you for your efforts and work! :)

    Unless I missed it: "List issh incomplete ...needs more Altern8!!!@~!@#@!" hahah :P Seriously though, great effort and work put into this - and maybe just adding a caveat to the title: "Guide - What I Recommend Buying in the Daz Store" might alleviate some of the more negative feedback? *shrugs* laugh

    Post edited by 3Diva on
  • LenioTGLenioTG Posts: 2,118
    edited September 2020
    FSMCDesigns said:

    I still feel the title should be changed to "Recommended items from the DAZ marketplace" or somethinhg of that nature because a new user would probably see the title as is and think this list is what they "need" to be successful in using DS and that couldn't be further from the truth. Heaven forbid a new user sees this and gets overwhelmed with all the items they feel they have to purchase and decides to look at some other hobby..i honestly feel a new user shouldn't buy anything until they have an understanding or how it all works and feels comfortable with DS. How many posts do we see of users that can't find their products because all they know of DS is smart content and don't even know where their products are installed to.

    I also hate the idea of a user becoming dependant on one click products when much of what these products do can be done inside DS or in an image editing program and that is part of the creative journey/process IMO. I was totally blind to how all this worked when I first started with V3 and I have no regrets on any of my purchases or creative decisions since then

    With all due respect, Michael, it seems to me that you're assuming most of the stuff you're saying, without having actually read the guide before commenting.

    One of the first things I say, indeed, is to not buy anything at the start, but to look at freebies. It's literally the 6th line, before giving any buying suggestion at all.

    When I first started, I was afraid of looking at Pro Bundles, or at single rooms for 30$. I would have been much more comfortable, on the other hand, knowing that there are freebies, Platinum Club, huge store sales, gift cards etc. Oh, all things that I've explained in my guide, again, before even starting to talk about "what I would buy".

    I trust the readers to be smart people who can think for themselves, and who won't just ask for a mortgage to buy every single thing I've listed.
    This is a starting point, and I'm sincerely proud of it.
    If you had read my guide, you would have found out that, multiple times, I've explained how to do things ourselves instead of buying a product to do that.

    I'm not saying that you have to read it of course, but it would be respectful if you would before commenting.
    Your comment is the first one, and you've written it when I still was at half the guide (and I had specified that was the case in multiple places, most posts that are now filled were still empty).
    You can't blame me if I have the feeling that you've just read the title, and assumed the rest. At least, that's the impression you're sending me.
    I think you agree with me that, after this much work, it's not the most beautiful thing ever to read that my effort will scare people away from Daz Studio. I don't see it that way at all, quite the opposite.
    Again, if you'd like to spend two afternoons writing a guide that's better than this one, I'll be very happy to read it all.

    I've already answered your opinion about changing the thread title in the previous comment where I've already addressed your concerns.
    I've already renamed the relative chapters to "What Would I" instead of "What To". So, I think the meaning is clear. Again, I trust new and old users to be smart people who can think for themselves.

    Regarding products that do things you could do yourself, I've talked about that too in the guide, so I won't repeat myself.

    Post edited by LenioTG on
  • LenioTGLenioTG Posts: 2,118
    edited September 2020
    3Diva said:

    While I can't read the whole list right now (dealing with a migraine and reading is a bit painful at the moment), I really appreciate you taking the time to compile a list of the things you find most helpful. I'm sure there are things on the list I agree with and ones I disagree with, but that's just because we're all human and have different needs, wants, and personal tastes. For the most part though, I think it's really cool that you spent so much time and energy to try and help out new users like that. :) So, thank you for your efforts and work! :)

    Unless I missed it: "List issh incomplete ...needs more Altern8!!!@~!@#@!" hahah :P Seriously though, great effort and work put into this - and maybe just adding a caveat to the title: "Guide - What I Recommend Buying in the Daz Store" might alleviate some of the more negative feedback? *shrugs* laugh

    Thank you 3Diva, I appreciate your words! :D

    I won't change the title just to avoid some undesired feedback.
    If I wanted to go that route, I could delete the guide, and I wouldn't have any more issue.
    But, again, "There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing".
    And life is too short to chicken out, sometimes we oughta stand for what we believe is right.
    That's how, hopefully, we make the world a better place. I don't want to live in a world of fear.
    It's been three years since I've started having traffic on my public social media profiles, so it's nothing I can't handle, having seen all I've seen, but thank you for your suggestion!

    I hope your migraine will get better!
    And if you'll want to give me your feedback one day, I'll be happy to read it! :D

    Post edited by LenioTG on
  • evacynevacyn Posts: 975
    Thank you, LenioTG! As others have said, I'm surprised by the negative comments towards something intended to help the community. When I was starting out a few years back, these types of posts would have helped me immeasurably so I can see the value even if they include personal recommendations.
  • Mark_e593e0a5Mark_e593e0a5 Posts: 1,598

    Great guide, esp. for someone just staring with DAZ. I would agree with most of what you have stated. The rest is basically personal taste, and preference. With regards to tools, I also would recommend Content Wizard, if you also have content not from DAZ. There is a great set of resources available elsewhere, even free. As I do like the Smart Content concept, one of the first things in my shopping cart was Content Wizard. 

  • MelanieLMelanieL Posts: 7,481
    j cade said:

    And I'm not fond of dForce hair too, in general: they look great in the final renders, but sometimes they make my whole interface sluggish, they are not viewable in the Texture Shaded viewport, and, first of all, they sometimes can occupy more than 1GB of storage.

    I am very confused by this 

    a) you can make dforce hair fully visible in the viewport (though it will slow things down) by hitting "Preview PR hairs" and setting the line tessalation to 2 or 3

    b) Dforce Hair also takes up massively less storage than mesh based hair (mainly due to requiring far fewer textures) It seems almost like you are confusing storage and memory here as dforce hair can require a bit more memory than mesh hair (although again due to fewer textures this isn't always the case)

    I think the OP's comments about disk space might be referring to "Hair with dForce" (i.e. mesh based hair using dForce cloth simulation) and not "dForce Hair" (i.e. strand based hair equipped with dForce) - I have examples of both in my library and typically the strand based is indeed quite small (all of them are less than 100 MB and often a lot less) whereas the mesh based is often large. Unfortunately the store does not make it all that easy to tell which is which - using the filter by software there are a lot of "Hair with dForce" showing up as "dForce Hair" and the product titles don't always make it clear.

  • GordigGordig Posts: 10,185
    edited September 2020
    MelanieL said:
    j cade said:

    And I'm not fond of dForce hair too, in general: they look great in the final renders, but sometimes they make my whole interface sluggish, they are not viewable in the Texture Shaded viewport, and, first of all, they sometimes can occupy more than 1GB of storage.

    I am very confused by this 

    a) you can make dforce hair fully visible in the viewport (though it will slow things down) by hitting "Preview PR hairs" and setting the line tessalation to 2 or 3

    b) Dforce Hair also takes up massively less storage than mesh based hair (mainly due to requiring far fewer textures) It seems almost like you are confusing storage and memory here as dforce hair can require a bit more memory than mesh hair (although again due to fewer textures this isn't always the case)

    I think the OP's comments about disk space might be referring to "Hair with dForce" (i.e. mesh based hair using dForce cloth simulation) and not "dForce Hair" (i.e. strand based hair equipped with dForce) - I have examples of both in my library and typically the strand based is indeed quite small (all of them are less than 100 MB and often a lot less) whereas the mesh based is often large. Unfortunately the store does not make it all that easy to tell which is which - using the filter by software there are a lot of "Hair with dForce" showing up as "dForce Hair" and the product titles don't always make it clear.

    I looked through my dForce hair library, and the only ones I've found that were more than about 20MB were two Linday hairs that were over 500MB between them - though the overwhelming majority of the disk space was taken up by video tutorials, not the actual assets.

    edit: scratch that, Sea Salt and Dark Match are over 100MB each.

    Post edited by Gordig on
  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,310

    LenioTG,

    Thank you for your listings. I agree with others who say that these type of threads are incredibly helpful when one is starting out. Especially if one has to be careful of money or space on a computer. For me, after many crashes on my iMac, I moved Daz Studio over to Windows 10 computers and when I downloaded my library fresh, I had to carefully manage how much of our 1Tb internet download/upload allowance I used each month until I was done. So your guideline is a good one for others in that situation too. Or how to think about their own needs before they start to plan, based on their needs. You did a great job.

    Mary

  • LyonessLyoness Posts: 1,616
    edited September 2020

    Personally, I love this list.  It's a great place to start a discussion.
    There are lots of other great products and artists that I use endlessly and love to death.  Part of that is just learning your "style".  Certain artists consistently work with what I'm trying to convey. That doesn't mean of course that other artist's work are any lesser.  Just like, some people love my characters, other's do not.  That ok because it gets boring when we all use the same things.

    Kudos for being so brave and bold to post this list.  I hope people start adding other products that they can't do without.
    Lemme start.
    Big Expressive Pack for Genesis 8 Female by Neikdian (https://www.daz3d.com/big-expressive-pack-for-genesis-8-female)  is my very favorite goto for expressions.  I love this one so much. I always start here for getting rid of the dead-inside-stare-at-camera look.

    Post edited by Lyoness on
Sign In or Register to comment.