Can I suggest a rule?
dennisgray41
Posts: 823
in The Commons
There should not be items in the ad that are not available from Daz. Fairy wings from rendo and horse tack (https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/160946/harness-question/p1) that the artist planned to release but then did not are very frustrating. I don't buy from rendo because it doesn't go into smart content. Often, without the missing prop, the whole idea is ruined.
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I disagree.
I don't think that's a good idea. If the only items you could use were items in the store, everything would look the same. People wouldn't be able to use custom characters or textures. Creativity would be hamstrung. Competition would suffer. Daz would gain more power to do whatever they want and we would be further powerless to stop them because no other stores would be making enough money to attract quality products.
I know it sucks when you want something and you can't have it, but the consequences of not allowing non-Daz items would impact everyone negatively. It's also kind of selfish if you think about what you're asking: "Other people shouldn't be allowed to use what I can't have or don't want to use."
I'm not trying to insult you. I'm just asking you to think it through and consider what's best for everyone.
Rendo does not offer SmartContents, that is true. But there is a very simple way to both install Rendo items AND generating Smart Content. Just use Content Wizard, which, btw. is available in the Daz store https://www.daz3d.com/content-wizard.
I do not want to limit artists to use only what is available in the store. Quite a lot of artists use custom characters for their promos, not available anywhere. Do you want to restrict that as well?
You can suggest it, but don't expect it to be adopted.
Aside from the point about lots of Daz's sellers having custom characters as part of building a signature look, it creates far too many problems having this as a hard rule - for example, what if a product was available when the seller rendered the promos, but has since become unavailable? Do all the promos then need to be re-rendered without that item?
...or just don't use smart content becuase it's really not that smart?
No. Terrible idea.
Another point to consider: items get removed here for various reasons on a not infrequent basis (artist closes store or retires a specific product, Daz3d removes items, etc.). Your request would also require vendors to continuously comb the store to make sure every item they ever used in a promo render was still available for purchase. If not, they'd have to redo promos again and again. It's not really feasible, especially given the size of some vendors' catalogs.
On one hand, I agree that it can be frustrating when certain props and items are hard to find or maybe don't exist any more. OTOH, time passes and situations change. Such a rule would likely become a huge problem in very little time. I agree with Melissa St.James and others about about smart content. It would be nice if it were really smart and included all the products, but that has not been my experience. And the OP is missing out by skipping all the great content at other stores.
First i agree that is not a good thing to limit creativity, even if it is marketing is still art and I thank both Daz and rendo that do not restrict to keep everything local.
I also agree that Smart Content should be smarter. I'm constantly needing to disable it because while it does look to make things easier, but when you are browsing you also miss a lot of content that could work perfectly just because a problem with metadata or because it was not originally made to specific figure.
Do you also avoid independent freebies because of that? You are missing some cool stuff that won't even require you a cent.
If your library is all/mostly from this store, then make a new library folder for rendo and since it would be a lot less you might even recall what you got there by memory. I currently use 3 libraries, main for DAZ only, one for freebies and one for purchased elsewear. It make easier for me to track origin, but that is just me and my modest library. Some people i read have dozens of library folders.
This reminds me of all those outfit promos that included only Victoria, Monique and Josie as figures. Those were some sad promos. Thanks, but no thanks.
You can make a suggestion, but not a RULE. We live in a somewhat free society. 'Artists' by nature don't really like 'RULES'
The smart thing to do is just not to use smart content. Get smarter by learning how to install your content manually.
Create your own metadata so things you buy not from daz can go into smart content.
I understand your frustration — when I first started buying Daz 3D products in the early 2000's, I used to get confused about what I was actually getting in a product, based on the promo images... and I'd get upset that I couldn't match the promo image that sold me on the product. But eventually you get used to it — and they've definitely gotten better and labeling what is actually included in the product, and what is not included... and what is a required product to use that product.
Promo images are meant to show creative possibilities that use the product for sale along with a variety of other products to look aesthetically pleasing, and frequently use a myriad of other products and techniques that come from the creative use of content. I don't think limiting content creators to use DAZ-specific products only would be beneficial to end-users either, as many of us licensed users use a wide variety of exclusive content from other marketplaces to make original content, and kitbash as required to get a more unique look.
That would be akin to only allowing General Motors to make aftermarket parts for your GM vehicles. I can only imagine how costly the parts for a GM would be if there were no parts from NAPA, Car Quest, Autozone, Canadian Tire, Dobbs Tire, etc.
Sorry but this is a very stupid idea.
Actually, you'd be surprised how many manufacturers would love to do that... the "walled garden" business model has gotten pretty popular the last few years thanks to companies like Sony, John Deere and Apple...
As stuff becomes more (often unnecessarily) tied to the internet or apps, it makes it easier to wall in consumers and restrict outside/aftermarket parts, modifications or repairs though strict EULAs... By the time cars are fully autonomous, probably the only thing you be able to touch will be the tires.
You better be able to touch the doors and seats, because if you can't get in and sit down, I'm not sure I see the point of them.
Definitely this.
Sorta like an NFT then, I guess... ?
Speaking of seats... BMW is doing subscriptions to their heated seats for their preowned vehicles... you pay a subscription fee to keep the heated seats and other premium features working.
Effing thanks Adobe.
I just want an easier way to organize stuff like giving custom tags and everything with that tag goes in that folder and can be searched
Sorry, I disagree. I dont use smart content so I dont care if its smart content capable or not.
Let's say your rule suggestion is adopted. But then Daz pays as much attention to it as their other "rules." How?
It would be nicer if they just had to list all the products (from whatever vendor) used in the Promos.
I like listing products when I post in the gallery, but man, can it be a pain. And a lot of times you just forget. I wouldn't want to have to note every item I tried on as I made a promo, and a lot of times the clothing item doesn't have the same name as the product it's from, so if you wait until the end it might be hard to impossible to figure out. It would be a total nightmare. Not to mention the times when you're kitbashing and editing geometry and the stuff ends up looking totally unrecognizable from the product it comes from. People would probably start demanding you use things "as is" after that, claiming it's false advertising, and then we'd end up with boring a** promos. No thanks.
How do I do that? is there a tutorial?
If you want things to be quick and convenient, my recommendation would be to just get Content Wizard. You can create your own metadata manually, but it's not exactly a quick process. Content Wizard installs products (wherever you tell it to), and generates all the metadata for you if you choose the Smart Content option. Plus it allows you to create custom stores so that your stuff will show up in the top level of Smart Content, instead of the Local User hellscape.
It occasionally guesses wrong about what something should be, but that's rare and only takes a few moments to fix. RiverSoft Art is also one of the most helpful and responsive PAs out there, very active on the forums and threads for his products. Even made me a custom interface for Content Wizard with a fixed size when something about my system made the adjustable one go all screwy. It's not cheap but it's still worth every penny at full price, and goes on sale reasonably frequently. I've installed stuff from Rendo, R'otica, independent seller stores, freebies, etc. with zero issues.
You'd be surprised. I believe anything CAN work like smart content if properly set up. I've seen freebies that had the right data to function as smart content if properly imported (including stuff from Rendo), and set up my own custom content to work as smart content too, so I'm sure there are Rendo products set up that way too. I haven't finished transferring files to my new computer and with this NFT bull and future metahumans stuff from unreal and my own figure modeling attempts it's not a priority, so I can't recall off hand what you'd need to look for but I can check when I get home.
Uhhmmm.... If you want to run to the extreme, go right ahead.
But I still think there is room for listing the major products used.... tweaked or no. Maybe it is just a matter of work flow... like changing the asset names in the scene tab as you are working... i.e changing "boots 06" to the asset name "Riding Boots for Fun" as you go so that its a relatively simple matter to figure out what you used later.
At the end of the day, it is all about selling product. Daz is happy cause you are promoting other sales, and the other PA's that you've been using their stuff are sure to appreciate the shout out/link to hopefully increase their sales as well.
Your Mileage May Vary... of course.
Easy way: purchase Content Wizard, avoid the pain.
Less easy way:
1. Run a script to set a store different to DAZ Studio (There is an example in DAZ Studio scripts samples in the wiki page, change the name of the store in the last line)
2. Uncompress the product in a folder.
3. Add to DAZ directories the folder containing the data or Runtime folders.
4. In content library create a custom category. If the items are in non nested folders you can set it as if it were a single folder.
5. Create a Product from this content category. Refresh Smart Content. Now this product is visible at Smart Content
6. Right click in the product in Smart Content. Select "Edit Metadata".
7. Select the store made in step 1, Set token as product's number in its store. Set other parameters if you want.
8. Save the metadata. In some point the dialogue shows a button to the folder where the metadata will be saved click it. Copy the dsa and dsx files with the name of yu product.
9. Paste these files in the Runtime/Support folder created in step 2 (yu need create the support folder in the Runtime folder).
10. Also paste an image for you product, use the same dsx/dsa name for the image.
11. Close DAZ Studio. Copy all the content of folder created in the step 2 in your current directory.
12. Open DAZ Studio. Remove the folder created in step 2 (This one should be empty). Re-import your new metadata if it is needed..
For the next product in the same store only are needed steps 2 to 12.