Daz Studio 5 development update

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  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,120

    i53570k said:

    nonesuch00 said:

    That is great for playing games but it's going to be a long time before DirectStorage is cheap enough for folk to store their entire DAZ 3D collections. Any as TheMysteryIsThe Point has said, loading a scene is slow because all the wait in DAZ Studio parsing and building the scene, not really so much reading the contents off disk. If you overflow RAM though and DAZ Studio causes Windows paging you'd see a huge improvement in DAZ Studio speed, hardly anyone gets to that point anymore with 16GB RAM being common and 32GB and more RAM being more and more common. 

    Scene loading and render preparation are two compltely different process. Render prepartion does not require reading the database of your entire Daz library but just what's already been loaded during scene loading. Right now render prepartion probably still needs to read the assets that have already loaded into the scene, a duplicate process because that's how render works without Daz having direct access to GPU memory.

    But exceeding system RAM and causing DAZ used memory to be swapped to a hard disk swap file is excrutiatingly slow was the point and would be helped by directStorage since it's fast and supposed to stream into & out of directStorage was my understanding. Some scenes when you CPU render will grow & grow & grow in RAM usage.

  • Two things...
    1) I have heard a lot of talk about QT graphics engine being updated.
    In a couple of sentence (if possible) what does that mean and how does the new "QT" engine benefit for daz users?

     

    2) 
    My main concern and wish for Daz5 is it somehow is configured a way so that my load times get reduced.  I've cut back on buying morphs/Characters because I can practicually read War and Peace while a G8F loads...
    Do you think I have false hope in Daz5 solving those issues?

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,765
    edited February 2022

    Chumly said:

    Two things...
    1) I have heard a lot of talk about QT graphics engine being updated.
    In a couple of sentence (if possible) what does that mean and how does the new "QT" engine benefit for daz users?

    Qt (not QT, meaning QuickTime) is the application framework used to build Daz Studio - it handles the OS-specific details of window and file management, greatly simplifying the task of building Mac and Windows versions. Updating improves or introduces support for features that DS is currently unable to support, or support well, such as UI scaling.

     

    2) 
    My main concern and wish for Daz5 is it somehow is configured a way so that my load times get reduced.  I've cut back on buying morphs/Characters because I can practicually read War and Peace while a G8F loads...
    Do you think I have false hope in Daz5 solving those issues?

    There have been some changes in the recent DS 4.x builds, but I believe there are limits to what can be done given the required feature set. Still, if Daz is able to rejig the approach the transition from 4 to 5 would be a likely time to do it.

    Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
  • I'm curious if there is any difference in the user interface between 4 and 5 or is it all 'under the hood', so to speak.

    Anyone know?

  • Georgehaze said:

    I'm curious if there is any difference in the user interface between 4 and 5 or is it all 'under the hood', so to speak.

    Anyone know?

    Nothing has been said about the UI (or indeed possible new features).

  • Richard,

    Does the product backlog for DS5 give any idea when a working GoZ will be out for the Macintosh?

    Although the change log hasn't mentioned GoZ in a while, DIM always seems to have an updated GoZ to install when there is an update of DS, implying GoZ has been updated too and to be fair, the errors do seem to differ with releases, again, suggesting work is being done on this...

    Currently the error seems to be down to a failure to see a library in the framework within the GoZBrushToDazStudio.app. and if a Mac error message can show this, I'm surprised testing doesn't flag it before a GoZ install is put out. It's a bit like opening a Christmas present to find the box empty :}

    Many thanks in advance,

  • AndrewJJPAndrewJJP Posts: 711
    edited February 2022

    I've been considering trying out the Daz C++ SDK. Is there any information at this point about API changes in Daz 5? I'm guessing the external interface might be backwards compatible, but I wouldn't want to invest any time in something that could be replaced pretty shortly.

    (I wasn't asking what the interface is of course, only if dramatic changes are anticipated.)

    Post edited by AndrewJJP on
  • Quinlan said:

    Richard,

    Does the product backlog for DS5 give any idea when a working GoZ will be out for the Macintosh?

    Although the change log hasn't mentioned GoZ in a while, DIM always seems to have an updated GoZ to install when there is an update of DS, implying GoZ has been updated too and to be fair, the errors do seem to differ with releases, again, suggesting work is being done on this...

    Currently the error seems to be down to a failure to see a library in the framework within the GoZBrushToDazStudio.app. and if a Mac error message can show this, I'm surprised testing doesn't flag it before a GoZ install is put out. It's a bit like opening a Christmas present to find the box empty :}

    Many thanks in advance,

    Have the issues ben reported (sorry if you've already posted about this)? I don't have any prior information, and would need permission to pass it on if I did.

  • Hi Richard,

    Many thanks for your kind response, and yes, I reported the errors along with copies of the Apple Log Crash reports.

    These have, I believe been passed on to the devs, it's just that the Change Log doesn't seem to make clear what is going on with regard to the GoZ component as no updates appear in the Change Log, but updates appear in DIM... 

    Cheers,

    Quinlan

  • AndrewJJPAndrewJJP Posts: 711
    edited February 2022

    AndrewJJP said:

    I've been considering trying out the Daz C++ SDK. Is there any information at this point about API changes in Daz 5? I'm guessing the external interface might be backwards compatible, but I wouldn't want to invest any time in something that could be replaced pretty shortly.

    (I wasn't asking what the interface is of course, only if dramatic changes are anticipated.)

    OK, I'm asssuming nobody knows and that's fine, I guess not too many people will use the SDK. As C++ is my day job and I had a plugin idea, it would have been nice to have a try, but I won't waste any time on it for now. There's no rush. smiley

    Post edited by AndrewJJP on
  • I know I can't expect all software developers to continue supporting older OSs but a lot do and that gives me some hope. The only reason I upgraded to Win7 back in the day was because Adobe forced me to if I wanted the latest and greatest. Have to use 64-bit. Ok I did that and I'm fine with 64-bit. Now I don't use Adobe at home anymore because the subscription is not as good as it could be. I use Affinity now and love it. Will they support Win7 forever? Possible not. I'll deal with that when the time comes. Future is uncertain. ArtRage stopped support for 7 and went so far as to only allowing downloads via the Win10 Store. Back in the day they were the best at realistic paint but now other programs can do that quite well and they still work on 7. 

    I like it when developers allow you to try installing their software on your system, regardless of the version you're running, and simply state that they only support issues on certain versions. This means I can go ahead and install something like Krita which only supports 8.1+ currently and see if it still works on 7. Most cases so far it does. Only draw back is I can't expect support for issues. But that's why we have the internet and forums like this - for real support.

    As far as the ability to download older versions of DS from your library.. yes, you can download the last release of 2.x or 3.x or 4.x. But you can't cherry pick your favorite release. As of today I can't download 4.10 if I wanted to. This is why I download a copy of every version that comes out and back them up. What if 4.20 is buggy as hell? Users are constantly having issues with every release. Companies like Blender let you download any old version you want. This is something I dislike about Daz3D because their software is free - why not keep it available for those that need it? It doesn't take up that much space on your servers.

    As far as Daz3D staying competitive.. who are they competing with? Really? Poser? How much of this niche market is made up of hobbyist that like to tinker and play compared to professionals using it for game assets and film work? Why can't they be more like Planetside and offer different tiers of their software? Release a basic version that could still run on 7 and a Pro version that requires the latest hardware and will include more advanced functionality. I'm sure the answer will be lack of resources but with all the money I've sent them in the last 4 years alone I'm sure they can hire more people. Charge for the Pro version. How much of this market doesn't have the means or desire to upgrade?

    I don't understand why a 3D app in 2022 that still can't do stuff that Blender or Cinema could do back in 2000 requires newer hardware that those other apps didn't need back then.

    I'd also like to know what direction Daz3D is looking to take itself in the future. From Iray to dForce to interactive licensing to volumetrics.. if Daz3D is looking to turn Studio into an all-in-one 3D app like Blender - don't. Come out with another product for that. Take the code from Bryce, Hexagon and Carrara and develop something awesome that integrates flawlessly with DS. Don't be like Adobe and try to make Photoshop do everything.

    If DS5 is Win10+ only and I can't even try to install it on Win7, then I will stop at 4.x for the forseable future. Luckily I believe 4.x gives me everything I need. Just like Win7.

    :)

     

  • inquireinquire Posts: 2,187

    TenTen71 said:

     

    I don't understand why a 3D app in 2022 that still can't do stuff that Blender or Cinema could do back in 2000 requires newer hardware that those other apps didn't need back then.

    I'd also like to know what direction Daz3D is looking to take itself in the future. From Iray to dForce to interactive licensing to volumetrics.. if Daz3D is looking to turn Studio into an all-in-one 3D app like Blender - don't. Come out with another product for that. Take the code from Bryce, Hexagon and Carrara and develop something awesome that integrates flawlessly with DS. Don't be like Adobe and try to make Photoshop do everything.

     

    Wonderful points and suggestions made. + 1

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 41,036

    ...same here, 

    Still on W7 myself for now.  W10 just rubbed me the wrong way and I'll leave it at that.  Sadly Nvida already abandoned W7 by dropping driver support for it last October. I have the last driver issued, which is still a few steps above that which is recommended for the update of Iray in Daz 4.16/4.20.  Should Daz continue supporting W7, to render in Iray could likely require going back to glacial CPU rendering should the required driver version be one that doesn't support the OS, along with what appears to be Nvidia's plan to cease support for all pre RTX GPUs with regards to Iray (Maxwell is next on the list). Sad given ludicrous prices being asked today for new RTX cards thanks to a combination of a silicon shortage, unscrupulous resellers, and cryptominers (the latter two who use bots to gobble up cards when released before the general public can get their hands on them  (I was fortunate to snag a 3060 SC at a very reasonable price from the manufacturer, sadly my old MBs BIOS won't recognise it so I'm just saving it for the planned upgrade below).

    As TenTen 71 mentioned, software developers have been ditching W7.  Besides Adobe E•On (Vue), Clo (Marvelous Designer), Most of the Pro 3D software, and Blender (after ver. 2.90) have also stopped supporting the OS. 

    Given that, I decided I had to "bite the bullet" and upgrade my system for W11 as I'll get over a decade of use from it and won't have to deal with two learning curves.  Looking at between an 800 - 900$ investment just for the three main core components, CPU, motherboard, and memory (along with a  CPU cooler sufficient to handle the high TDP of the new generation CPUs).   Yeah W11 has it's own issues but it's ditched some of the less than desirable parts I felt W10  had, and the Pro version allows for deferring version/feature updates for up to two years so less chance to have bugs auto installed.  Also, a number of members here who have upgraded seem to have experienced no serious issues.

    I will say over all the years W7 has been pretty much bug free for me. Of course I usually bypassed feature updates and turned off/uninstalled the features I don't even need. (which took less than an hour or so).  The only times I got BSODs was from buggy Nvidia drivers I installed through MS updates (stopped doing that years ago). But yeah, the tech curve marches on, so may as well get to the front of it. 

  • +1 please add native Linux support.

    I have using Daz Studio and Debian-base Linux distros for couple years, I love them.

    Even though Daz Studio work perfectly with Wine, but the official version of native Linux support is the best.

  • inquireinquire Posts: 2,187

    I hope the developers who have worked with Apple will continue to do so, and will add Metal as a rendering option in DS 5. A suggested new product would be a script or plugin that transfers iRay shaders to Metal ones. It can be done. Some of this was done in Reality. But the guy who does the EZskin shaders for Poser has worked wonders transferring Firefly shaders to Superfly ones. So, it is possible.

  • Instead of a bunch of whiz-bang features that are riddled with bugs, it would be much better to have a small, base implementation that works and is well documented. Then dev community around DS is active, passionate, and would do the rest. Look around the SDK forum to see the kind of things people wanted to implement, but quickly gave up. Some couldn't even get the SDK plugin sample working, some got stuck on other very simple things early on, and some had cool things almost working, but got stuck on another important part.

    But right now, it is too difficult to develop addons for DS when you have to research the simplest things and sometimes resort to trial and error and trial and error and trial and error ad infinitum.

    I am more fearful of DS5 than I am excited about it because if Sagan breaks, I don't know if I have the energy nor will to stumble around in the darkness in order to get it to work again, and never be able to be sure if it really is working rock-solid, rather than just working until a certain set of conditions cause it to crash.

    We don't need Daz to implement a bunch of new features. We need them to stabilize and document what we already have. A developers' guide, not a pile of header files and documentation that states no more than the incredibly obvious.

     

  • badbad Posts: 9
    edited March 2022

    DAZ_Rawb said:

    Hi everyone. Drum roll please...

    As Director of Technology for Daz 3D, I wanted to give you some big news.  The Daz Studio team has been hard at work on a massive foundation change for Daz Studio that will be released as Daz Studio 5! Our project has been the #1 priority for the team for quite some time now, and it's almost done. Since we know how important getting a Mac version of Daz Studio is to all of you, we are switching up our release plans (from our normal releases) to get you a look at the upcoming Daz Studio 5 as soon as possible.

    Details of the upcoming Daz Studio 5 early-access Pre-Beta:
    - Release timing for this early-access preview is coming soon, at the very end of this month (July) or sometime next month (August).
    - This will be a pre-beta release. Normally we wait until the software is completely finished before releasing it.
    - Major Update will be Daz Studio release running for Macs, no other major features in the Pre-Beta.
    - All Plugins and some scripts will be broken. The SDK won't be available with this first release, but will be following it up at a later date. Some other less used features won't work at launch, but will be coming online throughout the year.
    - This release will work on at least x86 Macs (with both Filament and Iray). We are still investigating if this initial early-access release will run either natively or through emulation on M1 macs, but M1 support will come during the continued development of Daz Studio 5.
    - It will install into a new location, so you can run it along your current Daz Studio (release/beta) without problems.

    As for the final Daz Studio 5 release:
    - The timeline for this is to have it out near the very end of this year.
    - Features and enhancements will be rolling in through the rest of the year.
    - Anyone who has Daz Studio 4 in their account will be able to keep it. You'll be able to continue to download and use it for the foreseeable future.

    I hope everyone is just as excited about Daz Studio 5 as we are.

    Do a better optimization for big libraries please!!! DAZ studio becomes very slow when opening!!

    Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
  • Documentation of features, proper, detailed, documentation, as suggested by TheMysteryisTh, is an absolute basic and fundamental requirement for any serious program. If you cannot use a feature to its fullest extent because the documentation is lacking, the feature may as well be absent for all the good it can do for a user.

    Regards,

    Richard.

     

  • Hear Hear!

  • The RED CrownThe RED Crown Posts: 247
    edited March 2022

    Split daz 5 to 2 version's :

    1- lite : no smart content - no animation .

    2- pro : full features .

    Post edited by The RED Crown on
  • ImagoImago Posts: 5,152
    edited March 2022

    The RED Crown said:

    1- lite : no smart content - no animation .

    Pretty dumb, many tools depends on the timeline and animation related functions, even if you make only stills. Just think about DForce alone, can you use that without animation functionalities?

    Also, if you don't like the smart content, just don't use it.

    No, the best is to have ALL the tools working properly in a single piece of sotware. Many tools in DAZ Studio are broken beyond belief, if you split the developing things can only get worse.

    Post edited by Imago on
  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,202

    I would have thought the lite version needed the smart content for the click load render users cheeky

  • robertswwwrobertswww Posts: 790

    @The RED Crown I understand your idea to have a LITE version of Daz Studio for new users, but the only way it would work is to have the full-blown version of Daz Studio Pro with a LITE mode, where you can easily hide and/or disable features that new users may not be ready for.

    Regarding Smart Content... once you learn to use this valuable tool for finding items quickly, it is indispensable IMO. Besides, nearly all the Daz products already come with Smart Content except some older content such as Poser products.

    Regarding Animation... Besides dForce that Imago mentioned, lots of Daz users have already invested in many Daz products from AniBlocks and Facial Mocap, to Water and Particle Effects such as Parsis and Fluidos, and therefore require the animation timeline capabilities. 

    But, a one-button press to simplify the feature set and interface of Daz Studio for a LITE style, could probably be designed into some sort of workspace option, or given as an option the first time you launch DS for newbies.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 100,765

    robertswww said:

    @The RED Crown I understand your idea to have a LITE version of Daz Studio for new users, but the only way it would work is to have the full-blown version of Daz Studio Pro with a LITE mode, where you can easily hide and/or disable features that new users may not be ready for.

    That can mostly be done already via alternative layouts (Window>Workspace>Customise), or even by disabling plug-ins (Help>About Installed Plug-ins).

    Regarding Smart Content... once you learn to use this valuable tool for finding items quickly, it is indispensable IMO. Besides, nearly all the Daz products already come with Smart Content except some older content such as Poser products.

    Regarding Animation... Besides dForce that Imago mentioned, lots of Daz users have already invested in many Daz products from AniBlocks and Facial Mocap, to Water and Particle Effects such as Parsis and Fluidos, and therefore require the animation timeline capabilities. 

    But, a one-button press to simplify the feature set and interface of Daz Studio for a LITE style, could probably be designed into some sort of workspace option, or given as an option the first time you launch DS for newbies.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,202

    it is not hard to close the timeline and smart content tab if you don't want them though

  • robertswww said:

    @The RED Crown I understand your idea to have a LITE version of Daz Studio for new users, but the only way it would work is to have the full-blown version of Daz Studio Pro with a LITE mode, where you can easily hide and/or disable features that new users may not be ready for.

    Regarding Smart Content... once you learn to use this valuable tool for finding items quickly, it is indispensable IMO. Besides, nearly all the Daz products already come with Smart Content except some older content such as Poser products.

    Regarding Animation... Besides dForce that Imago mentioned, lots of Daz users have already invested in many Daz products from AniBlocks and Facial Mocap, to Water and Particle Effects such as Parsis and Fluidos, and therefore require the animation timeline capabilities. 

    But, a one-button press to simplify the feature set and interface of Daz Studio for a LITE style, could probably be designed into some sort of workspace option, or given as an option the first time you launch DS for newbies.

    all required files for dforce will built in app .

    the rest file not necessary will remove from app .

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,202

    enjoy your fixed menu I want ala carte devil

  • namffuaknamffuak Posts: 4,144

    The RED Crown said:

    robertswww said:

    @The RED Crown I understand your idea to have a LITE version of Daz Studio for new users, but the only way it would work is to have the full-blown version of Daz Studio Pro with a LITE mode, where you can easily hide and/or disable features that new users may not be ready for.

    Regarding Smart Content... once you learn to use this valuable tool for finding items quickly, it is indispensable IMO. Besides, nearly all the Daz products already come with Smart Content except some older content such as Poser products.

    Regarding Animation... Besides dForce that Imago mentioned, lots of Daz users have already invested in many Daz products from AniBlocks and Facial Mocap, to Water and Particle Effects such as Parsis and Fluidos, and therefore require the animation timeline capabilities. 

    But, a one-button press to simplify the feature set and interface of Daz Studio for a LITE style, could probably be designed into some sort of workspace option, or given as an option the first time you launch DS for newbies.

    all required files for dforce will built in app .

    the rest file not necessary will remove from app .

    They tried this with Daz Studio 3 and continued when Daz Studio 4 was introduced. It didn't work - and took too much manpower and time to keep the versions in sync. All that remains of the experiment (which ran about a year, IIRC) is that the version of Daz Studio 4 is the 'Pro' or complete version.

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,202

    the Red Crown needs to be careful what they wish for.

    I can assure you if they ever bring back free and paid tiers, Dforce would be a pro feature.

  • WendyLuvsCatz said:

    the Red Crown needs to be careful what they wish for.

    I can assure you if they ever bring back free and paid tiers, Dforce would be a pro feature.

     

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