Daz Studio Pro BETA - version 4.9.0.21!
DAZ_Vince
Posts: 114
Daz 3D is pleased to announce Daz Studio Pro BETA - version 4.9.0.21!
!! IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED THAT YOU BACKUP YOUR CONTENT DATABASE IN DAZ STUDIO 4.8 BEFORE LAUNCHING DAZ STUDIO 4.9 !!
How do I backup my User Data in Daz Studio?
Important Notes:
Content Database / Metadata related
- The first time you launch Daz Studio 4.9, any data that exists in the content database is migrated so that it can be used in Daz Studio 4.9.
- The amount of time the database migration operation takes is proportional to the amount of data to be migrated.
- The database migration operation does not delete the data that it migrates from the previous location so that it remains accessible by earlier versions and other applications, such as Carrara.
- Daz Studio 4.9 uses the same PostgreSQL database as Daz Studio 4.6 and later, and/or other applications, such as Carrara.
- A portion of the data contained within the database is shared amongst versions but not entirely. For example:
- Creating a category in either Daz Studio 4.9 or 4.8 will cause that category to exist in the other version
- Assigning a file to that category in Daz Studio 4.9 will NOT cause that file to be assigned to that category in Daz Studio 4.8
- Assigning a file to that category in Daz Studio 4.8 WILL cause the file to be assigned to the category in Daz Studio 4.9
- Reseting the database in any version of Daz Studio that uses PostgreSQL (4.6 or later) will purge all of data in the database, including any data that may be used by earlier versions or other applications, such as Carrara.
- After the initial migration operation, edited metadata in Daz Studio 4.8 will not be migrated to Daz Studio 4.9.
- A workaround is to export User Data from Daz Studio 4.8 and reimport User Data in Daz Studio 4.9.
- Importing non-User Data from DSX files does NOT function correctly in the 4.9.0.21 build and is, therefore, NOT recommended—this is fixed in a subsequent build.
- A workaround is to reimport metadata within Daz Studio 4.8 or Daz Install Manager.
- Importing User Data that has been previously exported to DSX file(s) DOES function correctly in 4.9.0.21.
NVIDIA Iray related
- Fixes made to the implementation of Sub Surface Scattering (SSS) in the NVIDIA Iray renderer affect materials which have "Translucency Weight" active—not set to 0. This manifests in skin tones appearing more blue than they do in 4.8. A quick adjustment that can be made during the BETA phase is to adjust the "SSS Reflectance Tint" from a light blue to a light yellow—R: 1.00, G: 0.88, B: 0.67. Adjust this value to your liking.
- After the BETA phase, Daz 3D products will be updated to include this change.
- The Mac version now requires OS X 10.7 or later.
Frequently Asked Questions:
- How do I backup my User Data in Daz Studio?
- What is a BETA?
- General Release, Public Build, BETA... What is the difference?
- Will the version in the Public Build channel replace the one in General Release?
- Has the Content Management Service (CMS) changed?
- What is the Application Improvement Program about?
- Have the content packages been updated too?
- How do I get the latest version?
- Can I have a General Release and a BETA installed at the same time?
- What about the plugins I have?
- Is there any documentation?
- What is new in this version?
- Has the NVIDIA Iray renderer been updated?
Frequently Asked Daz Connect Questions:
- What is Daz Connect?
- What are the goals of Daz Connect?
- How do I get my purchased products now?
- How can I get new products through Daz Connect?
- Are all products Daz Connect ready?
- Will the products I already own keep working?
- Will products from stores other than Daz 3D keep working?
- Can I use products installed through Daz Connect with other software?
- Does this update make it easier to find content I can use with Auto-Fit in Smart Content?
- Can I use the Content Library pane with Daz Connect?
- Does Daz Studio 4.9 require me to use Daz Connect?
- Does Daz Studio 4.9 require me to be online to use Daz Connect installed content?
- I use my content on multiple computers. Can I still do that?
- I have multiple people in my household who share content with each other. Can we still do that?
- Is the encryption associated with Daz Connect essentially Digital Rights Management (DRM)?
- Can I copy products installed using Daz Connect from one computer to another?
- I like to move files around on disk to organize them differently. Can I still do that?
- What will happen with the content already on my hard drive(s)?
- What will happen to my custom metadata?
- Can I still custom sort my files?
- If the content is stored encrypted, how do I reinitialize morphs?
- Will Daz Install Manager and Daz Connect work side by side? Can I choose one or the other?
- Do I have to re-download all of my products?
- Does having the Daz Connect service mean that all content will finally be Smart Content capable?
- Does Daz Connect work with plugins?
- Will my saved scenes also be encrypted?
- How do I add content that I have created myself to Daz Studio?
- What happens to my Bryce and Carrara content?
- Does Daz Connect support 32-bit operating systems?
- Will this update work with products like ZoneAlarm or other software firewalls?
- Will this update eliminate the Hexagon, Bryce, GoZ, or Photoshop bridges?
- Will the DSON Importer for Poser plugin work with products installed using Daz Connect?
- Will this update keep zip packages on my computer like Daz Install Manager does?
- Is there a reason to upgrade to 4.9 if I do not plan to use Daz Connect?
Post edited by rbtwhiz on
This discussion has been closed.
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Comments
Is there any documentation?
Yes, there is. And we're actively working on more.
Check out the User Guide and QuickStart Guide that we've posted in the DAZ Studio 4.x Documentation section.
The Reference Guide is also in the process of being populated/updated—updates will be posted over the course of the beta.
*Note: Some pages are still being built. If you see "permission denied" for a page, that page is not live yet.
What is new in this version? Do I need to update my copy?
This version resolves many issues and implements many improvements since the 4.8.0.59 General Release. More detail on specific fixes/changes/improvements can be found in the Change Log, which can be viewed online within the Documentation Center portion of our site. All new downloads of the Daz Studio Pro BETA product (SKU: 12000) will be of this version.
Supports mass uninstall via multiple selection + context menu
Has the NVIDIA Iray renderer been updated?
Yes, it has.
Iray 2015.3.2, build 246000.4498
Added and Changed Features
Fixed Bugs
See Also
Iray 2015.3.1, build 246000.3782
Added and Changed Features
Fixed Bugs
Iray 2015.3, build 246000.3341
Added and Changed Features
Fixed Bugs
Iray 2015.3 beta, build 246000.1253
Added and Changed Features
Fixed Bugs
Iray 2015.2.1, build 243400.2118
Added and Changed Features
Fixed Bugs
Iray 2015.2, build 243400.1151
Added and Changed Features
Fixed Bugs
For instance:
The compiler erroneously assumed, that the default case has a reachable exit, hence code after the switch is not dead.
When base::blend color layers() was used in a jitted expression, the modes color layer hue and color layer saturation failed. This has been fixed.
where the compiler complains that a T[] array cannot be transformed into a uniform T[] array.
I have a lot of content purchased outside of DAZ where I created products and metadata for them. I noticed those products were missing from the Product Listing so I re-imported UserData_1.dsx created prior to installing 4.9 expecting them to show up and they still are missing. Those products do have metadata on the Content Library tab.
Do I need to re-create those products again they show up on the Smart Content>Products tab or am I missing a step?
EDIT: I think I need to re-import the .dsx metadata file for those manually created products and if I recall correctly, there was mention re-importing metadata outside of the UserData_1.dsx is not working yet?
EDIT- EDIT: False Alarm, re-importing manually created products is working, sorta.
EDIT-EDIT-EDIT: These re-imported 3rd party products are getting categorized into the ? category with no names instead of the alpha groups. Loading the product into the Content DB Editor it's missing the name, author and the files: box is blank. Fortunately, 4.8 content tabs aren't affected, so I'll just wait and let 4.9 sit for a bit and let others play.
The first post of this thread states:
Products that you create yourself are not considered "User Data." They are, for all practical purposes, considered "Vendor Data." Or, more simply stated, "non-User Data." As such, the statement quoted above applies—i.e. "NOT functioning correctly in the 4.9.0.21 build."
Products that exist in the database upon first launch of 4.9, regardless of origin, should be migrated automatically from versions prior to 4.9, to the 4.9 database—provided the CMS used in said prior version is PostgreSQL based and the product has enough of the pertinent data to properly define a product. If said migration did not occur, or occured but resulted in issues, we'll need you to submit a bug report with more information about the product(s) you are encountering this with.
-Rob
as a Carrara user I should be unaffected so long as I just use DIM not the Content connect?
I still use Valentina and the older version of C8.5 too as some things I use a lot were broken in the last update
I also have DS4.7 still as well as the beta for the same reason,
A few export functions I use in particular involving hiding with geometry editor, smoothing and geoshells export differently in 4.8 in that hiding them does not remove the mesh and I need it to offset smoothed clothes to export to iClone in particular for Apex cloth.
and the duf preset for facial animation in 4,8 duplicates everything in iClone expression editor
Not all improvements are improvemnts for everyone.
um, are you guys sure you're all working for the same team?
I didn't see this covered yet, so I wanted to ask to be sure.
Lot's of the stuff I buy doesn't come with all the maps I want, and with iray we can use alot more types of maps that currently don't come with all the products, especially the pre-iray stuff.So I've been making them in GIMP by making a copy of the original bump/texture and coverting the copies to the different map types.
Will I be able to continue making my own custom maps from the bump/texture files that are included in the products I buy?
Textures and maps like that are unencrypted in Daz Connect so you can copy and modify them to your hearts content. Be sure to copy them and edit the copies because otherwise Daz Connect might overwrite them if you update that product.
Ok, Thank you clarifying :)
My biggest issue is that I am working in Iraq and my internet is barely above dialup and prone to yo-yo'ing up and down at any give time. Going to a cloud based system for new purchases is something that will make things extremely difficult or impossible. When it took me 3 hours to download the esential setup for G2 and has taken me anywhere from 35 minutes to over an hour to download a file that is in the 80mb to 120mb range, this will will take unacceptable amounts of time to work this way. What options are goint to be made available for myself and others that have less than high speed connections?
With the default online mode for Daz Connect it should probably give you a better shot at good downloads because the packages are split into individual file downloads so it is easier to resume and complete smaller files. If you sometimes have access to a higher speed connection then downloading the offline packages (which are still a work in progress) would be an option, then you can just bring them back to your computer with Daz Studio on it.
And if i DON'T want to use Categories?
I install via DIM - then I open up my folders and CHANGE the installation. I DON'T want scenery and sets to go to 'Environments' - I want them in my PROPS folder.
I DON'T want "materials" for DAZ bases to go in MATERIALS.... I want them in my CHARACTER folder.
I DON'T want Vehicles to go in the Vehicles folder....I want them in my PROPS folder, in a little folder I named "Spaceships" or the one named "Cars" or the one named "Whatever Vehicles".
Can I still do this?
so much complexity for just render naked busty babes...
I'll better wait for the next general major release.
1. Is pre-existing content going to be updated to this format? Or will I be able to continue to download purchases I've already made in zip form?
2. Are new products in the store going to show when they are only available in this form, or do we have to buy first and then find out when we navigate to the download page?
I'm a Poser user, who often exports items from Daz Studio. It does not seem like this will be an option any longer. 3. Will the back catalog still be usable by me? Or are updates planned for even older items?
Greetings,
I have a feeling this is going to absolutely !#$^%#! my workflow.
I install content using DIM on one machine; it syncs via Dropbox to a second machine. The machine I install on is my Mac, the machine it syncs to is a Windows box. I sync my scenes the same way. I can save a scene in DAZ Studio, and open it on the Windows box in around 30 seconds, with the new changes in it. I don't even turn on the monitor for my Windows box for days at a time, trusting that the large amount of content I buy and install will sync to it transparently, and be there when I need it. (The Windows box has the buff video card. The Mac has the nice interface and mouse.)
Am I right that this workflow won't work anymore, and that the media is encrypted 'at rest' on my Mac tied to that box, and not 'syncable' to my Windows box?
Does this mean that if I want to install the same content on two systems, both living under the same account, I need to download it twice? That seems a little absurd...especially with HDRI packs pushing 1.5GB.
Maybe I missed it, but will I be able to install stuff to a different directory still? E.g. I install all of Ron's brush packs to a non-sync'ed directory, 'Art' which is outside of the My Library tree. Can I still do that? (And how DO you encrypt brushes?)
-- Morgan
Edit: If the content is encrypted at rest tied to my account information, and completely blind to the computer it's installed on, that would make things probably function better.
The files that are encrypted are encrypted to your store account. So if you have it working with a version you have logged in at least once on and copy it over to another machine that you have it on at least once on, it will be able to open and read the file. You only need to download once. It doesn't lock the file per machine, just per store account.The only thing that would potentially be missing is the database entries for that product which might require some sort of sync / import of data so the local database knows it is installed (I honestly don't know how it works if both machines are pointed to the same Postgres instance, someone else would have to answer that).
Edit: in regards to content which isn't Daz Studio content, like Ron's brushes which are photoshop files, you'll still download and "install" them with Install Manager. Those won't (or shouldn't) show up in Studio unless it is content actually useable by Studio.
What the blankety-blank <bleep> are you doing, DAZ?
I don't use DIM.
I don't use Smart Content.
I don't use the content database or Categories.
I do rearrange the content files in a way that makes sense to me.
How will this affect the way I work? Am I going to be forced to use DIM and CMS?
Will I still be able to download content manually using the Content Library page?
I don't like the sound of this DAZ Connect system. It's extra complexity. Can I just not use it, in the same way I don't use Smart Content?
Greetings,
Okay, that's not bad, and what I (after I started thinking about implementation) hoped the encryption would be limited to.
I do very little scene creation on the Windows box, it's mostly just a render slave, so I never use 'Smart Content' on it. (Or if I do, I take the hit to re-index all my content since the DSX files are installed to a shared location.) Q1) If I want to, I can still find content under the Content Library tree, even if it wasn't installed on that system? (But was copied there from a system signed into the same DAZ account...)
Q2) Relatedly, I'm curious how the Content Library was updated to work with Daz Connect...? I know that (for some odd reason) Postgres is CONSTANTLY queried when I'm browsing what are theoretically directories on my own drive...I imagine something similar, but I still would love to know why it needs it...
And pointing to the same PostgreSQL server was kind of fascinating, but a LOT slower than using a local one (Daz Studio's database access is chatty as all get out, built under the assumption of a local postgres service...) Maybe if I dropped a physical switch that allowed my two desktop machines to talk via gigabit...
When I went back over the FAQ's a second time, I saw the note about non-Daz Studio content, and that makes a lot of sense to me.
-- Morgan
Everything you already have purchased from the store will continue to be available in the same way (and more) you get to it right now.
If/when there are products only available via "Daz Connect" the product page would note that it would require Daz Studio 4.9 or above at the very least.
The export functions have been left alone for all of the poser export options, so even products loaded through Daz Connect should be able to be exported from Daz Studio and utilized in Poser.
OK, I'm ready to give some feedback on the BETA.
I'm downloading products through the "Install from Cloud" option in DAZ Connect, and there are four problems I can see:
1) DAZ Connect is installing everything to the My Library/data/cloud directory, which completely ignores my existing directory structure. There needs to be a way to identify what directories to install a product to, the same way we can in DIM. Not everyone uses Smart Content to organize content, many prefer seperate content directories.
2) Since everything is being re-installed to the cloud directory, almost all of my existing DAZ Content is being duplicated. So either I will have to delete my existing directories, or lose a significant chunk of hard drive space to uneeded files, especially since these duplicate files are apparently only visible to Smart Content.
3) Download speed. The advantage of a product zip is that large products (products with hundreds or even thousands of files) are compressed, speeding up the download. With DAZ Connect, it looks like products are downloaded one file at a time. which is fine for smaller products, that only have 50 to 100 files, but gets downright tedious with the aforementioned larger products. Downloading my existing product library is taking a ridiculously long time - nearly 6 HOURS in at the time of this post, and I've only completed 6% of the download. Remember, not everyone has high speed internet.
4)The directories created for the downloaded products under My Library/data/cloud are just sku numbers, there are no product names. This will make working with and modifying content more difficult, as users will have to look up the product sku to identify which directory the product is installed in.
That's all I have so far.
Greetings,
ACK! Oh no! Please don't do this...
Yeah, that's probably a one-time cost, though, and what it pays for is the ability to do single-file fast updates in the future... I don't think you're losing anything w/r/t compression, though. DUF and DSF files have been natively gzip compressible for years now. I did go through and recompress all of my .duf files at one point, and saved a TON of space (on the order of 50+GB just in the hair directory!) but I'm willing to bet that if they're downloading encrypted files, they're compressing them before encryption, because compression makes encryption better. (Except in certain specific cases where it doesn't.)
If they're not..._shakes a finger_ fix that before shipping the final release. Every piece of content should be compressed; that didn't used to be true.
-- Morgan
If I'm understanding how this will work, that download issue will come up with every product purchased. Again, not an issue with smaller items, but for larger items like the Vidal Braids (which are 1 GB installed)? Settle in for a long download!
Unfortunately that is not an option here, I work with secure systems that do not allow the use of usb drives or unauthorized CD's for reasons that you can imagine are pretty obvious. The personal internet is not fast enough to allow streaming skype video,most of the time. I realize that a big part of this is to stop the torrent sites and pirates from stealing from the PA's which I think is great, but it is at the expense of artist that modify thier libraries to create a better workflow, people who have poor or limited internet connection, or for those that keep thier render machines off the net. Were these issues considered when developing this "cloud" approach? And with this age of hacking what steps are going to be taken to prevent malicious persons from doing what they seem to do best?
Well, well. It really looks like DAZ is falling for it too. You guys could simply have improved your rendering engines, patched bugs and added new functionalities. You HAD to go down the DRM road too? I heartily understand that you feel compelled to make sure that sales won't plummet because of piracy, I really do. The problem is, based on the posts that I have read in this thread, you're falling from that tree and hitting every branch on the way down. Have you noticed what happens when a game company starts to super-drm their products? No? Okay, let's spell it out: it hampers the HONEST customer base before it even impacts the pirates. Also, pirates always end up finding a workaround. Right now, with this beta, they are being stalled. How long before they find some trick? In the meantime, more "protection" for you means less flexibility for the users. Not everybody uses Smart Content. Not everybody wants to be told what to do with their folders, or have an app going through their firewall to phone home and transmit who-knows-what. At least, until now, we had a choice and could download what we paid for, install it offline and use it without asking for permission through an unsecure channel. The file encryption is not the issue, the firewall problems will be issues. DRM on the products can have several ill effects. From the top of my head: people only buying the very basics from DAZ and then buying the bulk of their stuff somewhere else. Legit customers could also decide, against the original plan, to turn to piracy once the pirates will have figured a way and don't be mistaken: they WILL find something. It can go very wrong... I have seen people buying games and then using pirate patching on those nJUST so they wouldn't be annoyed by the DRM system. That is mankind for you.