Daz Studio Pro BETA - version 4.9.0.21!
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Okay... so I downloaed 4.9 on my Laptop.
First impressions on the entire DAZ onnect thing...
On first impression, this is pretty much doing the same thing like DIM - you log in just like with DIM, but inside the DS rather than the DIm application. The program then started downloading ALL meta data of the content I bought at DAZ store. On the laptop, I only have installed a handful of items for general stuff, so I was rather surprised.
Then, I tried to download something. This is where it gets rather tedious. You go to Smart Content, and under "products" you can now see all content you bought as thumbnails. That is, all content that has metadata. So no chance for older content to be found here!
To download, simply double click on the item you want to download. But there's no way to batchdownload things. This is rather annoying fot someone like me, who wants all of the bought content on disk, rather than cherry picking for whatever I'm working on. However, the new feature is making installation/deinstallation easy. I haven't figured out how categorizing is supposed to work in this, but if you right-click on the icons, you have various options available, including a direct link to the Readme-file at the DAZ-Page.
At this moment, I am still very much on the fence in regards to this DAZ Connect thing. I can see the advantages, but right now, the disadvantages cleary outweight the advantages for me.
On the plus side, the Iray and 3Delight updates are quite impressive, i.e. 3Delight looks awesome.
Here are some screenshots:
Login screen before and after login.
Looking for Scott6 I downloaded with DIM in the content directory - no such luck.
His image is colored in the Smart Content, all other content is greyes out as it is not downloaded.
Scott's files in their encrypted version as they are stored in the default folder that I'm using.
I clicked an empty spot on that pane and pressed CTRL+A to select everything , then I right clicked the first item and selected "Download from cloud", then I went about making my render.I was able to run my render (iray) at the same time Daz connect downloaded everything else.
Greetings,
Depends on what you mean by user facing. Take Rails, for instance. You conform to a very specific layout of code and templates, or it's a nightmare and fundamentally out of whack with how other folks will work with your code.
Are HTML templates, images, javascript files, CSS files and such more to your liking as 'user facing files'?
I used the Java standard library as an example, but I could have used Maven's repository structure (essentially opaque to developers, and if you mess with it, it breaks everything) because it's almost identical to the way DAZ is going to be installing standard content. I could use gems in Ruby, or RPM repos in RedHat, or...
Seriously. No.
I get that people have an itch about this, and I hope they find a way to let folks scratch it, but no...folks who take their tools seriously, want them installed in a consistent way, that is the same across usages, so they know where to reach for their tools. It's even called Knolling in the physical trades, apparently.
-- Morgan
The CTL+A works for items in the same category, but if you have items in various categories, you'll have to go and search for them. Unless you mean, mark the ntire Smart Content library and download everything....
In any case, what I'm currently missing is a decent way, like in DIM, to select and group what I want to download,rather than the Smart Content Search Item thing there is now.
Then can you please put an unmistakable setup option in DAZ 4.9+ that allows us to completely disable Connect and make absolutely certain that DAZ Connect is default OFF on first launch?
I get to install version 1, 2, 3 of an api in parrallel in whatever damn folder I want, putting updates into a new directory each time, instead of overwriting. I can dig around in the folders and compare the old version and the new version, or do spot file replacements, or edit one version into two or three versions which I can then have all installed, in parallel, using one version with one build, one with other. I can download a fork of a library, edit it, build it, or whatever, and spot replace files.
Until now, .DUF files have been uncompiled source code which I've been able to edit myself, apply patches, and fork.
Now, all I will be able to get is precompiled .libs (or .dlls if you prefer) which I link, but I can't modify.
That is not cool.
Yes, that's what I did.
On the Products pane with "All" selected at the top. I used the select all keyboard shortcut.I didn't have anything selected in the scene , so it grabbed all of stuff in one go and made it fairly easy to download from the cloud.
I have 10 years worth of content from various stores and freebies sites, that I organized in a way that is logical to me over the years. I have no intention to spend hours adding metadata in the database so that "smart" content can see more than half of it and has meaningful tags on the half it acknowledges, or re-categorizing everything so that whatever appears in the category system makes sense to me.
Moreover I use my content in other applications too from time to time, and those can't use the DB but see the directory structure pretty well....
edit: I did try the content management features as they were released, but beside the DS specific aspect they don't bring enough to me to justify all the work I would need to do in order to make them useable on a large scale.
DIM installs, by default, to a PUBLIC folder. IF one changed it to the older DEFAULT location, of the content being in MY USER folder then what is installed there will, because data sharing, without massive hoops, between user account folder just isn't going to happen just be usable in MY ACCOUNT. Hell, even with admin privileges I can't access other user accounts on the various Windows machines from MY account.
In order to convert all the already installed data, if one chooses to go the Connect route, it must be where DIM put it to begin with...true or false?
So, IF one has all their content in a USER folder and wishes to use Connect, it would probably be easier to just download and install everything fresh, if one ever wants to have a chance of having account switching work, in order to NOT duplicate several to several hundred gigs worth of content...
Yeah, it gets all the meta data for all your products so you can see everything you own and find things which will work with what is selected in your scene, both installed and uninstalled, so that it is easier to take more advantage of items you have. Most of you heavier users have so much content, its hard to keep track of everything you have that you could use, so the idea is you don't have to (provided it has metadata that is, and more and more older products are getting metadata added that will be set up that will automatically sync with your systems if you own the product).
Older content without metadata that can be supported by Daz Connect, if not in Smart Content (there is also a lost and found category in smart content now for front facing files that don't have any metadata), you can go to Content Library and view, by product alphabetically, any product that is working with it. To give a rough idea of what will work, essentially any DIM package will be tagged CloudAvailable is it can be installed with Daz Connect (its a new tag being implemented) which, is over 98% - 99% of the products in the store that works with Studio 4.5+. So, the oldest product I was able to load up and use was the original Millenium Man.
You can actually queue up products to install. If you multiselect (shift click, ctrl click, command click depending on your OS) to select a bunch of products, and then right click and hit install, it will grab them all. So you can just set a bunch to download and walk away while it goes instead of doing it one at a time.
It is already off by default -- you have to click the Login button and enter your login and password. If you don't it doesn't connect.
shift-click works as a range select and ctrl-click as an individual selection/deselection for me - you can always use the filter box on All.
Thank you for going out and giving it a try. Even though you aren't totally on board with the whole Daz Connect thing I appreciate that you gave it a shot and were able to see at least a little bit of the benefit we are bringing with it.
How was the download speed for you?
That is a great idea and one we should do a couple screencasts on. Let me talk with some people in the office about it and see what I can get rolling.
"So no chance for older content to be found here!"
That isn't strictly true. LXV furniture and flight of the swan are both super old and have been updated with proper meta data for smart content. I've noticed quite a few older products getting updates recently as well. I also know that someone is working on getting meta data implemented/organized. Not just new products as they come out, not just old products that predate meta data, but all of them.
Yes ... but the problem is that I, at least, found the Products and Categories section somewhat counterintuitive and thus never used them after a few early tries. I also tried the original flavor and variously revised Smart Content, and it didn't work for my approach. I prefer using the Content Directories, and that seems to be true of many people.
It's not even just third party content. There's quite a lot of DAZ content that many users have put in places that were more intuitive/logical/effective for them. People were then able to combine that with how they had third party content organized to make what was, for them, the best way to work. It sounds as though, at best, Studio 4.9 will be confused by that approach, because things aren't where it wants them to be.
I do understand that it's frustrating that so few people are paying attention to the unarguable improvements. But for most people, the unarguable improvements are ... unarguable. While they affect our work in noticeable ways, they don't break a system that many users have spent years putting together. (Yes, yes, Content Library still there, everything still where we put it, all true. New Smart Content still breaks the systems that users have developed.) People will naturally focus on the parts that make their work more difficult rather than the parts that make it easier.
I do hope you're going to be able to find an easily workable solution for both you and for us, because it sounds as though building down to the lowest common denominator is thoroughly alienating your more experienced users. (Also, not going to lie, kind of astonished to find myself in that position, as far as this is concerned.)
Will products that read content like Pose Builder, Poser Converter, and Skin Converter work with encrypted duf files?
Well, I guess what I'm missing is a list of the "recent purchases", like in DIM. Right now, all that I see in Smart content is tons of subcategories with hundreds of icons in it, but if I wanted to install just my newly bought content, I would have to search for each item according to my order. In DIM, I am able to do a simple list sort and my newly bought items show up on top.
Greetings,
I obviously couldn't say for sure, but many of those actually read the objects from inside DAZ Studio; since DAZ Studio has an API for accessing that data, and DAZ Studio acts as the gatekeeper between the content and the API, it should work just fine. Now if something goes around that (e.g. DSON Editor by Dimension 3D) the answer is probably no.
But from within DAZ Studio, as long as the DS API is used, it sounds like everything should be transparent.
-- Morgan
Remember that content library will still browse files just like it did in 4.8 and below. There were some changes to the database side of content library to include Daz Connect products if you go online, but for all of your files content library remains the same. The only thing that is different is that content that is installed by Daz Connect is squirreled away in a directory per product and isn't visible in the file browsing side of content library.
Well, forming an opinion based on hearsay is usually not a good idea...
I'll have to give the Beta a bit more time to see how it works for me, but I can see that you put some thought into this, and some things are improved quite a bit... while others have become inconvenient to use.
Time will tell.
So if using the Cloud feature, after the files it can see are read and meta data stored the download cloud icon won't be shown? I'd think not but wanted to ask.
I guess I want to ask can I run Daz studio 4 side by side with 5 when it comes out....simple answer is yes no matter what they do as long as it still imports OBJ and can make morphs ;) If that makes any sence to anyone. Its doesnt matter what they do there are ways around limitations everytime. as long as my own content doesn't get messed with Ill be doing upgrades with Daz. I hope they look into making the alembic format better and updateing the other aspects of Studio as well. CMS is not really important to me anymore utilities are (thats how I decide to upgrade). Don't really need upgrades that make things simpler, I need upgrades that make things more complex...lol (I know that not what all users want, but for me its always the deciding factor....not the content, and simplicity. When they can do what ZBrush or Houdini does then ill worry about putting alot of money in pockets. Houdini looks like its next on my long list of to buy. And see what happens here I love the creation tools on Studio...Guess I love spending money I don't have...lol
Huh? Sorry, I am not understading what you are trying to say.
When the program imports all the meta data from your previous version I would THINK that the cloud icons to download from within DS would be disabled on the products you have installed already.
Ah... no, actually the cloud will still show, though the icon is not greyed, but colored. Check out M4 and Genesis? They were downlded with DIM, and their Metadata was redownloaded through DAZ Connect. They still have the cloud icon. Scott, downloaded with 4.9, doesn't have the icon.
I know this has been a long, frustrating day for you. There is no need to be snarky or condescending with your comment. I didn't even own a computer in 1995.
Of course. When i open a DS-file and get an error message like "cannot connect to Postgresql!" you will not see a ticket for that. I just click the error message away and everything works just fine for the most part. Customer support does not know this.They have a limited view of the world. How many tickets do they get, saying "I moved files around, and everything works."?
Richard Haseltine writes later:
As far as i understand it: "the file can't be moved" actually means "the files cannot be moved without breaking anything". So as an average user, without understanding what i am doing, i still can move files around, breaking things. Even more so, since i cannot look into the files to guess what they are actually good for. If it does not work i can open a support ticket. Only this time, the support team has to deal with encrypted files. With the plain old DSON files at least i could look into them and guess from their type what they contain (poses, figures, etc.). No longer possible with encrypted files. Sounds rather counter-productive to me.
Since this is addressed to me (i have been moving around things without problems), let me assure you: your content support never has asked me what i was doing, so they cannot possibly know if i am the exception or not; they simply make this up!
PLEASE. Make it a friggin' tick-box in Preferences or something, "Yes I want to handle my content like a baboon from 1995", just let us do it the hard way if we're that bone-headed to do it. Because some of us are, for a reason.