Advantages for DAZ 4.9
NudeFan
Posts: 36
Does DAZ 4.9 have also other adavantages beside this DAZ Connect? This 'feature' seems to be only an obstacle to make it harder to use Non-DAZ content.
Do I see this wrong?
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Smart content works a lot better...that's all I've discovered so far.
New versions of Iray and 3Delight...both with lots of fixes. For Iray the fixes include a reported 10% or so speed increase. For 3DL, there should be a speed boost, too.
All of the non-Daz content works exactly the same as it did in 4.8. Making it easier to use/install your Daz content inside of Studio doesn't add any additional restrictions for third party content.
Smart Content improvements are great! I especially like the Filter by Context check box - great for autofitting.
I have mixed feeling about Daz Connect, though. I have no issue with encryption or being online to use it. One problem I am having with Daz Connect is that it does not allow customers to see the Daz Studio Formats folder structure. Vendors have used the folder structure to organize content to make it easy for users to find subsets of content for a given product. I'm finding that the metadata for such products does not yet adequately compensate for the loss of access to those folders. Let me give an example. Selfie Stick and Smart Phone comes with two sets of materials - lorez and hirez. The vendor organized them in separate folders. Now after installing with Daz Connect, all the materials are lumped together in Smart Content. lorez and hirez materials have identical filenames and identical icons. Smart Content does not differentiate between them. This could be fixed with a metadata update, but it hasn't been done. So I wrote another help request.
Another example where Daz Connect screwed up the product - Scott Hair. The DIM has 3 separate installers and they work fine. Smart Content works to find the material files when the hair is selected. Daz Connect metadata totally messed up the Smart Content for this product. No materials show up in Smart Content for the G2F or G3F version of Scott Hair after installing it with Daz Connect. So I wrote another help request.
That doesn't sound like a Connect problem, so much as a bad metadata update. Remember Smart Content is only as good as the metadata. Bad metadata means bad Smart Content. The problem would probably show up in DIM, if it had the same metadata update...which it doesn't. DIM products are only going to get the metadata updates (to the version Connect is using) if there are other updates that justify rebuilding the entire item package. While Connect metadata can be updated at any time.
<nod> This is what I saw coming the moment I realised what Smart Content was doing when it was first introduced, and this is why I decided never to let it loose on my manual content organisation that's worked flawlessly since the dim and distant days of D|S1.0. If a Connect system can't, or won't, tell the difference between two different dependent folders, that's one more reason for me not to use it.
Taking my luddite hat off for a moment, though, I am looking forward to the other fixes/upgrades in the new version, especially the Iray fixes. I'm just holding off downloading for a bit until the DAZ servers stop getting hammered.