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Must have been Richard Hardcase or whatever his name is. He's like the only Daz Employee that ever responds. As for Daz Studio 5 development updates, they've been doing that for what, 5 years now? All you get are these minor updates or more feature creep, rather than actual under the hood improvements for a better work environment.
As I said, Daz is only good for props, sets, clothing and morphs. I had to rebuild my Daz Dir from scratch and I'm still setting it up to import everything that I want for iClone. I'm not even going to bother with Genesis 9 at this point.
I have done some of my own research about DAZ as well. I actually think that the Richard in the forum is not just one person. I think it is just a screen name that they use and it's ran by different people. DAZ is truly just after the bottom line, and they are shooting themselves in the foot because of it. Hence why almost NO ONE takes them as a legitimate 3D offering on the higher end of things.
When I was first starting out (a couple of years ago) I got into DAZ but purchased into Real Illusion CC because of the "illusion" that everything would work through them, spent almost 1000 bucks just to find out AFTERWARDS that half of Daz's shit doesn't work the way they advertised it to (not to mention several things that can't/won't port). So I have only used it a handful of times which just makes me pissed off more than anything.
I originally found DAZ3D because at the time I was just starting out in Poser 7. It was I think a year after that where they came in with their Studio?
One of the biggest mistakes, IMHO, that either DAZ or even Renderosity has made is move their focus totally to DS Studio, and at that point I am hard pressed to believe that DAZ hasn't bought out Renderosity, though keeping the name.
I still have things on my wishlist over both stores. Not that I haven't found them here, but you know how it is.. you don't want to be caught in the act! (Or maybe I do want to be caught! LOL)
I mean from a financial perspective why in the world would you NOT continue to cater to BOTH formats: DS AND Poser? And this goes for their "No longer available" items. Granted I haven't used Victoria 1/2/3 in a while, but a lot of what I was hoping to buy for V4 are no longer for sale.
I'm still gripping about the fact that whereas the people behind Poser always include a PDF manual describing almost everything within the program, DAZ has yet to do exactly that!
Character Creator imports Daz stuff REALLY well, actually. I've converted wings, legs all kinds of stuff. If you have difficulties with something, let me know, I may be able to help. The biggest issue with Daz conversions is naming schemes. If you want to use animations with these addons, you have to ensure that the naming scheme is the same. I always export pieces from Daz to Maya, first, so I can generalize naming schemes. That way when I have an animation that has wing movement, they'll work out of the box, as they'll have compatible naming conventions. Doesn't matter with Humanoid limbs, but once you move into add-ons, like Wings and Tails it becomes issues, if you're not doing pre-prep. Textures are another issue, but there's ways around exporting. At least Daz upgraded their FBX format to actually USE normal, bump, AO maps now.
My biggest complaint with Reallusion is their dropping features from previous versions that they said would be included and putting them in future ones. Knocking off 100$ the upgrade price, after you made me pay for plugins you integrated in the next version, but leave out features, such as in-screen animation without the use of a puppeteer is what pisses me off.
Daz makes their money exclusively off assets and the only ones they get all the profits off of are the "Daz Originals." That's why after Genesis 2, we got so many "Pro Bundles." It's also the reason we get a new "Genesis" model every few years. They have a shelf-life, due to piracy, but I'm not paying full price for this shit, when Daz Studio can't even do some of the most basic functions I need, that every 3D modeling suite out there can do. Look at Hexagon. When's the last time they pushed it or even updated it? I don't mind buying Daz stuff and I do purchase a lot of stuff that I REALLY want, but 1) only if it's on sale and 2) only if I can use it in another software suite as Daz Studio is a hot mess.
Daz intentionally broke compatibility with Poser, to steal from their market. That's why the "Genesis" figures had all these "jcm" morphs that don't export and why it was "incompatible" with Poser. If you ever re-target animations to a daz figure, you'll always see issues with the animations, due to those stupid "joint" morphs. Even with their "transfer utility" older products don't always work well, due to extra bones and what not. BTW, if you use their "transfer utility" to make clothes for different Generations, you can't put them up for sale. It's a "violation of their IP." 🙄 Their rigging tools SUCK. I can skin and paintweight meshes in under 5 minutes with Maya, but not with Daz. Making skeletons is even worse. At least Poser apparently lets you import outside skeletons and convert them to figures. Daz doesn't even allow that, but don't get me started on Poser's atrocious file structure. Daz's only saving grace is the fact that I can put stuff anywhere I want, where ever I want.
Daz isn't a fly-by-night operation, nor do they have a lack of QA. Quite the opposite. They put a TON of work into their models and they almost always work perfectly out of the box. They are well aware that Daz models are now being used in game engines and in movies (yeah, don't let people fool you - Daz characters are used ALL the time in movies. It's faster and more efficient to export those models with clothing, when you need long shots, without a lot of detail.) That's their primary focus now. Exporting to other applications. That's why their "volumetric" plug-in uses the OpenVBS. It's a film standard that's free, but used mainly by big entertainment houses that don't offer up their vfx for free. Just like dForce. There's all kinds of cloth systems they could have picked, but they, instead, made their own. They want to force other applications to use their systems. If iClone supported dForce, Daz would be dead. Animating sucks in Daz, rendering sucks in Daz, It's literally just a character creator for other applications.
Daz Studio only gets updates, to pacify all the previous users that have been with Daz for years, out of loyalty. I have zero interest in doing "pin up" renders. I do animations. Daz is ONLY useful for pin up renders.
Or as a character creator for other applications.
Daz has to make that money. That's why you pay "extra" for 3D print "licenses" and "Interactive" licenses, which is just gobbledygook for "we're charging you an extra $50 to use it in Unity or Unreal Engine." It's all a scam. The only reason Gen 9 went back to a single model is due to that woke trans craze. It's none of my business, but I DO thank them for that. It means we're spending less on assets. The switch from a "trans" Genesis 1 models to the "binary" Genesis 2 and above models was a money grab. Also, notice that every 2-3 years there's a new Genesis model. Why? New sales.
Daz has to keep the lights on, so they need money. Sure there are people like me, who purchase stuff, but there are also ones who pirate it and they are in the majority. Considering how Daz treats it's users on the forums, the vaporware products they "update" and it's store scheme, they're not popular with true 3D artists. Most of us take their assets and use them in other programs that are better suited for 3d work. Daz Studio is still using an older UI kit. The upgrades to the newer ones (They're still using version 3, I believe and version 6 or 7 is about to come out) require a complete overhaul of the code apparently, which means all these "additions" they're adding are put in using spit, tape and baling wire. Daz Studio can barely handle a full HD Genesis 8 Character with clothing, but you're going to up the texture maps for 9 to 8k? 🙄
What's the point of having dForce, volume effects, godrays, et al, when Daz Studio can't handle the simplest of animations? They want us to believe that the "timeline" is there for simulations of cloth for a single frame render? No thanks. I'll use another, proper 3D application.
I do feel bad for Daz3D. They could have cornered the market in the hobbyist 3D scene, if they actually invested time and money into their software suite. But alas, all they saw was the bottom line, so they'll continue the grift and we'll eventually be getting Genesis 1092901239120391239101 so they get their dollar, but virtually no updates to the environment the models were specifically created for.
Do you know why I continue on ZoneGFX?... I could download content from other similar websites... but THEY DON'T HAVE THIS WONDERFUL CHAT WHERE PEOPLE HELP EACH OTHER AND SHOW THEIR WANTS TO KNOW.
And that is worth like gold.Like I said... Studio has NO manual, so that's kinda a dead rat there. They introduce GodRays? Great! Either update the manual so I can learn how to use it.. OR post a video, or even make a post about it explaining everything in a manner which can be understood.
That's why I'm here as well. That's why I asked how you keep feet sliding from happening. If I could get a way to do it right, I'd re-target 40,000 animations to G1, G2, G3, G8, G9 (when I can), M3, M4, V3 and V4. Once they're converted and turned in to animBlocks, people can cut them up and create their own how they see fit. If you can do a video, I'd appreciate it, for the good of the community, but I don't want you going to trouble, just to do it.
It takes a village, you know? 😉
It's all about the bottom line. If you want to figure out their "feature creep," do it on your own or pay for one of their tutorials from a vendor, so they get their 30%.
@methuselas , returning to the thread of the post: The "constrains" in MoBu/Maya, now that I think about it, is only valid when it is an fbx. If we pass that information to "that weird thing" of duf format, it is lost. The same happens with the IK, which should be ported to FX..., in case of a retarget of third party animations... That happens to me with the MikuMikuDance Vmd format, which apart from the typical X, Y, Z , they use Quaternions. I don't think it affects the "Floor contact" either, since it is used if there is a surface (in fbx, of course! ..).
Also, I already mentioned it in a question of mine here, there is the "skin cluster", which can be the "linera classic", the "dual quaternion" or the "weight blended"... Most likely (I think...) is that DAZ uses "linear", but I have also had those problems of brutal topology deformations... Check the forum about "dual quaternion", which is the post... In any case, send me the animation privately , and I will be able to see the problem...No, I'm not sure what it is, but it's something else. If you use the Mia tutorial animations, they export perfectly doesn't matter the Daz character. One thing I HAVEN'T tried yet, is re-targeting the anims to Mia. I won't have a chance to work on this until probably this weekend (I snagged a quick 4 week or so animation gig - at least I TOLD them it would take about 4 weeks. 8P), but I'll test Mia to see if that fixes it. If it does, no problem. If it doesn't, I'll send you a handful of anims to see if you can retarget them.
I refuse to be beaten by Daz Studio.
Another "strange" software is this: https://cascadeur.com/
I found a cracked version on a reputable site. I'll let you know if it works or not. 😉
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