Renderotica

DAZ Studio takes more than a little getting used to. It is a smorgasbord of palettes, options, layouts, products, parameters, and what naught else. I did not expect it to be so untidy, but untidy it certainly is. My hat is off to its masters and mistresses. And I understand those who decline to switch from Poser. I've spent this afternoon installing assets and thinking no software is so disorganized and bloated. But what's a simple fellow like me to do? Genesis, dForce, and Iray. DS rules. And there ain't nothing I can do about it.

Thank you, FT_Design. Just ranting about something that I cannot change. It was ever thus. At least, it works. Even basic renders look promising.

Renderosity just sent out an email recruiting beta testers for their next Poser release, so I'd say it's at least on life support for now.

BTW, is anyone else here having stability issues with DS lately? Like memory leaks/crashes with Iray? Or maybe it's just me.

Originally Posted by: succubusart

One of the nice things abut DazStudio is the ability to customise the interface so you can get a more 'uncluttered' look. You can also spread it across multiple monitors (if you have them).

I look forward to developing such expertise. After a few years, I had learned to organize my Poser libraries just the way I wanted them. I have a virtual drawer for everything, and everything goes in its drawer. For the next little while at least, I'm going to miss that orderliness.

Originally Posted by: matt

I was a Poser user for 16 years, before I switched over to Studio. For me, the biggest obstacle was unlearning what I knew about Poser lighting. Studio does it quite a bit differently. For example, load a spotlight into the scene, and point it at your figure. It automatically turns off the camera headlight, and when you render, assuming you changed nothing else, the scene is very dim. You have to go into the parameters tab and turn the luminosity WAY up. I don't know why DAZ did it that way, but they did. It's the same with any other kind of light. For me, the most important aspect of a scene is the lighting. Take a crappy scene, light it well, and it will look good, even if you have intersections of figures or whatever. Take a perfect scene, and light it poorly...well. I'm sure you know.

As far as the interface goes, I got used to it. I moved a few things around and changed the default render size. The surfaces tab was also a bit of a hurdle for me, since I was used to the materials room in Poser. But after some time playing with it, figuring out just what each parameter did, and taking the time to understand LIE presets, I think I do pretty well with it now. I've exclusively used Studio for four years now, and I doubt I'll ever go back to Poser, unless they do something dramatic.

Thanks for yours, Matt. You're right. Lights and Materials are the core of good renders. Get them right and even an ordinary scene becomes something to look at. But I am feeling a sense of loss. I liked Poser and its novice-friendly interface; and I bought a department store of assets for it. I wanted to learn the Materials Room in and out and, although I never liked the Lights, I was willing to live with them. In fact, I made a point of buying quite a few of Fabiana's wonderful (strictly Poser) light sets. It won't be easy to put Poser away, especially when a simple render in DS takes 30 minutes. I am working up to installing my Poser assets in DS and beginning working with them. I'm hoping that in four to six months, I'll feel as comfortable with DS as I came to feel with Poser. But enough about me. Live long and render.
(L'Homme and La Femme got married. That was dramatic! Now they're on their honeymoon. Wake up, dammit, wake up!)

Edited by user Monday, May 25, 2020 5:12:42 PM(UTC)  | Reason: Not specified

Originally Posted by: rbug02

Well you all will be glad to hear that Daz has now released what they call  Daz Central, which is supposed to help with the clutter problem as well as a few others.

To be sure, it looks promising.

Originally Posted by: contedesfees

I look forward to developing such expertise. After a few years, I had learned to organize my Poser libraries just the way I wanted them. I have a virtual drawer for everything, and everything goes in its drawer. For the next little while at least, I'm going to miss that orderliness.

One of the nice things about Daz Studio is you have more freedom in how you arrange the content. If you want you can put figures, props, hair, poses all under the same Parent folder, You don't have to adhere to the Poser structure of cr2 having to be in character, hr2 in Hair etc. You can if you choose have all the hair, props, characters, and clothing under the Parent figure Folder: Genesis 8 Female for example, and you can easily put the textures in a subfolder of the item they are for without breaking any usability. The only exceptions are Data and Runtime/Textures these two folders and all subfolders need to be installed where they are intended or you will be breaking paths and causing things not to load right.

Getting most Poser items working in Daz Studio is pretty easy. All you have to do is point Daz Studio to the Poser Runtime folder under preferences in the edit menu. There are some things that won't work well or at all like Poser Dynamic clothing, Python scripts, dynamic hair, node based materials, weight mapped figures, IBL and HDR based lights (Though with Studio now having systems in place to use IBL and HDR lighting you might be able to rebuild the poser light to work). And even with things that should work in Daz Studio occasionally you will get items, that can load in a bit wonky depending on how DS interprets some Poser settings. This can be as simple as clothing items loading in with a saved pose and keeping the pose when fit to/conformed to the figure, to the rare figures loading in with messed up joints and stretched out mesh areas (From what I've seen this is usually due to IK settings in the cr2 and Daz Studio not reading or interpreting the setting correctly)

Originally Posted by: contedesfees

Once upon a time, a deviant at DA asked me if Poser was easier than DAZ Studio. I gave a rather long-winded answer about Genesis, Iray, and dogged perseverance. I acknowledged the inadequate documentation, underlined that DAZ Studio was free, and referenced the startling work of artists like YuMuse, Naama, and JPayne, among others. Now I'm using DAZ Studio and, after a difficult and unproductive morning with Victoria 5, it has finally occurred to me that the proper answer was simply "yes!"  And, dammit, I've got to take my own advice!

For me Daz Studio has always been the easier to use program, but then again Daz Studio was what I learned to use first. I started out using the Public Beta, and did not start using Poser until, I think it was E Frontier, released Poser 5 for free shortly before the release of Poser 6. Then I upgraded to 6, 7, and 8 when they came out. I think my Poser versions would have ended there more than likely had I not won a copy of Poser 10 and then upgraded to 11. Then with the Bondware buyout and their decision to upgrade all Poser 11 users to Poser 11 Pro. I ended up with a Poser 11 Pro license. Even with that though most of the time I still work in Daz Studio nine times out of ten. Most of the time the work I do in Poser is mainly Beta testing, occasionally I will fire it up to use one of the rare figures that don't work in Daz Studio.