Can anyone log into RDNA?

[Alisa]

I think there are a number of factors that make using one software program vs another challenging (not just Poser and DS).

I agree that when programs change frequently, it can be confusing even if you try using web tutorials. We use a CAD (Computer Aided Design) program that we've used for eons, but every time a new version came out, things changed, and it was confusing even though some things could be done that weren't done before and others probably could be done better/more efficiently.
I think a lot of finding software easy or hard to use has to do with familiarity - if you start with one program and get used to the way things are done, switching to another of the same type is often confusing. I think folks who start with DS and go to Poser find the same thing.

Also, part is, I think, the way your brain works and how you work. I found DAZ Studio 3 confusing (still do), but version 4 somehow made much more sense to me. I've talked to people who have the exact opposite reaction - they found DS 3 made sense and then version 4 was confusing. Carrara and Bryce are both great programs but there are things about how each works works that I find confusing or can't ever remember how to do.

How much you use something also makes a difference, of course. Use a program more frequently and you'll probably get used to it, quirks and all .

 

[Hornet3d]

It is great that there are so many tutorials on the Internet for just about every piece of Software out there but the downside is that so much is specific to a version or versions. Anyone looking at a tutorial about lights, say in Poser 6, is going to struggle with the last few versions of Poser, and the same can be said for any software over time.

The other problem is that the programs are so complex, I use Poser because I have for so many years but I still learn something new about it almost every time I use it. I was sad when the split started between DS and Poser as I did not want to move to DS, not because it was from Daz but because I did not want to learn another program. I would have had the same reluctance no matter what the program was called or who produced it. I know I will never be a master of Poser but I know I get better results than if I had tried to learn a lot of other programs, to me is seems a waste of time, particularly if they do much the same thing.

 

[Jeanne Harmon]

The last year or so of my DAZ PC membership, I found very little new I could use ... and of that vast library of older products, there wasn't much that appealed to me. What had ... I already owned So, once the subscription finally expired, so did my visits.

Yep, I went the same way......I check their store to see what's new, but Poser stuff is very rare.....

I hate that it's so hard for me to wrap my head around DAZ Studio. I mean ... I learned how to play baseball right handed! Surely being left handed, if I could do that, I could do anything. Right?

Not so sure. I have the same problem. Studio is certainly not intuitive for longtime Poser users. Gimme coffee so I won't hurt the computer......

 

[Alisa]

Studio is certainly not intuitive for longtime Poser users.

Yep, when you are used to the way one software program works, using another of the same genre that does the same or similar things differently is NOT intuitive . I am sure longtime DS users trying to learn Poser find the same thing .

What I've found after using both programs for some time is that some things now feel more intuitive in Poser, and others more intuitive in DAZ Studio.

Some peoples' brains pick stuff like that up faster than others of us, too

 

[Gadget Girl]

With Texture Transformer you can turn M4 skins into Dusk skins. Works like a charm in the V4-Dawn version. And for clothes there's CrossDresser (and right now you can buy the licenses pretty cheap at their own store)

Funny thing about Texture Transformer. So I had my eye on it for a long time, but it's advertised as Windows only and I'm on a Mac. However a while back it was on massive sale for $5 so I figured, what can it hurt to try? I have a wine setup that let's me run Windows programs, so I figured for $5 it was worth trying. Oddly, when I purchased it, there was a Mac download as well as Windows one. That wouldn't open. . . However, I recently ran into another program that gave me the same error message, so I may try again, because I got that program to open.

As for running it through Wine, it started out okay, but it would crash on me, and I'm not sure why. I think it was one of two things, either the wine environment isn't getting enough RAM to process the image maps, or it's a strange permissions type issue because I have my runtimes set up to run through my normal system, and not the virtual one.

You know, I think part of what makes DS so difficult to learn is twofold - 1) it changes so frequently; and 2) there's no documentation because of 1).

I know this has been a great struggle for me in learning DS. The thing the frustrates me, is that when I want to know how to do something, I usually can find Daz documentation on it, but it's for an older version and things aren't the same. Honestly, if they are not going to update their online documentation, I wish they would take it down. That way at least when I was looking for how to do something, I could just concentrate on posts by users/people who make tutorials. I'm never bugged by an individual who has posted how to do something and the software has changed, and I can often make an educated guess by when it was posted as to how likely it is to answer my question.

Also, part is, I think, the way your brain works and how you work. I found DAZ Studio 3 confusing (still do), but version 4 somehow made much more sense to me.

I think this is definitely true for me. I actually started out in DS, and followed a bunch of it's built in tutorials. Then I discovered Poser, downloaded a free trial, and it just made so much more sense to my brain, and I was just so much more productive.

 

[Glitterati3D]

Yep, when you are used to the way one software program works, using another of the same genre that does the same or similar things differently is NOT intuitive . I am sure longtime DS users trying to learn Poser find the same thing .

What I've found after using both programs for some time is that some things now feel more intuitive in Poser, and others more intuitive in DAZ Studio.

Some peoples' brains pick stuff like that up faster than others of us, too

The thing is, though, that I started 3D with DS. The jump to DS4 though was impossible for me because of my vision issues, though.

I was just commenting on what others have told me about the documentation and I'm finding the same frustration with 3DCoat. I find a tutorial to do exactly what I am trying to do and then, the menu items are gone. I can't follow the tutorial because the basics of the tutorial are simply missing from the software.

 

[Jeanne Harmon]

Yep, when you are used to the way one software program works, using another of the same genre that does the same or similar things differently is NOT intuitive . I am sure longtime DS users trying to learn Poser find the same thing .

What I've found after using both programs for some time is that some things now feel more intuitive in Poser, and others more intuitive in DAZ Studio.

That is true; Studio users say the same about Poser.
In reality, I only have it installed because of some of the latest AM animals, the ones without any Poser hair. They're cute in DS and look like drowned rats in Poser w/o hair. So I really haven't learned Studio. Hell it took me half an hour to figure out how to move the camera to all sides. :| Plus it's slower as a snail on my PC whereas PP2014 runs smoothly and fast. As long as that doesn't improve drastically, Studio and I will never become friends.Not to mention; i totally hate the so-called freedom where the installed stuff goes; that's a total mess and I really prefer the Poser runtime structure.

Funny thing about Texture Transformer. So I had my eye on it for a long time, but it's advertised as Windows only and I'm on a Mac. However a while back it was on massive sale for $5 so I figured, what can it hurt to try? I have a wine setup that let's me run Windows programs, so I figured for $5 it was worth trying. Oddly, when I purchased it, there was a Mac download as well as Windows one. That wouldn't open. . . However, I recently ran into another program that gave me the same error message, so I may try again, because I got that program to open.

As for running it through Wine, it started out okay, but it would crash on me, and I'm not sure why. I think it was one of two things, either the wine environment isn't getting enough RAM to process the image maps, or it's a strange permissions type issue because I have my runtimes set up to run through my normal system, and not the virtual one.

No mac user, so I'm no help w/your issue. I certainly would try again with the mac version. Maybe your download got corrupted during download, so re-download it first. That's my common problem w/program installers if something won't work which should work.

 

[Pendraia]

*holds up hand...that's me to a tee! i struggle with Poser. I always have, I originally bought Poser 6 which came with version 7 when it was released. i bought Deecys book (yes a real book) and still couldn't master it.

Someone mentioned lights...i still find lights in Poser difficult I can set up my own lights in ds but in Poser I'm reliant on Fabiana's set. simple things like saving a cr2, adding a library etc...i just couldn't do.

Despite that I finally upgraded to pp10 and more recently to 11. I'm finally starting to get there and can use it for basic stuff. I'm the opposite with ds. i can normally work stuff out and i can normally find a video that will explain how if I can't.

The good thing about being able to use both programs is you can have the best of both and they are very good at different things.

I love ds for content creation it is so easy to use.

Poser is very easy to get a basic render to look reasonable. until iray came out you often needed to know what you were doing. i think thats partly because when i first started using ds everything was set up for Poser especially materials...so they always had to be adjusted.

 

[Satira Capriccio]

I'm another who started with DAZ Studio (in 2006). I don't remember what version, though. I think it was probably 2. I found some things fairly easy to understand, but NOT lights. I purchased Poser 5 some months later when it was on sale. I still mostly used DS, but I started switching between the two. It helped that I didn't know much beyond the basics, and spinning dials in either program really wasn't that different.

But then ... Poser lighting clicked for me. That was that.

I had to use DS a few times when beta testing, and I really ... REALLY tried to make DS 4 work for me. But it was just too different in too many ways from Poser. DS4, more than Poser, was designed to be used on a widescreen. I didn't have a widescreen, and it was just impossible to organize the DS 4 workspace so I had enough room to see my scene as I could in Poser, without constant clicking to open and close panels. It helps so much that the scene/document window in Poser can be either docked or floating (I generally float it).

Silo2 was incredibly difficult for me to get started in. I walked away from it for several months at a time ... absolutely sure I would never, ever understand it. I sooo wanted to model stuff! I even tried making a vase following Ann's tutorial. I ended up with a decent vase, but I just didn't understand the process. Then one day, months later, I opened it up again, and it started to click. I bought tutorials ... including a bunch of Fugazi's. His helped the most because he used Silo2.

 

[Miss B]

Funny you mention Ann's Vase tutorial Satira, as that's the first one I did in Silo as well. I had already been modeling in Blender off and on for years, but I could never do any clothes, only props and environment stuff, like a castle outer wall I did, but never textured. Fugazi's tutorials for Silo also helped me a lot, and I've done several of them with very good results.

I'm completely opposite when it comes to lighting though, as I've had no real problems with lighting in DS 2, DS 3A or DS4.0P but I probably owe that to my membership at Dreamlight's forum the past 7 or so years. I learned a whole lot about lighting from the monthly webinars he used to hold.

I didn't use Poser 5 for very long, but I think my frustration was more with my old Win98 SE desktop back then, so I continued with DS 2 on my laptop. I have DS 3A and DS 4.0P (for the original Genesis) on this laptop, and still use DS 3A depending on what I want to accomplish. I finally got back into Poser with version 9 when Dawn debuted, and I'm FINALLY getting a slight handle on setting up lights, though I don't feel that comfortable with them as yet, so depend a lot on purchased sets. Even though I have a better understanding of what each type of light can accomplish, manipulating them in Poser is a whole different ball game than what I've ever done in DS.

 

[Hornet3d]

I am another one who used a lot of Fugazi's tutorials which I always felt helped me a lot. I did start to get the hang of Silo but I have to admit I use it mainly to modify other peoples models, the problem is not the tutorials it just I don't get the same buzz from using Silo as I do Poser. Horses for courses I guess, but I primarily enjoy creating renders which is another reason I do not want to spend time learning another program that does much the same thing as it detracts from making scenes. I am happy to spend time with other programs such as Paint Shop and Particle Shop as they complement Poser and add extra capabilities.

 

[Gadget Girl]

No mac user, so I'm no help w/your issue. I certainly would try again with the mac version. Maybe your download got corrupted during download, so re-download it first. That's my common problem w/program installers if something won't work which should work.

So I got it figured out. It was an issue with the program I was using to unzip the file. For some reason it made the application un-launchable. Used another un-zipper and it worked just fine.

Here's a Dusk dial spin I've been working on with MortemVetus' Slinger for M4 texture:

I'm so happy now.

 

[Miss B]

Dusk looks good in Slinger's skin, and nice dial spinning.

 

[Jeanne Harmon]

Real good; wouldn't have thought this to be Dusk!! And glad you've got it working @Gadget Girl

 

[Gadget Girl]

Thanks guys. I've been in a fan art mood, and I've been trying to make a Jon Snow. Still needs some adjustments, especially around the mouth. But now that I have a good texture with a beard, it will be easier to finish up. Probably the main thing other than the texture which adds so much, is I spent forever, giving Dusk a new nose with the Head Resource kit.

 

[Pendraia]

Wow...nice work Gadget Girl!

 

[Mythocentric]

Just a quick update! Recieved a newsletter stating that the RuntimeDNA Blowout sale will end on the 15th December when RDNA closes it's doors. The last day for downloading will be 31st December. That's all folks!

 

[Lorraine]

Sad, int it Bye bye, RDNA, it was real nice knowing you.

 

[Miss B]

I know. Definitely a sad day in the 3D/Poserverse. Certainly not something I would've thought would happen when I first joined RDNA back in 2004.

 

[Jeanne Harmon]