New Daz User - Help needed

namelessme

Hello,

I'm new to Daz and require a bit of help getting started. It's not going to be one of those: 'help me with this complicated render' types of posts. It's much more basic than that... I downloaded Daz 4.0 pro when they first started giving it away, like 6 months ago, and finally got around to giving it a try. I have limited 3D experience, although do own an older version of Poser (3.0). So I get Daz 4 started and can't find much in the way of props/clothing/hair... or anything. I see the basic model, and what I expect is the genesis thingy, where I can morph him/her into different shapes, but does the free versions come with more content than this?

Based on glancing over these forums and seeing some other users missing content, I am thinking I may need to do a new install or something? Did it install incorrectly? I did try to follow the help file as to content, but that didn't result in Daz loading in any props at all.

And I do have some general newbie types of questions:

Can we adjust the font sizes in the menu? It is rather tiny to use on high resolution displays, and it seems to ignore the DPI settings I have in Windows 7. I expect there must be a way to make text larger -- I just can't find that option in settings. Otherwise, I wonder if everyone here has super vision or something...

Is there enough free content, or do we need to pay for decent models?

What are the good 'people' models? Michael, Victoria? Will older free versions of those models work with new Daz versions?

What is genesis exactly? Does it break all of the older content? Not that I own any of it, but just wondering what it means exactly. Based on quick reading, it looks like a new way their models work, yet may cause older content to need converting?

And should I ditch 4.0 and just install 4.5 instead? I was about to do that, then read a lot of threads talking about errors/problems with 4.5. Seeing as it's somewhat new, I am fine with sticking with 4.0... assuming it works without crashing/bugs.

And speaking of bugs, I load up Daz, click on the 'video tutorial' and get a page not found error. So I then go to the website to look for downloadable content, and their store looks all messed up to me. It's just a big list of text, and one model at a time listed on the bottom of the page. That's not how their store normally works, is it?

Just wondering what's going on.... seems like whatever I try, I run into a problem.

Chohole

Genesis is the new DAZ 3D figure that comes with DS 4 and above. It is very versatile, and noo it doesn't break old content, it just adds one more figure to your content, and a figure that can do and be many things.

The basic V4 and M4 models will work, but you need add ons for them to get them to do anything really interesting. Morphs++ packs are needed for many of the characters that are available, whether free or paid for.

DS 4.5 is the latest version, and does have a lot of added features.

Check the product specifiactions to make sure you have a computer that can run DS 4, that helps.
http://www.daz3d.com/products/daz-studio/daz-studio-tech-specs/, bearing in mind those are the minimum specs needed.

AS to your problem with the website displaying wrong, you appear to still be showing some sort of cached page. We suggest that you close your browser, clear the cache and then reboot. If the doesn't clear it then try a hard refresh on the page Ctrl F5 or (Cmd R on a Mac)

If that still doesn't clear the page then a computer reboot may be needed to make sure the cache clears properly

Scott Livingston

The free content that comes with DS4 (or the latest version, DS4.5) includes four hairstyles, three outfits, three characters (Basic Female, Basic Male, and Basic Child), a couple of sets, and (in the latest version) a couple of pre-built scenes. If you're not finding these: are you looking in Smart Content or in the Content Library? If you are looking in Smart Content, is there anything there at all? If there isn't, then perhaps your Content Management Service is stopped. I had this problem when I first started. Let us know which operating system you are using and someone will be able to walk you through the process of getting it started (you can also find more information in this thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/1810/). If you're looking in the Content Library, try the folder "DAZ Studio Formats>People>Genesis" and its subfolders...the hair and clothing should show up there.

I second chohole's recommendation about installing DS4.5. Among other changes, the most notable for me is that it runs much faster and more smoothly. Some people have had installation problems with DS4.5. If you uninstall DS4 first, and then run the installer for DS4.5, that may be safer (it worked for me, anyway). Different users have different experiences as far as stability is concerned, but I think it's supposed to be the most stable release of DS4 yet, and my own experience agrees with that.

For the record, I'm running the 64-bit version of DS4.5 on a system that doesn't meet minimum specifications (it has a single-core processor), so if yours doesn't either, it may be worth trying anyway.

There is a ton of free content available (here and on other sites), but quality varies and depending on what your goals are, you may need to buy some stuff--or even a lot of stuff--to achieve them. Of course, another option is to make your own models in Hexagon or another modeling program. What do you hope to accomplish? What kinds of renders do you want to make?

You can find official DAZ 3D video tutorials here: http://www.youtube.com/user/wwwdaz3dcom?feature=results_main

namelessme

Thanks for the replies.

I am pretty sure the content manager isn't working correctly. I am going to try an uninstall then re-install 4.5 instead.

Quick questions:

Do I need to also uninstall the content management service and DS 4 content, or will uninstalling Daz 4.0 take care of that for me? I'll assume it's fine to simply use Win 7's uninstall (in control panel) option to uninstall all of it properly? In my control panel, I have un-installation options for Daz 4, the content, and management services... so not sure if I need to uninstall all three or not.

I take it that there is no way to increase font sizes for menus? I don't have perfect vision, but even still, the menus seem really tiny compared to even older versions of Photoshop (of which a lot of users have requested larger menu fonts), or Bryce 7, which seems to have proper sized menus based on Win DPI settings. I guess I'll find out if 4.5 does a better job with menu fonts or not after I install it.

As for my hardware, I have a 2012 Mac mini, but run Win 7 primarily on it. So it's a dual core i5 (laptop version chip) w/ 8GB of Ram, and Intel graphics (its weak link). So it's not super fast or anything, but I think it should be able to run the 64 bit version of Daz okay.... I hope.

And for what I want to accomplish, for now, it's simply to test the software out and see how I like it. I was never super pleased with Poser when I used to play around with it. It was okay, but the controls never felt intuitive to me. I do some dabbling with game design (some mobile/online stuff primarily, had one budget PC game published years ago). if I like Daz, just wondering if I can get by with free (or mostly cheap) models, at least until I get my feet wet.

In regard to image usage and legal stuff, I assume any content I create with Daz, even if using models not created by myself, can be freely distributed without royalties or restrictions? I don't mean distributing models themselves, of course, but if I use a free or paid model, render a scene and include it in a game, are there any copyright restrictions or limitations I should be aware of? I used to use 2D stock photos years ago,and they could be a pain sometimes (and expensive) depending on how they were used.

RedHeadLilith

Hello namelessme , the steps you need to do in order to uninstall Daz and upgrade to an new version are :

1, uninstall the plugins - if you have any installed
2. ,to stop the CMS - in windows 7 you can do that from the control panel - under managment tools
3. uninstall CMS
4, uninstall daz

if you will not do this steps as fallow this it can make you problems later on ,
if you need more help just ask :)

fixmypcmike

Any RENDERS you make are yours to do whatever you like with (for items from the DAZ Store -- freebies sometimes have restrictions, so you'll need to check the readme's/licenses for them).

Richard Haseltine

fixmypcmike said:

Any RENDERS you make are yours to do whatever you like with (for items from the DAZ Store -- freebies sometimes have restrictions, so you'll need to check the readme's/licenses for them).

There's one store [product, the Anne Marie Goddard Digital Clone for V3, that has some restrictions on how renders can be used.

namelessme

Thanks for all the replies.

I haven't had a chance to update to 4.5 yet, but did a bit more digging into my installed 4.0.

Content is there, but it's simply not in Smart Content. I tried a couple of the things others have mentioned in similar threads to get it working, but it didn't help. Anyway, it does appear to be a problem with the CMS working, or in this case, not working.

One oddity I noticed is that there is some data in my documents section too. I found a Michael 4 and Victoria 4 .dsf file buried away there. Is that simply parameter data, I assume? Just wondering if older versions of Michael/Victoria are in this bundle. If not, are older versions of those models available for free in the store? Was there any extra content present in 4.0, that's not in 4.5?

And if I upgrade to Daz 4.5, do I need to also upgrade Bryce to 7.5 and Hexagon too? I got the older freebie bundle (Bryce 7.1)... figured if I got them all at the same time, they'd all be compatible and play nice together. I have the installed bryce/daz plugin too. I hope I don't have to uninstall all of them, redownload all of them, reinstall all again... just to get them all working together properly.

fixmypcmike

namelessme said:

One oddity I noticed is that there is some data in my documents section too. I found a Michael 4 and Victoria 4 .dsf file buried away there. Is that simply parameter data, I assume? Just wondering if older versions of Michael/Victoria are in this bundle. If not, are older versions of those models available for free in the store? Was there any extra content present in 4.0, that's not in 4.5?

Those would either be the M4 and V4 Shapes for Genesis or the Autofit clones. The content in Genesis Starter Essentials includes everything that was in the 4.0 default content.

namelessme

I finally got around to installing 4.5 today. Same problem... nothing is in my Smart Content. I guess it's an issue with CMS, so I'll have to dig around and figure out why it isn't working. For a free program, I don't have any right to complain, but if I was paying for this, I'd sure wonder if it was worth it -- it shouldn't be this difficult to simply get a program installed and working.

One suggestion for future updates -- besides fixing potential CMS issues -- please, please make fonts adjustable or rely on windows dpi settings. I haven't seen fonts this small in any modern program. Typically it's only ancient software that disregards windows dpi settings completely like this. And my monitor's resolution isn't that high really... 24" 1920x1200... if I was using 1440p, I think my eyeballs would fall out trying to read the menus/text.

fixmypcmike

In the Content Library pane, is there anything under Categories, even empty folders? If there is, CMS is running, so try re-importing metadata. If not, try starting the CMS.

namelessme

Thanks for the reply. There are props in the content library... found the dragon hiding there. And even tried re-importing metadata... twice.

Still nothing shows up in my Smart Content. I thought perhaps it had something to do with my firewall, but I see Daz 3D (and CMS) has permissions set to allow it.

fixmypcmike

namelessme said:

Thanks for the reply. There are props in the content library... found the dragon hiding there. And even tried re-importing metadata... twice.

Still nothing shows up in my Smart Content. I thought perhaps it had something to do with my firewall, but I see Daz 3D (and CMS) has permissions set to allow it.

Where exactly did you find the dragon? It shouldn't be in anything labeled props.

namelessme

Yeah, the dragon isn't exactly a 'prop'... I meant it more as there was stuff in my content library.

I found him in content library/animals/milleniumsubDragon. He's a pretty nice dragon, by the way. I did find actual props, and hair styles, etc. in the content library too.

I assume some of that stuff is supposed to show up in Smart Content, right? My section there is completely empty. Maybe I need to use a different folder for installing the extras, besides the default one? I think it put the extra stuff in my documents folder when installing.

fixmypcmike

In Content Library there are 5 top-level sections. Is there anything under the Categories section (even empty Default categories)?

namelessme

Categories is completely empty (not even empty default categories). I'll assume it shouldn't be?

fixmypcmike

That means CMS definitely isn't running or is being blocked. If you shut down DS4 and go to Start > Programs > DAZ 3D > DAZ Content Management Service > Start CMS, then restart DS4, do you have anything in Categories?

namelessme

I tried that already, with both 4.0 and 4.5. What happens is:

CMS loads up in a 'DOS box' (for lack of a better term) where it says content management is starting. Then I load up Daz, yet nothing in categories, and nothing in Smart Content.

So it sorta looks like it's starting, but when I open Daz, it apparently isn't working.

fixmypcmike

Can you start Task Manager and go to the Services tab, and see if DAZContentManagementService is running?

namelessme

It says it has stopped. And when I try to start it in task manager, it says access is denied.

3DAGE

Do you have administrator rights ?

Does the service start up if you reboot.?

namelessme

Yeah, have admin rights, and ran it in administrator mode too, when trying to start it up.

And nope, rebooting makes no difference.

Not sure what else to try. Could it be because I had Bryce 7.1 and Hexagon installed w/ Daz 4.0, and didn't uninstall all three when I upgraded to Daz 4,5, that CMS broke? I did uninstall 4.0 and CMS, then installed 4.5, so figured that was enough.

3DAGE

It's Strange that it's not running when you reboot. ... it should.

The CMS is only part of Daz Studio,. so having Bryce and hexagon installed wouldn't make any difference.
those don't use Content in the same way and (AFAIK) don;t have any access to the CMS.

As long as you've uninstalled Daz Studio 4, and the CMS,..
then Installed the latest version of Daz Studio 4.5, and the CMS, ....you should be good to go.

Maybe FixmyPCmike will have a solution...

From what you say, ..it's installed but not running on boot, ..and if you try to run it,.. it won't "allow" you to,...
which all points at User rights.

namelessme

Actually, only under task manager it said something about denying access.
I get this: 'The operation could not be completed. Access is denied.' When trying to run it under task manager.

If I run it normally, it does boot up, and says it is starting... but doesn't actually start. Besides running it in administrator mode, not sure what other user rights are needed. It's sort of weird. I initially thought maybe my firewall was blocking it somehow, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

Jaderail

It sounds to me like access to the port the CMS opens to talk with DS is getting blocked. That is normally the AV or Firewall that will block the port.

namelessme

Yeah, I thought so too originally. But under my firewall permissions, it's set to allow CMS and Daz.

I checked it again just now, and think there is something to it though.

I disabled my firewall completely, started Daz... nothing.
I disabled my firewall, manually started CMS, then started Daz... no smart content, but now I have a categories section. And under task manager, it's listed as running.
I enabled my firewall again, started Daz, and now CMS has shut down.

So... it does seem to be firewall related, but since I already set it to allow CMS/Daz to do what it wants to do, not entirely sure what I need to set here.

mjc1016

Which firewall?

Jaderail

If you disable your firewall and get CMS running as before do you get content IF you import Metadata? That would tell us loads.

namelessme

Tested importing metadata with the firewall off, and manually starting CMS... all is good. Smart Content shows up, finally.

And I am using Avira Security 2012 for my firewall.

So... any ideas what I need to set so my firewall doesn't block CMS? I gave Avira permission to allow CMS/Daz already. Is there some port access or some hidden thing I need to set?

Oh, and I found a bug (which I expect the developers know of, but will mention anyway) -- did a quick test render, but it was taking too long, so I switched to a slower speed, but I guess I didn't close the previous render window ... and then the program sort of crashed on me.

Jaderail

I'm a sorry but I do not have the Port ID the CMS uses, I think you might be hitting a conflict over that Port ID. If more than one Program calls the port the first call will LOCK with your firewall active and the call by CMS later could be seen as an attempt to hack the port thus your Firewall blocks that call. I'm sure it can be fixed but I do not use the program you do. I'm just glad the issue has been pin pointed. I hope others can help you solve the problem.

EDIT: Some programs claim a port as Exclusive so the second call by CMS even when allowed will not open the port.

mjc1016

I believe it is 27997, by default.

You can change the port number in the ini file. The ini file resides in the same place as the executable.

If you suspect another application is locking the port, changing it in the ini file should allow it to run. Also, if you change it, it would be a good idea to pick a number and configure Avira to allow CMS to use that port before you restart. And for a restart, I mean...reboot, after making the changes.

I would make this change...

from...

; Non-secure port to listen. 0 - not listen.
; Port=15432
Port=27997

to...

; Non-secure port to listen. 0 - not listen.
Port=15432
; Port=27997

The alternate port is included in the ini file, so it's just a matter of removing the ';' in front of it and placing the ';' in front of the 'active' port.