DAZ Software free for the month of February...

Found this deal just today, and thought it would be interesting for those getting into modeling, animating, or terrain landscapes, etc... These look like some good packages. Now mind you that I have used these for a while, but...now that I see this, it makes me want to download and use these again.

http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=182532&flatnum=1

 

Thanks so much for the tip! Already snagged em!

 

nice!

 

Thank you very much. I saved almost $1,000.00! Any tutorials?

 

Holy bananas!!

Why are they doing this?... oh well.

*downloads*

 

There are tons of tuts on their site and they are as friendly and helpful a community as this one so don;t hesitate to sign up for the forums.

As for why they are doing it, DAZ is really more of a content provider than a software. The more people who use their free stuff the more will purchase content from them. That's how they got me hooked anyway.

edit: link seems to be dead right now.

 

They did something like this in December also. If they're going to keep up with this free software binge, they're going to have to get more servers. I can't add anything to my cart because the server is down.

 

This seems like a really sweet deal... I wonder how well one of the genesis made characters would work in Unity? I got the free FBX exporter as well...

 

I believe you're suppose to get the FBX, texture atlis AND Decimator... however for some reason, Decimator doesn't activate for me which is rather irritating.

Does anyone else have that one working?

 

Decimator doesn't seem to be free on the store which is a bummer.

 

Hm bummer indeed.

There was a thread that said that Decimator was suppose to come with DAZ Studio 4 Pro... but I can't remember which version and it was a beta thread too... The Decimator that's on the store is for version 3, so that wouldn't do anyone any good anyway.... wow, so many anies. xD

 

Good god this is amazing!

 

I was just thinking, is the software actually any good for use with Unity? I know Hexagon is for Modeling, but without aniMate, DAZ Studio is useless for animation, and unless Bryce can export height maps, it is also seems pretty useless.

 

The FBX Exporter is free too for Daz Studio, I'm downloading it now to try out.

 

What's the point if there won't be animations? Just to use Genesis and export a static model?

 

You can animate in DAZ Studio 3 without the plug-in. Haven't tried 4 but I don't imagine they changed that. It's just easier to do with the plug-in. I know you can import BVH files and animated poses from Poser without the plug in.

 

Oh. I was under the impression that one could pose and render, but needed aniMate 2 to actually animate. I'll check it out. Now to find out how to rig characters from external programs.

 

Mind you, I've not used 4 yet so they may have changed it. "Puppeteer" is the built-in animation tool in 3. Probably have it in 4 as well. Also, in most of these programs, if you can pose, you can animate. Afterall, an animation is just a sequence of poses. Now, getting that to Unity might be more problematic. I'll play around with 4 some this weekend (if my new puppy allows me the time!) and see what I can learn. I've been using it since it was in beta.

 

DAS4P comes with a lite version of aniMate 2 so you can use aniblocks like walk and stuff. I THINK you can even create your own.

Plugins like FBX, Atlis, and Decimator should all work seeing as they're all under the Pro Bundle. Daz says they're working on it because there's a problem with the serial number they gave out.

You can also create your own content that I think works with Genesis characters, so that means you can have custom clothing and everything for game characters or whatever.

There's also a GoZ button for those of you who have Zbrush.

Yes I think this is a very useful set of tools for Unity.

Oh and I'm pretty sure you can export terrains out of Bryce.

 

Yeah, but they have millions of tris.

 

When you find a way to export the character as an FBX with animations that DOESN"T have tons of polygons, let me know as Decimator isn't working at least for me.

 

The Decimator is about the only way I know. Sounds like they haven't updated it to 4 yet. Shame. You can find LOD versions of the generation 4 adult figures (Michael and Victoria) that have 4 different LODs from like 1000 to 20k pollys. Not sure if they have them for Gensis or not. Never made the jump. Nor are there any for most (or all) of the clothing they sell.

Also, without the game license, you're just wasting your time since you cannot distribute a game that has DAZ content without it. Of course that does not apply to anything original you create in the software.

 

True. Well I THINK the Genesis characters would be ok since it's basically an original morph that you've created from the predefined ones.

The content creation kit is all there so that you can make your own content though. So in that regard, it's still pretty useful.

For testing purposes though you could just use what's there as long as you don't distribute it.

 

What about rigging external characters, ones that weren't made with Genesis? Are there rigging tools that I'm just blatantly missing?

 

Luckily for me, I had these tools from the old DS3 Advanced days, so those carried over with no troubles. Now how Genesis will work for Unity 3.5 character imports, however, that's another thing.

 

There are some. https://www.daz3d.com/i/search/searchsub/?_m=d&sstring=Figure+Setup+Tools&x=0&y=0

I can't speak about them as I never had much luck. Poser also has tools for rigging figures that you can use in DAZ software. Also, you can actaully edit a cr2 file to change the obj that it uses, thereby replacing the original mesh with your mesh and still keeping the rig. That's the one I've used in the past but you have to be sure that your mesh is as close to their mesh as possible otherwise you'll get less than desirable results. cr2 files are waht poser and thus daz studio uses to contain their rig and mesh.

 

In DAZ Studio, I can't make the character taller or shorter the same way that I can make it fatter or skinnier. Are there freeware characters? I'm looking for big fat hairy men.

 

You can always play around with scaling up the legs a little and the torso to make them taller.

In any case, there are plenty of freeware figures that you can use here: http://www.sharecg.com/b/11/Poser/?keywords=sixus&member_type[All]=on&attribute[2577][2580]=1&attribute[2439][-1]=1&tdm=a&s=rd

All of these should have "Unrestricted Use" license which means you can use them in games. They'd need to be decimated in some way or another. I had been slowly converting them all to Unity with several LODs to pick from but my computer suffered a meltdown and I lost all my efforts. I'll probably redo them when I get the chance.

 

Not sure what kind of character you're working with, but I know the Genisis characters can be made taller or shorter.

A lot of times things like tall short fat skinny are morphs.

And thanks for that link Drewradley

 

OH and while looking through the plugin list, I saw something called an Autorigger, so maybe that might help.

 

I don't see "autorigger" but it looks like the Content Creation Kit replaces all of their various figure set up tools. Never had much luck with autoriggers. Always require way too much work. The Transfer Utility looks promising though. I've had a better time reusing rigs in different meshes than autorigging them.

 

I just read on the DAZ forum that the Decimator is NOT part of the free package. I guess it originally had wrong information saying it was.

 

I got the Michael character pack from DAZ. Where should I install the pack?

 

It should pick the directory to install automatically when you run the installer. Otherwise, just remember where you install it and tell DAZ Studio to add that folder.

 

Looks somewhat cool, but how compatible are DAZ 3d Studio 4's models with Unity? It looks like this "Decimator" isn't compatible, and the FBX exporter has a price tag?

And assuming the output works, how easy is it to create new content for the application? I'm sure the program let's you add new skins, right? And about Hexagon: has anyone ever used it? How good even is it?

 

I use DAZ figures for all my main characters in Unity. Granted I have the license and huge collection I can now use in games. I also have a huge collection of MoCap for them.

You have that backwards. The Decimator is not free but the FBX is included in this free offer. Both work great in version 3 of DAZ Studio.

As for Hexagon. I love it. It is a powerful modeling program and much easier to learn the Blender. Anything I need to make, I make in Hex these days. And if you get it now, it even costs the same as Blender!

 

Alright, then. Seems I should snag them up, then.

One quick question, however. How easy is it to add your own textures and clothing to DAZ 3d figures? Obviously the defaults won't last you very long... Also, how reliable is the FBX exporter?

 

This is true about Hex, when I picked it up, I got it at the price of MilkShape (approx. $36 USD), but that was with a Plat. Club membership, and a special offer DAZ was running over the summer. Right now, however, seems like DAZ is picking up the Blender crowd with their modeling software.

In terms of exporting to FBX from DS4 Pro, I have done this, and you do need the decimator it seems like, as well as texture atlas mapping. Now mind you that the texture atlas and decimator are not free, but in order to grab these, I would suggest going for the Game Developer's Kit rather than a la carte. Just my two bits.

 

I use Blender. And I like the way it is. I don't think I will switch. I wonder, what this DAZ software differ from other 3D tool? Is it better than Blender?

 

Well, Hexagon is more like a stripped-down version of Maya, pretty much. It has Maya's interface, it has its style of model interactivity to it...however, Hexagon won't do NURBs or subdivisions that I know of, nor will it render its own animations or export to .FBX, so you'll need DS4 Pro as well if you wish to take what you did in Hexagon and export it to .FBX from there...but the modeling tool is quite decent, easier to use than Blender, I can tell ya that.

 

Not as powerful as Blender but much easier to learn. DAZ Studio is little more than a figure posing tool. If you know what Poser is, it's more or less a stripped down version (though ver 4 seems to have made leaps and bounds to catching up). Bryce is their landscape suite. I don't know what big name software specializes in landscapes though, so I can't compare. DAZ software tends to be very good at one thing. I'd love to be able to get the Bryce landscapes into Unity but each one is millions of tris so that just doesn't work and decimating them loses all that beauty.

 

Both texture Atlas and the FBX exporter come with Pro. I think they would've put in Decimator too, but they couldn't due to licencing rights. It's on sale for ten dollars off though... not much of a sale but ok.

 

I come from a Maya background but learning blender only took 2 days. Free software is always good but its not on par. It seems more for beginners and a lot more fiddling around with getting external tools to get it to export and decimate. I will stick to blender. Then purchase Maya at later date.

 

AMAZING! 900+ dollars saved!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

If Nurbs or Subdiv is not included in Hexagon, then it'll be hard to model complex model using this tool.

Landscapes has that much of tris? Well, we could always use terrains in Unity. It's good as well.

For the time being, I stick with Blender. But I will give DAZ studio a try to see what it can really do.

 

They must be bogged down with requests... I requested a copy of Hexagon at 12 this morning and now it's almost 9 o'clock and still haven't received it. They have not even sent the account activation email...

Shame, because I'm really looking forward to trying this. I still need more info on DAZ Studio's usefulness, though; how easy is it to even add new clothes and stuff. I'm sure the defaults are license restricted, and you can only go so far with them.

 

Professional 3D tools for free. THANKS FOR THE LINK.

 

Well to be fare,this software isn't ACTUALLY free, it's jut free right now. Yes it does take some knowledge of how to use it to get things in, but it is pretty cool t eh way it works.

And yes, if you don't have Decimator, then it's not going to be all that useful because you won't be able to export anything... unless the stuff you brought in was lowpoly to begin with.

If you like using Blender and Maya and it works, then go for that. Just some other tools that may be worth taking a look at at the very least.

 

I just found out that Renderosity allows game use.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/service/index.php?questionid=2024

It says it's only for bought models so it probably doesn't apply to the free stuff. The one drawback is most of these items are for DAZ figures and you'd need the expensive DAZ license to use the figures. However, I know that if you ask for a license only for the figures you want and nothing else, I bet you could get a steep discount. Never hurts to check. They even have one item that includes a Unity package:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/village-creator-for-poser-unity3d/81559

A complete fantasy village for $18. I know it is hard to find good models for games for cheap.

 

Here is the real kicker, Hexagon is ultimately cool to model in, very easy to use and I am not a modeler, however, I have always been limited on exports of anything I did in Hexagon, now with the Daz Studio 4 Pro for free which includes the FBX exporter with the license, migrating my work to Unity from Hexagon with complex models and animations should become a snap, or at least I hope so.

You just can't use their models without the right license for your game, and that license is game specific, one license per model per game for anything you buy from DAZ.