Novica & Forum Members Tips & Product Reviews Pt 13

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Comments

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    @charliejudge  Aww, so Katie is your avatar!  yes   I also love the name Shannon. And screw that vet, he shouldn't be in business recommending returning an animal to the pound to be put to sleep.

    @hylas  Thanks for that DETAILED review, wow- great job. I, too, would find it a bit aggravating with the maps you mentioned if I were a "twiddler."  Your render oozes personality :)

     

  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,115

    Just as I had opened the dxo.com page to buy Nik Collection 3, Denver had a power 'something'. All my computers and the lights flickered and the iMac went down. My Win10 desktop flashed black, then came back with all my open windows opened, same on the laptop Win 10. I had been busy shopping on Corel, Marvelous Designer and then going to dxo.com and had downloaded all the other files on both computers. The weirdest thing, I wasn't expecting the desktop to act like a laptop. And we lost our TV signal, just got that back. Novica, thinking about your problems I am going to make copies of the .exe files on a stick and save it away from my computers. I have experienced that issue with buying things from Corel and Adobe and then not being able to download new copies again after crashes. 

    I had downloaded both bundles from this morning, and scored with that $100.00 free DO items. 

    For the past week, I have been working to sub-categorize my props further, this time 'Effects'. On the upside, I have found products that I had forgotten and also learned how to use others! 

    For some reason, since 4.14 has come along, I can't use 'Filter by Context' with any G8F. Works fine for all the other characters. This morning I woke to my mind trying to figure out how to sub-categorize Wardrobe now. And it hasn't helped that many of the items I bought when the store changed over show a purchase date of 1969.

    Novica, my family has had pets all my life. Mongrels - Happy, Calico, Rhubarb (cat survived Baldwin Hills disaster, showed up at our house); Llasa Apsos Polly, Terra, Gizmo (who I found a new home for when we were shipped to England); more Llasas Beowulf (I was stationed near Sutton Hoo when I got him in England.), Misty (adopted from a family rotating back to the US.) Panda (their boy); Odin, (Panda's son, who tried to get to his food, lost his eye. Later Odin adopted his owner's son's infant son and went to North Dakota to protect him.) Now I have an American Eskimo, Bugsy, who is slowing down. He was left with me by his owner and was previously rescued from six years of abuse by him. 

    I hope everyone is having a good day wherever they are, however they are holding togethere. Stay safe. Denver is slowly going down in positivity rate.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited November 2020

    @memcneil70   Yeah, you think, "How bad can it be?" once you get over the shock of losing EVERYTHING since 2012 so far as renders and scene files, then you realize ALL those fonts you downloaded and installed AREN'T (thank goodness the files were still already extracted, so all I have to do is right click and install) and any program you have that works off a disc and a key from ages ago are toast if you didn't register the product. 

    Oh, Rhubard sounds like an adorable name!  I forgot my Lhasa Apso, her name was Chableis as she was golden. Odin is a perfect name!

    Florida is skyrocketing with virus cases, 961,676 with 18,482 deaths. 

    I just got back from visiting with Mom through the patio doors (of course) and there weren't any other people are the little porches, I think everyone had already been there. I got there around 4pm and stayed about half an hour. Mom gets tired holding the phone up, so we don't chat too long. We didn't have the mini speakers that Activities sets up if I ask for them, since it was a holiday Jennifer left early. She said she had worked 6 days this week, and will do 6 next week, because everyone got so burned out during the senior homes virus eruptions. No cases there at the moment. NONE. Yes! And

    Anyway, you all have a great Thanksgiving!

    I did get both bundles too as I scooped up all that Egyptian stuff instead of having to buy the bundles with poses I didn't want to have to pay for. It was cheaper to get just the items from the bundles individually rather than the 65.00 or so and have to get a lot of poses.  I went over the $100 so that's why you'll see 92% off instead of free. But 65% off was good enough for some things I waited on, so adding those put those amounts spread through the free ones. So 92%.

    And remember we discussed Diane? The eyebrows shown on the figure aren't what come with her. I do like this thread pointing out unusual things, as I do recall them. (If you go to the Diane figure, you'll see the forums posts if you have the add-on by Ati and Overdrawn. Look for the Novica thread. 

    So what did you guys pick up?

     Shopping Cart

     

    Post edited by Novica on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,244
    I got completely disgusted with it and emptied the cart. I'll find something more interesting another day in another sale.
  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    @barbult  Yes, I just read about all the trouble you were having on the sale thread. :(   So sorry. 

    One thing which is HIGHLY concerning to me is the Product Library missing bought products, and people mentioning some items not showing up as purchased which were, etc.

    Geez, now I'm going to go back to my emails and check my Product Library, one by one, for the past month. No small feat. I am PISSED. I had such a nice, tidy system going for my downloads (since I had to start over) and was doing it based on the Product Library pages. Now it's in shambles thanks to stupid Daz. Out of order, and things possibly missing. And put in a ticket and now wait probably MORE than SIX WEEKS. Because the more sales that go on, the more tickets are filed ON TOP of all the other issues. 

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,244

    It is not just new purchases that are missing from the product library. For me, I noticed accidently that Casual Surf Wear for Genesis was missing from my Product Library and did not show as purchased in the store. It was part of the Genesis Starter Bundle that I purchased years ago. I have the receipt. The store shows that I own the bundle, but not that product in the bundle. I submitted a help request and Emma added it to my Product Library as a separate item, but that is just a Band-Aid. They acknowledge that they have problems.

     

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  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,244

    I actually feel a sense of relief and lightness at having abandoned today's sale entirely. I won't have to deal with any product that can't be downloaded, products that don't show up in the Product Library, products full of bugs and QA oversights, products with bad metadata, additional characters that slow Daz Studio down even more, etc. Ahhh! It is nice. 

  • I know I'm going to forget someone, but here goes:

    Dianna - Calico cat named after Wonder Woman
    Pippy - cat, marmalade type with orange and white stripes
    Tippytoes - my first cat. She was all black but had four white socks
    Tuggers - Keeshond, a rescue dog. I went to get new tires on my car and came back home with a dog with all his hair shaved off. He'd apparently been on his own for a while and was so matted they had to shave his fur. Didn't know what kind of dog he was until it all grew back. His favorite game was tug of war with a toy, any toy, or a blanket.
    Brock - a black lab. We didn't name him. His previous owner had to give him up so we gave him a home. Great dog, loved water.
    Bear - a fluffy canine mix of some sort. Possibly some sheppard, maybe some lab, but something else with a double coat. Not sure what. He looked like a bear cub when he was little. He kind of looked like a bear cub when he got bigger, too. Real big!
    Tiger - Manx Coon cat, rescued as a kitten
    Fred - cat, calico
    Spot - cat, calico
    Sugar - a pit bull mix of some kind, possibly a beagle. Also a rescue.
    Bingo - Siberian Husky/Rottweiller mix. I picked her and her brother up from Subway. One of the workers there was giving away puppies from an unexpected litter when they were old enough. She had great cream markings to go with her reddish brown coat. She had the stockier Rottwieller build. She passed away two summers ago.
    Biscuit - brother to Bingo. Black with white markings that looked just like his sister's markings. He looked just like his Siberian Husky mother. You couldn't tell he had any Rottwieller in him at all. Sometimes I think he still misses his sister. I swear he still expects her to walk back in the door.
    Callie - calico cat. She was my dad's cat and we brought her home after he passed away. No one else wanted to deal with anti-social cat who hid from everyone. She's not anti-social anymore and she's a great cat.

    There were a lot of other pets over the years. I can't remember all their names. I rescued a lot of cats and had a turtle with no name for a short while when I was a kid. We've also had fish, frogs, and my oldest son raised a mouse for a short time before the mouse died. It's actually strange that we currently only have Biscuit and Callie at the moment. I'm actually considering being pet free once they are gone even if only for a short while. I can't imagine never having a pet again, but I could definitely use a break after dealing with geriactric pets. Biscuit is getting very cranky in his old age.
     

  • gitika1gitika1 Posts: 948
    edited November 2020

    I purchased both bundles because I thought Drutherson and the alternates would make good dwarves.  As I have begun to explore the products though, my initial enthusiasm is waning.  On a positive note, the Steampunk Expressions work surprisingly well  (I rarely find any use for expressions in bundles) and the alt heads provide nice variety.  The alt bodies seem like 12 versions stretched either horizonally or vertically, like a block being stretched.  I am not impressed.  The eventide outfit loads with an error for missing files (for the evergreens female version). The coat seems too long for an elf, gnome, or dwarf, so I removed it, only to immediately notice how the leggings hug his crotch.  I thought I would use a little dforce to see if it would help the pants drape better, but apparently dforce in the name of a clothing product name doesn't mean that all of the pieces are dforce ready.  In fact, the coat is the piece that has dforce.  He'll need to keep the coat on if he is helping Santa with children.  The Nutcracker and Trepak Vests have a significant washed out section in the middle of the vest.  It's there, even if the lighting is behind the subject.  If you remove the Glossy Reflectivity and Top Coat Weight, it will go away.  I'll have to check the rest of the bundle components when I have more time.

     

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    Post edited by gitika1 on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,244

    @gitka1 you just confirmed that I made the right choice to opt out. Thank you for posting your experience.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    Yeah, I pretty much bought the bundles to get the free $100 of items which look to be pretty good quality. I was able to get just what I wanted from both the Egyptian themed bundles, without getting the poses/ stuff I didn't want. Sounds like the bundles' stuff is really not up to par though in more than one area.  And yes, thanks so much @gitka1

     

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    @knittingmommy   Oh I bet you got QUITE the surprise when a Keeshond grew back all THAT hair!  That must've been some cat to be named after Wonder Woman LOL! 

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,131

    I gotthe BMX Bike for free (thanks DAZ) that I have wanted since year 2000 if you can believe it but could never bring myself to pay over $30 for back in 2000 or $9.95 that's the asking price nowadays. It's a great bike. I had a similar one in real life before it was stolen a couple years back. 

  • ShoxDesignShoxDesign Posts: 31
    edited November 2020
    gitika1 said:

     The Nutcracker and Trepak Vests have a significant washed out section in the middle of the vest.  It's there, even if the lighting is behind the subject.

     

    Hi Gitika1

    Unfortunately I wasn´t able to recreate your problem. I´ve rendered the vest with different lights now and it looks fine to me. If you still have this problem, you should try to set the "Glossy Reflectivity" and the "Top Coat Weight" down to 0

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  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited November 2020
    gitika1 said:

     The Nutcracker and Trepak Vests have a significant washed out section in the middle of the vest.  It's there, even if the lighting is behind the subject.

     

    Hi Gitika1

    Unfortunately I wasn´t able to recreate your problem. I´ve rendered the vest with different lights now and it looks fine to me. If you still have this problem, you should try to set the "Glossy Reflectivity" and the "Top Coat Weight" down to 0

    Thanks so much for posting. Edit- reading gitka1's post, that's the solution they came to already.

    Post edited by Novica on
  • SickleYieldSickleYield Posts: 7,639

    Here's an image from a project I'm working on. Lots and lots of kitbashing was involved in this, but I'm particularly pleased with her handbag.

    The bag is one of the Cheyenne Accessories, originally intended to hang off a horse, but scaled down to fit. The strap is one of the smooth ropes from Sickleyield's Tied Up 2. I use it for all kinds of posable straps. The trick is to select all the individual bones of the rope and set all their Y scales to 20% (if you try scaling the overall rope object instead, it messes up the bending), then apply a leather shader and you have a posable leather strap to position and sling over her shoulder.

    Just ran across this post, wanted to say very clever! I love to see people being creative with my stuff.:)
  • memcneil70memcneil70 Posts: 4,115

    @Sevrin helped me to fix this issue I noted above:
    "For some reason, since 4.14 has come along, I can't use 'Filter by Context' with any G8F. Works fine for all the other characters. This morning I woke to my mind trying to figure out how to sub-categorize Wardrobe now. And it hasn't helped that many of the items I bought when the store changed over show a purchase date of 1969."

    Sevrin recommended I delete and reload Genesis 8 Starter Essentials for G8F. I did it and after the 8 minutes it took to load G8F, I was finally able to do a search in Smart Content based on G8F. So if anyone else runs across this issue, regardless of generation or sex, try uninstalling/reinstalling their Starter Essential package through DIM.

  • Novica said:

    @knittingmommy   Oh I bet you got QUITE the surprise when a Keeshond grew back all THAT hair!  That must've been some cat to be named after Wonder Woman LOL! 

    I certainly did. He was a beautiful dog. I fell in love with the breed. I wouldn't mind having another one at some point in the future.

  • GordigGordig Posts: 10,058
    Novica said:

    And remember we discussed Diane? The eyebrows shown on the figure aren't what come with her. I do like this thread pointing out unusual things, as I do recall them. (If you go to the Diane figure, you'll see the forums posts if you have the add-on by Ati and Overdrawn. Look for the Novica thread. 

    I certainly remember that.

  • DaventakiDaventaki Posts: 1,624
    barbult said:

    It is not just new purchases that are missing from the product library. For me, I noticed accidently that Casual Surf Wear for Genesis was missing from my Product Library and did not show as purchased in the store. It was part of the Genesis Starter Bundle that I purchased years ago. I have the receipt. The store shows that I own the bundle, but not that product in the bundle. I submitted a help request and Emma added it to my Product Library as a separate item, but that is just a Band-Aid. They acknowledge that they have problems.

     

    This is just scary and highly irritating.  Makes me wonder what all I have missed and don't realized it.........angry

  • DaventakiDaventaki Posts: 1,624

    @gitika1 with Duthurson selected decrease the bulge size down into the negative, you will have to uncheck the limits.  it helps.  I haven't posted my image in the forum yet but he is sitting and the bulge was umm quite ridiculous. 

  • nonesuch00nonesuch00 Posts: 18,131
    Daventaki said:
    barbult said:

    It is not just new purchases that are missing from the product library. For me, I noticed accidently that Casual Surf Wear for Genesis was missing from my Product Library and did not show as purchased in the store. It was part of the Genesis Starter Bundle that I purchased years ago. I have the receipt. The store shows that I own the bundle, but not that product in the bundle. I submitted a help request and Emma added it to my Product Library as a separate item, but that is just a Band-Aid. They acknowledge that they have problems.

     

    This is just scary and highly irritating.  Makes me wonder what all I have missed and don't realized it.........angry

    I just checked my Product Library but I have to search for "Casual Surf Wear" to find it, if I search for "Casual Surf Wear for Genesis" it isn't found. That is a bad search filter!

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    I'm glad now that I started from scratch and re-downloaded every single item back to 2012 when I joined (due to that external hard drive getting broken.)  I made sure all downloads were done before the store changeover, but I have bought a lot since the store has gone whacky. So going back through stuff tonight. I would bill Daz those hours at a $10 minimum wage rate if I could do it, and my time is worth a heckuva lot more than that.  angry   However, upon learning HiveWire is going out of business, I have to make some decisions. Question to you, those of you who have the Daz Horse 2 (which I do) how does it compare to the "other" one? Seems like there's more coat patterns and options on the other one. Also same for the cat. The dog here seems to have quite a few options and I have all the breeds, but am looking at that too. Man, I didn't want to spend the money on all this.

    How long does it take for rewards to show up over there? The sale starts Dec 1st but I don't know if everything will still be in the store?

  • Serene NightSerene Night Posts: 17,647

    Hivewire dog is better than Daz dog. With Philosopher's egg also selling dogs, I think it is good to load up on their dog and his content.  I like DAZ dog, but they rarely offfer any breed expansions.

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,244

    Where did you hear about Hivewire going out of business? I just purchased something there a few minutes ago and didn't see any announcement.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    barbult said:

    Where did you hear about Hivewire going out of business? I just purchased something there a few minutes ago and didn't see any announcement.

    Over in Commons, there's a thread with a link to the forum post. Supposedly sale starts DEC 1st, but I'm worried all content may not be available, and content may be pulled by vendors not wanting to participate. That's just me being paranoid, but I'm buying tonight as not taking chances. Also, get your reward points used so you don't waste them. Did your reward points show up right away for your purchase you just made?

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887
    edited November 2020

    Hivewire dog is better than Daz dog. With Philosopher's egg also selling dogs, I think it is good to load up on their dog and his content.  I like DAZ dog, but they rarely offfer any breed expansions.

    Who is Philosopher's egg? A vendor there or is that a website? Sorry to be duh.  Edit- oh  I found the website. COOOOL! And I get it-  they have breeds for the other dog.

    Post edited by Novica on
  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,244
    Novica said:
    barbult said:

    Where did you hear about Hivewire going out of business? I just purchased something there a few minutes ago and didn't see any announcement.

    Over in Commons, there's a thread with a link to the forum post. Supposedly sale starts DEC 1st, but I'm worried all content may not be available, and content may be pulled by vendors not wanting to participate. That's just me being paranoid, but I'm buying tonight as not taking chances. Also, get your reward points used so you don't waste them. Did your reward points show up right away for your purchase you just made?

    I have thousands of reward points, but I don't want to spend that much money to use them up! You can only use a few points on each purchase. They will just go to waste, I guess.

  • NovicaNovica Posts: 23,887

    How many points per purchase? I'll just break up my order(s) then. Do you happen to know?

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 24,244
    edited November 2020
    Novica said:

    How many points per purchase? I'll just break up my order(s) then. Do you happen to know?

    I think it is calculated per product, but I'm not sure. The website tells you how many points you can use when you purchase something. I think it is a % of the product cost. I never bothered to compute it. I just went by what they said about how many points could be used.

    Post edited by barbult on
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