Okay, how painful will it be to jump to the latest Daz?
I've been holding out for a long time, because I've read that the latest Daz/Nvidia/Iray combo really messes with ghost lights and other things.
But (there's always a but, right?) the further we go along into the future, the more difficult it will be to square all of the various drivers with Daz 4.16. TBH, I'm already running into difficulties. So it's probably time to make the leap, because if I don't, technology will probably force me soon enough.
But (there's always more than one but, right?) I am scared to make the leap. I'm worried that everything will be a mess and all of my saved scenes will be darker than the last solar eclipse. Has that been fixed? Is there anything else that might get screwed up?
And other things... my goodness, are there other issues I might expect to encounter??
Is there any good news? At the very least, I can start using the latest Nvidia drivers again. But aside from that? Is there anything that you like about Daz in its "four-twenties" that you found lacking in its "four-teens"?
tl;dr please hold this user's hand and tell them it's okay to jump into New Daz...
Comments
You can always rename your 4.16 install location so that 4.21 doesn't overwrite it.
I renamed my 4.15 install and then installed the 4.21 beta and so far haven't had any issues and go back and forth between versions when needed.
I've also just installed a much larger hard drive (thanks a lot, Daz Shop! ) so I am thinking that I might as well just download the latest DAZ versus porting over the old version or installing from my saved EXE file
(edit: so how do I convince Daz Download Manager that it has already downloaded all of these items?)
I would recommend an intermediate step ... keep 4.16 as your main install and add 4.21 as a beta install until you get things working (you know ... probably updating graphic card drivers, learning to use the new lighting, etc.). Once 4.21 is working then you can move on and use it regularly. You can transition ... not leap.
If all you're doing is installing the beta, you don't need to rename your general release installation folder. The beta installs to a folder called DazStudio4 Public Build and won't interfere with your general release installation.
It's worth noting that scenes set-up with 4.21 may not work correctly in 4.15 and vice versa, and there's nothing to be done about that. Ghost lights are forever changed due to changes in Iray.
BACK UP YOUR PREVIOUS INSTALL FILES BEFORE UPDATING AS DAZ DOES NOT PROVIDE OLD VERSIONS!
Welp, so far Version 4.21 is really, really good!
...at crashing to desktop.
I could not find the original Daz install exe from 2020, but I do have the 4.16 program on my old drive. Could it be ported over to the new one? If I recall, many Windows programs need to be on the Main hard drive (C:, for example) to run.
If you're curious:" "DAZStudio.exe caused ACCESS_VIOLATION in module "C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\QtCore4.dll" at 0033:00000000671F3977, QString::~QString()+7 byte(s)"
EDIT: Also I am stubborn, always have been (much to dismay of my parents), so I expect I will spend as long as it takes installing, uninstalling, reinstalling, driver-tweaking, and forum-browsing.
Also I do like some of the new features, like the option to save or not save render settings. It also seems to run more quickly (when it runs, that is)