I finally found some time to take a look at the new features of DAZ Studio v4.5. It’s still free in the Pro version, which is of course the biggest feature for many users. 🙂 In 4.5 users also get, among other bits and pieces…
* FBX Import. (Useful, especially for iClone/3DXchange 5 users, but “not all features of FBX are supported”)
* Group Node (Group 3D elements together, to form ‘layers’ like in Photoshop. Sounds interesting).
* Viewport speed dramatically increased… by 2-5x… (Nice, but hopefully the new speed won’t mean jaggy edges in DAZ’s lovely implementation of OpenGL 1.6 in the viewport)
* Improved stability, less crashes. (/Cough/)
These are just the ones that caught my eye. Nice-sounding improvements, certainly. But not enough to make me want to leave DAZ version 3.0 (or Poser 2012, or iClone).
DS4.5 has some interesting new stuff, as you have said. I downloaded it not too long ago, and I immediately found that several of the bugs are fixed. There are also things like the faster viewport, and the faster loading times for my models. I seem to have enjoyed everything so far, but I have not found a problem yet. When I do, I get a little annoyed.
I’m glad to see that I’m not the only person that has stuck with DazStudio 3. I hate the cluttered, clunky interface of DS4. But after just having read a different blog about some of its features, and now this, I might have a look at this new version. I just hope it doesn’t feel as toylike as v4. x Angela