Mesh grabber for Daz 2025 Alpha?
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Mesh grabber for Daz 2025 Alpha?
CatinBag
Posts: 60
Im curious if anyone was able to get mesh grabber to install and work for Daz 2025 alpha. I know its a long shot since the pluggin was designed for 4.5. Most of my scenes uses this pluggin, would be neat to move some of those queued renders to new 50 series PC build.
I tried manually mapping the install but it didnt recongize the daz 2025 folder :(
Post edited by CatinBag on
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Plugins need to be recompiled before they will work with DS2025 (or any new major version). Note that you changed the file path to DS2025, but the dropdown for version is still 4.5.
Thanks.
Figured I'd likely just have to wait for the plugin to update but was hoping there would be some trick to make it work. Worth a shot anyways I guess.
I'm waiting on a recompile of dForce Companion myself.
Hmm... me too ~ but is recompiling plugins for an alpha version of DS a really good option ?
I'm no expert, but I suspect the new QT framework is what requires the recompile, meaning that plugins/scripts recompiled for DS2025 Alpha would not need to be recompiled again for subsequent versions.
I'm pretty sure it will be "A recompile at best, a rewrite at worst"
I have no clue how either works so maybe it's as simple as a recomplie.
Might have to rewrite some, most, or even all of it so it works with the new qt version.
I'm hoping for the , "just needs a recomplie and we can have it out once the alpha hits beta" situation myself.
Meshgrabber is on a very short list of plugins I can't live without.
Changing the SDK is what requires updating the plugins. Updating the Qt framework is part of what changed in the SDK but that's not all that changed, and there's a good chance there will be more changes during the alpha and beta periods.
Scripts are not compiled, but updates to both the script engine and the SDK can make some scripts not work anymore.
Qt changed a lot between version 4 and the current version, so recompiling may not be the only thing needed for plugins using Qt elements. There was also major work done one the viewport display, for example, so anything interacting with the viewport will probably require more work than just recompiling.
For the record, while Geometry Sculptor (which was supposed to be Mesh Grabber 4) will certainly be updated by Daz, there's unfortunately no guarantee that ManFriday will create a DS2025 version of Mesh Grabber 3 or any of their other plugins, especially the standalone version of the ones Daz purchased to create the Premier plugins...
The plug-ins that were purchased by Daz and developed into the Premier plug-ins will not be getting updates other than to the Premier vesions, I'm afaid. they will of course work in DS 4, and aside from needing to bake the Mesh Grabber Modifier to a morph or shape (and render Queue, obviously) their effects should then be savable and openeable in DS 2025.
Do you know if the Geometry Scupltor in premere can read the files modifed by the DS4 version of Mesh Grabber? Like if I have a scene made using Mesh Grabber, will Geometry Scupltor load the Mesh Grabber modifications correctly or will the geometry need to be scuplted?
Also will there be a premier alpha version or is that only after Beta or full release?
I don't think there was any announcement beside the fact that it's listed as "pending" in this thread: https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/727631/daz-studio-2025-6-25-2025-x-evergreen#latest
It's one of the plugins which interacts with the viewport a lot so it might need quite a bit of work.
I don't know, and don't have one of then older products to test in 4.23.x.x.
This sucks really bad! Terrible business decision!
As expected. Big [shoo!] to longtime customers.
It still works in the application you purchased it for. Even if the PA did still own it and chose to update I'd doubt they would update all versions, and given the work that Geometry Sculptor seems to involve I doubt any new versions would have been free
Don't blame the author for this, you just said it's not their decision.
"Even if the author..." is not blaming the author, it is pointing out that even without the change of ownership updates for the older versions of Mesh Grabber might not have appeared (and it is possible that any update for the current versions might have been incorporated a new, non-free version upgrade).
You can still use it in DS 4, then bake to a morph etc. (instead of having it as a live modifier) and use the ersult in DS 2025.
Regardless of what might have been, this is 100% DAZ's authority to decide and it's kind of poor to divert responsiblity away from that. Very customer-hostile business all around.
Nope, they're different plugins. The deltas in terms of mesh is stored separately with different modifier, as well as SceneID in DUF file, i.e. Mesh Grabber 3.0 : manfriday_mesh_grab_modifier, Geometry Sculptor: geometry_sculpt_modifier...
But if you DO need it, you can modify DUF file by using Notepad++, change SceneID, NodeName and modifier from Mesh Grabber to Geometry Sculptor, like what's shown in below SS.
Then Geometry Sculptor can read the deltas that saved by Mesh Grabber ~~
Edit: And in case if you made deltas with both Mesh Grabber and Geometry Sculptor in a scene file, you also have to combine vertex positions and vertex count from the sections of MG and GS in the DUF file.
Mesh Grabber is one of my go-to tools to fix things. This is an appalling decision by Daz and seems to be nothing more than a money grab to push customers to premium subscriptions. It's deplorable! There are several words I've been using to myself to describe this action, but unfortunately they aren't usable in a public forum. If this was a free asset , then I could understand it, but a lot of us have paid for the old version and this is a morally reprhensible decision to to remove the utility of an asset we've bought!
Ok, I've taken some deep breaths and thought about this a bit. First up, I think we all want to assure Richard that no one is directing their anger at him,. He's a customer support person and isn't responsible for these kind of decisions. 2nd, I would like to offer a solution that would prevent alienation of the customer base on this issue. If Mesh Grabber 4 is being converted for use in 2025, then I don't imagine that the coding for Mesh Grabber 3 is much different. Why not convert 3 for use as a base plugin for 2025 and have Mesh Grabber 4 for the premium users. The premium folks still have an upgrade over everyone else, and the rest of us still get MG3 to use in a functional way. How about it?
As I unbderstand it Geoemtry Sculptor requires a lot more work than the other plug-ins because it is greatly affected by the changes to the Viewport. That potentially means that an update to Mesh Grabber would also be a lot of work for a free items that, to an extent, undercut a subscription perk. A lot of people are upset about not having Mesh Grabber in DS 2025 (though it would still work in DS 4) so it is always possible that Daz wil look at their options, but I suspect that there would be a limited range of truly practical possibilities.
Mesh grabber 3 still belongs to ManFriday (and is still sold as an independant plugin), not Daz. ManFriday could create a DS2025 version of Mesh Grabber 3 if they want, and since it's still available for sale they might consider it, but that will likely be a lot of work (there were a lot of changes to the viewport, and that is likely to impact the plugin a lot) and even if they do it might not be free.
Well, as Daz have already admitted that Mesh Grabber is an important, if not essential tool by buying the rights to not only MG4, then it seems a little unethical to suddenly disenfranchise all those folks who bought MG3. And if Daz is worried about undercutting one of its premium services and possibly costing it some income, than perhaps Daz might want to consider the cost of alienating it's customer base and having them go elsewhere for products. ~shrug~ Ah, Ty Leana, I wasn't aware that ManFriday still held the rights to MG3 as it had disappeaered from the Daz store.
I still see the various Mesh grabber 3 products in the store (when I uncheck "hide items I own" that is).
Richard has been making it sound like DAZ owns it and is the decision maker in this case. Which is it?
https://www.daz3d.com/mesh-grabber-bundle-win
So it is a question if Manfrida finds it valuable to upgrade, when he have sold the other to Daz.
That doesn't really answer anything about who decides whether it will be ported to future versions, that's just the store page. Would like this spelled out super clearly one way or the other by a DAZ employee please.
I would pay for Mesh Grabber 3 again if there was an update for 2025.
So would I.
Even though Mesh Grabber 4 is now owned by DAZ, I would be surprised if they are not paying Man Friday to update the plug in to 2025. As Richard has stated, this could take some time.
If Man Friday was to update Grabber 3 to 2025 (and DAZ would allow it), I assume that it would be at the PA's own cost, in terms of time, and only they could determine if that makes business sense or not.