Daz3D questions, GameDev

[gavgav130]

Hi everyone.
I'm planning to create my own NSFW game. For my visual aspect I decided to use Daz3D studio as it looks simple enough and can produce stunning results. Now I'm having a few troubles and concerns about Daz Studio.
If I'm going to pirate and use assets from this website commercially, how likely am I going to be punished by copyright violation? Making money isn't my main priority really and some assets are quite useful, but I can't afford them and most of them seem quite expensive. Can Daz/content creators possibly ask about my account details and check my purchase history? As I'm doing my renders in 2D they can't really prove that it is really their textures and meshes, isn't it? I know that is not correct in terms of morality, but if my game is going to become at least a bit popular, I will purchase everything I used anyway.
And the second thing I'm struggling about is creating environment (like a forest, house, room etc). I'm currently looking for a software that can provide me with some tools to create environment and import it to Daz. I have a tiny bit of experience with Blender. Is it possible to create environment (objects, terrain, textures) there and import it to Daz to make the final render all together? If so, is there any guides available how to do so? (guides about importing, not creating) Or if there is any other options available, please let me know as I'm looking for all possibilities.
I hope I picked the right place to create this post.
Thanks to everyone in advance.

 

[Rich]

Hi everyone.
If I'm going to pirate and use assets from this website commercially, how likely am I going to be punished by copyright violation?

Realistically, it's very unlikely. You'd have to gain some significant notoriety before you'd be on anybody's radar, and even then it'd be hard for someone to prove that you hadn't purchased the assets. In particular, the copyright for a large number of the resources that you'll find "available" lies with the original artists, not with Daz themselves, and the odds of an individual artist coming after you are even lower.

Can Daz/content creators possibly ask about my account details and check my purchase history?
As I'm doing my renders in 2D they can't really prove that it is really their textures and meshes, isn't it?

According to what I've seen artists say on the Daz forums, they see the number of purchases, but the purchasers themselves are not identified to them. (No idea how it works on other sites like Renderosity or Renderotica.) Besides, if you publish your game under a different "nom de plume" than you use on the Daz site, how are they going to connect the two?

And the second thing I'm struggling about is creating environment (like a forest, house, room etc). I'm currently looking for a software that can provide me with some tools to create environment and import it to Daz. I have a tiny bit of experience with Blender. Is it possible to create environment (objects, terrain, textures) there and import it to Daz to make the final render all together? If so, is there any guides available how to do so? (guides about importing, not creating) Or if there is any other options available, please let me know as I'm looking for all possibilities.

You can export things from Blender as OBJ or FBX and import them into Daz Studio. Main issue there is that Daz and Blender use a different default orientation (i.e. which axis is "up") and different scales (i.e. 1 unit = 1 cm vs 1 unit = 1 meter), but you can compensate for those as part of the import process.

Another package you might want to look at is Hexagon, which is free from the Daz folks.

That being said, if you do some looking, you'll probably find that there are a LOT of pre-made environments, rooms, etc., available for Daz plus there are kits that let you build rooms, so you might not have to do the modeling yourself. Unless you like doing that, of course. Here are a few of the room creator packages, for example:

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

All three of those are available "in the wild."

 

[polywog]

Besides, if you publish your game under a different "nom de plume" than you use on the Daz site, how are they going to connect the two?

metadata

 

[Rich]

Sigh. (a) Let's not start this argument again - the images that come out of Daz Studio don't contain anything that identifies you in a way that's traceable. (b) The "metadata" in the video you just posted is the "about each product" data that Daz stores in its PostgreSQL database to help you search for products, not metadata placed in images, so it has absolutely nothing to do with whether "they" could trace back to you. So in this case your tendency to spend 5 seconds Googling something and posting it here was completely off the mark. (Do you even actually watch the videos you post here?) (c) Even if you WERE paranoid about DS putting in personally identifying metadata into images, if you don't provide login information to Daz Studio when you run it (and you don't have to) then there's no way to connect the "what computer was this rendered on" to a Daz Studio account.

 

[polywog]

data that Daz stores in its PostgreSQL database

how to block Daz from phoning home

 

[L.Lumpy]

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Polywog.

For those of you who haven't run across him before, in the thread over at https://f95zone.to/threads/does-daz-leave-fingerprints-identification-in-images.36790/, he essentially expressed the opinion that there's a worldwide conspiracy among hardware and software manufacturers to embed metadata into every single image that your computer produces, no matter via what method, that will allow "them" to personally identify you and the computer that produced the image. When asked to prove his claim by identifying specific metadata of that nature in an image produced by Daz Studio (which is what the OP there asked about) he deftly avoided responding, and instead changed the subject. (Conspiracy Theorists are only required to assert the existence of a conspiracy, not provide any evidence that their claims are true.)

Here, he has again tried to raise the dreaded issue of image metadata as the method via which the copyright police are going to come knocking at your door. To defend his position on the subject, he spent 5 seconds googling "Daz Studio Metadata" and (apparently) posted the first Youtube video he could find, even though it has nothing whatsoever to do with metadata in the images that Daz Studio produces. When (correctly) called out on that by Rich and told what that metadata referred to, his response then was apparently to search for PostgreSQL, and post a video on how to modify Windows settings so that PostgreSQL (a very widely used database that Daz Studio happens to use to store product data) can operate on a computer without being interfered with by the Windows Firewall. How that has anything to do with Daz Studio "phoning home" is a puzzle best left unanswered. (And I'm sure Pollywog won't answer it, other than via some additional nonsequitor.) For the record, if you were trying to prevent Daz Studio from phoning home, it would be Daz Studio, not PostgreSQL, that you'd want to be firewalling off. Unless, of course, Polywog thinks that the folks at Daz have modified the source code of PostgreSQL - an open source product, by the way - to phone home on their behalf. And even if that were the case, you'd be wanting to close firewall ports to block access, not open them up to allow access, as shown in the video.

So, basically, what Polywog has done is prove, yet again, that he can Google random words from someone else's posts and find a matching Youtube video, even if it has nothing whatsoever to do with the discussion at hand. (Presumably with the goal of both raising his total number of posts here at F95, and also impressing people with his ability to use Google.)

Having said that, I'm sure his next post (using the Polywog Sidestep) will now go off on some other tangent.

 

[polywog]

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Polywog.

For those of you who haven't run across him before, in the thread over at https://f95zone.to/threads/does-daz-leave-fingerprints-identification-in-images.36790/, he essentially expressed the opinion that there's a worldwide conspiracy among hardware and software manufacturers to embed metadata into every single image that your computer produces, no matter via what method, that will allow "them" to personally identify you and the computer that produced the image. When asked to prove his claim by identifying specific metadata of that nature in an image produced by Daz Studio (which is what the OP there asked about) he deftly avoided responding, and instead changed the subject. (Conspiracy Theorists are only required to assert the existence of a conspiracy, not provide any evidence that their claims are true.)

Here, he has again tried to raise the dreaded issue of image metadata as the method via which the copyright police are going to come knocking at your door. To defend his position on the subject, he spent 5 seconds googling "Daz Studio Metadata" and (apparently) posted the first Youtube video he could find, even though it has nothing whatsoever to do with metadata in the images that Daz Studio produces. When (correctly) called out on that by Rich and told what that metadata referred to, his response then was apparently to search for PostgreSQL, and post a video on how to modify Windows settings so that PostgreSQL (a very widely used database that Daz Studio happens to use to store product data) can operate on a computer without being interfered with by the Windows Firewall. How that has anything to do with Daz Studio "phoning home" is a puzzle best left unanswered. (And I'm sure Pollywog won't answer it, other than via some additional nonsequitor.) For the record, if you were trying to prevent Daz Studio from phoning home, it would be Daz Studio, not PostgreSQL, that you'd want to be firewalling off. Unless, of course, Polywog thinks that the folks at Daz have modified the source code of PostgreSQL - an open source product, by the way - to phone home on their behalf. And even if that were the case, you'd be wanting to close firewall ports to block access, not open them up to allow access, as shown in the video.

So, basically, what Polywog has done is prove, yet again, that he can Google random words from someone else's posts and find a matching Youtube video, even if it has nothing whatsoever to do with the discussion at hand. (Presumably with the goal of both raising his total number of posts here at F95, and also impressing people with his ability to use Google.)

Having said that, I'm sure his next post (using the Polywog Sidestep) will now go off on some other tangent.

Rich posted misleading info, saying that Daz doesn't put identifying info in your images.
Polywog corrected Rich, showing that Daz software has to be run on a device, and that devices commonly add metadata to your images as mandated by the patriot act, to help tracking terrorists.
Rich lied saying that Daz doesn't use metadata. Polywog called him out on that, with proof that Daz does indeed use metadata. Rich backpedaled and admitted that he was wrong.

Now you come along and start smearing Rich's soiled diaper on the floor? Leave the poor guy alone, it was an honest mistake, you don't need to keep rubbing it in his face.

Others incorrectly claimed that using a VPN would protect you, but that is false. A VPN does not remove the metadata that was added to images by your devices.

 

[lancelotdulak]

There is no metadata in images you cant exit and remove, it's generally harmless and existed far before 911. I havent disected daz images, because i dont really care. "polywog" even in this post appears to be making shit up. Digital cameras have since nearly the beginning included location, timestamp, camera settings, vendor, even copyright information in some cameras if you set it up that way.

Image files arent "supersecret untouchable" vaults. Theyre a giant block of (usually) compressed data with a header with room for extra information. Theyre entirely editable and it is impossible to make any data in them unseeable/changeable. To do so would require a format which does not currently exist and would be pointless as any program that read them could quite simply make a new file without that information or put it into a sane format.

 

[L.Lumpy]

Rich posted misleading info, saying that Daz doesn't put identifying info in your images.
Polywog corrected Rich, showing that Daz software has to be run on a device, and that devices commonly add metadata to your images as mandated by the patriot act, to help tracking terrorists.

Excuse me? The Patriot Act requires my computer to add metadata to my images? I'm calling total B.S. on that claim. Please show me the part of that law that requires that.

Rich lied saying that Daz doesn't use metadata. Polywog called him out on that, with proof that Daz does indeed use metadata. Rich backpedaled and admitted that he was wrong.

Rich never backpedaled on your claim that Daz Studio places metadata into images that can be used to personally identify you. And you never proved your claim by showing such metadata in a Daz Studio image. Because you can't, because it isn't there.

And if you want to start saying "because Daz Studio stores something called metadata about products you've installed in a local database, that means that there's metadata in images that the program produces," you're clearly fruit-challenged, as you're confusing apples and oranges.

Now you come along and start smearing Rich's soiled diaper on the floor? Leave the poor guy alone, it was an honest mistake, you don't need to keep rubbing it in his face.

Sorry, you're the one spreading feces around this site with unsubstantiated claims like the ones littered through your posts on this subject.

Others incorrectly claimed that using a VPN would protect you, but that is false. A VPN does not remove the metadata that was added to images by your devices.

OK, you've now finally made one truthful statement in this whole argument.



If you want people to believe that someone can take an image produced in Daz Studio and trace it back to the Daz login of the person who created it with an eye towards determining whether or not the person purchased all the assets used to create the image, you're going to have to show, step by step, the data that's in the image that they can recover, and then how they can manage to back-trace that to your purchase history. Either that, or just admit that you're making all of this up out of thin air, with absolutely zero facts to back up your statements.

 

[gavgav130]

Realistically, it's very unlikely. You'd have to gain some significant notoriety before you'd be on anybody's radar, and even then it'd be hard for someone to prove that you hadn't purchased the assets. In particular, the copyright for a large number of the resources that you'll find "available" lies with the original artists, not with Daz themselves, and the odds of an individual artist coming after you are even lower.



According to what I've seen artists say on the Daz forums, they see the number of purchases, but the purchasers themselves are not identified to them. (No idea how it works on other sites like Renderosity or Renderotica.) Besides, if you publish your game under a different "nom de plume" than you use on the Daz site, how are they going to connect the two?



You can export things from Blender as OBJ or FBX and import them into Daz Studio. Main issue there is that Daz and Blender use a different default orientation (i.e. which axis is "up") and different scales (i.e. 1 unit = 1 cm vs 1 unit = 1 meter), but you can compensate for those as part of the import process.

Another package you might want to look at is Hexagon, which is free from the Daz folks.

That being said, if you do some looking, you'll probably find that there are a LOT of pre-made environments, rooms, etc., available for Daz plus there are kits that let you build rooms, so you might not have to do the modeling yourself. Unless you like doing that, of course. Here are a few of the room creator packages, for example:

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

You must be registered to see the links

All three of those are available "in the wild."

Thanks a lot for your reply. I actually want to create my own scenes using 3D modelling software because I got quite unusual idea for my game, so I need my own scenes.
Now I have issues with exporting from Blender to Daz. It looks like Daz does not keep my textures after importing. I tried to import in a range of formats. The only format that worked was .dae, but it only keeps texture just for one object and the rest of them appear with no texture.

 

[Rich]

It looks like Daz does not keep my textures after importing. I tried to import in a range of formats. The only format that worked was .dae, but it only keeps texture just for one object and the rest of them appear with no texture.

Daz's ability to import and export to other programs is, well, "challenged" in many ways. Part of the problem with textures is that different programs represent textures in very different way. Possibly the best thing for you to do would be to design your objects and UV map them in Blender (possibly even designing the texture maps there) but then to import them into Daz as OBJ or FBX files, apply the Daz Uber shader to them, and then reconstruct the texturing by applying the maps to the surface settings thereafter. Among other things, Daz really likes the texture files to be located inside one of the "data" or "Runtime" folders. You can probably get more help than I can give you on this by asking folks on the Daz forums - they tend to be really helpful, and there are probably "build it in Blender, apply textures in Daz" experts there.