Pics 261: More SC82 trio fun (Patreon)

I came close to finishing Strip Crazy Eights 2.0 after finishing an Android version, which will be out soon.

Then I got a message from Eleven Labs, the company I do AI voices with. They are dropping the V1 models that I have been practically exclusively using.

Raising AI Prices Everywhere

I keep up with whats going on, the AI companies can no longer afford to supplement the cheap pricing of their products, and have to start making a profit. Eleven Labs is a European company not associated with any of the American AI companies, but the pricing rules still apply.

I wasn't using V1 because it's cheap, I was using V1 because it's consistent. I voice one line at a time, and I want every line to sound like the same person is saying it. I wasn't getting that quality with V2, and certainly not V3.

I needed to see if V2 was going to work for me. So I revoiced Strip Crazy Eights 2.0 with the v2 models, and they sound OK. They don't sound as expressive as I got before, but that could be a settings issue I need to play with more. But they have improved V2 enough that a line generated in V1 and another in V2 can be played together and they sound like the same person is talking.

So far so good, but I have a feeling that Eleven Labs will do what Anthropic and OpenAI have done and raise the monthly price at some point. These voices are worth $20 a month, they are not worth $200 a month.

If I get priced out, I will drop AI voicing completely. It's always been an optional feature many users don't even use.

Daz Studio Introduces Studio 6, and also Price Hikes too

In the last week, Daz Studio upgraded to version 6. The current (still available) version is version 4. (I have no idea what happened to 5.)

Daz Studio uses IRay to render images, IRay was developed by Nvidia to support Nvidia cards. But then IRay was sold to Siemens, and then Nvidia came out with the RTX 5000 series which doesn't work on the IRay that is in Studio 4. That forced Daz to do a major update to work with the RTX 5000 series, and that resulted in Daz 6. The cost of the new version was not cheap.

The thing is, they are doing the same thing as Eleven Labs. The new Daz 6 will no longer be free, it will be a $20 a month premium to use. It's "free to try" now, but that won't last.

I'm already on Daz's $20 a month Premiere plan because it gives me big discounts on their models, but I'm still using my RTX 4070ti card. I will probably try to upgrade to 6 soon, but I have stuff to do, and don't have time to convert just yet.

Don't worry about me, these price hikes aren't going to stop me. But it will likely get more expensive for new hobbyists to start.

Oh Yeah, This Weeks New Pics

Between revoicing SC8, and rewriting Dating in a World on Fire with the changes I had to make (mention in my last post), I have no scenes to render. So some exclusive trio nudes for fun.

The game featured Rachel in the middle. These feature Relay in one and Ariane in the other. I also used a full set instead of a background pic used in the game, so these look nicer.