Can you change a dsf's file name (and it still works)?
manekiNeko
Posts: 1,414
Not a real newbie, but my questions ARE noob questions ;P ... Maybe I'm just brain challenged or untalented or both ~
I'm reinstalling my whole DAZ, new laptop, no access to old netbook (out of commission) - and I just realized my netbook backup missed a partition... the one where I saved all my freebie downloads. I could kick myself in the head. So I have my old "My Library" and "My DAZ Library" libs, but I'm not copying the whole bunch over as is, there's a ton of unnecessary stuff there because I binged on freebies for which I bought far better versions later, I prefer to reinstall only very good or unique freebies individually. AND a few items without which old scenes (that I really want to keep) won't work (I canned most useless old works).
Those specific scenes I had made quite a while ago, when I open them, are asking for textures, objects, morphs that are missing, including items that didn't come from a shop hence they are not reinstalled (yet), and I'm in the bothersome process of tracking on my extHD or online what is missing, at least if it's important. There are not sooo many of those scenes, luckily...
-> Now my biggest problem are free morphs that are not available any more but luckily I found them in the old backup "data" folder. BUT this pack has been updated at some point, and I think I have the 2nd version in the backup - the folder/file names are slightly different from the previous ones, judging by my list of missing items when I open the scene, that seems to ask for the 1st version. I guess I made the scenes prior to the update, logically. Hence putting my copy of the folder from my "data" backup doesn't work, the items are still missing.
I tried to rename a few of the new dsf with the name of the old dsf, including folder name - it doesn't work, DAZ doesn't recognize them. WHY?
Also, I tried with and without the parallel version still in "data", ofc I got an error msg about double data...
Now, if it was just any item I would have dropped the case quite fast - a hat is a hat is a hat, and you can find similar versions of pretty much everything on the net. And poses don't even generate missing items. But full body morphs ARE my figures, and right now, everything that made them exactly as I wanted so that I found them great is gone. Ofc I could use Gen Evolution I bought much later, but I don't know if I can recreate the same body, the same expression...
So why does the renaming of a dsf not work?
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Comments
"I tried to rename a few of the new dsf with the name of the old dsf, including folder name - it doesn't work, DAZ doesn't recognize them. WHY?"
Because the .dsf files have references within the file itself to the original file name. You will need to edit the .dsf file to reflect the new filename, which could be a time-consuming process.
When your scene says it cannot find certain content, does it give you the option of searching for it? If so, pointing DAZ Studio to the newer version may work, and then saving your scene fine should resolve the problem.
I see... and say, I would invest the time... I just opened an xyz dsf in notepad++ it seems readable... is it simple like swapping a few names? I could try, even I don't really know what I'm doing... code usually makes some sense somehow ~
Sometimes... when textures are missing, I know how to replace them or give the new path, it's OK. I did it for geometries too, sometimes freebies have funny folders, and when I install a lot of zips I don't bother rearranging them ;)
I think I have to change the asset info, ID, and put the old file name/path exactly as the scene demands... after I changed the dsf name and path of course.
But there are a few other references, shorter, about modifier, and ID or url, and parts of the new or old file names etc. I hope I don't have to meddle there.
Do I actually risk to break my Genesis?
I can't really answer how much you will need to change in there to get it to work. Trial and error with a copy of one of your culprits would be all I could recommend. And yes Notepad++ will do fine to edit. As for breaking anything, a good rule of thumb for any editing is to always work on a copy, not the original file - start by saving a backup copy of the original - just save it and add a .bak to the full filename. For example, if you are working with a file named ThisFile.dsf, save a copy named ThisFile.dsf.bak somewhere you can easily find it. You are now free to edit the original to your heart's content without worry. Worst case, if you completely pooch it, then delete it, change ThisFile.dsf.bak back to ThisFile.dsf and you are back where you started. I would tend to approach the editing slowly - edit one thing, then save and try it. No go? Open it up and try another edit. Repeat until you get it to work or completely bork it. The thing is, if you can get it to work on one file, you'll have a good idea what to do on others if needed.
I can't say that I've run into this particular problem myself, so I can't give you real step-by-step instructions on what needs to be edited.
BTW, it also occurs to me that another option you may wish to look into is editing the scene file rather than the .dsf files. Whether one is easier than the other I can't say, but it may be a more logical approach. Same rules apply - work with a copy, save a backup of the original.
I am assuming it is your custom morphs contained within the saved scenes you are really after, right? If you do get everything to load again, you might want to consider saving those morphs as a scene subset rather than part of an entire scene.
i did it for a simple, single neck morph. and it kinda worked. kinda, because the line about the neck dsf wasn't in the missing files any more, and in the actor morph panels, the label had changed. but there was no change in my figure, and the value was 0. which means it didn't take properly - if my custom morph's value had been 0, it wouldn't have showed as missing in the 1st place...
so either i did something wrong when editing, or there is possibly some other kind of file needed, like auto-adapted or something (ofc all those "personal" files are also possibly missing everywhere since i didn't copy the backup ones into my new library, but i don't understand how they work at all, and there are so many of them, i couldn't make any sense of the folders i saw, henceeven if there was a corresponding file, i didn't find it...) ~
this is getting bothersome by now, and maybe the issue about the value not being taken can't be corrected (NOT meddling about with X lines of numbers!!) - so as you say, it will be easier to correct my scenes with other Gen morphs. *sigh*
i'm sorry, but i didn't understand the meaning of your last sentence
"I am assuming it is your custom morphs contained within the saved scenes you are really after, right? If you do get everything to load again, you might want to consider saving those morphs as a scene subset rather than part of an entire scene."
yes, the morphs were what i was after. but why a subset? i never use subset, or maybe 1-2x, and it was to save part of a scene as in, a couple of objects in a bigger scene, in the sense you'd assume a subset is meant to be...
"but why a subset?"
Sorry, I meant to say preset, rather than subset. When creating a scene, in the "save as" drop down list, you have the option of saving the scene (everything in it), or you can save a preset (part).
aah, preset, makes a lot more sense ^^
this is something i do use, thank you :)