Help with content please
deeahr2169
Posts: 451
I seem to have mucked up my content somehow. I just got myself a new mac and of course totally screwed up backing things up, done that before but hey! So no i have my content on a folder user/username/documents/daz3d/studio/My Library DS4ADV.
This means that i have to load any new content following that path, no problem there until yesterday. I purchased some stuff from Daz, all $1.99 offers, Onyx outfit for genesis, and a series of West park basement and morgue props together with some poses. The Onyx is fine, the poses are fine but the props dont seem to function at all. any ideas please. Also if possible can someone suggest a way to get my runtime sorted out and named properly.
Many thanks
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It sounds like your content directories are not mapped entirely correctly. Would you go to Edit > Preferences > Content Library and click on the Content Directory Manager button, then expand both DAZ and Poser formats, and post what you have listed for each? Or a screenshot. That would help too.
Hi Adam
Not totally sure what is going on here, probably me being dim as usual. I saved my content from the old Mac in a folder named My Library DSAADV, no idea why i did that, must have been a reason at the time....
Anyway i set up content manage to use that folder for both Poser and DS, and it has worked well enough up until i tried to use the West Park stuff. The props seem to be there but dont show when clicked. West park poses and the Onyx for genesis stuff is fine.
Scvreen shots included as you requested.
Thanks for your time
Okay, well, it's not a directory problem. I don't have the West Park Basement so I can't double check it to make sure the product itself is OK.
Are you certain it's not just loading off-camera? Can you check the Scene tab to see if it is there?
It is definitely not loading at all, there is nothing shown in the scene tab.
if i buy content from other parties i have to load the various elements separately. Generally the item comes with a set of folders. In one purchase, taken at random they are as follows.
Geometries. containing sub folders with obj files.
Libraries with two main sub folders Pose and Props
Pose contains pz files and Props contains pp2 files
Textures contains jpg files.
I am not sure but i would think that all content has to be composed of these basic files and possibly others though i am swimming in waters i am not too familiar with here. With DS content the items come with an installer, so i can't check what folders are included or if they are loaded properly. Is there a way to see how items that are installed with DS installers are composed. I am not sure if i have the necessary knowledge to sort things out but i could give it a shot.
Let me check my West Park Basement for you. I will edit this post with what I find out.
EDIT: Okay the folder you are showing is the Materials files. I have a Scenes Folder that holds the actual props. I see you have a Components folder. Check in it and see if it holds the actual props.
Hi
I am posting screenshots of everything i have ref West park basement and morgue. Hope it helps and thanks for your time
You are right, I do not see any figure files. They all look like Mat files. Have you looked in Figures? It's a long shot but the pz2's might be there. And I belive I have DAZ versions also, so check in your Daz Studio Formats also. You might get lucky and have them in one of those folders. I'm sorry I was not more help.
Genius!! there they all were, sometimes the best way to hide something is in plain sight, mind you it doesnt help if the seeker is blind as a bat, figuratively speaking. My very grateful thanks
Yeah! Glad you found them. Now go render and have some fun. And your welcome of course.
I bought a bunch of new content over the weekend, to take advantage of the Platinum Club offer, and two thirds of the content I bought I can’t even use! I unzipped the files then clicked the installer (on Mac) and everything seemed to install fine, no errors. Here are the items I bought and the SMALL list of content that actually loads:
*Four of the Old West buildings
*Millenium Horse
*Tack for Millenium Horse
*Haunted Mansion
*The Study
*Cowboy pack for M4
*Holiday Nook
Out of all that content, only the Millenium Horse, the Study, and Holiday Nook work. Everything else seems to be in the correct directory but it is grayed out and won’t let me load it. Or with some things (the Holiday Nook) it says it can’t find the materials, so it won’t let me install it. If Daz’s own content installers don’t work correctly, how is anything supposed to be done correctly and be usable?! I can’t be the only person having these problems. I'm including a screen shot of my content library directory manager. If anyone can help, I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm sooooo frustrated with this program.
Edit: Ok, now I've got the horse tack to load up, although I don't really know what I did differently. I still can't get ANY of the Old West buildings to load up at all. I've checked the folder location of the background/buildings that DO work, and they are in a completely different folder (runtime: support) and they all have three files associated with each one: dsx, dsa, and jpg. The Old West buildings (which don't load up) are in the (contents/environments/architecture folder, and appear to only have ds. and png files associated with them. Does that help anyone figure this out??
I don't have the Old West buildings and Haunted Mansion to check, but my guess is that the buildings actually load from runtime/libraries/props for those that are .PP2 files, and runtime/libraries/characters for those that are .CR2s rather than .PP2s, and that the files you are looking at under content are simply the Studio optimised textures for them. If you haven't been looking in runtime, then similarly you may have missed the .CR2 or .PP2 files for the other items you are having problems with.
It's exceptionally rare for there to be a problem with an existing DAZ installer and rare with a newly released one, if you find yourself having problems with newly installed content your best bet is to ask where the files actually get installed and what you should see in your content library tab.
Edited to add, IIRC runtime/support is simply the folder holding the metadata used to load the smart content database and has nothing to do with the actual product files. Older items may not even have metadata yet.
Hey DWG,
Thanks for the reply. I've actually checked the runtime folder like you mentioned, but it's not even showing up in there. In fact, I've searched my whole hard drive for the obj or cr2 files these models were supposed to come with, and they aren't showing up anywhere, in any folder. So I'm dumbfounded. I've written tech support about it, so hopefully I'll hear something in the morning.
Well, keep your fingers crossed =)
What you could try is installing to an empty folder outside of your content library. That will show you exactly what is being installed.
Ok DWG, I've uninstalled all the content that isn't working, and I'll reinstall it to a folder where I can verify all the files it is installing. But what will I be looking for, as far as what will tell me what the problem is? I assume if I don't see either a cr2 or obj file, then that is a problem?
UPDATE: Ok DWG, I have looked at the documentation which states that there should be 2 cr2 files with the Old West Undertakers building, for example, and I reinstalled that file into a folder which I specified, and I have verified there are absolutely no cr2 files installing, which is obviously the problem.
I think the biggest part of your problem is the fact that you only installed the DS files for some of your items. I never do that, and this is why. Some of the older items were designed in the Poser format and came with all of the Poser files, (Yes, DS has a Poser Runtime in the Content folder to read those items.) and then only had the DS files for the things that needed them. Most of those files only had DS texture files with them. So if you never installed the Poser files all you have are textures. You still need the Poser files so you can load the object and then put the DS textures on, (the DS textures look right when rendered without any work) it will load with them most of the time but you still need the full package. I think you might only have textures for some of your stuff you installed.
Hey Jaderail,
Thanks for the assistance. I downloaded and installed both the Poser AND DS files. It still isn't working, however. For a couple of the items (The Bath House and Holiday Nook) it is saying it can't find the textures. With the other buildings it doesn't even give me that error. Just nothing happens whatsoever.
But I have a question. With each of the products it has a "resource files" download. Should I download those as well? I tried doing that but it doesn't install automatically. It's asking me where I want those files installed and I have no idea what to tell it.
The resource files are usually just templates, to help you make your own textures, and aren't needed for the item to function - all files that are needed, if the item is stand-alone, should be in the main installers.
Where you are double-clicking a file and not getting anything I suspect you are trying to apply some kind of settings file (a pose or materials preset) rather than loading the object - as long as you have something selected you won't get an error when you do that, it just won't have an effect.
Hello Richard,
Well the problem is it forces me to select something in the scene. If I don't, it gives me an error saying something in the scene must be selected. So the only thing in the scene is the human model. Still can't get anything to work.
You have lost me. Selecting Genesis and then clicking the Bath-house would still load the bath-house if you picked the icon that loads the bath-house. If you are clicking the icon that only loads the texture for the bath-house it still will not load. What Richard and I are saying is this. We think you are trying to load a Figure by clicking just a texture or a pose for the figure. You must load the figure first. All the icons you get will not load the figure, they will only change it. You must use the proper Icon to get the figure to load.
Most of the time those icons are in People, Figures or Props. All the other ones let you change the figure in some way after you have it loaded.
Ok everyone, we figured out the problem! I called tech support and they had it figured out in five minutes. Basically, alot of the older content installed to a folder other than what it was supposed to install to, so Daz couldn't find the files. So I reinstalled everything and manually selected the "my library" folder, and it worked perfectly. Thanks for all your help. i can't believe it was such a simple thing =P
Hi,
since the problem is solved here the next one:
I have some problems too. I normally install poser and daz files. But I have content that only works with the daz files or only has daz files (e.g. my west park, other working poser west park stuff does not find it (with daz files it works)). I find that annoying because I normally only navigate the poser files.
1) Can I contact support if stuff only works if opened from daz files? Is this considered an error in the content?
2) How do I find out if stuff has been updated to check if it was fixed (without redownload)? Some secret page with md5sums or update dates of the installers?
3) What if I get 2 files for Windows, but each of them says I have to uninstall the first installed one? I assume this is an error. (e.g. 14209_ParksidePoint, 14268_ParksidePointInt, 14334_ParksidePointGround, 14392_PPPSPointPt1, 14981_Atrophy; all from today). Or should I only install one of _dpc_ and _trx_ (no idea what those mean)?
Other questions that are less important:
4) Is there some trick to get renders as in the preview from the shop? Some stuff really looks different than in the shop (escpecially metal, e.g. Historical Armour or Angulus do not look like metal in my renders. Where is the material used in those renders? Do I need some render plugin?
5) I have cloth for which unimesh fits are available, some texture packs for the cloth listed those as required. I always ignored that and did not buy the unimesh fits. But some rare cloth texture packs are not applied to the cloth automatically on double click. Are unimesh fits really needed in those cases or is that content corrupt?
6) Some installers say all poser files are installed if I select Daz as install type. Is this true for all installers or are there cases where I have to choose poser or daz?
Thanks and regards
1) All of the West park stuff should have Poser and DS installers - which product are you not seeing a Poser installer for? If an item doesn't say it's for DS only (or for another application entirely) then yes, missing Poser files would be a problem with the content or the product page and should be reported.
2) Newer products with a readme in the documentation centre should list updates, otherwise no there isn't a way of knowing short of resetting. The forthcoming install manager is billed as fixing that with update notices.
3) That would be an error - report it, but you can work around it by refusing to uninstall or by simply not installing the uninstaller.
4) Lighting is generally the trick - though with things like metals, if they use real reflections, it's also necessary to have things in the scene for them to reflect.
5) Unimesh add-ons just add new morphs, they should have no impact on the way materials apply.
6) Choice of target application never makes a difference to which files are installed, as far as I know, just to how the installer looks for possible install locations.