Apparently the DAZ Install Manager is about ready

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  • TastigerTastiger Posts: 76
    edited December 1969

    Gedd said:
    You cannot move Poser content to the DS content area or vice versa. My solution as shown in the example above is to mimic the two trees and combine them using catagories. This however is a lot of work, does not work with the DIM, and destroys metadata, so it is only functional if one doesn't mind those very substantial side effects.

    I'm not certain I understand where you are coming from here.

    If I make a directory "Gen 4" and install from the DIM to that I fail to see why I cannot add any Gen 4 content whether it be D|S or Poser to that location - of course anything that isn't from DAZ will not show up in the smart content - however it should still be available by adding directories via the Content Directory Manager.

    Surely then content will be available to both D|S and Poser to me this is the same as one large content folder except that it is restricted to content for Gen 4 figures - only thing that I am uncertain about is things like power loaders and whether they work in outside of D|S's root directory.

    If I am wrong please feel free to tell me to pull my head in.

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  • SpitSpit Posts: 2,342
    edited December 1969

    Saruna said:
    I noticed that in the download list some items appear to have failed. Is this normal and knows her well of your downloads with the DIM?

    It might be a temporary download glitch; if you have any that failed, try downloading them a second time and see if that works.

    I've found that I have to re-start the DIM to get to install failed installs.That is weird, if the problem is the connection ( a timeout is the usual cause for a failed download) then simply restarting the download usually does the trick. If the problem is with the file, then it won't download until the file is fixed. (And then you would need a refresh.)


    I've only had one failed download so far. I looked in the log file and it said the file was missing.

  • SpitSpit Posts: 2,342
    edited December 1969

    Tastiger said:
    Gedd said:
    You cannot move Poser content to the DS content area or vice versa. My solution as shown in the example above is to mimic the two trees and combine them using catagories. This however is a lot of work, does not work with the DIM, and destroys metadata, so it is only functional if one doesn't mind those very substantial side effects.

    I'm not certain I understand where you are coming from here.

    If I make a directory "Gen 4" and install from the DIM to that I fail to see why I cannot add any Gen 4 content whether it be D|S or Poser to that location - of course anything that isn't from DAZ will not show up in the smart content - however it should still be available by adding directories via the Content Directory Manager.

    Surely then content will be available to both D|S and Poser to me this is the same as one large content folder except that it is restricted to content for Gen 4 figures - only thing that I am uncertain about is things like power loaders and whether they work in outside of D|S's root directory.

    If I am wrong please feel free to tell me to pull my head in.


    Not sure, but you may be talking about two separate things. The path to the content directory you show has to be defined twice to Studio---once as DS content and once as Poser content because Studio won't see both at the same time.

    I don't know about powerloaders (I don't use them though I should) but the !DAZ folder (same level as character, poses, props, folders, etc.) must be in the same runtime as the Gen4 figure it holds data for. Usually the same runtime you originally installed Vicky 4 into.

  • VoltisArtVoltisArt Posts: 212
    edited February 2013

    RAMWolff said:
    One improvement for DIM is a way for it to remember the password. Slightly annoying.

    I'll add my vote to that. Bugs me to keep signing in to web pages when I'm the only one who has access to my computer. Programs should, at least optionally, be less restrictive than a web browser.
    Post edited by VoltisArt on
  • Joe CotterJoe Cotter Posts: 3,259
    edited February 2013

    We aren't talking about the same thing. Tastiger's graphic shows a complete folder structure under Gen4 *which has separate poser and daz parent folders inside it.* My folder structure was refering to a single library where the point I was referring to was specifically the 'separate poser and daz folders.' Try taking a look at the two different folder structures, they are apples and oranges. My point is, inside the 'Gen4' folder structure shown, one 'cannot' combine the poser and daz content both within say the runtime folder so that the DAZ duf files are in the same folder as the pz files.

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    Post edited by Joe Cotter on
  • DAZ_SpookyDAZ_Spooky Posts: 3,100
    edited December 1969

    Tastiger said:
    Gedd said:
    You cannot move Poser content to the DS content area or vice versa. My solution as shown in the example above is to mimic the two trees and combine them using catagories. This however is a lot of work, does not work with the DIM, and destroys metadata, so it is only functional if one doesn't mind those very substantial side effects.

    I'm not certain I understand where you are coming from here.

    If I make a directory "Gen 4" and install from the DIM to that I fail to see why I cannot add any Gen 4 content whether it be D|S or Poser to that location - of course anything that isn't from DAZ will not show up in the smart content - however it should still be available by adding directories via the Content Directory Manager.

    Surely then content will be available to both D|S and Poser to me this is the same as one large content folder except that it is restricted to content for Gen 4 figures - only thing that I am uncertain about is things like power loaders and whether they work in outside of D|S's root directory.

    If I am wrong please feel free to tell me to pull my head in.Powerloader files don't care which runtime, they have to be in the same directory as the Corresponding CR2. Note that figures with EXP files, like V4 and M4 (and all their morph sets) should be installed in the base Poser Runtime for best performance if you are using Poser.

  • DAZ_SpookyDAZ_Spooky Posts: 3,100
    edited December 1969

    VoltisArt said:
    RAMWolff said:
    One improvement for DIM is a way for it to remember the password. Slightly annoying.

    I'll add my vote to that. Bugs me to keep signing in to web pages when I'm the only one who has access to my computer. Programs should, at least optionally, be less restrictive than a web browser.It was considered, however we couldn't guarantee the security would hold up and since it is your account password and that account password allows access to your credit card, it was determined that, for your security, we shouldn't save it.
  • VoltisArtVoltisArt Posts: 212
    edited December 1969

    Kharma said:
    VoltisArt said:
    Kharma, that's correct. Public Documents is the display nick-name of the folder, but Documents is the actual folder name. One of those silly things Windows does to try to be more friendly, like calling the regular Documents folder My Documents. We see the "friendly" name in Explorer but programs see the real name...users are confused and hijinks ensue. Thanks, Microsoft! :P

    islandgurl, Tastiger is correct. To clarify, we're only needing symbolic links to move the program to another drive. Download and installation locations can be directly changed via the Download Filters button, which gives you the screen shown above.

    Thank you for clarifying that path, I was a little confused as I have never noticed that before until I downloaded the file. thought my windows was a little wonky :)
    No problem at all. I had to triple-check what I was looking at, since the "Public Documents" folder, actually called Documents, is inside a folder called Public! lol It's...an eye-twister.

  • DAZ_SpookyDAZ_Spooky Posts: 3,100
    edited December 1969

    Gedd said:
    We aren't talking about the same thing. Tastiger's graphic shows a complete folder structure under Gen4 *which has separate poser and daz parent folders inside it.* My folder structure was refering to a single library where the point I was referring to was specifically the 'separate poser and daz folders.' Try taking a look at the two different folder structures, they are apples and oranges. My point is, inside the 'Gen4' folder structure shown, one 'cannot' combine the poser and daz content both within say the runtime folder so that the DAZ duf files are in the same folder as the pz files.
    Actually in that case you can, if they have the same name but a different extension and both a Poser and a DS file. If you are in DS it will then read the DUF and if you are in Poser it will read the pz2. (I do believe that will cause Carrara 8.5 to read the incorrect file though.)

    We have been doing that for a while with DSA files, but for consistency and because Genesis Content did not, initially, work in Poser we stopped doing that. Trying to remember if a particular product had its DS Materials in the Runtime with the PZ2 or if it had its DS Materials in outside the Poser Runtime in the DS Base Content Directory was definitely confusing and inconsistent.

  • VoltisArtVoltisArt Posts: 212
    edited December 1969

    VoltisArt said:
    RAMWolff said:
    One improvement for DIM is a way for it to remember the password. Slightly annoying.

    I'll add my vote to that. Bugs me to keep signing in to web pages when I'm the only one who has access to my computer. Programs should, at least optionally, be less restrictive than a web browser.
    It was considered, however we couldn't guarantee the security would hold up and since it is your account password and that account password allows access to your credit card, it was determined that, for your security, we shouldn't save it.
    Seems like a stern warning next to a checkbox or two should suffice. I'd even be willing to go through some kind of extra verification once in order to save time when I'm using the program.
  • TaozTaoz Posts: 9,732
    edited February 2013

    Saruna said:
    I noticed that in the download list some items appear to have failed. Is this normal and knows her well of your downloads with the DIM?

    It might be a temporary download glitch; if you have any that failed, try downloading them a second time and see if that works.

    I've found that I have to re-start the DIM to get to install failed installs.That is weird, if the problem is the connection ( a timeout is the usual cause for a failed download) then simply restarting the download usually does the trick.

    Make it verify each file after download (does file exist? if yes, check file length or zip integrity) , and re-download if it has failed. Simple to make.

    Post edited by Taoz on
  • Joe CotterJoe Cotter Posts: 3,259
    edited February 2013

    Gedd said:
    We aren't talking about the same thing. Tastiger's graphic shows a complete folder structure under Gen4 *which has separate poser and daz parent folders inside it.* My folder structure was refering to a single library where the point I was referring to was specifically the 'separate poser and daz folders.' Try taking a look at the two different folder structures, they are apples and oranges. My point is, inside the 'Gen4' folder structure shown, one 'cannot' combine the poser and daz content both within say the runtime folder so that the DAZ duf files are in the same folder as the pz files.
    Actually in that case you can, if they have the same name but a different extension and both a Poser and a DS file. If you are in DS it will then read the DUF and if you are in Poser it will read the pz2. (I do believe that will cause Carrara 8.5 to read the incorrect file though.)

    We have been doing that for a while with DSA files, but for consistency and because Genesis Content did not, initially, work in Poser we stopped doing that. Trying to remember if a particular product had its DS Materials in the Runtime with the PZ2 or if it had its DS Materials in outside the Poser Runtime in the DS Base Content Directory was definitely confusing and inconsistent.

    My understanding was this was only for material files, not !Preload or object links. I thought I tested this and found it wouldn't work. The reason I didn't specify the materials exception was I didn't want to confuse the matter. If I could migrate all of my DAZ content under the Runtime folder, combining it with the poser content I would probably do that so that I had only one folder structure to deal with rather than having content split across two folder structures.

    Post edited by Joe Cotter on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 96,864
    edited December 1969

    Gedd said:
    Gedd said:
    We aren't talking about the same thing. Tastiger's graphic shows a complete folder structure under Gen4 *which has separate poser and daz parent folders inside it.* My folder structure was refering to a single library where the point I was referring to was specifically the 'separate poser and daz folders.' Try taking a look at the two different folder structures, they are apples and oranges. My point is, inside the 'Gen4' folder structure shown, one 'cannot' combine the poser and daz content both within say the runtime folder so that the DAZ duf files are in the same folder as the pz files.
    Actually in that case you can, if they have the same name but a different extension and both a Poser and a DS file. If you are in DS it will then read the DUF and if you are in Poser it will read the pz2. (I do believe that will cause Carrara 8.5 to read the incorrect file though.)

    We have been doing that for a while with DSA files, but for consistency and because Genesis Content did not, initially, work in Poser we stopped doing that. Trying to remember if a particular product had its DS Materials in the Runtime with the PZ2 or if it had its DS Materials in outside the Poser Runtime in the DS Base Content Directory was definitely confusing and inconsistent.

    My understanding was this was only for material files, not !Preload or object links. I thought I tested this and found it wouldn't work. The reason I didn't specify the materials exception was I didn't want to confuse the matter.

    It works for any script file in older versions of DS, so any kind of preset, and also for all .duf files in recent versions of DS4.5 as far as I can tell.

  • Joe CotterJoe Cotter Posts: 3,259
    edited February 2013

    So .ds, .dsa, .dz ... cameras, etc... all will work under the 'runtime' folder now?

    Post edited by Joe Cotter on
  • DAZ_SpookyDAZ_Spooky Posts: 3,100
    edited December 1969

    Taozen said:
    Saruna said:
    I noticed that in the download list some items appear to have failed. Is this normal and knows her well of your downloads with the DIM?

    It might be a temporary download glitch; if you have any that failed, try downloading them a second time and see if that works.

    I've found that I have to re-start the DIM to get to install failed installs.

    That is weird, if the problem is the connection ( a timeout is the usual cause for a failed download) then simply restarting the download usually does the trick.

    Make it verify each file after download (does file exist? if yes, check file length or zip integrity) , and re-download if it has failed. Simple to make.

    It does everything on your list but automatically redownload, which is why that is weird.

  • DAZ_SpookyDAZ_Spooky Posts: 3,100
    edited December 1969

    Gedd said:
    So .ds, .dsa, .dz ... cameras, etc... all will work under the 'runtime' folder now?
    They have for some time, though you do have to have a Poser file as well or DS won't see anything there.
  • Joe CotterJoe Cotter Posts: 3,259
    edited February 2013

    I don't understand, the ds lights/cameras have no connection to poser lights/cameras so how does that work?

    Post edited by Joe Cotter on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 96,864
    edited December 1969

    DS ignores the Poser file - it's just a place holder and can be completely empty. It simply loads (and runs for a script) the matching DS file.

  • DAZ_SpookyDAZ_Spooky Posts: 3,100
    edited December 1969

    DS ignores the Poser file - it's just a place holder and can be completely empty. It simply loads (and runs for a script) the matching DS file.
    Correct
  • Joe CotterJoe Cotter Posts: 3,259
    edited February 2013

    Thank you, had just tested this with an empty text file named after the DAZ file with the appropriate Poser extension and this did work in my initial tests, so this looks like it will be very useful in streamlining my runtime. What I don't understand is, if this works.. why can't the two be consolidated under a single runtime, making everyone's life easer. The Poser files would be ignored by DAZ and the DAZ files would be ignored by Poser.

    Post edited by Joe Cotter on
  • VoltisArtVoltisArt Posts: 212
    edited December 1969

    I just deleted 29GB of exe files...everything newer than V4...and I loved it.

  • JimmyC_2009JimmyC_2009 Posts: 8,891
    edited February 2013

    What I don’t understand is, if this works.. why can’t the two be consolidated under a single runtime, making everyone’s life easer. The Poser files would be ignored by DAZ and the DAZ files would be ignored by Poser.

    That is what happens in cases where there are consolidated installers. The ones where the readme says 'DAZ Studio user no longer need to.....', can't remember the rest :)

    The DS files are put in the Runtime folder inside the DAZ Studio Content or My Library folder with the Poser files. When you look at them insside DS, you will see a scroll icon in the top left hand corner or the PNG file, which tells you that the Poser PZ2 file will be ignored, and the DS script file will be run instead. Of course, inside Poser, the DS files are not seen at all.

    I wnet through my runtime folder a while ago, and made dummy PZ2 files for each of the DS ones, so that I would not have to keep switching from Poser content to DS content to apply materials.

    Post edited by JimmyC_2009 on
  • VoltisArtVoltisArt Posts: 212
    edited December 1969

    Perhaps I'm not reading correctly, perhaps the answer hasn't come yet...Gedd's last post sounds like what I want to do. I'll learn how to use the internal custom categorization in Studio later...but for the sake of simplifying my files, I'd like to dump the contents of Studio\My Library into the Studio\Content folder.

  • Joe CotterJoe Cotter Posts: 3,259
    edited December 1969

    It is what you want to do if you are going to hand edit things. Having said that, it is somewhat involved and definitely labor intensive.

    @JimmyC .. this is only for the Mat files, I was specifically referring to being able to do it with the DAZ files 'across the board.'

  • JimmyC_2009JimmyC_2009 Posts: 8,891
    edited December 1969

    That may work now with DS mostly using the DUF format, and it could possibly work with DUF and CR2 for example, but why bother? DA can already read CR2 files, and the only reason it was done before for MAT files, was because they were the only files that were different.

    Some PAs released two sets of files, if they were both the same size, it meant that you downloaded one or the other depending on whcih app you used, DS or Poser. If the Poser one was much larger, then you needed both, because the Poser version had all the geometry files, and DS needed optimised DS MATerial files.

    Some PAs only released one install file, which was the combined installer that we have been discussing. I thought it was a great idea, but not everyone did it that way.

  • VoltisArtVoltisArt Posts: 212
    edited December 1969

    Big part of my problem is since Studio 1.8, I've never overhauled my runtime, though I have organized somewhat, on occasion. The installers and Studio and my OS changed/upgraded and content got placed in completely new locations which haven't all been wrangled in as much as they should. Stuff is all over the place and just finding things to start to organize them is a mess, lol.

  • Joe CotterJoe Cotter Posts: 3,259
    edited December 1969

    That may work now with DS mostly using the DUF format, and it could possibly work with DUF and CR2 for example, but why bother? DA can already read CR2 files, and the only reason it was done before for MAT files, was because they were the only files that were different.

    Some PAs released two sets of files, if they were both the same size, it meant that you downloaded one or the other depending on whcih app you used, DS or Poser. If the Poser one was much larger, then you needed both, because the Poser version had all the geometry files, and DS needed optimised DS MATerial files.

    Some PAs only released one install file, which was the combined installer that we have been discussing. I thought it was a great idea, but not everyone did it that way.

    We are talking at cross purposes Jimmy. Trying to explain further would take more effort then the energy I have to commit to the task. No offense meant, just want to bow out with saying for my part, not exactly.

  • morriscoxmorriscox Posts: 5
    edited December 1969

    Hello. I installed DAZ Install Manager and entered "Main" for the Name: field and my email address for the Email: field (after absent-mindedly putting my email address in the Name: field and my password in the Email: field). I type in my password and get the error message: Unable to login to the specified account. Verify the email and/or password and try again. Reading the tooltips for each field doesn't help. Seems to me that they skimpped on usability a bit.

  • fixmypcmikefixmypcmike Posts: 19,565
    edited December 1969

    morriscox said:
    Hello. I installed DAZ Install Manager and entered "Main" for the Name: field and my email address for the Email: field (after absent-mindedly putting my email address in the Name: field and my password in the Email: field). I type in my password and get the error message: Unable to login to the specified account. Verify the email and/or password and try again. Reading the tooltips for each field doesn't help. Seems to me that they skimpped on usability a bit.

    Try it again, I've seen it sometimes reject the email/password and then work if you try again without changing anything.

  • morriscoxmorriscox Posts: 5
    edited December 1969

    Does putting a + in the email address mess things up? Gmail allows you to use a + in order to create an automatic filter.

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