Problems when opening .daz in DS 4.5

I have a problem when I want to open .daz files from DS 4.0x in DS 4.5. Alle Items are shown in the Scene tab, but nothing appears in 3d window. I get several error messages while opening the file, referring to missing files. In the log file, there are a large number of errors like: "Unable to find file for storable: data/4_0_2/Genesis/Genesis/modifiers/morphs/PHMTeethTopSize_1217.dsd" these files really do not exist in the data/4_0_2 folder in the new installation. But creating a new genesis figure in 4.5 works fine.

Comments

  • SpottedKittySpottedKitty Posts: 7,232
    edited December 1969

    That's a weird one. Did you install D|S4.5 in the same place as D|S4.0, and is 4.5 using the same content location as 4.0? The most obvious way to get that kind of error would be to have 4.5 not use the same content location. How did you install the update?

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 95,997
    edited December 1969

    You have lost your old \Data folder, eithe the folder itself or the pointer to the content directory holding it. The .daz files are looking for different components (.dso, ,dsv and .dsd files) from a newly loaded Genesis (.dsf). Are you uisng the same content directory set-up in 4.5 as in 4.0? Did you delete the old content directory when uninstalling 4.0?

  • vwranglervwrangler Posts: 4,805
    edited December 1969

    You have lost your old \Data folder, eithe the folder itself or the pointer to the content directory holding it. The .daz files are looking for different components (.dso, ,dsv and .dsd files) from a newly loaded Genesis (.dsf). Are you uisng the same content directory set-up in 4.5 as in 4.0? Did you delete the old content directory when uninstalling 4.0?

    I'm having the same issue, although in my case, I do know that I accidentally deleted the pointer to whatever directory path it's looking for. Is there any way to get Studio to say "Hey, I'm looking here for this specific path/pointer" instead of/in addition to all the component error messages? I know my directories are still there, and I can certainly restore the path, but the actual error message is useless in helping to reconstruct what it's looking for.

    And as an additional bit of weirdness, I've got a \data directory -- an actual directory, not a pointer -- that suddenly appeared in my People directory when I started doing some Transfer Asset work on some hair and props. (Mostly it seems to contain the props and not the hair. Weird. Well, weirder.)

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 95,997
    edited December 1969

    the way to find a lost \data folder is simply to select the folder that contains it as a DAZ Studio Content Directory.

    If you have a Data folder in the People folder that means you have the People folder selected as a content directory. That's a very bad idea, things can get nastily muddled if you have a folder selected as a content directory inside another folder selected as a content directory. Merge that Data folder with the proper one, and deselect People as a content directory.

  • vwranglervwrangler Posts: 4,805
    edited December 1969

    the way to find a lost \data folder is simply to select the folder that contains it as a DAZ Studio Content Directory.

    If you have a Data folder in the People folder that means you have the People folder selected as a content directory. That's a very bad idea, things can get nastily muddled if you have a folder selected as a content directory inside another folder selected as a content directory. Merge that Data folder with the proper one, and deselect People as a content directory.

    Not only do I have People selected as a content directory, in my original 4.0 installation, I had "Michael 4" under People selected as a content directory. The only way I was able to get some of my files to work last night was to restore Michael 4 as a content directory, despite the fact that I have never ever used that path to my knowledge and I had no idea what it was doing there. Apparently, my initial setup of 4.0 was very very wrong, but Studio didn't object at the time. Unfortunately, having recursive content directories seems to be one of those things that 4.0 didn't object to that 4.5 has issues with.

    If I deselect the People directory or the Michael 4 directory, I get a lot of those "Studio can't open this file because Studio doesn't know where anything is and can't tell you in ordinary language where it's looking" messages. And then the file opens up with, allegedly, everything present, but no textures whatsoever. It also has problems figuring out what files are; I'll try using the beard from Unshaven, for example, and it just sits in the workspace without attaching to the figure because somehow, not knowing where the file that you are actually using at the time is means that Studio doesn't know what to do with it.

    If I deselect People as a content directory, then have Studio scan directories for content, will that fix this issue? I generally don't have Studio scan for content because it seems to break files if I've changed their location -- it's one of the things that made me abandon Smart Content -- but if it's going to be broken anyway, I suppose it might as well be usefully broken.

  • edited December 1969

    Hi,

    I deinstalled daz Studio 4.0x and Content Manager via Windows Software Center, then I deleted the DAZ3D Folder in My Documents, then I deleted the DAZ folders in the AppData folders. After that, I did a fresh install of DS 4.5, Installed the default content, then I downloaded latest versions of my other daz content and reinstalled them from my downloads folder. So there is no backwards compatibility with older .daz files after that procedure? Is there a way to upgrade them?

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 95,997
    edited December 1969

    giga light storm Unfortunately you've deleted the data folder. You would need to reinstall Ds4.0, instead of 4.5, load the items used in the scenes from the Poser-format originals, and save as a scene. Then make sure the scenes that matter open. As long as they do, replace Ds4.0 with 4.5 without deleting any residual files and carry on.

    vwrangler Merge and \Data or \Runtime folders under People or Michael 4 with the one in the proper folder, My Library presumably, and then remove the people and Michael 4 folders as content directories. Then reimport metadata by right-clicking on the Content Library pane's tab and seelcting Content DB Maintenace and ticking that option in the dialogue. That should fix things.

  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    Hi,

    I deinstalled daz Studio 4.0x and Content Manager via Windows Software Center, then I deleted the DAZ3D Folder in My Documents, then I deleted the DAZ folders in the AppData folders. After that, I did a fresh install of DS 4.5, Installed the default content, then I downloaded latest versions of my other daz content and reinstalled them from my downloads folder. So there is no backwards compatibility with older .daz files after that procedure? Is there a way to upgrade them?

    Have you checked the Recycle Bin? Windows still defaults to there instead of actually deleting anything.

    If you haven't emptied the trash/run a disk clean up there's a chance it's still there. Also, Windows never really deletes anything...it just says the space is empty and able to be reused. So a data recovery program has a chance of finding it...

  • vwranglervwrangler Posts: 4,805
    edited December 1969

    vwrangler Merge and \Data or \Runtime folders under People or Michael 4 with the one in the proper folder, My Library presumably, and then remove the people and Michael 4 folders as content directories. Then reimport metadata by right-clicking on the Content Library pane's tab and seelcting Content DB Maintenace and ticking that option in the dialogue. That should fix things.

    Thanks for trying to help. I followed your instructions, and it sorta kinda worked. (One thing to note: you need to stop the CMS before you restart Studio the first time after moving directories around, or Studio simply won't start. It kept getting about 41,000K of the program into RAM and then just sitting there. Then, after reprocessing the metadata, you need to exit Studio, restart the CMS, and then restart Studio. This may or may not help.) It reprocessed a really short list of items after that -- I assume the items that had appeared after their data/runtime files were relocated -- but kept having issues figuring what and where things were. The fact that the CMS had a brief fit of acting like a database poptart in a toaster didn't help.

    Ultimately, I wound up reinstalling Studio, including the CMS, because it was having so many issues figuring out what things were and where things were that it seemed like a clean slate for the database was going to be the only way to go. (The list of products for which it wound up reprocessing metadata that time was weirdly fascinating; there were several things that I purchased at DAZ for which it had no DAZ 3D Store Index number, whatever that is.) Oddly enough, despite the fact that the installer says that it will delete the database if you choose a new location during the install process, it doesn't do so. I still have roughly 132MB of database in the old directory. Which is fine, just weird. (I don't understand why the installer doesn't just say it's going to leave the old database as a backup.)

    I'm also having it scan known directories for files. Even if that breaks things in new and interesting ways, at least between the database reset and the scan, it should finally know again where all its bits and pieces are. And maybe even what they are.

    Thanks again for your advice.

  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 40,501
    edited October 2012

    ...was referred here after I apparently broke my 4.5 setup while trying to fix issues with GenerationX not seeing the appropriate directories to load morphs from.

    All this talk about moving, merging & such kind of goes *whoosh* to me [makes gesture of hand passing over head].

    I never experienced these issues with updating older versions, even when it involved going to a new x.0 release as long as my content install path remained consistent. Of course until 3Advanced (which also stuck things in C/Documents and Settings/...), everything simply went into the "C:/Programme Files" folder. Granted 4.5 installs only to C:/Programme Files which is why I think the original issue with GenerationX rests with the 3Advanced installation. I also still have 2.3.3 installed as a fall back when 3Advanced choked on me, which is where all my content/plugins (save for that which is exclusive to 4.x like Genesis) reside. But that is also in the same folder as the 4.5 content/plugins.

    ...oh and speaking of plugins, 4.5Pro is supposed to include the Autofit utility but I am unable to find it in the tabs menu and it never shows up on the pluvgins screen at startup.

    ...below is a screenshot of the current directory maps I have.

    directory_map_settings.jpg
    725 x 461 - 126K
    Post edited by kyoto kid on
  • HeraHera Posts: 1,950
    edited December 1969

    I have the same problem since I got a new computer and didn't bring the 'data' library with me from my old one, and now I cannot open any of my old files from before the transfer, no matter that I load up the same items in a new file. The only one which seems to be 'following' from these old days is V4. All the rest is gone.

    I wish there was some way to 'trace' which data folder the scene is actually looking for and then re-create it the hard way using explorer and copying data content. Because my common sense tells me it should be possible, since it's a question of broken links after all.

  • SpottedKittySpottedKitty Posts: 7,232
    edited December 1969

    Herakleia said:
    I have the same problem since I got a new computer and didn't bring the 'data' library with me from my old one, and now I cannot open any of my old files from before the transfer, no matter that I load up the same items in a new file.

    Do you mean "loading up the original Poser-format content tht was put in the now-not-working scenes"? That's only half of the fix process. You have to save a scene with the Poser stuff — it will just be a temporary file, so don't worry about trying to keep track of file names. Don't worry about posing or textures, but do apply any morph INJ poses you had on the old figure. It's this save that recreates the /data/ files needed by your old scenes. You will probably need to go through a few cycles of loading up stuff into a dummy scene and saving, since it's unlikely you'll get everything you need first time, but you should eventually be able to open those old scenes.
  • mjc1016mjc1016 Posts: 15,001
    edited December 1969

    If you have patience and lots of drive space...

    Go into your old content and start with the Figures folder...load as much as you can into a scene without making your computer weep...save, repeat. Do the same with props, etc...

Sign In or Register to comment.