Weirdly named installation files
DisparateDreamer
Posts: 2,490
I'm sure some people love it, or have their own methods, but i personally HATE it when folks put their products in either vendor-named folders or give them weird, abbreviated names. I never can find it!
Example, today I installed Buccaneer Basics. I could not find it in my folder anywhere!! Finally reinstalled it in an empty folder, and it was in a folder called essence.
WHAT?? WHY?
I mean seriously... how can we find and use the things if we can't find them in a logical place?
it's bad enough that most of the time (IMO.. i know some out there actually like it) vendors put their stuff under their name, and sure if you want to memorize what each vendor has made....ick.
I sort my folders by category. at the VERY LEAST put the character it was for on the folder.
I hate having to hunt down and rename installs. i spend enough time hunting for lost socks, missing keys, and misplaced eyeglasses in real life.... I don't want to search my runtime too :(
*end crazy lady's 'can't find anything-anywhere-ever' ranting*
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Comments
I've been in the habit of installing to a dummy folder for quite a while. Solves a lot of issues before they start ;)
I am so with you on this score...having to remember who the vendor is or the wierd naming conventions is taxing my old brain. Make it simple keeping the name of the product is best for me as I do remember what I have purchased and the product names. :)
The naming convention and where items are placed is a complete fiasco that I think will never be resolved.
In other words, load items one thing at a time and put it where you need it or can find it if you want some sort of organization, because it certainly isn't going to be done for us.
Even metadata is a nightmare. Props called Actors and Actors called Props. This is something so simple, yet it can not be done correctly.
Okay, ranting is over as I continue to load all of my content one item at a time.
It's just a mess. the point of an installer is useless when it installs stuff that you have to move, rename, and place yourself. That it takes forever to install each piece of software (what is it now, 12 clicks??? stupid!) and then on top, you have to install in a dummy folder, move and rename everything..... geeze.
Just go with the name of the product it's not hard.
To the vendors who put your name on everything as if it will make me buy more from you.... FYI... it won't. It makes me remember you as the ANNOYING VENDOR WHO MAKES ME JUMP THROUGH HOOPS TO FIND YOUR CONTENT AND MUST REMEMBER TO THINK TWICE WHEN I BUY..
Sorry for ranting, just lots of content, and repeatedly under vendor name or unrelated name. GRRRR come on, there's no good reason to do that!!!
Such a waste of time. :(
Actually it is exactly 9 clicks for the newest installers, those that install metadata, unless you want to see the promo page.
Nope 13 clicks. i just double and triple and quadruple checked on 3 diff installers..... blah.
Then they are not the latest installers. It is 9 clicks, including the double click (2), the run click (3), the next on the welcome page (4), I accept the agreement (5), then next after accepting agreement (6), clicking next on settings (7), unless you customize it, then installation (8), then finish (9).
My guess is you customize the installation, whereas mine is set up to where I do not have to customize it.
Edited to add: so there! lol
you absolutely have to customize installation or it A: installs in a bad place and you have to search for it and reinstall it anyway, and B: so it doesn't install yet another shortcut and other redundant items.
Another reason to always run an installer customised — if you have your content set up like I do, putting all Genesis stuff directly into D|S4's My Library and all older stuff into my old D|S3 content location via a dummy folder (I still use D|S3 a lot), there is no guarantee the installer will guess correctly which of your content locations to put stuff into. The clicks add up.
Not just the clicks, the big sweeping mouse movements. Several installer versions back, I could run a pre-Bitrock installer quickly, never using default settings, and barely moving the mouse between rapid clicks. Now we have to bounce back and forth going clicky-clicky until our eyes cross. :gulp:
As I said I do not need to customize my installation because I am only installing content with metadata. I then categorize it for use in Smart Content because it is not categorized worth a crap. I will load the other content that does not have metadata when the installer comes out with the new zips. I want everything to be able to be used with Smart Content and the ability to put the content where I want in the program. I don't care where it is in the folder structure in my Library.
I may do something different with content purchased form Rendo or RDNA, but I will approach that when the time comes.
Amen
I install only Genesis stuff to My Library (plus the odd prop or scene set which requires DS4 and that I can never find or forget to look for because all my scene stuff I normally keep in a separate runtime.).
Everything else I install to a temp folder. Then I consolidate everything for an item into a single folder and move that to its final destination organized runtime which contains only a character folder.
What that means is that the uninstallers created by the installer are useless so I have to do a custom install so they aren't created. It also means the metadata is useless as well so I have to hunt down the 'run once' folder and delete everything BEFORE I run Studio again.
This means I have to do installs in batches and can't mix Genesis stuff with other stuff from DAZ during an install binge.
The stuff from Rendo and RDNA I just unzip to a temp folder, do the single folder consolidate thing and move to final destination. Sometimes I can simply move piece by piece from the zip directly to the destination runtime. No worries about an uninstaller. No worries about metadata. No worries about sequence of installs.
Sorry - but kick Daz, not the PA!
It has happened too often to me - and always on products that Daz bought from an artist and sold as a DO.
It's why I am installing to temporary folders.
Isn't the PA the one who names the folders after themselves? because there ARE plenty Daz originals who are named reasonably, but certain vendors name folders after themselves..... I installed no less than 18 files by one particular vendor under their name..... grrrrrrr. I don't think I'll buy that person's stuff for a while, so annoyed.... :(
I believe the Buccaneer set was intended as part of a series of male clothing, but was purchased by DAZ and released on its own. The folder, however, reflects the name of the planned series.
Another one I know of is Luthbel's Asesina for V4/A4, I don't remember the folders name, but it was decidedly different. And again it is a DO. I think the PAs are coming up with their own names for the items and then Daz decides to buy them out and give it a new name for the store, but forgets about renaming the runtime/content folders.
If you are talking about something different, like Genesis / Clothes / Vendor name / Folder with items name ...
well, there are buyers who really like that, because it makes it easier for them to find the clothes by a certain Artist.
Although its rather minor, I also must agree that I personally prefer it when PAs dont use Vendor named folders. Even if you do remember the vendors name, IMO its just an extra folder you dont really need, it breaks consistency and slows you down a tiny bit, (hardly the end of the world though).
BUT! (and in defence of PAs that still do this) I think it comes from the old standard that was often used in poser runtimes, as Ive noticed that PAs who have been around the longest, tend to be the ones who do vendor named folders the most. So my theory is that they are (in there own way) being consistant with the way they have always done it in the past. I guess Its Daz who changed the standard with the /People/Genesis/Clothing path.
Still, there should probably be one standard that everyone should stick to though.
And yes, when people dont use any sort of conventional folder structure, that it can be truely infurating to have to go digging for something, - or have to move it to the correct path manually to tidy up.
I dont know how this gets past QA , Daz should really clamp down on it.
I have found similar problems with vendors from other sites. One set I just installed, from a well known vendor, the main folder for everything was just named "props" Very descriptive.
re vendor names: It depends I guess.
They're useful in runtimes (geometries and textures) for reference if you think you've lost something. And in libraries if the product is in zip files they're fine for me too because I change the structure as I install. I append the vendor name when I create the main product folder and it helps to have it right there in the zip for reference otherwise I have to, er, read the readme.
But if you just install as the vendor intends, or install a DAZ .exe with metadata so that you really can't change anything, it's a PITA to browse your content.
I do, on the other hand, have a handful of folders that contain everything I have from a specific vendor (Stonemason, Luthbel, Antfarm, Nursoda, Flink) but that is the exception.
This is an example of why I am doing it the way described earlier in the thread. I can find content with such ease.
I'm sorry you find some of us so irritating. But in some cases it can lead to much less mess. If for example anyone had all of our shader sets they would have 30+ sets under our name. And yes some people do have a large volume of our shader presets. Rather than have that many spread out among scores of others that you have to scroll through they can click folders and get a smaller "chunk" to look at at once. Sometimes it is easier to have a few of those vendor folders to click on than trying to see everything as you scroll through 100+ options to find something. I know how hard it is to locate a set in a group that big because I have nearly that many in my Calida folder alone due to work in progress sets and private use files. It isn't done because of an expectation of convincing you to buy something but because it is an organizational tool.
I agree that there are some things that end up with whacked names. But that also isn't entirely the content creators fault. It is not unheard of to have them suggest that there be a new name selected. And depending on when that happens naming may not get changed correctly. I recently had to change the product name on something myself and there is a file in there that I can not actually change the name of post production so it just has to stay that way. As far as I can tell the name change thing most commonly happens with PA products DAZ buys and then perhaps sits on for a while. Then they have a "vision" change well after the product went through QA and they miss the internal name changes.