Advanced Light Installer Issues

Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
edited October 2013 in The Commons

This thread is intended solely to help with install issues. If you have questions or tips about use of the light once it is installed please post in this thread instead; http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/27675/

UPDATE - Fresh manual installers should now be in your account

There have been some bugs with the installation of the advanced ambient and spot lights. To my knowledge the problems only occur on Windows based machines, not on Macs. If you are a Mac user and find the installer is not working please post here to let me know.

Because of how the lights work (kinda sorta like a plugin) some of the files are very particular as to where they are placed. One of these places (by default) is in Program Files and the other is under the computer Admin User's AppData folder. Because Windows gives limited access to those locations, installing from an EXE (rather than a zip) or through DIM is necessary. This is why a manual zip install is not available in your account's product downloads.

A few people reported issues with the lights after using the EXEs to install. At first this appeared to effect just a few people and the cause was unclear. After more testing we found that the bug was more wide spread so the manual installers have been taken down temporarily until we can resolve the problem.

Installation can still be done through the DAZ Install Manager.

If the light does not appear under available downloads within DIM please ensure that the "Plugins" option is enabled in the DIM download settings. See image below.

I'm very sorry for this inconvenience.

William / Age of Armour

Post edited by Age of Armour on

Comments

  • KatteyKattey Posts: 2,899
    edited October 2013

    But... I was able to install AAL manually from zip very well and exe will screw it because my main DS folders and all applicable important folders aren't located in Admin User’s AppData folder or anywhere near it at all :/ If exe process puts important files in those User's AppData folders and is automated and it can't be changed by me, it will be very uncomfortable.

    Post edited by Kattey on
  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    True true Kattey,

    I probably should qualify that by saying the installer needs to find where the DS program is installed and place the files there. That is usually Program Files.

    However, as it last sat, the EXE was frequently not installing a few of the necessary files at all.

    You make a great point. I will note it and make sure DAZ keeps that in mind for the installers. I think they probably are already taking that into consideration but good to have a reminder just in case :)

  • bicc39bicc39 Posts: 589
    edited December 1969

    Installed and reinstalled a few different ways,finally got it to work.
    Have no idea how.
    But.
    Want to assure you that it is worth the effort as are all products
    you make.
    Know that the past few days/hours have been a nightmare for you.
    After all the work you put in to have this happen must be depressing.

    Repeating, you make good and valued products, will continue to look
    for anything you make and will try to buy it as soon as it is issued.
    Keep 'em coming.

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    Thanks Bicc, I really appreciate that.

    Was it the EXE or DIM that you used?

  • bicc39bicc39 Posts: 589
    edited December 1969

    Unfortunately both, twice each.
    Downloaded and used ( forgot which first) DIM.
    Went to folder that contained files and copied and pasted.
    Forgive me do not remember the sequence.
    To be honest had the same type problem with the other light.
    At a certain point for a few seconds, did not think well of you.:-)
    Threw everything at it.
    Worth the effort though just to find out about an HDR situation with the product from Dimension Theory.

    Today and the weekend will be a bitch for you , everything upwards from here.
    Best of luck and fingers crossed for you

  • KinichKinich Posts: 855
    edited December 1969

    Okay, as I'm having issues with this I thought I'd post my experiences to see if this will help shed light on the matter.

    I bought the bundle when it came out and downloaded the two .exe files that were in my Product Library and installed both. It initially appeared that all was well as the products appeared in my Content Library but only the Ambient light is working, the Spotlight is working as described above with no advanced controls available.

    Now for some details:

    System is Windows 7, 64Bit, running DS 4.6.1.17 Pro.

    My content is on a separate partition spread across a number of folders depending on content type, Genesis, V4, M4, Animals, Building, Lights, Shaders etc.

    When running the Ambient Installer I get the option to 'Select Components', two tick boxes 'Content' & 'DAZ Studio 4.x Files'. Then after going through the usual check boxes it reports two selected Paths in the 'Installation Summary' window.
    Content Path: D:\50 Lights
    DAZ Studio 4.x Path (x64): C:/Program Files/DAZ 3D/DAZStudio4

    When installing the Advanced Spotlight I do not get the 'Select Components' window appear and when the 'Installation Summary' appears it only has a single entry.
    Content Path: D:\50 Lights

    Have tried this several times and in all instances the results are the same, Ambient Light installs correctly the Spotlight does not.

    If you want any more info please ask but please note that I am in the UK and its already 22:45 here.

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    Thanks Kinich!

    And thank you for reminding me about the 'Select Components' dialogue. I knew something was different between version 1 of the installer and version 2 but completely forgot about that. I'll pass this onto DAZ QA.

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited October 2013

    UPDATE

    New manual exe installers should be available in the Product Downloads section of your account.

    I've tested the win 64 bit versions in both default and custom mode and they are working for me on this system. If anyone is using the manual install downloads I would love to hear if they are working for you also .

    Post edited by Age of Armour on
  • KinichKinich Posts: 855
    edited December 1969

    IT WORKS!

    Just downloaded the new installers, Windows 64 bit files and they installed & work as they should for me.

    Windows 7 64 bit system, DS 4.6.1.17 Pro with my content in separate folders on a dedicated partition as described in my previous post, both installers go through the Select Components & Installation Summary correctly with two Options & Paths selected.

    Thanks for the product & the after sales service/investigation that you've provided.

  • reserv888reserv888 Posts: 1,126
    edited December 1969

    I have tried to follow your instructions here in this thread.
    I still just get a dark silhouette in the renders.
    I have uninstalled and downloaded both Ambient and Spotlight several times.
    I have the plugins checked, but I have unchecked and re-checked, just to be sure.
    The only parameters shown under the light option are still: color and intensity.

    Any ideas?

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited November 2013

    Thanks for posting reserv888. It is important that I know if people are still experiencing install issues. I almost marked that part of the manual as solved because I thought the installers were now working properly for everyone.

    Have you tried using the manual, downloaded installer from your DAZ account?

    My preference would be for it to install correctly from both the DIM and account download but, for now, you can manually place some of the files from the DIM zip to get it working.

    To manually install you can take the DIM zip, unzip it and move the files into place. They can either be placed in several folders the directory where DS is installed (typically C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4 ) or to the admin user's AppData folder. At the bottom of the following page you can see an explanation of where the ambient files go... http://www.ageofarmour.com/3d/tutorials/AoA_advanced_ambient_light_help.html#Known_Issues

    The spot light locations are the same but the file names are different.

    C:\Users\AdminUserName\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\Studio4\scripts\support\AgeOfArmour\Light

    AoA_AdvancedSpotlightAttribs.dsa
    AoA_AdvancedSpotlightDef.dsa
    AoA_AdvancedSpotlightParams.dsa

    And in C:\Users\AdminUserName\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\Studio4\shaders\AgeOfArmour\Light
    AoA_AdvancedSpotlight.sdl

    Please let me know if the either manual download installers or the manual placement works. Oh and definitely let me know if neither works. I wan't to be sure people are able to use the lights.

    Post edited by Age of Armour on
  • reserv888reserv888 Posts: 1,126
    edited December 1969

    Here are my paths to the Ambient light. It differs somewhat from yours, but I doubt thats the reason. (Or is it...?)

    C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4 Public Build\scripts\support\AgeOfArmour\Light
    C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4 Public Build\scripts\support\AgeOfArmour\Light
    C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4 Public Build\scripts\support\AgeOfArmour\Light
    C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4 Public Build\shaders\AgeOfArmour\Light

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited November 2013

    reserv888, is it working with them installed to those locations? If not, try moving them to the AppData folder.

    Just to check, do you have 2 different versions of DS 4.5+ installed by chance?

    Theoretically, they should work where you have them installed but the symptoms you are experiencing are the exact ones you would get if DS was unable to find those files.

    Let me go over the sorta weird way the files work:

    1 - You click on AoA Ambient Light.duf from within DS. This file does very little but tells DS to run a script which is, by default, in C:\Users\YourUserName\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library\data\Age of Armour\Advanced Ambient Light\AoA_AmbientLight

    2) the Advanced Ambient Light.dsf (in the My Library\data folder) tells DS that the thing it is loading is a light and establishes how scene translation and rotation works. It also sets some of the default values. If this file is not found you will get an on screen message saying some files are missing. If you hit OK it might load something that looks like a null but it won't even have the Light Intensity or Light Color parameters.

    Now DS is pretty intuitive about finding the files for steps 1 and 2, as long as they are installed to some content directory that DS knows about. If it finds those it will start loading a generic light. DS adds Light Color and Light Intensity to any light it creates. This is why you see those two parameters even if the steps below fail.

    3 ) That Advanced Ambient Light.dsf then loads the AoA_AOLightDef.dsa (in the Scripts folder) which doesn't say much except telling DS it should load AoA_AOLightParams.dsa (also in the Scripts folder) to build the UI. Then it tells DS to run AoA_AOLightAttribs.dsa and AoA_AOLight.sdl when it is time to render.

    4) When you hit render, AoA_AOLightAttribs.dsa (also in the Scripts folder) writes some rendering information in the scene file as it goes to the renderer. This is stuff like whether the light is on, casts specular or just diffuse.

    5) As the renderer is calculating the DS/RenderMan scene file it looks at AoA_AOLight.sdl to see how the light affects things in the scene. This file is the one that has the light's code and does all the light and shadow work in the render.

    3, 4 and 5 are where the trouble creeps in. I would have liked to place all these files in the My Library\data folder along with Advanced Ambient Light.dsf but the internal workings of DS and the renderer need to have these files in select locations. DS looks for them in a path relative to where DS is installed, such as Program Files, but it can also find them if you installed DS to another location. It also looks under the user's and/or Admin user's AppData folder.

    Now, I am pretty confused about why DS is not finding them or the installer is not placing them wherever the DS executable is installed. Installing and how DS finds files is pretty much beyond my knowledge. I get the gist of it but DAZ builds all the installers and often moves files to locations which they know will work better or be more consistent. They write scripts for the installers which somehow read or detect where DS is installed. It appears one of those scripts isn't finding the right spot to place the files or maybe something about the user's system is confusing the installer.

    Please know that I am not trying to pass blame on DAZ. I'm just honestly not sure how the install part works or why DAZ prefers the files go into the DS install location rather than the AppData folder. There have also been a lot of folder structure changes in the last year or two which I am aware of but don't know why they were changed. The developers at DAZ are really smart guys so I figure there must be a good reason for these things and I accept it.

    Again, not blaming DAZ, Just explaining why I suggest moving the files to AppData if you are experiencing issues. It seems to be the folder where DS is most likely to find them.

    I'm sure this is way more info than anyone wanted to know but I think it is often good to explain what is going on and why. Maybe this info will spark an idea in someone and they can point out why things are not always installing. I also thought it was important to explain why the light is loading, adding a few parameters but not all of them. I know that has to be confusing. Most of the tie you expect something to either fully load and work or not load at all hehe.

    Post edited by Age of Armour on
  • sydgrl3dsydgrl3d Posts: 32
    edited December 1969

    Mac os 10.7.5
    Daz 4.5.0.49 Advanced Edition 64 bit

    installed Advance ambient
    Launched Daz
    Created a new scene
    Created a plane
    Created a sphere
    Double clicked "AoA Ambient Light"
    The preview window lit up.
    Hit render to see what the default lighting would produce.
    Got a black lit screen.
    Went and played with settings, nothing changed.

    What am I doing wrong?
    Thanks

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  • kyoto kidkyoto kid Posts: 40,513
    edited December 1969

    ...is the radius setting on the light "10"? You need to set it to 0 to illuminate every thing in the scene.

  • reserv888reserv888 Posts: 1,126
    edited December 1969

    @Age of Armour

    Yes, I have two installations of Daz Studio. (How on earth did you know that!?) :)
    It is not very practical but I have some products installed in one Daz (under my own user name) and most of the products installed under the other (public).

    I don't have an AppData folder at all under the PUBLIC user.

    I have tried to manually transfer the Ambient files to MY OWN user, as per your instructions. That didn't help.
    I have uninstalled the Ambient lights and tried to change the installation path to MY OWN user folder and reinstalled. Didn't do the trick either. (In fact I couldn't find the Ambient Lights at all after this. Didn't show up under "A" in the Content Folder).

    Is it important that I only have ONE Daz Studio?
    Is it important it is installed under MY OWN user (instead of PUBLIC)?

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    871e said:
    Mac os 10.7.5
    Daz 4.5.0.49 Advanced Edition 64 bit

    installed Advance ambient
    Launched Daz
    Created a new scene
    Created a plane
    Created a sphere
    Double clicked "AoA Ambient Light"
    The preview window lit up.
    Hit render to see what the default lighting would produce.
    Got a black lit screen.
    Went and played with settings, nothing changed.

    What am I doing wrong?
    Thanks

    On a Mac huh? I Think you are the first I have seen to report an issue on the Mac.

    Are all the parameters showing up when you select the light or do you only see "Light Intensity" and "Light Color"? If you don't see all the parameters then it did not install correctly.

    Unfortunately I don't have a new enough Mac to test on here. I will let DAZ no but it would be good if you file a bug report too so that they know all the info. Until we hear back from DAZ maybe some mac users can chime in with some suggestions of where the various files should be installed.

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    reserv888 said:
    @Age of Armour

    Yes, I have two installations of Daz Studio. (How on earth did you know that!?) :)
    It is not very practical but I have some products installed in one Daz (under my own user name) and most of the products installed under the other (public).

    I don't have an AppData folder at all under the PUBLIC user.

    I have tried to manually transfer the Ambient files to MY OWN user, as per your instructions. That didn't help.
    I have uninstalled the Ambient lights and tried to change the installation path to MY OWN user folder and reinstalled. Didn't do the trick either. (In fact I couldn't find the Ambient Lights at all after this. Didn't show up under "A" in the Content Folder).

    Is it important that I only have ONE Daz Studio?
    Is it important it is installed under MY OWN user (instead of PUBLIC)?

    You can certainly try to move those files to your own user account. It is worth a shot. I am not sure how your system is set up but usually the Public user is different from the Admin User. If you haven't done so I would try first installing to the admin user account. Either in the Admin user or your personal user account there should already be the folders AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\Studio4 created by DS when it was installed. If it is not there then probably best not to bother creating them as I don't think it DS would find it.

    If there is no C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\Studio4 folder, and since you have 2 versions of DS 4.5+, you
    May need to copy AoA_AOLightAttribs.dsa, AoA_AOLightDef.dsa and AoA_AOLightParams.dsa into both locations where DS (the actual program) is installed. By default this would be C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\scripts\support\AgeOfArmour\Light.

    Then you will also need to copy AoA_AOLight.sdl to both install locations. By default this would put it in C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\shaders\AgeOfArmour\Light.

    I'm so sorry that the installation is not going easily. Believe me I want it to work right the first time for everyone. I appreciate everyone reporting because it should help make future installers go smoother.

  • sydgrl3dsydgrl3d Posts: 32
    edited December 1969

    heres what the settings look like:



    871e said:
    Mac os 10.7.5
    Daz 4.5.0.49 Advanced Edition 64 bit

    installed Advance ambient
    Launched Daz
    Created a new scene
    Created a plane
    Created a sphere
    Double clicked "AoA Ambient Light"
    The preview window lit up.
    Hit render to see what the default lighting would produce.
    Got a black lit screen.
    Went and played with settings, nothing changed.

    What am I doing wrong?
    Thanks

    On a Mac huh? I Think you are the first I have seen to report an issue on the Mac.

    Are all the parameters showing up when you select the light or do you only see "Light Intensity" and "Light Color"? If you don't see all the parameters then it did not install correctly.

    Unfortunately I don't have a new enough Mac to test on here. I will let DAZ no but it would be good if you file a bug report too so that they know all the info. Until we hear back from DAZ maybe some mac users can chime in with some suggestions of where the various files should be installed.


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    Screen_Shot_2013-11-15_at_1.51_.59_AM_.png
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  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    That's weird 871e,

    Because all the settings are showing It does appear everything is installed correctly. Other than the fact that the UI dials appear in a different order than I see them on a PC, it all looks right.

    Just a few things to test are maybe change the falloff color to something drastic, like bright blue, and see if you get a blue render. That would help to see if the shader is being read at all.

    Another test would be to restart DS and, in the blank scene, load the light then hit render. Now open the log file, Help > Troubleshooting > View Log File, scroll all the way to the bottom and see if there are any errors listed.

    Sorry about the trouble,

    William

  • reserv888reserv888 Posts: 1,126
    edited November 2013

    @Age of Armour

    I gave the manual installation a shot but ran into a few problems. I don't know where to put certain folders.

    I have attached three pics showing different folders. Please let me know where to put them, especially the folders in C.

    EDIT: Turned out I only attached one pic, but the important one. I don't have a clue where to put these ones. Well, "Runtime" I can guess, but the others...?

    Ambient_light_C.jpg
    592 x 247 - 79K
    Post edited by reserv888 on
  • sydgrl3dsydgrl3d Posts: 32
    edited December 1969

    Ok, so I took a shot and installed 4.6, and it works
    My bad in not catching that it requires 4.6

    Thanks
    E


    That's weird 871e,

    Because all the settings are showing It does appear everything is installed correctly. Other than the fact that the UI dials appear in a different order than I see them on a PC, it all looks right.

    Just a few things to test are maybe change the falloff color to something drastic, like bright blue, and see if you get a blue render. That would help to see if the shader is being read at all.

    Another test would be to restart DS and, in the blank scene, load the light then hit render. Now open the log file, Help > Troubleshooting > View Log File, scroll all the way to the bottom and see if there are any errors listed.

    Sorry about the trouble,

    William

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    Ok, so I took a shot and installed 4.6, and it works
    My bad in not catching that it requires 4.6

    Thanks
    E

    That's great you got it working! I'm sorry I didn't think of asking what version you were using.

    @Age of Armour

    I gave the manual installation a shot but ran into a few problems. I don't know where to put certain folders.

    I have attached three pics showing different folders. Please let me know where to put them, especially the folders in C.

    EDIT: Turned out I only attached one pic, but the important one. I don't have a clue where to put these ones. Well, "Runtime" I can guess, but the others...?

    Runtime, Data and Light Presets all go into one of your DS Directories IE. My Library or My Library/Content.

    An easy way to find this location is to open DS, and in your content tab find the content library you use most often. There should already be a Light Presets folder with UberEnvironment in it. Right click on the Light Preset folder and chose "Open Folder Location". That will open Windows Explorer and you can drag the files under Light Presets in the extracted zip right into the content library's Light Presets folder.

    With that folder still open in Windows Explorer, Look to folder list to the left and up the list a bit you should see the "Data" folder. Merge the zip's Data folder with that one.

    Now look down a ways in the folder list and you should see Runtime. Merge the zip's Runtime folder into this one.

    Try putting the other scripts not shown in your screen grab into the corrosponding folders in C:\Users\YourAdminUserName\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\Studio4 or C:\Program Files\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\ as described previously.

    Test the light after doing all that.

    If that doesn't work please PM or Email me the folder locations you have DS installed to and I'll try to get it straightened out for you.

  • reserv888reserv888 Posts: 1,126
    edited December 1969

    @Age of Armour

    Just got it to work! I now have the the Ambient light and Spotligt installed in just about every folder in the universe. Well... at least if we narrow the universe down to be my harddrive... ;)

    Anyway it works and it looks REALLY great. Thank you for your time and patience.

  • Age of ArmourAge of Armour Posts: 437
    edited December 1969

    reserv888 said:
    @Age of Armour

    Just got it to work! I now have the the Ambient light and Spotligt installed in just about every folder in the universe. Well... at least if we narrow the universe down to be my harddrive... ;)

    Anyway it works and it looks REALLY great. Thank you for your time and patience.

    That's great to hear! Make sure you take a not of what location finally worked so you know should you ever need to install again. There is an update coming soon too so may need to repeat the install then :(

    Out of curiosity, what location was it that eventually worked for you?

    Thank YOU for your patience! I'm so glad you got it all working well.

  • reserv888reserv888 Posts: 1,126
    edited December 1969

    @AgeofArmour

    To be honest, I don't know what finally did the trick, but I know that it happened in babysteps.

    When I filled every possible folder with "Ambient Light" I suddenly saw that the options under "LIGHT" in "parameters" weren't just the two I had before. Despite this the figures still went black when I rendered them.

    Checked some more and In the end I realised that the "SHADER" folder wasn't installed. So i installed that one too, everywhere...
    Then it worked just fine.

  • Sean123Sean123 Posts: 49
    edited December 1969

    Best Age of Armour.


    Works perfect bro...!! Daz 4.6 install manager..

    Well i have seen in the thumbs cones of the lights ( the same as in a club ) well how can i fix it ?

    or is not included?


    Thanks

    John,,,

  • Sean123Sean123 Posts: 49
    edited December 1969

    Found , select shader... Parent Cone to Light :lol:

    shader.jpg
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  • 你好!

    现在

    Advanced Spotlight:

    DAZ Studio 4.5;4.x Public Build;4.x Private Build :
    /scripts/support/AgeOfArmour/Light/AoA_AddShaderMixerAttributes.dsa
    /scripts/support/AgeOfArmour/Light/AoA_AdvancedSpotlightAttribs.dsa
    /scripts/support/AgeOfArmour/Light/AoA_AdvancedSpotlightDef.dsa
    /scripts/support/AgeOfArmour/Light/AoA_AdvancedSpotlightParams.dsa
    /shaders/AgeOfArmour/Light/AoA_AdvancedSpotlight.sdl


    Advanced Distant Light


    DAZ Studio 4.5;4.x Public Build;4.x Private Build :
    /scripts/support/AgeOfArmour/Light/AoA_AddShaderMixerAttributes.dsa
    /scripts/support/AgeOfArmour/Light/AoA_AdvancedDistantLightAttribs.dsa
    /scripts/support/AgeOfArmour/Light/AoA_AdvancedDistantLightDef.dsa
    /scripts/support/AgeOfArmour/Light/AoA_AdvancedDistantLightParams.dsa
    /shaders/AgeOfArmour/Light/AoA_AdvancedDistantLight.sdl

    下载不到,谁有能否 提供一下下载!谢谢!

  • 找到了,安装了5次,才安装到对应的文件夹,之前安装一直没有反应。

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