Digital Art Zone

I am trying to create a simple product.  Mesh and textures.  When created, it works on my system of course.  However, I cannot figure out the structure it should follow to create a product usable by others.  Everything seems to be in place but when I zip it up and transfer it to another computer, that computer’s DAZ Studio says that it cannot find various files as it tries to load the object & textures.

Is there a diagram or something somewhere to guide content creation?  I’ve looked at the DS4 online manual but it only discusses content for Genesis.  How different would prop & material creation be?

Very frustrated, thanks for any help,
Scott

Free terrain product for anyone to offer up some seriously good and useful instruction - a nice and easy to follow step-by-step guide - goes to the first person (or two).

As much as I seem to be struggling with this, assume I don’t even know how to turn on my computer.  (Ok, maybe not that bad…)

Thanks

Did you place the textures in the actual folders, in your content directories and then apply them?

If you applied them from a temporary/working folder, the prop/figure files were most likely written using those paths.

Sounds more like you have have hard coded file paths instead of relative file paths.

For DS items the Path should start at My Library for all My Library folders.

For any item or part of a item in the Runtime folder that Path should start at Runtime for all Poser (runtime) folders.

mjc1016 - 24 October 2012 02:41 PM

Did you place the textures in the actual folders, in your content directories and then apply them?

If you applied them from a temporary/working folder, the prop/figure files were most likely written using those paths.

Before creating the material presets, I placed the textures in My Library/Runtime/Textures under the product name.  Correct?

AND

The obj files are in the My Library/Runtime/Geometry folder…

Jaderail - 24 October 2012 02:54 PM

Sounds more like you have have hard coded file paths instead of relative file paths.

For DS items the Path should start at My Library for all My Library folders.

For any item or part of a item in the Runtime folder that Path should start at Runtime for all Poser (runtime) folders.

So hard coded vs relative paths.  What can be done about this if that’s the case?
Everything is under the My Library folder (on my system) but how do I know if that is relative or not?

muddpuddle - 24 October 2012 03:05 PM

mjc1016 - 24 October 2012 02:41 PM

Did you place the textures in the actual folders, in your content directories and then apply them?

If you applied them from a temporary/working folder, the prop/figure files were most likely written using those paths.

Before creating the material presets, I placed the textures in My Library/Runtime/Textures under the product name.  Correct?

AND

The obj files are in the My Library/Runtime/Geometry folder…

What format are you saving in? .daz won’t look for the OBJ file but for the files DS creates from the OBJ in the \Data folder, and it’s those you need in the zip.

Richard is so right, It depends 100% on what format your item is in.

I’m saving as DS4.5 .duf files.  The objects end up in the My Library/Figures/ *product name* folders and the material files (also .duf) end up in My Library\Presets\Materials\ *product name* folders.

I am copying the data folders as well to be part of my zip file.  Can’t be positive I’m getting all the correct stuff though.  What’s there are a couple .dsf files.  One with the name of the mesh and one named default.

ODD:  Going back to the test system where the product was installed (not created), the error for missing assets is showing a file structure that is not even close to what was created on the original system.  The data folders are completely created by DAZ Studio, yes?  What it is asking for on the test system shows extra levels of folders - ones that were not created and do not exist on the original system. 

Very strange.

Could you post the path from the error?

I’m not sure, this morning, that the problem is actually with DS4.  As I investigate the issue, I’m finding that the file structure within My Documents/Daz 3d/Studio isn’t refreshing in real time…

Something strange seems to be going on with my system. 
Once I’ve created the product within DS4, run the “Scan Known Directories for Files…”, then click on the new item and “Browse to File Location” to verify the exact path to the item, that same path isn’t necessarily useable/existent with Windows 7’s explorer.  In other words, going directly from my desktop to the file location isn’t possible.  Not for a while at least. 

Can’t imagine why this is the case.  In all my years of computer use I’ve never seen such an odd issue.  I’m not even sure what triggers the file structure to update.  “Refresh” doesn’t do it. 

I am fairly new to Windows 7.  Is this a known issue within 7?
Very strange.

Edit:  I went straight from typing this to searching for “windows 7 file structure not updating” and wouldn’t you know it, tons of results.  Apparently I am one of the many with this annoying little problem.  Makes it a bit difficult to create a product when you can’t find the folders that DS creates.

More frustration…

Yes, I get that lag when installing content. As you say, it’s very annoying.

Edit:  I had found a partner to work with.  Then they vanished off the face of the earth.  Haven’t decided what to do next.

I would still really like a step-by-step guide on creating a simple prop with a variety of textures.  Free product to whomever can create this and make it easy to follow along.

Have given up on Windows 7 and upgraded to Windows 8.  So far things are going fine.  Minor hiccups here and there.

I have decided to search for a content creation partner.  I am creating terrains with high resolution meshes and textures.  Some examples can be found here http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/8131/

I will create the terrains - am looking for someone to turn them into DS and Poser content.  Will happily split the rewards 50/50.
Have any examples of content to share - poser and ds - shoot me a message.