Digital Art Zone

I bought this product..it came with a ds file and a dpc file…|I ran the ds file first and |I managed to find 6 files in my content library under environments/architectur/.cliffhanger and in my runtime library are a bunch more jpeg images…but I cannot load anything into DS.  \i get an error saying something has to be selected…my scene is blank. I also ran the dpc file thinking that would help made no difference…where do I go to load this product???

thanks for helping
Kharma

I figured it out…by installing the poser file to my library, but I had to specify the entire path

You are trying to load a Material Preset without Geometry loaded first. .ds is a Daz Studio material preset. You need to load the CR2 first then apply the .ds mats. t

The CR2 should be loacated under Poser Formats..*********** Figures>Cliffhanger.

Here is some help with Poser and Daz Studio Formats that you may come across in the future http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/tech_articles/file_extensions/start

Oops to slow. Glad you fixed it yourself.

Thanks for confirming..believe me it was trial and error on my part that just happened to work…lol

Kharma

Even so doing so I bet you learnt something and will not forget.

that is true…i have installed only a couple items so far and one was V5 which installed no problem, didn’t need any input from me.  when I installed Cliffhanger ( an older product?) I had to specify a path which I ended in /mylibrary…  I was going to install everything to that folder, is that the best way to do it for a beginner?  I think as far as Studio goes I will always consider myself a beginner…..lol

Kharma

Give me an hour and I will type up some info that might help.

When I first started I put all content in one folder and used the Daz Studio internal Category function to sort my content in to separate sections, like Animals, Buildings, Clothing etc.  I had it all sorted nicely and then between backups my Hard Drive failed and I had to reinstall everything from scratch. This time however thinking about further computer issues I started to make separate Content folders as shown in the Image below on a portable USB Hard Drive.

Why? Well now if I have another failure I can just reinstall the program and immediately I can set up my content with a few minutes. No need to reinstall all the content.

Plus with having different content folders I don’t really need to use the Category function. I want a building I just go to the Content Library > Poser/Daz Studio formats > Buildings without the need to trawl throughout all of the content I have.

Yes I have A MY Library folder which is also separate from the other content where I have all the Genesis morphs etc. Next Time I install Daz Studio (when I get a new computer) I will put this My Library content folders on the same portable Hard Drive. I wish I had done that earlier. But with it being separate it does make it easy to make a backup. Yes I have everything backed up on a 2.5” USB powered Hard Drive.

Many folks use this type of system though the naming and number will be diffferent for each. It is just personal preferences that decide what you wnat to do.

Hope this helps

OH and don’t worry about the folders named Modelling, Testing and VSS. Modelling is for my own made models, Testing for beta testing products and VSS is for Poser only.

So all your files go under poser formats in the content library?  The couple things I installed already show under daz formats except the Cliffhanger file which shows 6 files under daz format/my library and the other 12 under poser format/my library…but I can only load the files from the poser ones.

  I tried to uninstall them all by running the uninstaller but they still showed up in my content as I wanted to reinstall because first I did the ds one and couldn’t load those files, so then I ran the dpc one, that didn’t work the first time so I uninstalled ( but they still showed up) then ran the dpc file again but specified to my library and I could load files into studio.  I would like to uninstall it all but am not sure how to get rid of the files cause they still showed up in content and on hard drive, and try again because at this point I am not sure whether I really had to install both files, or just one and what each one installed.

I know this sounds confusing, cause I am confused :/

Kharma

No I have the same structure under Daz Studio Formats as the image below shows.

Ok some history for you. DAZ originated as a division of Zygote Media Group, Inc. creating content for the application Poser. In December 2000, DAZ branched off from Zygote, and became a freestanding corporation (source http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAZ_3D)  and with that came the rights to use Poser formats hence the cross compatibility.

With some products you need to install both files, Poser and Daz Studio which is the case for Cliffhanger. Poser files contain the geometry CR2 or PP2 and poser materials PZ2 or MC6 whereas the Daz Studio file contains the Daz Studio material presets .ds.dsb, dsa etc. This is because Poser and Daz Studio have slighting different ways it handles surfaces mainly Glossiness. 

Some content is Daz Studio specific, like shaders etc so they will only have Daz Studio formats.

Some content have Daz Studio material presets taht show up in the Poser Format directory even though they are Daz Studio material presets. Yhese have a special script (code) Eventually you will come across these. See the small image below.

A general rule of thumb is that if both the Poser and Daz studio files are of equal file size, or thereabouts, then you only need to install the Daz Studio formats. But since I use Poser too I install the lot just to make sure. If you aren’t sure install the daz Studio only file, start up Daz Studio and take a look. You can always install the Poser files after.

You can remove the content manually from your Hard Drive if the uninstaller failed, why it failed I cannot say, sorry.

Yes it is confusing and you are not alone. Took me a good few months of reading before I got my head around it all.

I just editied my post above to add more info… just to confuse you more….mawhahahahaha

thank you Szark…that makes it soooo much clearer…like mud…lol,  no it really does help with the pics and explanation.  As far as manually deleting the files can I just go into those folders on my hard drive and hit delete and that will take care of them or is it more involved than that?

Kharma

LOL Glad it finally making some sort of sense.

Nope just go in to your Hard Drive and delete but you will need to delete all the files, textures, Geometry etc.