Digital Art Zone

So.. I have Poser Pro 2012 and Daz Studio 4.5….
I have my Poser runtime in a special folder and my Daz Studio files in a separate special folder..
When I purchase something from Daz i get a few different types of files.. dpc, trx, ds (all .exe’s) and now there are some zips being offered as well…..
Now, I know the ds and trx are supposed to be Daz Studio specific files, but they will also put a runtime folder in the Daz Studio My Library folder as well…
Questions:
1) If i use both Daz and Poser, do I need all of these files? What about the zip files? are they all needed or are some either/or? (This is one of the reasons I like Renderosity’s zip files..everything just extracts where it needs to for the most part, plus it is a GREAT convienance when I purchase multiple items at once.. just select all and extract all.. never understood why Daz needed exe’s in the first place..)
2) The runtime folder in My Library.. Is that the same as my Poser runtime? What would happen if I moved my Poser runtime into this folder and pointed Poser to it? Would it work or cause problems? Would Poser scripts and plugins still work?

I’m trying to basically clean everything up and avoid issues in doing so… Having a single location for Daz and Poser would be nice IF it works…

Thanks…

1) the zips are containers for the mac installers if they are alongside .exe files. However DAZ is moving to zips for all, and some (mainly older) products already have a single zip instead of two installers. In general you would want the DPC for Poser, and the TriAx for DS. If there are two TriAxes, one DSON core or Core and one Legacy, then the former is for DS 4.5 and the latter for earlier versions and you don’t need both.

2) yes, the Runtimes are equivalent (and if you have Poser and DS versions isntalled separately you are probably doubling up a lot of textures). Using a single folder for both content types should work fine.

Punisher - 23 December 2012 02:52 PM

Now, I know the ds and trx are supposed to be Daz Studio specific files, but they will also put a runtime folder in the Daz Studio My Library folder as well…

Most of the time, this will be for the textures that go along with whatever you’re trying to install. For anything in native D|S format, all the Poser files such as geometries and figures are irrelevant and will be ignored… except textures. These will always be in a My Library>Runtime folder. This “extra” Runtime — it isn’t, it’s just as vital as your Poser Runtime — is also used for DAZ content created for D|S4.5 with mesh, morph and figure files in Poser format. (Yes, there are still some of these, a couple tunred up in the YT5 Pro bundle.)

It’s tricky; I can’t really advise you “do this” or “do that” because there are always exceptions in both directions. Richard’s advice above (appeared while I was typing) is probably as good as you’re going to get.

Richard Haseltine - 23 December 2012 04:39 PM

2) yes, the Runtimes are equivalent (and if you have Poser and DS versions isntalled separately you are probably doubling up a lot of textures). Using a single folder for both content types should work fine.

This is what prompted me to ask… between my runtime and My Library folder I am using over 240GB of storage.. That doesn’t take into account the backups of the installers…, so I think combining will be good.

So, if I want to combine, should I copy the poser runtime to the My Library runtime or the My library runtime to the Poser runtime (then move it back).. Would it make a difference?

Is there someplace that shows the folder structure? I recently downloaded some zips and in the root they have a .dsx file, then a content folder that has a runtime in it. However the other runtime folder has always been in the root of “My Library”, so if I am going to start moving things around and consolidating, I need to know where Daz Studio expects everything to be…

The Content folder in the new DAZ zips is just a container - you want to place its contents in the destination folder (My Library or whatever).

If you put the Runtime into the My Library then you can leave it there (no copying back and forth needed) and map Poser to use it…in Poser the Runtime is more or less the ‘top level’ content directory…in DS it’s just another folder in the content directory.

I’m eventually going to migrate my content to a central location…probably a network drive.

Actually that’s not right - in both Poser and DS the Runtime folder has to be in the folder selected as a content directory. What you call the folder that holds it (My Library, Poser # Content or something of your own invention) doesn’t matter. The Data folder for DS is similar - it has to be in the selected folder, which can be called anything, and its contents should not be messed with.

Richard Haseltine - 26 December 2012 09:01 AM

Actually that’s not right - in both Poser and DS the Runtime folder has to be in the folder selected as a content directory. What you call the folder that holds it (My Library, Poser # Content or something of your own invention) doesn’t matter. The Data folder for DS is similar - it has to be in the selected folder, which can be called anything, and its contents should not be messed with.

So I don’t need a “My Library” folder exactly?
I can make a new folder…. let’s say I call it “newfolder”... then as long as I put the data folder (and other daz related folders) in there and put my nrmal runtime folder as well, then point daz and poser to “newfolder”, everything should be ok?

Yes, that’s right.