Digital Art Zone

Hello

I’m a little bit lost here :-(

I’ve already used content installation files of the two flavors ds and dpc. Usually I’ve chosen the package for which Software I wanted to use it.
ds for DAZ and dpc for Poser.

I’ve got again ds & dpc files and now I’m searching again for a clean explanation about what is what. I found this at a few places…

Many content products consist of several installers. As a rule of thumb, run all of the installers provided,
regardless of whether they are designated for DS (_ds_) or for Poser (_dpc_).
There are some exceptions, but more often than not, you’ll need both the files from the DS installers and the DPC installers.

(i.e. http://docs.daz3d.com/)

What should that mean - as a rule of thumb? Either install one or the other and not just in case both. What’s what?
What exception could that be? I want to avoid having files twice installed somewhere, keeps the backup small

With ZIP files it’s obvious, much easier and you just copy into the runtime.
I’ve recently read somewhere DAZ is going switch only to ZIP files, do you read something like that, too?
By the way do you know if it’s possible to extract the files manually from the executable installer?

I hope someone of you here can help me with this.
Thanks in advance.

how it tends to work if both files are nearly the same size then all the needed files are in both (textures etc) so if you only want the DAZ studio version you only need to install the _ds_ version.

if the _ds_ version is a lot smaller in size than the _dpc_ version that means that it only has the DAZ studio information and you will need to install both files.

I hope that helps

NeilV 1 - 01 August 2012 03:32 AM

how it tends to work if both files are nearly the same size then all the needed files are in both (textures etc) so if you only want the DAZ studio version you only need to install the _ds_ version.

if the _ds_ version is a lot smaller in size than the _dpc_ version that means that it only has the DAZ studio information and you will need to install both files.

I hope that helps

Indeed, now if only we could see the file sizes ...

SimonJM - 01 August 2012 04:32 AM

NeilV 1 - 01 August 2012 03:32 AM

how it tends to work if both files are nearly the same size then all the needed files are in both (textures etc) so if you only want the DAZ studio version you only need to install the _ds_ version.

if the _ds_ version is a lot smaller in size than the _dpc_ version that means that it only has the DAZ studio information and you will need to install both files.

I hope that helps

Indeed, now if only we could see the file sizes ...

Yes it would be nice if that was one of the sooner rather than later things than gets fixed.

Hello NeilV1 and SimonJM,

thanks for your replies and indeed the file size is a good thing to consider when installing, which I didn’t thought about.

Nevertheless I’m about to install it first in a new empty trybary - a library to try, like I call them.
But nevertheless with time libraries get a mess. Smart content doesn’t convinced me.

How do you organize your libraries?
Do you have a system to categorize your assets?
Do you ever used XL - eXtended Library - a best seller at Content Paradise?

I tend to download all files just so I have them even if I don’t think I’ll need them.

There’s a discussion of manually managing libraries in this thread: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/4652/

Hello,

Thanks DWG, I’m going over and have a look there.
Well, Frank0314 I know it’s tempting to do so… but I try do avoid that.

I tend to run multiple runtimes (see image) and I also have 3 content folders as well one from DS2 which has old DS settings one from DS3 which has newer DS settings and one from DS4 which I try to keep for Genesis stuff only.

NeilV 1 - 01 August 2012 10:40 AM

I tend to run multiple runtimes (see image) and I also have 3 content folders as well one from DS2 which has old DS settings one from DS3 which has newer DS settings and one from DS4 which I try to keep for Genesis stuff only.

That sounds very close to my setup. I have a content folder for DS2 and DS3, it is shared by both. And I have one for all Genesis only stuff. I have A large Free items Runtime I link in or out as I need. The great thing is I can have all of it in DS4 at one time if I choose to do so.

I have one runtime, one content folder, and everything works fine in DS2, 3 or 4. I’ve never seen the point in having multiple runtimes. That just means extra chopping and changing, it’s irritating enough that runtime and content aren’t completely and invisibly integrated!

DWG - 01 August 2012 01:11 PM

I have one runtime, one content folder, and everything works fine in DS2, 3 or 4. I’ve never seen the point in having multiple runtimes. That just means extra chopping and changing, it’s irritating enough that runtime and content aren’t completely and invisibly integrated!

I do mine the way I do for my own reasons. I could merge them all if I wanted but I dont need Genesis unless I’m using DS4 and I dont need all my free items unless I’m doing a large scene with odds and ends that the standard content just does not come with. It’s just my way of working now. We are all different, it would be a boring world if we were all the same.

Jaderail - 01 August 2012 01:39 PM

We are all different, it would be a boring world if we were all the same.

Precisely my point!

DWG - 01 August 2012 01:11 PM

... it’s irritating enough that runtime and content aren’t completely and invisibly integrated!

There are so many things wrong with this that I don’t know where to start. The number 1 thing is that no program handles metadata as well as it should at the moment so outside programs and management are necessary to really keep things in some semblance of order. That is the nature of where technology is at the moment. Perfect example; MS Media Player and Apple keep it’s metadata inside the program. If they blow up, they take all of the metadata with them. All the hard work someone put into organizing, sorting etc.. is gone, and I mean gone. It’s not that they can’t store the data with the music files, Mediamonkey does this and is why it’s what I use to manage naming, sorting, tagging my music. I have had many friends who’s install of both iTunes and MS Media Player blew up and asked me to help them with their music… Thousands of songs named fwp0015.xxx, fwp0016.xxx… I can only tell them ‘good luck.’

Many people use multiple programs… hiding it away in some sort of db is not going to facilitate that. Importing into an internal db, and exporting out again is not the same as a program opening a file then saving it. If there is something in the file format that a program doesn’t understand under certain circumstances it can ignore those features, metadata… if it opens/saves, but by definition it prunes it on import/export… I could go on but those two reasons alone should be enough.

Oh, sorry.. forgot the biggest reason. If the runtime blows up and the data is internal… well guess what happens. If it is external, one only has to point it back to the data and it re-indexes it. I back up my data totally separately from the runtime. One can easily reinstall a wonky runtime, and they do get wonky, point it to the data and have it re-index it. The current recommended method to dealing with data is to have data separate from the program and index, exactly as Daz has it. They are following current best practices.

Thats also why I name and set up my music storage myself as well (also I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to my computer) but when I do a restore or rebuild I can just point my music play to my music folder and it finds all my music neatly layed out in folders.