Digital Art Zone

When I first updated to Daz 4.5 from 4.0, I kept getting constant crashes, so as suggested by Daz Tech Support, I moved my content files out of the Programs directory and into “User/Documents/Daz/Content…...”  directory.  But I still noticed many duplicate sub-directories and files, all accumulated from versions 3 and 4, as well as 64-bit and 32-bit versions. 

I found a several duplicate folders in sub-directories of the Content folder. Namely some folders labeled “3.0” “4.0” and “4.0.2” and there were many duplicate files within these folders, so I condensed all the files (sub-directories) into one Content folder. The reason I did this was to try and eliminate the “duplicate data” messages I was receiving. But now, some of my previous files won’t open correctly because they are looking for the content in the old “4.0.2” sub-directory.

For example, if I try and open a previously created Genesis figure it’s looking for data and files like this:
data/4_0_2/Genesis/Genesis/modifiers/morphs/PHMJawSize_587.dsd

Since there is no longer a 4_0_2/ sub-directory, obviously the file won’t open, or it will open, but the scene remains blank.

I know I’ve dug myself a deep hole here in trying to get Daz 4.5 to work for me, but if anyone has any suggestions for the easiest, least-painful way of correcting what I’ve done I’d appreciate hearing them.

Oh, and it turned out that this wasn’t the reason for the crashes in the first place.  As soon as I opened Daz 4.5 in Compatibility Mode (Windows 7) and Ran as Administrator, the program has been rock solid.  The files take a little longer to load and save, but I’m willing to put up with that, as long as I don’t get any more crashes.

Thanks for any advice,
Lee

Leee - 02 August 2012 04:34 PM

I found a several duplicate folders in sub-directories of the Content folder. Namely some folders labeled “3.0” “4.0” and “4.0.2” and there were many duplicate files within these folders, so I condensed all the files (sub-directories) into one Content folder.

Do you mean you moved the files from multiple /data/ folders in multiple content locations, and combined them all in one /data/ folder, keeping the folder path after /data/ intact? Or did you move files within one /data/ folder, changing the folder path after /data/ ? That last is absolutely and very definitely the one thing you should never do — scene files saved in D|S depend on finding files in the /data/ folder where the program put them. These locations are invisible to the user anyway, so “tidying up” to “make things neater” has no purpose other than making your old scenes unloadable.

There is a fix, but how easy it will be depends on exactly what you did and whether the objects in the now-dud scenes were originally Poser-format, converted and saved in D|S, or installed into your content as D|S objects and scenes. So where exactly did you put these “duplicate” (they probably weren’t) files from the 3.0 and 4.0 and 4.0.2 folders?

I believe I did the second one.  After moving all the content files out of the Programs directory, I rearranged the Content directory so there would be no duplicate entries.  Meaning that I moved all the files out of the 4_0_2 sub-directory into the main Content directory.  I did this because they were the same exact files, existing in two or three locations within the main Content directory.  Some files and directories were nested two or three deep, exact duplicates of the higher folders.

And to make things worse, the scene files I saved were a combination of DAZ and Poser files.  But I did keep the Poser/Runtime folder where it was and didn’t try to combine that into the Daz Content folder.

I should also add that I don’t mind editing .daz files, but I’m not sure if I can or what program will allow me to edit them with.

To edit a daz file you need a hex editor. Text strings are broken down in character (as in letter, number, etc) followed by a a period, so you need to delete the string 4._.0._.2./.
Daz files can be huuuge, and reference a bazillion of files so I wouldn’t advise doing it this way.
Do you still have a numbered folder name after data/ ? If you do, I’d open the scenes in the corresponding version of DS and save pose presets, or perhaps export a cr2 then reopen the scenes in the latest version and reload manually the figure/prop and apply the pose (or load the cr2).
The good news is that new scenes should be OK.

Leee - 02 August 2012 06:13 PM

Meaning that I moved all the files out of the 4_0_2 sub-directory into the main Content directory.

I hope you mean here “into the data folder in the Content folder” otherwise your entire collection of saved scenes will be well and truly broken. The data folder is third rail territory. Nicht gefingerpoken. In general, the only things you should safely move are anything that appears in the Content Library tab in D|S — and this is not recommended if you ever want to use Smart Content, since this depends on things not being moved from their original place.

I didn’t know editing with a hex editor was possible, but unless anyone has better ideas, that might be your only hope of fixing things.

Just out of curiosity when you say “duplicate data messages” would these scene files just happen to have Genesis in them.

Bejaymac - 03 August 2012 04:31 PM

Just out of curiosity when you say “duplicate data messages” would these scene files just happen to have Genesis in them.

When I first run Daz 4.5, I still have the default setting to load the Genesis figure.  And I’ll get the following message:
Duplicate formulas found in files. Make sure that the content is properly installed. See log file for details.

Then the log file will show many, many lines that look something like this:
fileinput\dzassetdaz.cpp (4950)  Duplicate form found library value and value in data/daz3d/genesis/base/morphs/daz3d/victoria4/mcmv4eyesclosedr.dsf

The figure loads okay, but that’s why I tried to consolidate my content folders because I believed that’s what was causing the crashes.  It wasn’t.

But now, I’m just trying to get all the older files I created to open by reconstructing the duplicate sub-directories I merged.

Leee - 03 August 2012 06:50 PM

When I first run Daz 4.5, I still have the default setting to load the Genesis figure.  And I’ll get the following message:
Duplicate formulas found in files. Make sure that the content is properly installed. See log file for details.

If I remember, this was a known problem that was fixed with an update to the first few Genesis morph packs. At least the Evolution sets, maybe a few more. Which morph sets do you have? Once you’ve reset and downloaded the updates, you’ll have to run the uninstallers for the old ones, then install the new versions. (Don’t just re-install without uninstalling first, which is usually safe to do — some files were in the wrong place and the uninstall will remove the duds.)

The Duplicate Formulas issue is covered in the DS FAQ, linked below.

We all know that a .daz file isn’t backward compatable, however most don’t know that Genesis isn’t forward compatable, there have been so many changes to the file format and how DS handles it, that most older Genesis content has had to be updated 4 or 5 times to keep up, as a result any scene file saved in an early version of DS4 will cause duplicate error messages in newer builds, which is what your getting.

As for the duplicate folders & files in the data folder, that’s deliberate, DS3 was build on a different code base to 1 & 2, so during beta testing they added that 3_0 folder so the testers could still work in DS2, without having to worry about DS3 overwritting their data folder contents and breaking their scene files in DS2, they just left it in after it went mainsteam and did the same thing with DS4. So yes you could find yourself with 2 or 3 folders called “blMilWom_v4b_68498” (<- V4.2).

As for getting your scene files working again, that will depend on just how many there are and how many you want to save, as you could be at this for a couple of hours or more than a week.