Digital Art Zone

Right now I’m installing and categorizing a bunch of Jack Tomalin’s awesome environments he’s released over the years, and I can’t figure out what materials Studio 4.5 applies when I load a prop/scene. Does Studio automatically load the appropriate DS materials, or does it load Poser materials, and I need to go in and switch them by hand?

I’m afraid it’s not clear to me, a newbie, by reading the Readme’s. Sometimes I find materials in the Daz content library, and sometimes not. 

When I’m categorizing my environments, I’m trying to include the proper materials with scene. If the Readme says the DS Mats are in the Poser Pose file, then that’s what I categorize for later use with the environment. But then I got to wondering if I’m wasting my time if Studio 4.5 applies the right mats.

Thanks for helping to clear things up for me.

edited for typos

When the readme says something like,

DAZ Studio Users:
  ■You will no longer need to go to a separate DAZ Studio folder to apply the DAZ Studio Material Presets

it means that the installer has put both the PZ2 AND the DAZ Studio script file into the Pose folder.  The DS Script file, the png icon file, and the Poser PZ2 file all have EXACTLY the same name or this would not work.

When inside DS, the user sees an icon on the top left corner, which indicates that it has a DS material file.  Poser useers do not see this icon.  In DS when you double click on the icon, the DS script file is run, and in Poser, the PZ2 file is run.

The actual JPEGs will be the same, the DS Script file will set the other Parameters.

In some cases, there are seperate installers for the DS versions which need to be installed as well, but they only contain the materail files.

Thanks, JimmyC_2009. That’s definitely starting to clear things up for me.

I have one question about what you said below.

JimmyC_2009 - 06 September 2012 10:15 AM

When inside DS, the user sees an icon on the top left corner, which indicates that it has a DS material file.  Poser useers do not see this icon.  In DS when you double click on the icon, the DS script file is run, and in Poser, the PZ2 file is run.

Could you perhaps include a screenshot with this icon in the top left corner? I looked in the poser pose file and the daz environments folder, but I’m probably just not looking in the right place. (Or I’m just showing my newbieness )

Its a scroll that’s on the upper left corner of the thumbnail.

Thanks! I’d noticed the scroll, but never knew what it meant.

So, just to confirm:  if the scroll isn’t there, does that mean I need to go into the poser pose folder and manually apply the materials?

sikeus - 06 September 2012 11:08 AM

Thanks! I’d noticed the scroll, but never knew what it meant.

So, just to confirm:  if the scroll isn’t there, does that mean I need to go into the poser pose folder and manually apply the materials?

Not necessarily, no icon does not tell you for sure that there is NO DAZ Studio material, just that it is not in the Pose folder.  The best way to find out is to look at the Readme file.  You can also search by name at the top of the Content Library tab in DS4P which should pick up DS files for you.

The older items often had two download files, one with DPC in the filename, and one with DS in the filename.  .  The DS one was usually much smaller in size because it only contained the optimised materials for DS, and they would install to the My Library (Content) folder.  The newer ones were called combined installers, and there was only one file to download, much handier in my opinion.

There were other installers as well, and they were both about the same size, and you only needed one or the other depending on whether you used Poser or DS.

Thanks for the time you’re spending on this. I promise I’m trying really hard to wrap my head around all of the rules and exceptions

To make this long post a little easier to read, I put my questions in bold.

Perhaps the biggest thing I may be confused on is if I need to always apply the materials to every surface every time I load a new object into a scene. I’m starting to wonder if objects automatically load only with the jpgs, but not with the additional surface information. Is that guess correct? And that’s why we need to go in and find the right files to apply? I was assuming that either the poser or ds mats (along with the jpgs) were automatically being applied.

My second area of questions is on how to interpret the Readme’s to figure out what’s going on with the DS Mat files. Here are some examples in Readme files that show a variety of situations:

1) From Jack Tomalin’s Parkside Point Ground: “You can find new icons for loading this product in the following DAZ Studio Folders: Environments\Architecture\Park_Point_Gr\Scenes” and then further on: “The set consists of 5 cr2 (and equivalent D|S scene) files, including 1 preload preset and Poser 5, 6 and D|S material presets. “

Does this mean if I apply the scene from DAZ Studio Folders: Environments\Architecture\Park_Point_Gr\Scenes, instead of the Poser folder Figures: “Park_Point_Gr, ” that the right materials will automatically be applied? Or that I need to search for the DS material presets?

(Futher information on file sizes for this product: the dpc file is 73 MB while the trx file is 7 mb, and his materials in the Poser pose folder do not have the scroll icon)

2)  From Jack Tomalin’s Old Village Wishing Well:  “You can find new icons for loading this product in the following DAZ Studio Folders:
      Environments\Architecture\OVW_Well
        - Mats
      -  Scenes
  Then he goes on to say, “The set consists of 8 cr2 (and corresponding DS .daz) files, including 1 preload preset and Poser 5, 6 and D|S material presets. “

Does this mean if I click on the preload scene icon in the DAZ Studio Folders: Environments\Architecture\OVW_Well\scenes, that I then need to click on the individual items and apply the appropriate DS mats that are found in DAZ Studio Folders: Environments\Architecture\OVW_Well\Mats ?

(Further information on the file sizes for this product: 2 dpc files, one 45 MB, one 27 MB, and 2 ds files, one 27 MB and one 45 MB, and his materials in the Poser pose folder do not have the scroll icon)

3)  From ArtCollaborations The Tent: “You will no longer need to go to a separate DAZ Studio folder to apply the DAZ Studio Material Presets. Simply apply the MAT Pose from the Poser Pose-> “ART_Tent” directory.”

As you mentioned above JimmyC_2009, this has the little scroll icon on the materials in the Poser pose folder. So does this mean I need to manually go in and apply these materials by hand?

(For further information, this has only a dpc file at 97 MB. Not including the ds metadata file.)

In my experiance the DS scene files are the FULL Daz Studio scene, textures and all. They other files are provided if you just wish to use part of the figure in a scene, then you need to add the DS texture if it does not auto load. That makes the set more flexable and you can use it in different ways beyond just the standard scene.

Sorry, the stie was down and I couldn;t reply earlier.

The only time you would need to apply materials through the surfaces tab is with OBJ files or items from other sites sometimes. 

1) From Jack Tomalin’s Parkside Point Ground: “You can find new icons for
loading this product in the following DAZ Studio Folders:
EnvironmentsArchitecturePark_Point_GrScenes” and then further on: “The set
consists of 5 cr2 (and equivalent D|S scene) files, including 1 preload
preset and Poser 5, 6 and D|S material presets. “

Does this mean if I apply the scene from DAZ Studio Folders:
EnvironmentsArchitecturePark_Point_GrScenes, instead of the Poser folder
Figures: “Park_Point_Gr, ” that the right materials will automatically be
applied? Or that I need to search for the DS material presets?

As Jaderail says, when you load a .DAZ Scene file, all the correct tetures are loaded.  The only time you need to look for DS mats is if the icon in the Pose folder does not have the little scroll.  There may not be any DS materails, but the readme should tell you.

3) From ArtCollaborations The Tent: “You will no longer need to go to a
separate DAZ Studio folder to apply the DAZ Studio Material Presets. Simply
apply the MAT Pose from the Poser Pose-> “ART_Tent” directory.”

As you mentioned above JimmyC_2009, this has the little scroll icon on the
materials in the Poser pose folder. So does this mean I need to
manually go in and apply these materials by hand?

When you see the little scroll icon, it means that DS will apply the correct DS material file, and ignore the Poser one.

This all came about becuase in the past, Poser and DS materials were interchangeable, but then someone moved the goalposts, and Poser materials needed to be ‘tweaked’ in DS to look right.  PAs started producing DS material files for this reason.

If you are not sure of anything just ask.

Excellent explanations here on a confusing area

Sikeus I’m going to answer the question you didn’t ask. If it loads the material automatically when I load the item, why do I need an icon for the material? Answer, people come up with alternative materials, or you may change the material yourself playing around with the item and want to get back to the default material without reloading the object.

The other confusing thing about this is that the item may be in a DS folder in the library while the material could be in DS or Poser library or the item could be in a DS folder with the material in DS or Poser folder… This is why some people suggest using Smart Content while others use Categories to pull things together logically as they tend to be a bit fractured at the ‘library’ level. There are technical reasons there is a Poser library section and a DAZ library section and can’t really be pulled together at that level, so eventually one of these methods will become handy in organizing things.

Thanks Jaderail, Gedd, and JimmyC_2009.

It’s great to know the whys behind everything, since that will help me in the unusual situations.

So my basic understanding is: if I apply a complete scene, I don’t need to worry about the materials. (That’s great!)

If I want to use an object from the scene, such as a bench, then I probably need to apply the DS Mat. Which either has a scroll on it if it’s in the Poser pose file (although sometimes it might not have the scroll) or it may be found in the Daz studio library. The Readme file should tell me. If I only have a choice between materials in the Poser pose file or Poser Material file, then I choose the Poser pose file.

If I’m wrong, feel free to correct me. If not, no worries.

Thanks again!

I think you have it. You should be fine, but always look for a DS mat if the items has one. The hard part is keeping all this sorted out when your collection starts to get large.

Jaderail - 06 September 2012 05:45 PM

I think you have it. You should be fine, but always look for a DS mat if the items has one. The hard part is keeping all this sorted out when your collection starts to get large.

I totally agree. That’s why I’m trying to get the ds mats categorized with the objects in my content library;  theoretically, if I figure it out now, I won’t have to worry about it later.

I appreciate all the help you give on the forums, Jaderail. I can’t tell you how many times what you’ve written in someone else’s thread has helped me.

Thank you, that means a lot to me. I do have a reason I do this that is totally selfish. I love 3D art and the more people that make 3D art the more I can look at.

Render on. I’m looking