Digital Art Zone

SLoTH_XVX - 20 October 2012 07:59 PM

I know I am missing something or not getting something….

I am not able to veiw any Genesis anything through Carrara.

I have DAZ|Studio 4.5 and Carrara 8.1 installed on my Laptop all of my (non-genesis) content on an external hard drive. The base Genesis stuff is on the ‘c’ drive of the lap top, I have not yet installed any add-ons yet.

I am finding my self to be quite lost with where and how to view/use the Genesis content in Carrara…...will I need to install Carrara 8.5 Beta to use Genesis?

EDIT:
BTW I am not using and have not been installing any of the smart content files as I have a runtime system that works for me.

Yes, Genesis only works in the 8.5 Beta

Thanks FixmyPCMike

Hi Sloth_xvx

Carrara 8 was written and released before Genesis was developed, so Genesis can’t work in C8.

Genesis will only work in the “Beta” of C8.5,. and eventually in the 8.5 production version, when it’s released.

The Carrara 8.5 “beta”, is a separate program from C8, and it should be installed to a “New folder”,

Because genesis uses Smart content, and because genesis only comes with Daz Studio 4, ..then you’ll need to have Daz Studio 4.5 installed,.. and the DAZ CMS (content management service) installed and running to use Genesis in either DS or C8.5

The general plan is to have a built in CMS for Carrara, so that Carrara users don’t need to have DS installed to use genesis.
but right now you need DS installed to use Genesis in Carrara 8.5.

I am not using and have not been installing any of the smart content files as I have a runtime system that works for me.

You don’t need to change the way you work, or where you install content,. as long as your Poser Runtime is mapped as a Content directory in Daz Studio, the CMS will be able to work with genesis and any smart content.

If you’re not using DS4.5 with Genesis, and you haven’t been buying new stuff for genesis,.. then you’ll only see the basic “Starter essentials” which come with DS4.5

The Main product installers for any content (.trx) will also add product data, whether you install any specific “Meta-data” files or not,.. so, any new content you’ve bought which was made for genesis,.. should show up in your DS 4.5, (smart content) and in the Carrara 8.5 beta (smart content) .

Hope that makes sense

Insert derisive comment about CMS.

LOL

I love CMS.  I just install to My Library and let it go where it wants to go.  Unless there is something really, really wrong with the instructions in the installer I have no problems.  I use my Categories.  They are a blessing.

Thankyou both once again, 3DAGE and FixmypcMike

Ok, this took a bit of trial and error and I think I’m finally getting the hang of this Smart Content…

First of all - the new smart content being installed that wasn’t showing up in the “Smart Content” tab… There was a bit of mis-understanding happening.

Every time I fired up Daz Studio 4.5, I thought the database was being updated and finding / adding the newly installed content, by means of the"Reading Asset” dialogue window, with the orange bar scrolling across left to right to 100%. This appears this is not the case.

Digging further into Daz Studio’s Smart Content, there’s a small Square box in the top right of the Smart Content Tab

Clicking it reveals a popup dialogue box, with “Content DB Maintenance” as a selection choice.

Choosing “Content DB Maintenance”, brings you to this next window displaying a bunch of Database Maintenance checkbox options. 

I chose the “Re-Import Metadata” option out of curiosity. After all, what could it hurt?

Putting the mouse over that option also brings up the following explanation tool-tip:

“Choosing this option will allow you to selectively import metadata for the files that have been installed by a product. This Cannot be undone.”

So, having made that choice, I ticked the option and hit Accept.

I closed Daz Studio, then started Daz Studio all over again, and to my surprise, I get a new dialogue window displaying a list of installed products - all the Genesis products I’ve installed sofar that had not been showing up within the Smart Content area in both Daz Studio and within Carrara’s Smart Content tab…  I hit “OK” and another little window pops up showing a progress bar zipping by as the new content is being added to the database, then disappears.

Now, I know that every time I install a Genesis product, then fire up Daz Studio, I’ll get this dialogue window popup, showing the new content to be added, and after that it is all done. I can close Daz Studio, and fire up Carrara, check the Smart Content Tab and see all the new installed products…

I guess now i’ll be un-installing (or could start anyways) the clothing outfits i set into its own folder seperate from the Genesis folder and just re-install them into the one main Genesis folder…  Might have to run the Content Database maintenance to clean itself up before re-installing anew… 

Btw, 3DAGE, you mentioned something about creating my own folders within the Content Database listing, to my own customization as desired… How do I do that, and within Daz Studio i assume?

Hi

the categories section in the Content Library allows you to create additional Sub categories.
Most products are also automatically categorised here, but as far as I know , you can add products into your own specific categories,

perhaps a regular Daz Studio user like Fixmypcmike can give you more information on using categories,.
or you can get more info in the Daz Studio forum.

I only use DS for some tasks, and I’ve never had a need to use categories.

I am still getting missing materials for Genesis stuff - I can see and load say an item of clothing, but if it comes with a selection of different materials, these are not showing up either in the Smart Content tab or the normal content tab. I have run DS 4.5 before trying. Is this still a known outstanding issue, or is it just me?! As an example, the Morphing Business Suit, which is very recent and so should surely work?

HI PhilW

In the process of developing DS4 and,.. making genesis work in Carrara, ...the duf format was created, and Carrara can open Duf files,.

So,.. from DS4.5, you can save out material presets for items which aren’t already in DUF format, (new products will come as DUF )
then you can select the figure, or clothing and apply the duf saved preset.

The issue was the Carrara doesn’t handle DSB (Material files) which was the old format, and so, many of the poses and material presets in DS won’t appear in the Carrara smart content.

the DSON stuff for poser, is also using Duf files, which are them imported / converted ,..so that poser can use them too.
so if the user wants to open genesis stuff in poser, it first needs to be save as a DUF in DS,  then imported through the DSON importer.

this also means that released products are being updated,.. and you can soon download them to get the Poser companion files, which will be duf, and will open in Carrara

or you can DIY and save out what you need right now instead of downloading again.

Carrara will open Genesis and the clothing , it’s just the materials and poses which need to be saved out as Duf, before you can use them.

eventually all products should come as DUF ,..
then they can look at converting all forms of life on earth to duf format and dominate the galaxy. or just Utah, .. whatever is easiest.

Andy

...or just bring out their own brand of beer?!

t

his also means that released products are being updated,.. and you can soon download them to get the Poser companion files, which will be duf, and will open in Carrara

Are you sure of this, Andy?

I installed the DSON importer for POSER, as well as the companion files - what happened is that I now have duplicate icons of all my Genesis content.  One set is .duf and the other .cr2 - which open OK in Studio, but not in Carrara.  The Studio ions at least have a distinguishing mark to show they are the .cr2 files, but there is no distinguishing the icons in Carrara so I just have to chance it - if it opens, it’s .duf, if it fails, it’s a .cr2.

DOH !

HI Roy

it would be mad not to update the existing genesis products, so that’s a best guess.

but,. we’re in the same boat,..I have the same issue,... they both show up if the DSON companion files are in a DS mapped runtime.

The CR2’s are for poser and are different from the standard poser (since they load using the dson importer process) to pull data from DS.

the companion files like the mats and poses (as you say) will work in Carrara, but partly because of the excitement, of having a new toy,
I also ended up with doubles sometimes tripples,.since there were many things being re-installed :(

I think this is one of the issues that needs to be looked at before there’s any final release of C8.5, but it may also just be the general confusion of where any of this stuff should be installed to.

fortunately uninstallers help, but I’m still not sure that we should be seeing double, or what the carrara solution could be, because we still need to be able to see poser CR2’s and the new files, but perhaps not in the Smart content,.
using the poser runtime to install the companion files, and then accessing them through the normal Runtime (Content) tab would perhaps work better.

it’s worth a try

Hi 3dage

Hoo boy - I’ll have to get a bigger HD!

Yes, it may be a try to move them to the Poser folder - I’ll have to do some serious weeding, the .cr2’s are all mixed in with the .duf’s…but I have a sneaking suspicion CMS will winkle them out wherever they are hidden and put them into smart content:)

3DAGE - 23 October 2012 06:38 AM

Hi

the categories section in the Content Library allows you to create additional Sub categories.
Most products are also automatically categorised here, but as far as I know , you can add products into your own specific categories,

perhaps a regular Daz Studio user like Fixmypcmike can give you more information on using categories,.
or you can get more info in the Daz Studio forum.

I only use DS for some tasks, and I’ve never had a need to use categories.

Thanks. It didn’t occur to me to look there. 

I too very rarely (if almost never) use Daz Studio anymore after I went over to Carrara a fears back.