Mysteries, Problems & 6 Questions re DAZ Studio 4.6 Pro!
Prince Wao
Posts: 373
Apologies that is a long one, but it was either that or 7 separate messages!
I'm new to 3D modelling and to DAZ, but in the last month have encountered numerous problems with the programme. I've found that it's extremely eager to crash, with or without warnings, and particularly when a scene in progress has more items or details added to it. It will also crash during renders; plus saved scenes or scene subsets take ages to load, and even once loaded I have to wait 5+ minutes before the navigation controls will work fluidly – prior to that they stick – and said saved scenes and subsets are even more likely to crash or encounter other anomalies than a new unsaved scene.
Occasionally, but still too often, once items have been added to a scene or to a character, I then can't access 'materials' for them as they only show up as blank grey frames, and if I click 'refresh' although I'll get the colour images of the materials showing again, when trying to apply one, what appears on the character is a mishmash of all variants of materials for the selected item. This and other glitches have happened so often that I now know the only thing I can do is exit the programme, reload and start over. But it's very frustrating and inordinately time wasting.
I have 5 questions:
1: I read on a non DAZ site that persons who upgraded to 4.6 Pro from an earlier version have no problems, but if one downloaded it as new then these glitches are standard. Is that true?
2: Renders are usually very fast, but one scene I created which had a lot of fine detail in shadows took 3 hours to render! I've noticed that regular renders slow down over dark areas, but in the latter it would come to a full stop at certain points – often 22% into the render – and just stick for ages, sometimes 20+ minutes. Is this normal?
3: This is a mystery to me! When I first began experimenting with the basic Genesis figures I was able to adjust the mouth expressions of the characters (see attached file of the basic Genesis Female which has a mouth expression – and I triple-checked that this IS the basic Genesis Female, not the Genesis 2 Female). Since my very first experiments with DS4.6 I've been unable to locate any mouth adjustments other than height and width for the basic Genesis characters – they don't appear under 'Pose' as they do with Genesis 2. Was it not for this one early saved render (attached) I would have been convinced that one just can't give the basic Genesis characters any kind of a facial expression, but I've not been able to since my first couple of days just getting used to the programme's interface and possibilities. But I'm completely baffled that I clearly did give the basic Genesis Female an [removed]see attachment) yet now it appears impossible. Can anyone explain this, please?
4: This question is about posing. Once I've modelled a unique face on the Genesis 2 Female with a specific expression such a smile, whenever I pose that figure using G2 poses, the facial expression is lost; but if I use the basic Genesis poses (female, male or child) the Genesis 2 Female's smile and facial expression is retained. It seems odd to me that that a smile given to the G2 Female should be lost when using a G2 pose, yet not when given a G1 pose. Is this normal?
5: Particularly on saved scenes and freebies downloaded from ShareCG I'm getting the Duplicate IDs anomaly coming up. I have Richard Haseltine's 'fix', for this, but like so much else re DAZ, the instruction is not aimed at the beginner/new customer. EG: the instructions begin, "To use the script, run it in the usual manner", but I and most other beginners don't even know what a script is, never mind how one would run one in the usual manner. My question is: can anyone please give me step by step instructions how to correct the Duplicate IDs anomaly using the 'Fix Duplicate IDs.dsa'?
6: This question is specifically about "Crazy Deal Marrakesh 1" which I purchased on 10th October. Whenever I try to load "!Scene_Quel Bazar" I get an error message that the Runtime file can't be found (and indeed it doesn't seem to exist). Is there a fix for this, or do I need to contact DAZ Technical Support? (Also, no other item in that scene will load anywhere).
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One further observation re DS4: It's clear that DAZ Studio 4.6 Pro is being given away free so as to encourage more people to get into 3D modelling and obviously to purchase the thousands of available add-ons, but since I first downloaded the programme and some starter basics I've found an inordinate lack of instructions for first time users; ie: where rare instructions do exist, they're clearly aimed at advanced users as they omit the initial steps – instead of such as 'Step 1, go to Menu A'; 'Step 2, click on B which is 5 down the list'; 'Step 3, click on C in this 3rd menu', one will only be told to 'click on C' when one has no idea where 'C' is, or what it's about. Generally there seem only to be video tutorials which can sometimes be hard to follow as the instructors are using customised interfaces which don't match the beginners', and they race through the steps taken - and following the steps in one 8 minute DAZ video tutorial took me over 2 hours as I was constantly pausing and switching between screens. I went to Amazon to see if they had a DAZ Manual as I always prefer book instructions, but the bad reviews completely put me off it! The gist of them was that the manual will tell you all about the wonders one can create with DAZ, but sadly not how to! I feel sure this dearth of basic instructions will put many beginners (aka NEW CUSTOMERS) off altogether as I nearly gave up on it due to 1 month of installation problems which were all down to zero kick-off instructions, plus being supplied with a number of files which are now irrelevant to the set up. I initially couldn't believe that I'd been supplied files which were completely unnecessary, thus my first guess was that also supplied PDF's which stated the other files were irrelevant contained all too common incorrect or partial information. Having got a little used to DS4 now, I consider it to be a BRILLIANT programme (the numerous glitches aside) which affords me almost limitless creative possibilities, but the dearth of instructions for new customers and the continual crashes and other anomalies are issues that really need to be addressed by DAZ personnel.
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Comments
Depending on how the poses were made and saved, they may or may not include expressions. If a pose changes the expression, hold down the Ctrl key while loading it and you'll get a menu of which items to apply. Deselect the head morphs to keep the existing expression.
Save the 'Fix Duplicate IDs.dsa' in your content folder -- I would put it in the Scripts folder. Then just double-click the script and browse to the item you want to fix.
"Quel Bazar" is a texture set for "Marrakesh Souks 2012" -- if you don't have that it won't work.
Thank you for your fast response, fixmypcmike.
Re your replies:
1: I have 2 GB RAM, and I'm only using 30% of the hard disk, so I don't think the issue is with my PC.
2: The video card is working to spec's and I don't have any other related problems, so I don't think that's connected to my DAZ issues, either. I'll explain what I meant re materials in my initial post:
Say that in a given saved scene I give the Genesis Male the basic Journeyer Scout Vest, fit it to the character, then go to Materials to alter the vest's look, I'll find that under 'Materials' there are no colour images of the vest, armband, wristguards, etc, only grey squares with the file names. If I then click 'refresh', the colour images will suddenly reappear, but when I double-click on, say, the Royal Vest, what actually appears on the original vest will be every single material option for the vest at once. This anomaly occurs mostly when adding to saved scenes or scene subsets.
3: Thanks for the answers to my first 2 questions – understood, though I currently believe that the problems I'm having are just to do with the DS4 programme and not my PC as in all other areas it's in fine fettle.
4: Re my not being able to access facial expressions for the basic Genesis figures, they don't appear under 'parameters'. If I select the Genesis 2 Female, go to 'parameters' and then click on 'pose controls', all of the facial variant controls (and all others of course) show up; but they don't on the Basic Genesis figures – only arms, legs, hips and waist controls appear.
5: Re your reply to my 4th and 5th questions, BRILLIANT – thank you! – this is the kind of basic instruction I need.
6: Re my Question 6, the 'folder tree' route to 'Quel Bazar' in the Content Library is: My DAZ 3D Library; Environments, Architecture, Mar_Souks, Quel Bazaar. IE: I'm assuming that "Mar_Souks" is " "Marrakesh Souks 2012" – is that correct? Or is the 'runtime can't be found' message occurring because that runtime file is in "Marrakesh Souks 2012" and I don't have it?
Again, being new to DAZ and there being so little basic instruction for new customers, I'm currently struggling to know exactly what I should be buying next to progress as whatever I select of interest from the DAZ catalogue I'm continually reading that I'll need something else first, and often when I check that 'something else', I find I even need another something else before that one.
Although I need far more environment, clothes and hair options than the basics I've begun with or recently bought, I figured I next needed to buy Victoria 4 and Michael 4 – which is why I came on-site today – but again I'm left nonplussed as everything connected to those figures that I've found state I need a dastardly 'something else first'! I can't even find Victoria 4 Base on the site, but even here I'm only guessing that that's the first thing one buys. I can find Victoria 4.2 Base, but I'm not buying that as it may be that it's no good without Victoria 4 Base. This is what I mean about there being no basic instruction for beginners – the information given with most products I've seen is only meaningful if one already speaks DAZ language.
2GB RAM is not a lot, I'm afraid -- after subtracting what's needed for the OS, any background processes, other applications, and video RAM if your graphics card doesn't have its own dedicated RAM, there's not much left for DS to work with.
It would help to get the video card specs -- 3D graphics can be demanding, and the symptoms you're having sound like video card issues.
Marrakesh Souks 2012 is a separate product which is required for Quel Bazar -- Quel Bazar installs to the same location as the default textures for Marrakesh Souks, but without the required product it won't work.
I have this same problem and I think Quel Bazaar needs to be updated. It was made for the old "Marrakesh Souks" set that was removed from the store and replaced by "Marrakesh Souks 2012". The 2012 set installs its geometry files in a different location. and scene in Quel Bazaar is still looking for them in the old location. The individual materials preset working correctly on Marrakesh Souks 2012, but you have to select the right parts of the set to apply each one. You can save your own scene after you do that. Jack Tomalin has a lot of sets with this issue. He is working on getting them updated, but It would not hurt to send him a PM or open a support ticket.
There is a lot of free content available for DAZ at sites like ShareCG. I would recommend seeing what you can do with free content, before spending a lot more money on paid content.
There is a significant learning curve with DAZ Studio. The documentation is weak. There are a lot of tutorials on Youtube and I have hear rumors DAZ is working on a tutorials.
Thanks again, fixmypcmike.
It may well be the video card as you say, so I'll get that checked out.
I just checked out "Marrakesh Souks 2012" and it seems I did again buy something that won't work without a prior something! But I'll have to leave it for another day as it's bedtime here in the UK.
Maybe someone else may reply re why I've lost facial expressions for the Basic Genesis characters - that's bugging me more than anything else at present as without them the only male model I have just looks miserable in the scenes I have him in! He'll be even more peeved once Michael joins the team. :)
Oops, not bedtime yet - someone else has just replied.
Thank you, Mark128.
Re the Genesis facial expressions, if I select 'head' all I get are Basic Female Head, Basic Male Head, Alien Humanoid and Head Propagating Scale controls. Under Face I only get Jaw Size, and under Mouth I only get width and height. So this is still a mystery.
It seems I need to upgrade both PC and video card, though I have managed some scenes (still incomplete re lighting) with 3 characters and a lot of extra furniture and fittings.
Quel Bazar will have to wait awhile - I'll get the MS 2012 ASAP and take it from there.
I've already downloaded a few things from ShareCG, but sadly most downloads have no instructions at all, and the few items I've managed to add to DS4 all come up odd - spikes appear, plus I get the duplicate IDs message coming up - though I know there are instructions how to get rid of the spikes on ShareCG. Only once I get the hang of what goes into what folders will I try installing the other freebies as it drives me nuts that sometimes a single item will be 'encased' in an 8 deep nest of folders (ie: a 'My Library' folder contains at least one other folder which will lead to another folder which leads to another, and only at the 8th level is the actual item found). ... I've seen 2 sets of instructions re how to install freebies, but both are using recent Windows OS while I'm still stuck on XP, and on XP you can't merge 2 folders which have the same name. Yes, there's definitely a significant learning curve with DAZ - I'm currently theorising that a jet liner has less controls and settings to learn all about - but I've been amazed at the quality of renders I've already got despite still knowing less than 1% about the programme. I estimate it will be at least a year before I understand the bulk of it!
Good night and sweet dreams from the UK. :)
princewao . I am reinstalling all my content and checking to see what is installed by each item and I believe you need to purchase the head and body morphs bundle for Genesis and the expressions as Genesis doesn't come with them , but Genesis 2 does come with a lot more morph settings included as I have just discovered.
This sounds to me like you are in the Shaping tab rather than the Parameters tab.
If you don't have a Parameters tab anymore, go to the menu Window -> Panes (tabs) -> Parameters to bring the Parameters tab back.
Thanks for your responses, Kharma and Mark 128.
Kharma: As the picture attached to my original post shows, about 4 weeks ago when I first began experimenting with morphing faces I was able to give the basic Genesis Female facial expressions; plus I still have access to all body morphs except for the facial expressions.
Mark128: I definitely do have the parameters tab. As said last time above, "Re the Genesis facial expressions, if I select ‘head’ all I get are Basic Female Head, Basic Male Head, Alien Humanoid and Head Propagating Scale controls. Under Face I only get Jaw Size, and under Mouth I only get width and height. So this is still a mystery."
It seems to me that something has died in the programme, as I'm definitely not missing any tabs or looking for smiles in all the wrong places. :)
I think my best now is to write to Technical Support.
Thanks to everyone for your responses. At least I've learned a couple of new things and now know my PC isn't as macho as I thought it was. ;)
I have attached some screen shots from my old computer system. This is DAZ 4.5, but there is almost no additional morphs and content installed on this system. The first one shows the genesis head selected on the parameters tab and where the expressions are under the pose controls.
The other one shows the shaping tab with the head select. The shaping tab shows items like you are describing, which is why I think you are looking at the shaping tab.
You should confirm this with somebody before purchase, but I believe Victoria 4.2 base is now used instead of Victoria 4 Base. A lot of the figures also come in pieces or combined into a bundle that has a lot of commonly-used things together. For example, you could also purchase V4 as the "Victoria 4.2 Starter Bundle" ( http://www.daz3d.com/victoria-4-2-complete ), see "What's Included & Features" on that product page for links to the other products that are contained within the bundle. In that case, among other things, the bundle includes the base product, morphs, skin texture maps, etc. If you have more money to spend, there is often a "Pro" bundle that contains a bunch of other products as well.
It varies from figure to figure, but for human figures there is usually a base, and morphs, and textures. For clothing there is usually the base clothing item, then separate products that require it such as additional materials, or accessories that complement the item. Usually requirements are listed on the product page, however that can be a bit misleading; for example, there might be a bundle that lists as requirements two unrelated products because it is designed for both, but in reality if you only own one of those two products you could still use just the parts of the product that apply to the product you own and ignore the parts that apply to the product you don't own that you can't use. Some things should be obvious, for example if the product is nothing but materials or poses, whatever the materials/poses are for would be a required product. Others aren't as obvious. Some things might work with multiple products but not all are listed as requirements. You can just ask for specific products until you get the hang of it though.