EDIT DIM & Content Library Problem with "Advanced DAZ Studio Light Bundle" wont show as installed
pctech4ny
Posts: 182
So I noticed that the 3 "Advanced Lights" (Ambient, Distant, and Spotlight) I purchased and installed via DIM the other day were showing as not installed in Smart Content. There was no option to Install after right-clicking, so I fired up DIM and uninstalled & reinstalled. Same problem.
Found files inside "My Library" and deleted. Downloaded manual EXE installers and chose custom install to make sure were going to the right locations.
All the files are in the right places according to the Readme, but Smart Content still keeps telling me "file not installed."
And no matter how much I refresh, the whole "Age of Armour" folder won't show up in Content Library even though have manually confirmed the files and folders are there.
Quit DAZ and rebooted PC a few times inbetween some of these steps.
Should I just give up and ask for a refund? I mostly wanted them as was a requirement for the "Light Up the Dark" light set, but I won't be able to use that either if the Advanced Lights can't be accessed from inside DAZ studio.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
224 S 200 W, Suite #250
Salt Lake City, UT 84101
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2024 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
Are you rendering in Iray or 3Delight? The three AoA Advanced Lights came out long before Iray was added to DAZ|Studio, so they will only work in 3Delight renders. If you're working in Iray, you will need to get a refund. That really ought to be noted somewhere obvious on the store page.
That said, there's definitely something weird going on. Do you have more than one content folder? When you installed manually, did you include the files in /Runtime/Support/ — this is the content database metadata, without it the Smart Content tab won't know about your new content. Although the files ought to be showing in Content Library; unlike Smart Content, this shows the actual files in their actual location in your content folder.
Now that I have an NVidia card I was going to be using Iray almost all the time.
As you can see in the image I attached, the files listed in the Readme are in Scripts/Support under my DAZ program installtion on my C drive. The content itself is located on my D drive along with all other content. I checked the Readme and everything shows as where it is supposed to be.
So request refund it is I guess.
There is a bit of general weirdness going on today that Smart Content has decided that several hundred items that were installed via DIM are showing as not installed also, but right-clicking on them in Smart Content and selecting install gets DAZ Connect to reinstall them so I can use them. The only ones so far giving me any problems are these lights. (Yes it's a pain to basically check 900+ items in Smart Content to see if I can actually load them, or if I have to click install to them in order to use them. But at least I can get them back to working! Some of these assets I used just 2 days ago and I have no idea what is going on why they show as not installed...)
Yes, that's right — the files in the content folder are just presets, the actual shader code for the AoA lights is supposed to be in the D|S program folder. Bit of a moot question for you, but many people still use 3Delight, and the lights would still work perfectly well for them.
As for your Smart Content issues, I really have no idea, it just seems to go bonkers now and then.
I have those lights and they show up just fine in Smart Content. Installed with DIM, and, yes, some parts are installed to Program Files/ (shaders and scripts) and the presets to the Content Library. Note that installing plugins and shaders in folders under Program Files might require Studio to not be running at the time.
Smart Content is only as good as the metadata, so if it is misplaced, or not present, Smart Content won't know about the product. Also, Connect and DIM have different ideas as to what's installed, and where.
If you install with DIM, check in DIM what is installed by right-clicking on the product and select "Show Installed Files..." If the installation folder is mapped to a Content Library folder, you should see them in the Content Library. If the metadata is good, you will get the content-type flashes in the upper right corner of the icons (Light(s), Shader, Properties, or Script).
Deleting from the Content Library is not the same as uninstalling. The database might have orphaned references that would need to be removed. Look under Products->LOCAL USER to see if any of the product files are present. If so, remove what should be orphaned references.
Installing from DIM will put everything where it is supposed to go, with metadata, so that Studio knows all about it.
Great now I have a couple other assets showing the same issue: Measure Metrics and Glute Control for G3. Guess let's see if reinstalling DAZ Studio does anything...
Uninstalled & reinstalled both Studio and PostgresSQL... no effect.
Reset CMS database afrer that .... hmmmm.
The few "problematic" items no longer appear in list of "All Products."
However the other 900+ items are all "grayed out" so I guess they are listed as "not installed?"
I won't have time to deal with reinstalling everything unless I let it run overnight after work.
Is there a way to que this all up in DIM? DIM still claims everything is installed... how to tell DIM that they are "downloaded" but not "installed?"
(I have all the installation packages saved.)
Okay, resetting the CMS database basically blows away any metadata and product info. You have to re-import it to populate the database for anything to show in Smart Content.
Connect and DIM install the content to different places, and once you use Connect to install something, it takes control of the metadata for that product. I personally don't use Connect, all installing is done through DIM. Even if it was installed through DIM, Connect still knows about the product, but doesn't think it it installed. Smart Content is not exclusive with Connect, it will work with whichever installation method puts metadata into the database.
In DIM, which tab shows all these products that Studio has "greyed out"? If they are on the "Installed" tab (where they would be if installed through DIM in the first place), then they are still installed, and should show in the Content Library (not Smart Content, there is no metadata, yet). In this case you can re-import Metadata from the same menu that you used to reset the database. When you do that, you will be presented with a long list of products, and User Data (any customizations you did to metadata, categories, etc.). Select them all and go get a coffee, or maybe lunch.
If they show on the "Ready to Install" tab, then DIM cannot find the manifests that were created when they were installed. That folder is specified by the "Manifest Archive" on the Installation tab in DIM Settings.
If they show in the "Ready to Download" tab, DIM cannot see the manifests that were created when they were downloaded. That folder is specified by "Package Archive" on the Downloads tab. (These are different manifests, do not use the same folder for both).
It doesn't. When you uninstall/reinstall the program, all the program settings, content files, and content database (including anything that might be wrong with the content database) are untouched because they're supposed to carry over from one program version to the next update. The only way to fix a database problem (which it's looking increasingly likely might be what's happening) is to use the database controls.
Everything "grayed out" shows under the Installed tab in DIM, although there is no list of products in the setting in DAZ Studio to re-import the metadata.
I'm using DIM to just uninstall everything, then I will use DIM to reinstall the content, See if that works.
Sounds like DIM and Studio are not looking in the same place for content. Ensure that your library in Studio is mapped to the same folder where DIM has installed the content. If they line up, you should get the product list when re-importing metadata. If not, re-installing everything will not make a bit of difference, because it will still install to the same place as before.
OK after some messing around it seems Studio lost track of my main library content folder. After enough messing around I got MOST of the content to show as installed including the few problematic items.
However now 74 different items are grayed out, including such things as all the various generations Starter Essentials, Head & Body Morphs, etc.
I'm going to the individual product pages and getting the "DIM Ready" installers.
With combination of DIM and installer packages got MOST of it to work.
However the the Head Morphs Body Morphs and Expressions for G3 and G8 wont install. Nor the IV Squish Morphs. Even after uninstalling them, deleting the install packages, and having DIM download new installers...
Arg. Time to go to work back in 13 hours.
I THINK I've got it all installed and showing as installed. Every single item of Smart Content is flagged as NEW in the corner.
I had to use DIM to uninstall the remaining problem items, reboot PC, update metadata one at a time on the grayed out icons for the problematic items, then use DAZ Connect inside Studio to re-install the problematic items.
Loaded up a G8 base figure and was able to adjust various morph sliders.
One annoyance: now I have all the POSER versions of assets that came in both Studio and Poser versions showing in my Smart Content. That's from the bulk re-install of all content. Maybe I can search for "CF" or something in DIM and uninstall the Poser versions so they are not cluttering up Smart Content.
I'd like to thank those who contributed ideas and advice on this issue. I've only had DAZ about 2-1/2 months this was my first major problem. I lost a few days of being able to create any scenes or even use my existing scenes due to missing content, butI think I am back in business here.
Yes, the PoserCF version of things are not required for Studio. There are some products with full Poser versions (with geometry and texture bitmaps as well as the figures, props, etc.) that could also be removed, but with a couple of caveats. Texture files use the same folder regardless of which version is installed, so if both are installed, and you uninstall one, the bitmaps might be removed for both, so you would have to re-install the one you want to keep. Many earlier products have the inverse situation where the Poser version is required, and the StudioCF part only has material settings. With those, you will have to live with two sets of files, assuming they even have metadata (many figure-based items before Genesis don't, but if they do, it is often only for the files of interest to Studio). And then there are the ones that have both Poser and Studio files in the Poser version (a workaround to avoid the StudioCF files), but you only see one element. They only have the one file to install anyway. It's complicated...
Glad you worked it out. You will become more familiar with it all in time. There's a lot to take in if you're just starting out.
There's still one qurk: everytime I start Studio and connect online, it re-updates the metadata for I think 74 items, of which it says 2 failed. Despite this I've checked a random selection of assets including stuff I know was acting problematic, and it all works so far.
Have to live with it as long as it's otherwise working.