Poserworks Ghost?

JOdel

I asked this before and the thread said that it needed to be reinstalled in 4.8 and then it would run. So I did.

Well, it works... after a fashion. A very ineffective fashion.

The shaders apply, that's true enough. But there is no transparency. At All, and if you apply transparency manually, you see every layer.

I used this shader before. I used it in 4.0 and I used it all the way back in DS3. When the shader was applied to each layer, the render showed only the portions outermost of every layer, and the whole set was transparent.

How do I get this function back in 4.8? Or is that something that's waiting to be rebuilt and rereleased?

fixmypcmike

Are you applying one of the presets after applying the shader, and rendering in  3delight?

sriesch

PWGhost requires some manual moving of files (at least if you install it manually anyway, I don't know if that's true if you use DIM too or not).  To reinstall, unzip the product into a temp folder, locate the top level folder named “DAZ Studio_4.5;4;4.x Public Build;4.x Private Build”, then manually merge those subfolders and their subfolders and files with the corresponding folder paths of the same names where DS is installed.  That's a bit confusing, if it doesn't make sense let me know and I can try to step you though each file copy step later.

mjc1016

sriesch said:

PWGhost requires some manual moving of files (at least if you install it manually anyway, I don't know if that's true if you use DIM too or not).  To reinstall, unzip the product into a temp folder, locate the top level folder named “DAZ Studio_4.5;4;4.x Public Build;4.x Private Build”, then manually merge those subfolders and their subfolders and files with the corresponding folder paths of the same names where DS is installed.  That's a bit confusing, if it doesn't make sense let me know and I can try to step you though each file copy step later.

That's to get the actual shader and definition files in the correct location...it should probably really be an executable installer, not a zip file.

JOdel

Well, I take it back. The shader does *not* apply. The *presets* apply. Which is probably why there is no transparency. All I'm getting is the flat color.

I install everything manually, and have not had a problem before.

In addition; I have a couple of older files from DS4.0 which I used the shader in, when it still worked. I opened one of those in DS4.8 and it's only recognizing the flat color, too. No transparency. At All.

Richard Haseltine

If you are installing manually are you placing the actual shader files in the application folder, as described by sriesch? Plug-ins and shaders are better installed with DIM even if you isntall other content manually.

mjc1016

And if you are installing manually...and putting the shader file and the definitions in the application folder, there are some cases where Windows could prevent them from being usable, if you are not logged in as an administrator or have admin privileges.  But installing with the DIM will get around that...

JOdel

Okay, I think I see the problem. Most of my shaders do fine in their external content library/runtime on it's peripheral disk. Evidently Poserworks stuff has to be different and get installed in the actual Application folder on the internal hard drive.

Ghod only knows how I'm going to *find* it, but if that's what makes it happy...

mjc1016

Most of your shaders aren't shaders...they are presets for DAZ default, UberSuface, AoA or some other shader (the vast majority of 'shaders' sold in the store are NOT shaders).  As such, they can live anywhere.

PWGhost is a 'true' shader...and that is the code that MUST reside in the EXE.  It's not 'user facing files', anyway.  It's the actual shader code and the support scripts to make it usable in Studio.  The user facing files, those presets can reside where the rest of the presets do...and are probably there already.

sriesch

In Windows, you can find the DAZ Studio folder by right clicking on the desktop shortcut or Start menu item and selecting Properties from the mouse menu, then click the 'Open File Location" button.

Or, if you are trying to find the files I mentioned above in the pwGhost zip, you can just install it into an empty dummy folder, and manually move the files.

JOdel

By find it, I meant find it from inside the program. All of my content libraries are on the peripheral drive, so that's where they're mapped.

mjc1016

The user facing files will be where they always are...includking the presets that you are currently accessing that aren't doing anything. 

sriesch

You don't have to find those files you manually moved.  Your content thumbnails (such as Phantom.dsb, X-Ray.dsb, "Burning Lines.dsb" etc.), which I assume are the ones you already tried that didn't work originally, should automagically start working once you have manually moved the other files described above.  (possibly you will also need to do a "Scan known directories for files" and/or a restart first, not sure, maybe not.)

mjc1016

sriesch said:

You don't have to find those files you manually moved.  Your content thumbnails (such as Phantom.dsb, X-Ray.dsb, "Burning Lines.dsb" etc.), which I assume are the ones you already tried that didn't work originally, should automagically start working once you have manually moved the other files described above.  (possibly you will also need to do a "Scan known directories for files" and/or a restart first, not sure, maybe not.)

Usually when I manually drop in shader defs and shader files, I always do a restart.  If they are done in Shader Builder, they can be used without a restart.