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[Basically solved] Custom morphs not loading with subset character

scooterinabscooterinab Posts: 2
edited June 19 in Technical Help (nuts n bolts)

I have been saving out characters I use (complete with things like hair) as scene subsets, so that I can reuse them in other scenes without having to remake them. A while ago, I made custom morphs for their shapes and switched over to those.

I recently had to reinstall windows and lost my custom character morphs. I have some older pre-morph files that I'm able to recreate the morphs from, and when I save those out and make sure they're named and placed in the same place Daz is looking for, the "missing file" prompt goes away. However, when the figure loads, they are not loading with the morph applied and instead have the default shape. They have that slider and I can reapply it, but they are not loading in using the slider.

The problem: While I'm able to recreate those characters and just save out a new version, I have used those same morphs with other characters that I have never had an older save for. I'll sometimes use these sliders to make quick background characters or a character who looks a bit like another (like a sibling). So while I can just go back and resave the common characters I use with the rebuilt morph, all of these other characters are now broken and cannot be recreated. If I load those scenes (some of which I'm still working on), the characters won't load with those mixed sliders, even after recreating the morphs they would have had.

Does anyone know how to fix this? If the characters are slightly out (like if the shape in the older save doesn't exactly match what I was using later), that's fine. It just needs to be close enough. But without those morphs loading with those other characters, those characters just revert to the default shape and I can't keep using them. Is there a way to get these to properly load with the subset or scenes that had those characters? Or is there a way to search the file for what the slider values would have been so I can recreate them?

Post edited by scooterinab on

Comments

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 107,953

    OK, so

    1. you created a custome morph - is this a slider controlling multiple properties or did you export as OBJ and reimport? The former will give better rsults in general.
    2. you saved that as a new morph/modifier asset (depending on which version you  are using).
    3. you did a system reinstall and don't have a back-up of the original data fodler entries created in step 2
    4. you recreated the custom morphs 
    5. you saved them as assets again
    6. they load and work, but don't get set to the correct values by old presets/scene subsets

    I suspect that, due to a version change in the way the asets are named (to reduce the odds of duplicate formula issues) the old and new proeprties have different internal names and that is why they are not picking up.

  • scooterinabscooterinab Posts: 2

    Richard Haseltine said:

    1. you created a custome morph - is this a slider controlling multiple properties or did you export as OBJ and reimport? The former will give better rsults in general.

    I suspect that, due to a version change in the way the asets are named (to reduce the odds of duplicate formula issues) the old and new proeprties have different internal names and that is why they are not picking up.

    Thanks for your quick reply. I've only ever known how to make the slider using the exporting method. Do you have some resources you can point me to?

    Regarding an internal name, that's kind of what I'm thinking, but I can't figure out how to verify that. It's worth noting that everything was working just a day or two befopre the reinstall. The characters were saved with an older version of Daz 4, but I've been working with them without issue and with different version updates. Can you think of anything that could have gone wrong?

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 107,953

    You can see the current morph's internal name in Parameter Settings, via the gear icon on the slider - to compare it with the old you would need to look at the references in the .duf file (whioch would probably need uncompressing first).

    The issue with turning  a sahpe into an OBJ and loading that as a new shape, aside from not being able to share it with others, is that you lose all links to joint adjustments and corrective morphs (e.g. to makes the eyes and lips close without gaps or overlaps). You can make a controller proeprty that still uses the base morphs as follows:

    1. make sure the parameters pane is in Edit mode (right-click menu), your shape is applied, and the figure is otherwise zeroed
    2. right-click>Create New Property
    3. Set the name as required, adjust limits is wanted (you might want to set the minimum to 0, for example, set the type to modifier/shape, set the path to the group in the Parameters pane you want it placed in)
    4. Set the new property to 100%
    5. Right-click on the new property>ERC Freeze
    6. in the dialogue make sure there are no interlopers in the list of sub-components, then click Accept
    7. test and you should be doine and ready to save.
  • scooterinabscooterinab Posts: 2

    Thank you so, so much for your help.

    After decompressing the old save and a new morph, I was able to compare both files in Notepad++. I saw that the ID Path at the end of the morph file name is different. If I load the old character with the new morph, they don't load in with it applied. However, changing that ID Path caused the old subset figure to load in with the morph applied.

    This doesn't entirely solve the issue with the background characters or premade scenes, but there are two possible fixes (in case anyone else runs into this problem).
    1. If a character or scene loads in and something is broken, I can either just apply the new morph (to the common characters that just used one morph) or perhaps check the file to see what the old slider values were and then make that change (for the characetrs that used multiple sliders). This would have to be done file by file, scene by scene though, and that sucks.
    2. I could also change the ID Path in the morphs themselves to match the old character subset (then recompress the morph), which is causing the morphs to be applied on loading scenes or the character subset. There are a number of instances of the ID Path, so one just has to make sure to change all of them. However, doing this means I don't have to go and mess with every saved scene or have to load the new character in and transfer the pose and wearables.

    I'm going through and doing the second option, since that should catch the multi-slider characters and allow me to keep using too-many older saves that I have and still use.

    Thank you again for your help in walking me through all of this. And I made sure to save the morphs in my actual Library this time (a separate drive) and not on my OS hard drive like Daz did before.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 107,953

    Great, I am glad you have found a workable solution.

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