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Easily identify products and assets in DAZ Studio .duf scene files (seeking feedback)

AscinctAscinct Posts: 84
edited May 3 in Freebies

Hey all,

I hope this is the right forum to post this in.

I’ve been working on a small web browser-based tool that scans a DAZ Studio .duf file and generates a report showing the assets used in the scene.

The idea is to help identify:

  • Exact products used (via DSX support files)
  • Likely products based on asset paths (fallback when no DSX folder is selected)

The tool also lists:

  • Scene node labels
  • Raw asset paths referenced in the file

It runs locally in your browser, so no installs or uploads are required.

I’ve attached a quick screenshot of the current output.

Before I spend more time refining it, I just wanted to gauge interest to see if this is something people here would find useful?

DAZ-Studio-Scene-Asset-Auditor-01-interface.png
1514 x 1764 - 8M
DAZ-Studio-Scene-Asset-Auditor-02-overview.png
1514 x 1764 - 8M
Post edited by Ascinct on

Comments

  • garrett_3dgarrett_3d Posts: 257

    Sounds pretty useful. Would it be able to scan character subset duf files and list morphs, materials, etc. as well?

  • AscinctAscinct Posts: 84
    edited May 3

    garrett_3d said:

    Sounds pretty useful. Would it be able to scan character subset duf files and list morphs, materials, etc. as well?

     

    Yep it does, but a bit indirectly.

    It will pick up morphs, materials, expressions, etc. by scanning the asset paths inside the .duf file and matches them back to products.

    I’ve attached a couple of examples to show what I mean:

    • in the first screen capture, I have highlighted the material duf file that is loaded along side the character. All associated material asset files (textures, shaders, etc.) are also listed.
    • in the second screen capture, it is a bit busy with multiple sections open, but you can see the character morph usage coming through. For example, the head morph from Lyna 9 and the body morph from FPD Yumiko are both listed. You can also see an expression from the Z Face Library being picked up.

    At this stage the tool currently doesn't directly label them as “morph”, “material”, etc. Which is something I could add later! :)

     

     

    Scene matched assets 01.png
    1295 x 1178 - 6M
    Scene matched assets 02.png
    1299 x 894 - 3M
    Post edited by Ascinct on
  • ElorElor Posts: 3,726
    edited May 3

    Is it able to use multiple Runtime/Support folders?

    Post edited by Elor on
  • AscinctAscinct Posts: 84

    Elor said:

    Is it able to use multiple Runtime/Support folders?

    At the moment only a single runtime/support folder can be referenced at any given time. I will have a look into building this function in. Thank you.

  • garrett_3dgarrett_3d Posts: 257

    Ascinct said:

    garrett_3d said:

    Sounds pretty useful. Would it be able to scan character subset duf files and list morphs, materials, etc. as well?

     

    Yep it does, but a bit indirectly.

    It will pick up morphs, materials, expressions, etc. by scanning the asset paths inside the .duf file and matches them back to products.

    I’ve attached a couple of examples to show what I mean:

    • in the first screen capture, I have highlighted the material duf file that is loaded along side the character. All associated material asset files (textures, shaders, etc.) are also listed.
    • in the second screen capture, it is a bit busy with multiple sections open, but you can see the character morph usage coming through. For example, the head morph from Lyna 9 and the body morph from FPD Yumiko are both listed. You can also see an expression from the Z Face Library being picked up.

    At this stage the tool currently doesn't directly label them as “morph”, “material”, etc. Which is something I could add later! :)

     

     

    That would be extremely helpful for me. I have characters I made nearly a year ago and at some point I need to add genitalia for certain scenes but I'll be damned if I can remember what skin mats I used. 

  • ElorElor Posts: 3,726

    Ascinct said:

    At the moment only a single runtime/support folder can be referenced at any given time. I will have a look into building this function in. Thank you.

    Thank you :)

    garrett_3d said:

    That would be extremely helpful for me. I have characters I made nearly a year ago and at some point I need to add genitalia for certain scenes but I'll be damned if I can remember what skin mats I used. 

    Did you try to open the surface panel ? The name of a character is usually in the name of the files of a character's textures and it will likely also be in the name of the folder used to store the files.

    If, let's say, you used Victoria 8.1's maps, hovering your mouse cursor over the diffuse map of the body surface should show you that path [Locatin of the runtime folder on your system]/Runtime/Textures/DAZ/Characters/Genesis8/Victoria8_1/Victoria8_1_BodyD_1003.jpg

  • barbultbarbult Posts: 26,761

    Does it support files installed with Daz Connect, which puts the files into a completely different folder hieracrchy on disc. (different than DIM or manual install)? I hate Daz Connect and no longer use it at all, but some people do use it.

  • AscinctAscinct Posts: 84
    edited May 4

    Hey all,

    I’ve put together a test version of the tool if anyone would like to try it out:
    https://ascinct.com/asset-auditor.html

    It runs locally in your web browser, so you don't need to installs anything. Just download the ZIP file, unzip it, then open the HTML file and load a .duf scene file to generate a report of the assets used.

    At the moment the tool can:

    • Identify exact products (when DSX support files are provided)
    • List likely products based on asset paths
    • Show scene node labels and raw asset paths

    I’ve also made note of the feature requests raised so far and will be looking into adding these for future versions. The download file also includes a small readme text file that provides a little more information, but I have yet to complete proper documentation at this stage, if it is even needed...

    I’m mainly looking for feedback around:

    • Accuracy of product matching
    • Anything missing or unclear in the output
    • Edge cases where it breaks or gives unexpected results

    If you do give it a run, I’d really appreciate hearing how it goes!

    EDIT: I should also note that, when selecting your DSX support folder, your web browser may show a security prompt about accessing files. This is expected behaviour and I want to reassure that the tool runs entirely locally in your web browser and does not upload or send any files anywhere. I will be updating this warning message so it's more user friendly in the next update.

    Post edited by Ascinct on
  • garrett_3dgarrett_3d Posts: 257
    edited May 4

    Awesome. Just tried it with one of my slow-to-load G8 character subsets and found FWSA Adaline HD for Victoria 7 Gen 3 morph mixed in.

     

    EDIT: Damn, it's not my error, I don't even have Adaline in the parameters list. The character is based on Visual Fox's Victoria so I'm guessing that's where the morph is. Gonna have to live with it I guess, I'm too far into using the character to replace her now.

    Post edited by garrett_3d on
  • AscinctAscinct Posts: 84
    edited May 4

    garrett_3d said:

    Awesome. Just tried it with one of my slow-to-load G8 character subsets and found FWSA Adaline HD for Victoria 7 Gen 3 morph mixed in.

     

    EDIT: Damn, it's not my error, I don't even have Adaline in the parameters list. The character is based on Visual Fox's Victoria so I'm guessing that's where the morph is. Gonna have to live with it I guess, I'm too far into using the character to replace her now.

    Thank you trying the tool out! You actually found something quite interesting.

    I’m not too familiar with either product specifically, but if Visual Fox’s Victoria depends on or includes morph data from FWSA Adaline HD under the hood, the tool will pick that up as it scans all referenced assets in the scene file.

    So in cases like this, it can surface morphs that aren’t directly visible in the Parameters panel but are still part of the underlying data. 

    Definitely something I’ll look into further to see if I can better distinguish between direct vs inherited morphs. Morphs that are shared across products will in most cases show up under the 'Exact product matches' > 'Possible matches' section.

    Post edited by Ascinct on
  • ElorElor Posts: 3,726

    Hello,

    I checked with a simple scene (a portrait of Olympia 9):

    1. it identified most of the products I used, including some that were hidden in the final render.
    2. it missed one
    3. it saw one that wasn't used

    1 & 2 >

    The one I think were missing is a product by Fabiana whithout metadata (I created them but I'm storing them in another folder) and among the possible match was another product by fabiana, so I though it was the one used, so thought it was missing. It is, but well, it's the expected behaviour because your tool doesn't have access to the relevant .dsx file.

    I opened your tool in another windows and it did find the correct pendant used when I gave it access to the other folder.

    3 >

    The one that was not used is P3D Rowan, because there is a reference to her teeth morph, but with a Current value of 0:

                    "id" : "P3DRowan_head_bs_Teeth",
                    "url" : "/data/Daz%203D/Genesis%209/Genesis%209%20Mouth/Morphs/P3Design/Rowan/P3DRowan_head_bs_Teeth.dsf#P3DRowan_head_bs_Teeth",
                    "parent" : "#Genesis9Mouth",
                    "channel" : {
                        "id" : "value",
                        "type" : "float",
                        "name" : "Value",
                        "visible" : false,
                        "current_value" : 0
                    },
                    "group" : "/Actor"
                },

    I don't know why my scene file is referencing this morph by P3Design and when I opened the scene in Daz Studio, the default value for that morph is 0 so no reason for the scene to save a current value of zero.

    I don't know if it's possible, but for the Possible Match list, if the system was able to only match (in my case) 'data/daz 3d/genesis 9/base/genesis9.dsf' with Genesis 9 Starter Essentials (same with older generations and their respective base file), it would remove a lot of bogus possible matchs and would make that section more useful.

    As it is, it's mainly a listing of the Genesis 9 characters I have installed, and of the clothes and props with, I suppose, Genesis 9 wrongly set as a Compatibility Base (which is one of the most common mistake Daz will do while setting metadata).

    Note that for some reasons, the tool didn't match the use of 'data/daz 3d/genesis 9/base/genesis9.dsf' with Olympia 9.

    Another suggestion: you're currently keeping tracks of shared morphs: could it be possible to show their name in another colour, to make it easier to identify them?

    I'll try with a more complexe scene later, but so far, it's working great yes

  • AscinctAscinct Posts: 84

    Elor, thanks for taking the time to test this so thoroughly! This is really helpful feedback.

    I’ve made note of all of this and will definitely be looking into ways to better distinguish between referenced vs actively used assets, and to improve the overall clarity of the results.

    I love your idea of highlighting shared morphs! That’s a great suggestion.

    Appreciate you giving it a run.

  • DoctorJellybeanDoctorJellybean Posts: 9,865

    Will be checking this out soon.

  • acbacb Posts: 774

    Great start! smiley

    Since most scripts for this purpose depend on the smart contents, which I don't use, this approach is really promising.

    However, I would need to select more than one dsx folder, as my product collection doesn't fit on a single drive - more like four. indecision

    I also use additional paths for stuff from other sources, and so on. That adds up to 7-8 folders. 

    Way too many to go through manually to get all products in a scene. laugh

    I probably could copy all those scattered dsx files into one location for testing purposes... will see.

  • DoctorJellybeanDoctorJellybean Posts: 9,865

    acb said:

    Great start! smiley

    Since most scripts for this purpose depend on the smart contents, which I don't use, this approach is really promising.

    However, I would need to select more than one dsx folder, as my product collection doesn't fit on a single drive - more like four. indecision

    I also use additional paths for stuff from other sources, and so on. That adds up to 7-8 folders. 

    Way too many to go through manually to get all products in a scene. laugh

    I probably could copy all those scattered dsx files into one location for testing purposes... will see.

    Maybe Hard \ Soft Links would work? 

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