Alric said:

crosswind said:

As I said before, you ever did "Update Metadata" when Login to Daz Connect ... Have you noticed that there's a white icon "circle with an arrow" in the upper right corner of its product thumbnail ? That means "Has Cloud Metadata"

I was wondering what the icon meant. I just had more pressing issues to deal with. 

You have to modify the prodoct image in Daz Connect folder, i.e. "Cloud Folder": 
1) Press F2 in DS (Preferences...), go to Content tab > Content Directory Manager. Expand Daz Connect Data, you'll find the cloud folder.
2) Open File Browser, go to the cloud folder, see if you can find a sub-folder: meta. In this folder, there must be a product image file: 1_102420.jpg Replace it with a larger image.
3) Go back to Smart Content, Refresh ! You should be able to see the larger image.

There we go, that worked! Mystery solved.

Thank you very much.

One final question (for now). I noticed that the DAZ connect data is being stored on my OneDrive. I don't have that much space on my one drive so I would like to move the connect data. I see that I can edit the path but will moving this directory now cause problems?

No problem !

I don't think there'll be any problem if you move the cloud folder from OneDrive to another folder... though I've never used OneDrive. No harm to test:

1) Create a new folder on one of your disk, e.g.  D:\Daz 3D\Studio\My Daz Connect Library
2) Copy the whole data folder (the top level folder in your current connect library) from your OneDrive to D:\Daz 3D\Studio\My Daz Connect Library
3) Configure this new path in Content Directory Manager. Then test if it works.

crosswind said:

As I said before, you ever did "Update Metadata" when Login to Daz Connect ... Have you noticed that there's a white icon "circle with an arrow" in the upper right corner of its product thumbnail ? That means "Has Cloud Metadata"

I was wondering what the icon meant. I just had more pressing issues to deal with. 

You have to modify the prodoct image in Daz Connect folder, i.e. "Cloud Folder": 
1) Press F2 in DS (Preferences...), go to Content tab > Content Directory Manager. Expand Daz Connect Data, you'll find the cloud folder.
2) Open File Browser, go to the cloud folder, see if you can find a sub-folder: meta. In this folder, there must be a product image file: 1_102420.jpg Replace it with a larger image.
3) Go back to Smart Content, Refresh ! You should be able to see the larger image.

There we go, that worked! Mystery solved.

Thank you very much.

One final question (for now). I noticed that the DAZ connect data is being stored on my OneDrive. I don't have that much space on my one drive so I would like to move the connect data. I see that I can edit the path but will moving this directory now cause problems?

Alric said:

In the support folder, you'll find its product image, replace it with a larger image by using the same file name. Go back to Smart Content, Refresh ! You'll see the much larger one.

I do this from time to time. It always works.

Tried that and there was no change. I even scribbled over the image and then shut down my computer but t he image didn't change. So it has to be coming from somewhere else. I'm totaly stumped on where though. 

Ah, I thought you meant the 1st screenshot image that you posted above... You meant the 2nd screenshot ~~ That is the product you bought from Daz3D store, installed via DIM but its metadata was updated via Daz Connect... 

As I said before, you ever did "Update Metadata" when Login to Daz Connect ... Have you noticed that there's a white icon "circle with an arrow" in the upper right corner of its product thumbnail ? That means "Has Cloud Metadata"

You have to modify the prodoct image in Daz Connect folder, i.e. "Cloud Folder": 
1) Press F2 in DS (Preferences...), go to Content tab > Content Directory Manager. Expand Daz Connect Data, you'll find the cloud folder.
2) Open File Browser, go to the cloud folder, see if you can find a sub-folder: meta. In this folder, there must be a product image file: 1_102420.jpg Replace it with a larger image.
3) Go back to Smart Content, Refresh ! You should be able to see the larger image.

James said:

I've manage to transfer a pose using daz3d to unity bridge. 

In Unity I use animator controller assing to the character. 
But the problem is, though it poses, but the position changes. It goes very high in the sky and rotate a bit. 
So how to apply the pose in unity but the position stays exactly the same as when it was in daz3d?

Short or long explanation? 
 

Short explanation or long one? Either way, Daz models will continue to cause issues because they weren't designed for game engines, but rather for animations strictly within Daz itself (a poor decision by Daz's owners, in my view; today, other software surpasses Daz for this very reason—they didn't want to lock themselves into a proprietary ecosystem).*** But all is not lost—the short answer to your question is that you will always, invariably, have to put in work to rebuild models, shaders, and animations in Unity when using Daz (and don't rely on the Daz Bridge; it's broken, outdated, and extremely resource-heavy).

There are ways around this, though they do require effort. Don't use the "Humanoid" setting; use "Generic." The Humanoid system cannot handle the sheer number of bones found in Daz models.

Rigging Facial - Unity's Humanoid system is limited. It maps only a standard set of human body bones and ignores complex structures. The problem with Humanoid: The Genesis 8/8.1 skeleton features dozens of extra facial bones for micro-expressions and precise eye movements. The Humanoid system discards or breaks the hierarchy of these bones. The advantage of Generic: It imports the bone structure exactly as it was built in Daz. This ensures that your facial animations for speech (lip-sync) and blinking (crucial for idle states) work perfectly.

Prevents Joint Deformation (Shoulders and Fingers) – Daz’s mesh and skeleton are hyper-detailed, featuring automatic weight corrections for complex joint rotations such as shoulders and hips. The Humanoid issue: To force the character to fit Unity’s "standardized avatar," the Humanoid system recalculates rotations. This often results in displaced shoulders, crooked fingers, or bizarre armpit distortions during movement. The Generic advantage: Unity does not attempt to "guess" or remap rotations; instead, it reads Daz animation data directly and purely (1:1 scale), preserving the visual integrity of the Genesis 8 anatomy.

CPU Performance and Usage – The Humanoid issue: At runtime, Unity must constantly calculate the remapping of animation data to the humanoid avatar before applying it to the model. The Generic advantage: Animation data is applied directly to the corresponding bones. There is no intermediate translation layer, resulting in slightly lower CPU usage in your game.

When does using the "Generic" option become a disadvantage? You’ll have to animate everything in Daz Studio, and Daz’s animation system is still stuck in the last century; unfortunately, not much has been improved, in my view. That’s where Cascadeur comes in: there’s a script (in the top "Commands" menu) that makes it easier to export FBX files to Daz Studio, and even helps prepare your Daz model for export to Cascadeur.

The fact is that animations produced in Daz, using humanoids, will always be problematic. But there are alternatives, fixes.

Regarding your specific problem – even if you – by sheer luck – eventually fix a small problem in a specific animation in Unity, you'll have a thousand others on the other side of the door when trying to import other sequences to your Daz Studio character. There's no 'easy fix' here, unfortunately. But I've given you the path.

Don't use Daz Bridge, export directly via FBX. Rebuild the shaders (there aren't many) in Unity itself using Unity's own resources (HDRP preferably). Don't use hair from Daz Studio, it's not 'game ready', use solutions (Unity's own Strand) from the engine itself (there are tutorials online about it). For clothing, use Magica Cloth 2 (there's a free and a paid version).

***And don't be fooled by other software like CC5, for example... they will have the same problems, although it's more geared towards game engines. Use Daz Studio; it's the best available today, whether for the vast array of assets the library possesses—but not especially for that reason, but for the number of people who currently use Daz and will quickly evolve to 'game engines'—despite the tons of problems due to the current limitations of the software (apparently they are working on this, updating the core of the program/Daz).

And even if you insist on Daz Bridge, you will still be limited to certain versions of Unity—an engine that is also undergoing a general overhaul, from its core to its edge. Daz Bridge would only be useful and functional if it were updated in line with Unity's own engine:

- Use 'generic' instead of humanoid (in retargeting);

- Use the hair offered for free by Unity (search for it) based on 'strand' and accurate physics;

- Recreate your shaders from scratch, obviously using maps from Daz Studio/the template you acquired - just rearranging them (note that HDRP shaders are different, there are condensed channels in 'mask', but Unity also has a native solution for this, search for 'mask converter' or SubstancePainter in the export);

(Good tip for you: search for Google AI Studio. Use it, the 'Gemeni Flash Lasted' template - set the temperature to 0.3. Learn to communicate with this AI, it's extremely efficient for code and various tasks that will help you in Unity. Its daily token limit is high, and there are ways to use it, legal ways allowed by Google, for hours on end in a single day with gigantic texts, 100k tokens+ without problems).

(Google Translate messed up my formatting) -_-

*

Hi Guys,

Sagan 5 is up.

It includes the Hitchens plugin for Blender that supports exporting animations back to DS. For this, you'll want to choose a port for Hitchens and enable it in Sagan. If you run DS and Blender on the same computer, choose localhost for the server address. Then go to Blender, where you've got the plugin installed, and Import Figures. It can take a long time, so you may have to adjust the timeout value. If you have a recent version of the excellent Diffeomorphic tool, it should import materials automatically (The Import Diffeo Materials button is for Alembic exports done via Sagan). Note that the figure won't have JCMs or any geoshells. This is for animation only.

The kinda big deal: To apply a retargeted animation, load it (probably an FBX file), and that is the Source. Your imported armature is the Actor. You can get a few bone map file presets from

https://iwasserious.com/hitchens_bonemaps

It's kind of a pain right now, so I only did a few. If what you need is not found there, you can create your own; it's just JSON.

For simulations, you might want to apply a pre-roll; I use 120 frames.

The retargeter will create collections for the cubes and spheres, that link the two armatures together. If you're using a preset bonemap, you can just hide them. If not, you'll need to rotate the spheres corresponding to bones whose orientations don't match the source animation. Do not rotate the cube objects.

Create your animation. You'll probably want Auto Rig Pro Quick Rig and Animation Layers for this.

Then bake it.

Then, with Hitchens still running and Idle, use Put Animation. It will send the animation back to DS. It should match precisely.

I'm really tired, but these instructions should work.

Other things that should also work are:

Import Diffeo Materials - Select the scene file the Alembic import came from, and apply the materials automatically

Load DS Morph - load a (vertex only) DS Morph file as a shapekey

Put Morph - transfers a vertex-only morph back to DS

Load Shape Key - load a shape key you previously saved

Save Shape Key - save a shape key

Partial Shape Keys - load a shape key and have it affect only a part of the mesh

Hair Curves - Use the external SBH hair data created by Sagan (if you chose the option not to embed SBH data in the Alembic file)

As always, please try it, test it, and let me know.

The 1st image you posted already shows a pretty larger thumbnail... for that product coming from Rendo. It seems you installed it with Content Wizard.

Anyway, if you want to make it a even much larger image, 1stly locate where its metadata file really locate (right-click on the product , Edit Metadata > Support, then browse to its support files).

In the support folder, you'll find its product image, replace it with a larger image by using the same file name. Go back to Smart Content, Refresh ! You'll see the much larger one.

I do this from time to time. It always works.

Alric said:

I'm mostly worried about 3rd party files that I have installed. I can update the individual product thumbnails no problem. It's just that main image under smart content that I can't get to change.

The action of Update Metadata doesn't touch 3rd-party products you installed with Content Wizard other than the products from this Daz3D store ~~

You can freely modify the product images in runtime\support folder no matter where the products come from... as long as you don't Update Metadata. 

Keep in mind to get your shelf items into DS6 you can export shelf data in DS4 (right-click empty space in tab area) and then import them in DS6 (right-click same area).

Jan_Scrapper said:

crosswind said:

I know nothing about Meshy but I checked the skirt you attached. Actually vertices / faces count is not an issue but the topology is. Such triangle topo is not really good for dForce but the biggest problem is that the mesh density on the edge of skirt / ruffle is too high. That'll bring explosion no matter how you tweak the settings on dForce dynamic surfaces. You have to need a retopology or remesh on the skirt, like what I showed in screenshot 1, on the right.

Another problem is the gemetry of the skirt is not fully welded, on the lower ruffle. Not sure if you can make it welded in Meshy but if it's not welded, the lower ruffle will be drapping separately. (screenshot 2) But welding geometry is not a simple task, you even have to unwrap UV again... etc.

 

 
Thank you so much for checking the skirt.  I saw that the second ruffle was not attached.  I think I can remove that in Blender or Carrara.  The ONLY things I know how to do is remove geometry, decimate in Blender and create Material Zones in Blender.  I wish I understood how to do create a texture map.  I hope to learn:  UV Mapping and UV Unwrapping.  

2 days ago, I could not apply Material Zones in Blender, but today, I can.

So, there is hope for me.

"You have to need a retopology or remesh on the skirt, like what I showed in screenshot 1, on the right."   I will have to look that up and learn what you did.

Ah, that's great if you've been learning Blender ! Though I use a Quad Remesh add-on to retop the skirt but you can firstly try the Remesh modifier in Blender or search other good remesh add-on on superhive. As for UV mapping / unwrapping, there're lots of tutorials on youtube.

Well, for this case, maybe you can firstly try: cut out the lower ruffle from the skirt, re-import it  then use multiple Rigid Follow Nodes on the lower ruffle so as to "attach" it to the upper skirt / ruffle, then finetune the dynamic surface settings on it, especially cranking up Buckling Stiffness. Then when drapping, at least the lower ruffle can preserve its position to some extent ~~

crosswind said:

jjb24 said:

Richard Haseltine said:

No, it is deleting the metadata not the actual files.

Although the CMS database is a PostgreSQL database, and could be edited, direct editing is not supported and may go wrong.

Thank you for the answer, I won't try editing the database. Fixing my mistake is tedious but not difficult. Fixing a database error is beyond me!

Follow up question: If I accidentally delete one or more items in the 'Products' section of the 'Content Library' for products that I purchased from DAZ would the product still appear in the list of products when selecting 'Re-import Metadata' from the 'Content DB Maintenance' menu? If it remains in this list then I can recover the metadata easily but if disappears from this list how would I get the metadata back?

Yes, the products should appear in the list unless you have their metadata files deleted in runtime\support folder.

If you installed the products via DIM, you also can go to DIM > Installed tab, filter the product, right-click on it > Re-Import Metadata.

Or, re-import a single metadata by using this script, which may be faster : https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/618456/add-to-smart-content  

Thanks! I think I can take care of my problem with the information you've provided and this information will also be helpful should I ever do something stupid again!

jjb24 said:

Richard Haseltine said:

No, it is deleting the metadata not the actual files.

Although the CMS database is a PostgreSQL database, and could be edited, direct editing is not supported and may go wrong.

Thank you for the answer, I won't try editing the database. Fixing my mistake is tedious but not difficult. Fixing a database error is beyond me!

Follow up question: If I accidentally delete one or more items in the 'Products' section of the 'Content Library' for products that I purchased from DAZ would the product still appear in the list of products when selecting 'Re-import Metadata' from the 'Content DB Maintenance' menu? If it remains in this list then I can recover the metadata easily but if disappears from this list how would I get the metadata back?

Yes, the products should appear in the list unless you have their metadata files deleted in runtime\support folder.

If you installed the products via DIM, you also can go to DIM > Installed tab, filter the product, right-click on it > Re-Import Metadata.

Or, re-import a single metadata by using this script, which may be faster : https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/618456/add-to-smart-content  

If there's no cms connection issue, you can further check if the metadata of the products you mentioned have been successfully imported into cms database by: in DIM > Installed tab, locate the product you've installed, there's a database icon on the left of Date column. If its color is dark grey, it means the metadata has been successfully imported, if it's in light grey, the import was failed. You can right-click on the product > Re-Import Metadata...

From DIM, its the stack of pancakes up in the right corner, second from the right. When it is OFF, there is a diagonal bar through it, otherwise not. Click it to toggle the status, after confirming.

There is no direct indication in Studio, but you can tell it is ON if you have the content type flashes on the asset icons (Actor, Prop, Materials, etc.) for those products that would have metadata. If it were OFF, there would be none. From the hamburger menu (Smart Content tab, or Content Library tab) look for Stop CMS and Start CMS.

How do I actually check that? I don't ordinarily do much manually with metadata so I have had minimal experience with that part of Daz.

I don't log in to Daz.

Nope, apparently you have metadata updated via Daz Connect, now the product thumbnail images locate in Daz Connect folder (in different product folders IIRC...). You have to modify the images there

Then never update metadata again otherwise the bigger image files will be replaced.

Edit: Anyway, suggest you never tick Update Metadata option when log in Daz Connect.

Perhaps your CMS is/was turned off temporarily? Smart Content is a product of the metadata. Without CMS, no metadata, no Smart Content. If products were installed with CMS off, their metadata would not be processed. If it restarts for some reason, the older stuff would show, but nothig that was installed while it was off. I say this because it has happened to me once or twice. How CMS got turned off, I have no idea.

Richard Haseltine said:

No, it is deleting the metadata not the actual files.

Although the CMS database is a PostgreSQL database, and could be edited, direct editing is not supported and may go wrong.

Thank you for the answer, I won't try editing the database. Fixing my mistake is tedious but not difficult. Fixing a database error is beyond me!

Follow up question: If I accidentally delete one or more items in the 'Products' section of the 'Content Library' for products that I purchased from DAZ would the product still appear in the list of products when selecting 'Re-import Metadata' from the 'Content DB Maintenance' menu? If it remains in this list then I can recover the metadata easily but if disappears from this list how would I get the metadata back?

Lorraine said:

memcneil70 said:

Lorraine said:

memcneil70 said:

Elor said:

memcneil70 said:

@Elor, first, lovely picture.

Second, I was able to download 13 of yomiru's freebies from CGShare's site before it closed but when I tried to use Content Wizard to install them they failed. I tried to manually do it and still failed. May I ask you how you installed yomiru's files into Daz Studio? I love her(?) work and would really like to be able to install and use it.

Hello,

Thank you :)

I'm installing them manually (before creating metadata for them using the editor provided by Daz, and creating thumbnails and icons) and so far, I don't remember having a problem to use them (outside of not seeing that some morphs are dialed by default or that simulation data were saved, at least not before spending the time needed to create morphs for the character I'll use for the thumbnails and icon…).

Do you have some name?

I should have everything shared on ShareCG and I could check on my end if I have the same problem?

 

Thank you @Elor, I tried the Duffle for G9 again manually and was able to successfully put it into 'My DAZ 3D Library' with my other non-DAZ store items. I had a few hick-ups due to doing this first thing after waking up, but I will continue after breakfast and waking up fully. I hope this artist continues somewhere else.

Mary

They are now at Rendo https://www.renderosity.com/users/yomiuri

Thank you so much @Lorraine. I was able to install her outfits yesterday and before I had to shut down due to heat, I had started entering metadata. I am now having to shutdown my computers by 10am as we are in a heat dome.

Mary

Oh wow, that's mindblowing. Our long and skinny bunch of islands generally don't get that hot, even in mid summer what with the sea breezes blowing across. Up here in the sub tropics it gets humid but not scorching enough to need computer shutdowns.

Denver is a high desert climate and we are at 5280 feet give or take where you are here. Some areas at 6000 feet in the foothills. My apartment windows face east but another building blocks direct light (and view) until about 8am. Then for two hours it heats up. The double-pane glass is blown out. In the afternoon, the sun is due west and hitting the building to our east windows and they reflect the afternoon sun onto us. My building runs north to south, the direction of the winds, so we don't get any relief from winds at all. If the air is clean of ozone and smoke hazards, I will open our windows from early morning to around 8 or 9am to capture free cool air but then close the windows/blinds/drapes to keep out the heat as it shoots up. I adjust the A/C as needed. I excercise first thing in the morning also. After 8am it can be too warm to get out of the apartment and get back before it really heats up. Add to that my bedroom is the hottest and coldest depending on season. It was the same in the other apartment. Go figure.

memcneil70 said:

Lorraine said:

memcneil70 said:

Elor said:

memcneil70 said:

@Elor, first, lovely picture.

Second, I was able to download 13 of yomiru's freebies from CGShare's site before it closed but when I tried to use Content Wizard to install them they failed. I tried to manually do it and still failed. May I ask you how you installed yomiru's files into Daz Studio? I love her(?) work and would really like to be able to install and use it.

Hello,

Thank you :)

I'm installing them manually (before creating metadata for them using the editor provided by Daz, and creating thumbnails and icons) and so far, I don't remember having a problem to use them (outside of not seeing that some morphs are dialed by default or that simulation data were saved, at least not before spending the time needed to create morphs for the character I'll use for the thumbnails and icon…).

Do you have some name?

I should have everything shared on ShareCG and I could check on my end if I have the same problem?

 

Thank you @Elor, I tried the Duffle for G9 again manually and was able to successfully put it into 'My DAZ 3D Library' with my other non-DAZ store items. I had a few hick-ups due to doing this first thing after waking up, but I will continue after breakfast and waking up fully. I hope this artist continues somewhere else.

Mary

They are now at Rendo https://www.renderosity.com/users/yomiuri

Thank you so much @Lorraine. I was able to install her outfits yesterday and before I had to shut down due to heat, I had started entering metadata. I am now having to shutdown my computers by 10am as we are in a heat dome.

Mary

Oh wow, that's mindblowing. Our long and skinny bunch of islands generally don't get that hot, even in mid summer what with the sea breezes blowing across. Up here in the sub tropics it gets humid but not scorching enough to need computer shutdowns.

Lorraine said:

memcneil70 said:

Elor said:

memcneil70 said:

@Elor, first, lovely picture.

Second, I was able to download 13 of yomiru's freebies from CGShare's site before it closed but when I tried to use Content Wizard to install them they failed. I tried to manually do it and still failed. May I ask you how you installed yomiru's files into Daz Studio? I love her(?) work and would really like to be able to install and use it.

Hello,

Thank you :)

I'm installing them manually (before creating metadata for them using the editor provided by Daz, and creating thumbnails and icons) and so far, I don't remember having a problem to use them (outside of not seeing that some morphs are dialed by default or that simulation data were saved, at least not before spending the time needed to create morphs for the character I'll use for the thumbnails and icon…).

Do you have some name?

I should have everything shared on ShareCG and I could check on my end if I have the same problem?

 

Thank you @Elor, I tried the Duffle for G9 again manually and was able to successfully put it into 'My DAZ 3D Library' with my other non-DAZ store items. I had a few hick-ups due to doing this first thing after waking up, but I will continue after breakfast and waking up fully. I hope this artist continues somewhere else.

Mary

They are now at Rendo https://www.renderosity.com/users/yomiuri

Thank you so much @Lorraine. I was able to install her outfits yesterday and before I had to shut down due to heat, I had started entering metadata. I am now having to shutdown my computers by 10am as we are in a heat dome.

Mary