Lexa Kiness is a recent immigrant from Renderosity, and like most if not all of them recently, their products haven't been properly set up with metadata for DS the way Das store-first products are. You could try using Content Wizard to add the metadata yourself, or you could set the metadata up yourself, but I haven't been following all these migrations closely enough to know if this is something that will be eventually sorted out.

ainm.sloinneadh said:

memcneil70 said:

If DAZ is losing money on sales, maybe they can look at improving their QA and Metadata assignments? Last I heard, a prop hat was not a prop weapon. Nor wardrobe pumps only an outfit, rather than footwear.

Yes please on metadata. Finding anything in studio is an absolute nightmare. If only there was a technology that was rather good at image categorisation...

I finally gave up on the "smart content" and even trying to figure out most of the product listing. I made .doc files where I put the names and pictures of everything I have (separated by category, and sub-category where appropriate) . Now I browse for what I want on THAT, look up the product name under the alphabetic product listing in DS, and then either use it through there or hover-over to see where on earth it was put so I can find it in the category tree.

It's a super clunky method for something that should NOT be that difficult, but even with the work I have to put in to maintain it, it's still less frustrating than trying to find what I want from scratch every time. (Especially environments that think they're props, or props that are in pose packs, or...) 

memcneil70 said:

If DAZ is losing money on sales, maybe they can look at improving their QA and Metadata assignments? Last I heard, a prop hat was not a prop weapon. Nor wardrobe pumps only an outfit, rather than footwear.

Yes please on metadata. Finding anything in studio is an absolute nightmare. If only there was a technology that was rather good at image categorisation...

I didn't get an email, even checked my spam folder. Gave me an opportunity to delete it and the 'deleted' folder at the time. I did get a notice on DIM about a thank you for being an earlier buyer and a discount(?). Maybe for buying the two flower packs by MartinJFrost early in the morning and then they added the bundle of them later that morning?

From what I have read here:

1. Totally not interested in a subscription to DAZ3D. I just renewed my DAZ+ membership. 

2. An offer of a free character, prop, environment, outfit... well I got burned by that on the Season Pass. Not going to happen again. Besides, I have a so many characters I am just now to Sept 2024 testing the ones I bought. That is if I don't count Millarose for G8F from 30 May 2024, who disappeared before I could get to her. So much for her being a freebie #1. 

If DAZ is losing money on sales, maybe they can look at improving their QA and Metadata assignments? Last I heard, a prop hat was not a prop weapon. Nor wardrobe pumps only an outfit, rather than footwear.

You didn't make the shoes on a Base figure but a character, correct ?  If so, you need to re-import the shoes OBJ as a delta to update the AutoFollow FBM in the hidden properties of the shoes.

As per the standard procedure, make shoes on Genesis x Base figure rather than a character...

Besides, also check pjcm (cbs on G9) morphs in hidden properties of the shoes, you need to fixe them as well with such a Feet Pose.

Possibly missing the "prefered base" setting, and DS is using the metadata and the CMS to conform it to G8, and without that setting the coding that allows G8.1 to use G8 content hasn't a clue that it is G8 content.

So, I'll be doing it myself then. What's the reason for the actual products with shoddy, incomplete or utter lack of MD like this one: https://www.daz3d.com/functional-training-shoes-for-genesis-3-and-8, which is a relatively new product?

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate you answering, even if I don't appreciate the answer. I don't know if DAZ has done any sort of surveys or has any data on who uses Smart Content vs who doesn't. I think that might be valuable information to have.

frank0314 said:

The new PA's entire libraries were moved over at once and not a couple of products at a time. Some of their libraries, due to size would take months for a group of people to make the metadata. Considering the number of PA's that came here, it would take well over a year or two to complete them all with a team of people. QA is busy enough just with Daz products and every tester doing all that metadata for the newcomers on old products would take away from the Daz PA's with new releases in which there would be none for a long while let alone only do metadata for thousands of older products from other stores. I'm not sure if it'll be added in the future or not. I don't recall if they ever did metadata for the RDNA products when they came here.So

The new PA's entire libraries were moved over at once and not a couple of products at a time. Some of their libraries, due to size would take months for a group of people to make the metadata. Considering the number of PA's that came here, it would take well over a year or two to complete them all with a team of people. QA is busy enough just with Daz products and every tester doing all that metadata for the newcomers on old products would take away from the Daz PA's with new releases in which there would be none for a long while let alone only do metadata for thousands of older products from other stores. I'm not sure if it'll be added in the future or not. I don't recall if they ever did metadata for the RDNA products when they came here.

It is wonderful (?) that all these vendors are coming over to DAZ. I guess it means more visibility for them and a lack of some sort of restriction. But what's with the lack of MetaData? I am seeing this not only with the slew of products migrating but also some just "new" products: either a complete lack, shoddy, or piecemeal. I'm not going to open a report for every single product that has crappy MD. I thought this was someone's job? There was a lot of talk about an MD Librarian years ago. Did they get fired? I know not everyone uses it, but its really the best way to handle a huge product collection if one is not interested in manually moving it all around and then having to remember where the heck one put a certain thing.

Hello,

Just wanted to share some information which might be helpful. I was using the newest vesion of DAZToUnreal from here: https://github.com/David-Vodhanel/DazToUnreal/releases

I am using UE5.4 version. To transfer the DAZ Genesis 9 model to Unreal I am unchecking "Zero root rotation in import"  in Unreal engine project settings->DazToUnreal plugin settings, keeping the Fix Twist Bones and Rotation checked. In DAZ application while using DAZ to Unreal plugin to export the character I unchek "Import facing right" and leave the "Fix Twist Bones" checked. In this way i get my DAZ character transferred in Unreal facing the correct way to front (facing the camera).

By doing this I was getting the problem to retarget the animations to may DAZ character. The provided IK and retarget assets by the plugin were not aligning the charracter correctly. The character was skewed and almost laying on the ground by side. Automatic retargeting (new feature in UE5.4 - checkbox in retargeting window) was not working corrctly as well: left hand pulled to left side and all body leaned a bit to the left side. I do not know why byt started to think it was because I transferred the character facing to the camera and not to side as by default (also be default the plugin rigs are facing to the side and not to the front).

Then I copied the original G9IKRig and G9Retargeter from plugin folder to my new created character folder to make experimenting. First I opened G9Retargeter and made the target character (DAZ) auto aligning to source (Quin character) by entering to edit mode and selecting root and pressing the button AutoAlign->Align All Bones. This made my character aligned correctly and seems was very happy to see all animations working correctly. Meaning "almost correctly) untill I spoted some weird head movements on some animations. I spend 3 days to find out what was wrong still. Did not find any information neither in Google nor in Youtube. I started to check everything from the skeletons - all the chain to the retargeter. And I hope I found a problem (at least for now). What I found thet the G9IKRig provided by plugin uses retarget chain for neck1->neck2->head as Head but Quin/Manny has 2 chains for neck and head. So I made correction (splitted) G9IKRig neck chain into 2 correct chains: neck1-neck2 into chain Neck and head to chain head.

This made my day very happy. As all problems dissapeared. I hope this will help someone having same issues like me because nobody before reported these problems and how to solve them. 

Here's the quick answer - import it into Blender (it's a native .blend file), export it in Collada format which preserves the grouping and is usually problem-free in Studio. The texturing will have to be done manually - if you want free, you'll have to put in some labour of your own!

As I suggested it I'll have a look at it later on this evening for you and see if I can get it started for you but it's not going to just simply slide into Studio with zero work. Even with the textures applied, you'll still have to sort out the materials, decide if you're keeping the billboards (which you'll have to convert) or use something like Ultrascatter to place new greenery. And that's just the start.

When I said 'lots to do' I did actually mean it!

This is what you'll start with:

Oh, I just saw your message! Thank you very much, I will try !

Edit: Huh, to be sure to don't make a mistake, if I understand well, I have to:

1. To load the character morph I created (aloready done, sice I tested it... )

2. To dial the Eye Side-Side morph

3. To import the mesh in obj file into blender withe the Eye Side-Side morph activated

4. To move the eyesocket until it woulb at the correct position

5. To export the corrected mesh into DS by using the Morph Loader Pro, dial it and lock it, while the Eye Side-Side morph is activated

Is it that?

Thank you in advance for your answer!

TimberWolf said:

Kitbash3D models are excellent. Not cheap, but excellent.

For a free alternative try searching for something like 'highway' in Sketchfab. This turned up - https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/free-new-york-highway-interstate-95-f668f36f01d44a6cae4b6bfa2f9b3021 - which might be of interest. You'll be spending a lot of time in Blender and/or the geometry editor to bend it to your will, as well as figuring out whether to keep the vegetation billboards or scatter instances yourself. Lots to do if you go down this route.

How easy is it to import that (SketchFab) NYC highway into Daz, with the textures intact?  That is, without having to manually apply them all post-import?  If I'd have to mod it in Blender -- say, to split it up into moddable sections --  I'm not really all that experienced in Blender, beyond loading something into Blender and then saving the whole thing back out in another format.

Anyway, if its fairly easy to import that highway as is into Daz Studio, textures and all, then presumably, with tight camera placement, I wouldn't have to mod anything, I could simply place cameras such that all you see is a section with an offramp for the relevant renders I'd be doing.

Hi, so I don't know how to solve this or I don't know if it's even an issue. I managed to use the bridge once to import a genesis figure to Blender, but now everytime I try to import a different character it's just the same one I did before. I'm using the send to blender option but it just keep importing the character that I imported before. 

After selecting the file to import in Morph Loader Pro click the triangle next to its name to show the settings, reverse deformations will be one of them. Using a shorter figure and double-applying it will, as you found, make the figure even shorter; it will also lose the links that adjust the bone placement, so even if you emoved the initial shape the figure would pose badly. If you reverse the deformations you will get just the chnages you made on top of the original shape, with all the adjustments links for the original thereby still working.

Did you use the same settings both times? OBJ has no inherent scale or axis orientation, if it is scaling down a lot that suggests that the options for import do not match those with which the OBJ was exported for morphing or, if you used a bridge, the scaling of the application you used for sculpting. If you used OBJ to export a model for morphing then it is important to make sure that you use the same preset in the options for both export adn morph import 9and that the application you use for sculpting doesn't change the scale differently on its import and export).

When using an existing shape as a starting point you do need to make sure that it iss till applied when you import the morph, and that you check the Reverse Deformations option on importing so that only the changes you made are added to your morph - otherwise the shape is applied twice.

It's most likely a Metadata issue. Can you put in a ticket so they can look at it and get it corrected, please?

Edited

crosswind said:

So you mean there is no ContentCluster folder in the path: C:\Users\Zeni\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\cms ?  Then where is the cms cluster folder.... or you have multiple Windows account ? And you sucessfully installed postgreSQL ? You may try re-installing it...

I guessed that when you saved figure assets, DS would retrieve metadata from cms, however, there was no valid connection to cms, then it brought you a crash... But I tested this process on my side without cms connection, I could not reproduce your issue... Odd.

And better change Port number to 17237 in both DIM and DS - F2 - cms Settings tab... I'm afraid other ports may bring you slow performance or unexpected issues...

there is only a file cmscfg.json  in the folder

inside the file

{

"DatabaseClusterPath" : "C:/Users/Zeni/AppData/Roaming/DAZ 3D/cms",

"Port" : 17237

}

ContentCluster  Should it appear after installing Daz Install Manager?

 postgreSQL 

Sketchfab is a great place to look for unusual models. If you can think of it, someone has had a go at it.

https://sketchfab.com/search?features=downloadable&q=thyme&type=models

Two I looked at are .fbx which doesn't, in my experience anyway, play that nicely with Studio on import so you may have to use Blender et.al. as an intermediate stage. The other is a native .blend file.

Check the licenses before you grab anything but 99.9% of items there are CC-Attribution. Some assembly required!

Been wondering this a while. Is there a way to export a figure without geografts via script? Because it normally exports with geografts and then after sculpting on the figure the import fails with the vertex mismatch error. Highly inconvenient.