I spend my time downloading files, checking folders, renaming folders, manually installing folders, having to create or rename folders because the creator seems to have no idea how to properly set up folders and Daz can't find the folder the files are in, guess how to use a product because there's no readme, resave files because they also are not named correctly and Daz can't find them.

And I have to repeat that hundreds of times. And some suggest I use DIM, Connect or Daz Central on files that are not properly set up so I can't find them after they are installed.

Now I must track down a vendor for an item I got a couple years ago because I keep getting an error using it. Fortunately she is someone who actually cares about those who use her products.

Set it up the way you think is most useful to you and your current setup wether that be multiple monitors of something that makes use of other editors, DAZ3D for most people here is just one program that bridges into others, when setting up make sure that it's easy for you to manage many editors and the movement of files from one to another with whatever setup you'll eventually use. You'll probably also need an area to do full conversions or have custom files for things like shape injector script where you'll need to create folders and sub folders in a file tree for the items your injecting morphs into

I have my DAZ3D editor and content set to a seperate drive you can make the directories to where you need them to go just make sure the file links work for whatever your setting up by having the correct directory or it won't detect where you have setup your new content area.

Some reason it will still place certain files on a main C:/ drive like user files and renders which you can still change via other settings, You'll need to link it upto the install manager and daz central so it can read where you have put the editor. Always check all file locations are going to the places you want them to go or things may not work. Plenty of information on how to setup your studio just do a google search on whatever you need generally it will lead you too a page here in forums where someone explains how to get it working.

FSMCDesigns said:

You can always go to your product library and do a manual download and open it to see where it is installed.

The product library is how I find everything, and have since Studio version .8. I find the CMS is pretty useless: I haven't been a DB Admin in years, and don't want to be one any more. Without being one, and coddling the CMS, rebuiling it and refreshing it, CMS doesn't work well. I manually install everything now, as DAZ Central was a joke.

Turns out the "L.A. Pool and HDRI" is NOT in any form of "L.A. Pool" folder in \Environment\Architecture, but in a "Pool in L.A." folder, which is about 40 down from the "L's" in my folder. (I have a lot of environments.)

Nothing like obfuscating something to make people have to hunt for it...

..Joe

PerttiA said:

How many different methods of installing content are you using / have used?

If you have installed content inside DAZ ("Smart" Content/DAZ Connect) and/or updated them there, the content is installed in non traditional location as the other installation methods (DIM/DAZ Central/Manual Installation) are using the traditional locations.
The DAZ Connect installed stuff gets always priority

It sounds very much like having stuff installed in multiple locations.

An other way to have similar problems is saving stuff as "Support Assets" without understanding what it does.

THe only installation methods I've used are:

DAZ Install Manager- Stopped when the new one came out

DAZ Central- Use that for all DAZ purchases

Manual Install- I created a separate folder for any third-party items I get.

Everything I download goes to the E drive of my computer. The filepaths in all the install managers go to the same location. Weird thing is, this happened randomly. I hadn't installed anything. In the morning, it was fine. In the evening, it was stuck on Midori and smart content wouldn't load.

How many different methods of installing content are you using / have used?

If you have installed content inside DAZ ("Smart" Content/DAZ Connect) and/or updated them there, the content is installed in non traditional location as the other installation methods (DIM/DAZ Central/Manual Installation) are using the traditional locations.
The DAZ Connect installed stuff gets always priority

It sounds very much like having stuff installed in multiple locations.

An other way to have similar problems is saving stuff as "Support Assets" without understanding what it does.

Scene files and presets do not store absolute paths for files in a content directory, they store only the relative path. The same is true for the Content Management System. Only DIM/Daz Central store absolute locations for the files they isntalled. The relative paths should work as long as the new system has the content directories correctly set - the main potential pitfall is if the old system had one content directory inside another, in which case the relative path may include the name of the inner content directory.

Richard Haseltine said:

barbult said:

The Daz product web page says 

Install Types:

•  Manual Install

Is that not true then????

Everything seems to say that, hence all the confusion when downloads were often missing and people thought it was a ploy to make them use Central.

I will ask about downloads.

The product will have a folder structure for Poser or DAZ Studio. If it starts off with Runtime (or maybe MyLibrary or Content then /Runtime), and then sub-folders geometries, libraries, textures (and maybe others) it is in Poser format. If it has folders like data, people, runtime (maybe under a Content or MyLibrary folder), it is in Studio format.

The folder structure can deal with both in the same place, but they must align to function properly. Runtime from one format must be in the same place as Runtime from the other format.

The top-level Library folder is where you would drop the product folders. Try to avoid vanity folder names if the rest of the product's folders follow the "standard". If you have a runtime folder, use that runtime folder. If you have a data folder, use that data folder. Everything should line up properly in the product archive. If the product has a top level folder named Content, or MyLibrary, don't use them, as they are intended to be equivalent to the Library root folder.

Now, it looks like you have not properly defined the Library for DAZ Studio formats and Poser Formats. The data and runtime folders should not be visible in Studio. In the Content Directory Manager, change the path you have defined to point to the root folder where the next level folders are located. For DAZ Studio, it is the folder you use for installation (you didn't specify DIM, DAZ Central, Connect...) and should be the one with Animals, Environments, People, Vehicles, etc.. For Poser, it is the folder that contains the Runtime folder. If you use one location, the two should be the same, since DAZ Studio uses the Runtime folder for textures, at least.

barbult said:

The Daz product web page says 

Install Types:

•  Manual Install

Is that not true then????

Everything seems to say that, hence all the confusion when downloads were often missing and people thought it was a ploy to make them use Central.

I will ask about downloads.

The Daz product web page says 

Install Types:

•  Manual Install

Is that not true then????

BHawk said:

I am guessing that you can redirect DazCentral to download and install into your external drive?

Thank you for the suggestion!

Yes, Daz Central allows you to set a base path.

PerttiA said:

According to what has been written here at the forum, I get the impression that "Smart" Content (=DAZ Connect) downloads files that are encrypted and decrypts them during the process and that doesn't seem to be working that good -> Botched installation.

Smart Content <> Daz Connect. Smart Content shows categorised content filtered by its install state and, optionally, compatibility. Daz Connect can be used through the Content Library>Products or through the Install pane.

There are two potential bad outcomes for Connect - files present but not decrypting, or files not in fact isntalling, in which case the product seems empty (going to the folder location may show 0 byte .part files).

Also DAZ has been having problems with the servers since the store update, which has made the files unavailable in whole or in part and at least with thumbnails and metadata, DAZ Connect has still went on with the "update" -> Botched installation.

There were issues, not related to the store update, with the CDN being used. Those alrgely seem resolved, and when they weren't they seemed to affect DIM/Central too.

ebergerly said:

What do you mean by "zoom", and what do you mean by "headlamp". And you're in Iray preview? 

Are you zooming by physically moving the camera, or by adjusting the focal length (the typical way to zoom a camera lens)? And is the "headlamp" the "Render Settings/General/Auto Headlamp"? 

I did a quick setup and don't see a variation in headlamp light as the camera moves. I'm confused. 

I "zoom" using the mouse wheel, physically, to move the camera around. I'm in "texture shaded" preview, but it's the same thing when I render - I also render using 3Delight, not Iray.

So, if you "View Frame" on, say, an object in a room, and then zoom in physically using the mouse wheel - the focal distance will change, to the point that the headlamp light gets all funky and out-of-focus. This is especially bad if:

A) You've selected an object to focus on, but then try to zoom in on, for instance, a character that's in front of the object by moving the camera around;

B) You do an extreme close-up on a character/object's features.

Truth be told, I had no idea "focal length" was the usual way to zoom the camera in DAZ (or do you just mean in general, for physical cameras?) - I like the quickness associated with physically zooming the wheel.

Cenobite said:

Ok what i mean is you can set your free movement using the wsad keys to pan the camera around, usually it's locked but you can unlock it by hitting the keyboard icon along the top of the viewport so you can just pan around to get the angle you need like a game, useful for setting up poses or parenting props at different angles so it sits on the right portion of the mesh, etc parent gun to lower abdomen for a gun holster with the position and angle you want the gun to sit in. When you move the camrea around using the wsad direction keys sometimes the headlamp doesn't follow the camera position and stays in the last place or moves to a different angle due to your panning around it seems to lose track of your current camera position and you lose all light in the scene like the headlamp is turned off but it's not because its somewhere else in the scene focusing on another area is what i mean by my previous statement. 

More then likely the headlamp has been thrown right off scene into the gray area where it's not effecting the central postion of the current camera your using, sometimes switiching camera perspectives by using another camera will aline the light and focus to the right distance where it will light up the entire scene again with a normal amount of zoomed light for the distance the camera is sitting from your targeted prop or character.

Oh, I see - yeah, I don't use keyboard navigation. Thanks for informing me though, I'd never even really noticed the button. EDIT: And upon testing, it actually seems like a decent way to zoom in quickly into large scenes, because when you View Frame a scene element that's part of some really big scene (even if it's a smaller one), sometimes the camera will zoom out miles away for whatever reason, and in that case the mouse wheel zoom is super slow. So thanks, this is actually quite helpful!

I can agree with your theory about what's happening to the headlamp - I thought myself it was because the camera's light remained focused on the object from the specific point of view I jumped to, when I used the "View Frame" button. What you describe seems consistent with my experience, in that it doesn't follow the reduced Focal Distance (or alternatively, goes all funky and dark) when physically zooming in on characters. By "switching camera perspectives", do you mean switching to another camera, then switching back? Or outright positioning another camera in the same spot as the main one?

You need to download and install  Daz Studio   and then download and install the Starter Essentials      Daz central is a download/installer app   is all.   you use Daz Central to help you install your content from the Daz rd Strore.

Hey, 

Im really new to Daz studio and I heard that the Genesis 8 Essentials are for free when you download Daz Central. I already had them in My Libary in "Daz Studio Assets" from 1 Year ago when I first tried to learn this program but when I click on open it says: "Could not find the "42071" product." Can I fix this somehow? I already reinstallt it and tried to find it in my content libary...

Ok what i mean is you can set your free movement using the wsad keys to pan the camera around, usually it's locked but you can unlock it by hitting the keyboard icon along the top of the viewport so you can just pan around to get the angle you need like a game, useful for setting up poses or parenting props at different angles so it sits on the right portion of the mesh, etc parent gun to lower abdomen for a gun holster with the position and angle you want the gun to sit in. When you move the camrea around using the wsad direction keys sometimes the headlamp doesn't follow the camera position and stays in the last place or moves to a different angle due to your panning around it seems to lose track of your current camera position and you lose all light in the scene like the headlamp is turned off but it's not because its somewhere else in the scene focusing on another area is what i mean by my previous statement. 

More then likely the headlamp has been thrown right off scene into the gray area where it's not effecting the central postion of the current camera your using, sometimes switiching camera perspectives by using another camera will aline the light and focus to the right distance where it will light up the entire scene again with a normal amount of zoomed light for the distance the camera is sitting from your targeted prop or character.

Daz Central should be removed from being pushed on to us nowing it dos not have this (option to install all)  of your assests at once.

I had never heard of them before I went searching for the moths yesterday. On the Central Coast of California I saw Red-tail Hawks, Hummingbirds, Jays, little brown birds, skunks, wild cats, brown bears, racoons, and a furry striped spider, black widows.

As a matter of fact, my exposure to the natural world has been limited since my childhood was mostly Los Angeles, where they had to bring in a cow to our school so kids could actually see one. As a young teen, my aunt and uncle had a small ranch in the Mojave Desert and had horses and chickens. Only time I ever road a horse or picked up eggs, fed chickens... 

So there are many aspects of Daz3D that has been an education and a lesson in humility for me. 

Those that don't have Power Pose working for Genesis 8.1, there is just two explanations for Power Pose not working, either you have not updated all of "Genesis 8 Starter Essentials" or the installation of them is botched, which is not surprising if you have used DAZ Connect to do it (Smart Content tab inside DS) or tried installing with several methods (DIM/DAZ Central/DAZ Connect/Manual installation)

If you search your drives for "G8_1F_Head.dxe" and "G8_1F_Face.dxe", how many copies of the files you find and what is the complete path (starting from the drive letter), where they are installed?

Vially said:

Ellessarr said:

you are talking about what "steps? mine tutorial in my tutorial post or you are talking about the main post? 

In your post, when using the "Send to" functionality, it uses whatever DAZ was setup to use as a part of the install, and a part of that is to tell DAZ where your Unreal engine is. Mine was in UE426\Engine, Since I want it all to start working with UE5 (early release or not, I'm assuming they will just be doing updates as the code changes,)

I put the "engine" part in the UE5 folder, then told DAZ Install Manager to install all future exports to that folder as well. Now when I use the "send to" functionality, it puts it into the correct Engine folder and doesn't overwrite the UE4.26 stuff.

That make sense?

why you are using daz install manage if you do that it revert back to the ue4 version, neither manager or the other tool have the ue5 version, why you are using it? 

this tutorial is to using a manual instal not using the 2 install tools if you use it, they conflict with mine.

this tutorial is for when you want to install the plugin without use the "daz install manager or daz central, or want to install direct from the git hub from a zip, this is a manually install.