With the suggestion by Richard you should be able to add/remove sets with their metadata, then you can use "export metadata" for your categories. But the metadata aka categories will be per project/set, not global. As I understand it you can't have metadata over missing assets, this will confuse the cms of course.

Richard Haseltine said:

robograaf2 said:

Richard Haseltine said:

robograaf2 said:

Richard Haseltine said:

robograaf2 said:

There's a video by Jay here about importing Embergen VDB files into Daz Studio: 

However, Embergen has changed a bit since then, and when importing the file into Daz Studio nothing shows. 

I export the Embergen VDB file with the settings as shown in the image below. ( I know in the video it's centimeter length unit, the result does not change though).

I set up the Volume surface as the image below.

All I end up with is a empty cube, with not a single bit of smoke in it as the image below, i've massively turned up the density. When importing premade Embergen VDB files downloaded from their site they works fine: https://jangafx.com/software/embergen/download/free-vdb-animations/ ;

Anyone any clue if anything changed with Embergen and Daz since then? Do the names in Embergen need to be changed to match something in Daz?

Volume Channel is blank - it needs to have the name of the channel in the VDB that contains the correct data.

That's curious, none of the other VDB assets i have seem to have anything in the volume channel. What would I write there?

The name of the channel controlling emission - e.g. temperature or even emission, but it will depend on the VDB.

But surely that's not needed? Even the tutorial by Daz itself does not use it?

It is needed for a VDB that is to be emissive.

Ok, I don't need a emmisive VDB though. I just need the smoke.

I've found out that the VDB file does actually import into Blender just fine, so it's purely Daz Studio that does not show the VDB in any way. Does anyone have any clue why Daz would be importing VDB wrongs/not showing them? Keep in mind, it works fine with imported VDB's from Blender or premade VDB's from EmberGens website.

1. Your computer has just 8GB's of RAM, which means DS and Windows will use virtual memory (space on your drive) to compensate and if virtual memory is not large enough or not configured the way DS wants it to be configured, you will run out of memory.
2. Your GPU has just 4GB's of VRAM, which severly limits what you can render on GPU => Rendering on CPU will require even more RAM

Practical minimum for current version of DS, when using relatively new assets, is 32GB's of RAM and minimum 8GB's of VRAM on supported nVidia GPU. 

You are also logging in to DS and allowing DAZ Connect inside DS to update your metadata. How are you installing your content?

odysseyowl said:

Riversoft, see attached file. The process could not be completed due to "Unable to import file". Please help ASAP. Thank you!

There was no attachment.  If it is text file (and not too big), you should be able to click the "Attach a file", then "Choose File" and attach the file.

vwrangler said:

I'm afraid I'm running into some odd issues as well.

For some reason, even though all the hairs I've selected are showing "Default - hair - short" in their actual metadata, the converter is insisting that they're all "Wardrobe - Unknown". I have no idea why it would be misreading the information this way. I had to uncheck "Check content type" before it would do anything at all.

The script calls the Daz Studio Asset Manager for the type of the filename.  It is what is reported by Daz Studio.

Also, it appears to HATE this hair https://www.daz3d.com/big-afro-hair-for-genesis-3-and-8 -- It got to the "Normalizing weight maps" step, and seemed to get stuck. I left it alone and did something else, just to see what would happen, and about 20 minutes after it started, it finally got past the weight maps and started writing assets.

Interesting.  Perhaps it has a lot of geometry?

I'm afraid I'm running into some odd issues as well.

For some reason, even though all the hairs I've selected are showing "Default - hair - short" in their actual metadata, the converter is insisting that they're all "Wardrobe - Unknown". I have no idea why it would be misreading the information this way. I had to uncheck "Check content type" before it would do anything at all.

Also, it appears to HATE this hair https://www.daz3d.com/big-afro-hair-for-genesis-3-and-8 -- It got to the "Normalizing weight maps" step, and seemed to get stuck. I left it alone and did something else, just to see what would happen, and about 20 minutes after it started, it finally got past the weight maps and started writing assets.

To a character dressed in 'dforce clothes' in Daz Studio
Animated.
I moved the character animation through the C4D bridge.
can't load it.
What could be the problem? Is there any solution..?

Riversoft, see attached file. The process could not be completed due to "Unable to import file". Please help ASAP. Thank you!

In my case a typical project would include some scenes and figures with outfits and accessories, so I don't get lost in the asset list I mean I know exactly what is included that's why I do project folders to start with. The search for assets is done before starting the project and for that I use the daz shop or the windows search in my backup disk where I store my assets.

There's really no need for smart content if you work this way.

Anyway if you really want to, I guess you can try with "reset database" then "reimport metadata" when you start a new project. You may also try with "export user data" to keep your categories. But it's a lot of database maintenance, it may be not worth it.

nemesis10 said:

You can change the compatibility of G3 stuff so that it adds G8 compitability and won't trigger autofit.  Generic G3 figures are the same size and shape as G8.  

select Gen 3 hair product (i do this in smart content but you can do this in the library

1. Select Gen 3 hair product
2. right-click to get contextual menu
3. edit metadata
4. select Assets tab
5. select hair in Assets; it is a wearable 
6. in bottom tabs, click on Compatibilities 
7. right-click on product name
8. add compatibilities to selected product
9. select the figures you want to add such Genesis 8 female and Genesis 8 male (you will have to repeat this step for each figure since you can only do one at a time)
10. click accept after adding each compatibility.
11. close the window and apply to Gen 8 figure

Let me know if you need pictures, it is pretty easy to do though.

Nemesis awesome awesome awesome! Thanks for all the help Daz peeps! 

And I can't seem to import these files into Blender either.

Something is simply not exporting right from EmberGen even though I use the exact same settings as in the videos.

RexRed said:

I created a new folder parallel to the My Daz 3D Library and named it "8to9 Hair",

At first, I did not add the 8to9 Hair directory to my runtimes. A lot of hair items were created but they did not show up in smart content.

Once I added the folder, 8to9 Hair to my Daz runtimes, then the hair I converted after that had items being placed into a folder called, "data".

I assume these new hair items will now show up in smart content. I also figure that I need to now go back and reconvert the other hair items.

My question is, will I run into other problems using this directory that is parallel to my Daz 3D library?

The full path to my new hair directory is, D:\8to9 Hair

The full path to My Daz 3D Library directory is, D:\My Daz 3D Library

I did not want to put the new hair items into a folder in documents becasue the documents folder is on a drive that has a small amout of free space. 

I only have 475 Gen 8 male hair items to convert. 

Daz happily lets you have multiple folders for your content.  If you did not install (through DIM, Daz Connect, etc) those hairs in D:\8to9 Hair, the Daz database will not have smart content for those files and the script will not detect them as it looks for the metadata about a file.  You will have to add them like in the manual:

The Hair Converter dialog does not show some hair items when adding to the list. The Hair Converter script automatically filters out all presets that do not have a content type of Follower/Hair. This is by design to avoid unknown files as this script has been carefully crafted to try and convert hair without errors as much as possible. If you are absolutely positive that a file is a hair item, you can turn off the Check Content Type option and use the Add Files… button to add those files. If you turn this option off, any file will be added. On execution, the script will load the file, whatever it is and whatever it does. The script will still only convert items that are hair on execution. Turning this option off is ONLY recommended if you are having trouble getting the script to recognize specific hair files.

Note: Turning this option off will slow conversion because of loading a lot of false positives. You also must be very sure of which files you add to the dialog. This option does not affect the Add Directory button

It depends how you manage your project folders. In general if you want to use the smart content then you have to use dim for installing/uninstalling, otherwise the metadata can be disaligned and the cms tries to fix that. Personally I keep project folders as you do, but I use manual install and don't use the smart content.

That is, you have to pick your poison, either use the cms with dim+smart content and go slow, or use manual install and go fast but without smart content.

There's a video by Jay here about importing Embergen VDB files into Daz Studio: 

However, Embergen has changed a bit since then, and when importing the file into Daz Studio nothing shows. 

I export the Embergen VDB file with the settings as shown in the image below. ( I know in the video it's centimeter length unit, the result does not change though).

I set up the Volume surface as the image below.

All I end up with is a empty cube, with not a single bit of smoke in it as the image below, i've massively turned up the density. When importing premade Embergen VDB files downloaded from their site they works fine: https://jangafx.com/software/embergen/download/free-vdb-animations/ ;

Anyone any clue if anything changed with Embergen and Daz since then? Do the names in Embergen need to be changed to match something in Daz?

You can change the compatibility of G3 stuff so that it adds G8 compitability and won't trigger autofit.  Generic G3 figures are the same size and shape as G8.  

select Gen 3 hair product (i do this in smart content but you can do this in the library

1. Select Gen 3 hair product
2. right-click to get contextual menu
3. edit metadata
4. select Assets tab
5. select hair in Assets; it is a wearable 
6. in bottom tabs, click on Compatibilities 
7. right-click on product name
8. add compatibilities to selected product
9. select the figures you want to add such Genesis 8 female and Genesis 8 male (you will have to repeat this step for each figure since you can only do one at a time)
10. click accept after adding each compatibility.
11. close the window and apply to Gen 8 figure

Let me know if you need pictures, it is pretty easy to do though.

ValidUserName said:

crosswind said:

You used DTB to have this imported in Blender ?!  It seems a pure FBX import... Yes, DTB works but strongly recommend Diffeomorphic Daz Importer.

Hi Crosswind, thank you for your response. I appreciate your suggestion.

Yes I used the Bridge designed to import from Daz to Blender, provided by Daz to import from Daz to Blender. I'm not sure why you included the "?!" like this is a surprising thing to do. I hope that statement doesn't come off as mean spirited, I'm genuinly concerned as there was no indication that the daz to blender bridge would be non functional or that the documentation would be outdated. It leaves an impression that the Daz team is unreliable and damages the trust that I have in them as a company.
I tried the Diffeomorphic Daz Importer that you've suggested and it appears to no longer work either. This is sad, because there's lot of great content on the Daz marketplace, but there's no point in buying any of it if we can't export them and use them in our game. The interactive licenses are quite expensive as well. Usually the liscense is multiple times the cost of the product itself. I'm not sure if the price is justified if using these products are nearly impossible for anyone.
I'm happy to pay these high prices for such quality content, but not if we can't use them.

I'm sorry that '?!' gave you a strange impression but actually I just wondered Daz to Blender (DTB) bridge shoudn't give that result after importing the figure... (English is not my native tongue so somtimes I really fail to express myselft well... Sorry again! )

I ever used DTB for a period of time and even specifically made a tutorial in last June for the 'new DTB' which was released around that time..I knew the team really did lots of work on DBT. I ever communicated with Daniel on Github about 'Bend Control not working' issue, and the 'bug' had been fixed in a very short time then, really appreciated that.

However, comparing to Diffeomorphic Daz Importer (DDI), DTB is still pretty weak in terms of functionalities...no offense but just the facts after lots of experiments. Then I switched to DDI... You may see the frequency of DDI update on https://bitbucket.org/Diffeomorphic/import_daz/commits/, while DTB has not been updated for a long time... There're quite a lot relevant discussion in Blender sub-forum...

So any DDI relevant issue, pls feel free to name it in here or Blender sub-forum, we may try to help. And the author @ThomasLarsson and @Padone will be both happy to resolve any complex issues...

Here is a quick and dirty documentation of what seems to work for me now to convert G8 clothing with dForce Dynamic Surface Add-On to G9. Some of these steps may be unnecessary, I don't know. Consider this a WIP. I'd be interested in feedback if outher people try it. I realize this is not detailed, like Catherine's tutorials. I just wanted to write this down so I have something to follow the next time I find a garment to convert that has a dForce Dynamic Surface Add-On. I hope it makes sense!

• load G8 garment with addon (Augmentation Flightsuit in my test)
• turn off smoothing
• set res to base
• set subD to 0
• export garment to OBJ
• export addon to OBJ
• delete G8 garment including children (addon and adjustable weight map)
• import garment OBJ
• import addon OBJ
• load G8
• dial in g9 clone
• Transfer Utility G8 CURRENT shape to garment
• Transfer Utility G8 CURRENT shape to addon
• export garment in G9 shape to OBJ
• export addon in G9 shape to OBJ
• Close and restart Daz Studio? or just new scene?
• load G8 garment with addon again (Augmentation Flightsuit in my test)
• set res to base
• set subD to 0
• update garment base geometry vertex positions with garment G9 shape OBJ
• update addon base geometry vertex positions with addon G9 shape OBJ
• load G9
• Transfer Utility G9 Default shape to garment(with appropriate template)
• Transfer Utility garment Default shape to addon
• Set garment res and smoothing modifier back to the G8 garment's settings
• save garment asset
• save addon asset
• fix/add back items that were connected with rigid follow nodes on the G8 garment (buttons, for example)
• save wearable preset with garment, addon and push modifier weight node

crosswind said:

You used DTB to have this imported in Blender ?!  It seems a pure FBX import... Yes, DTB works but strongly recommend Diffeomorphic Daz Importer.

Hi Crosswind, thank you for your response. I appreciate your suggestion.

Yes I used the Bridge designed to import from Daz to Blender, provided by Daz to import from Daz to Blender. I'm not sure why you included the "?!" like this is a surprising thing to do. I hope that statement doesn't come off as mean spirited, I'm genuinly concerned as there was no indication that the daz to blender bridge would be non functional or that the documentation would be outdated. It leaves an impression that the Daz team is unreliable and damages the trust that I have in them as a company.
I tried the Diffeomorphic Daz Importer that you've suggested and it appears to no longer work either. This is sad, because there's lot of great content on the Daz marketplace, but there's no point in buying any of it if we can't export them and use them in our game. The interactive licenses are quite expensive as well. Usually the liscense is multiple times the cost of the product itself. I'm not sure if the price is justified if using these products are nearly impossible for anyone.
I'm happy to pay these high prices for such quality content, but not if we can't use them.

Thanks Richard, I appreciate your feedback.
I guess it "feels" like waiting for 8 miuntes loading G8. It could actually be a little faster than that.  ;)
But I usually load G8 in less than 20 seconds with project based content subsets.

Still, a CMS database created with a full content library is causing issues when saving with just a content subset library. On three of my systems, so this isn't a unique issue with my setup.
Just what exactly is DS writing metadata wise when saving something? How about having the option to turn that off?
Shutting down CMS sure takes care of that saving issue, and doesn't have a negative impact on the saved files.
Seems like I'm one of the few people using Content Directory Manager to manage content.

OK I get it...Thank you for your answer.
Would it be then more interresting to import it as morph with morph loader pro and use it, for exemple, on G8F ?