Is it possible to speed up this import?

                              Thanks for the tips and advice

Totte said:

OK, so just to recap the current  state of your vs. my system, to see if I forgot something:
- [Your system] The content is now on a remote drive (size and type unknown to me)
- [My system] The content is on a remote 4TB SSD drive
- [Your system] CMS has been "reset" and metadata reimported.
- [My system] CMS has been "reset" and metadata reimported.
What file system are you using on the external drive?
I use AFPS (no encryption and no case sensitive <--- Very important)
 

Thats right Totte, I mentioned that I just realized my Sandisk SSD was formatted MAC OS extended (case sensitive).  I would never have imaged that path references or file names in DS would (or could) ever be different than the names in the library files. Makes no sense to me why that would be, but it is in fact the "case"! I'll post here if reformatting does in fact clear everything up, or not. Thanks again for your time, very much appreciated...

If the OBJ and MTL have the same name and are in the same folder, then DS will load the MTL at the same time as the OBJ.

Textures not loading is down to the pathways inside the MTL, and how you are Importing the OBJ into DS.

Using "File >> Import" means that DS has no idea where to start looking, so the pathways in the MTL need to be the full pathway including drive letter of the textures location.

You can also load OBJ from within the Content Library tab in DS, using the "Other Import Format" directory. From here DS takes the location of the MTL as it's starting point, so yet again the pathways need to point to the right location but you wont need the drive letter this time.

TraceSL said:

I use elements 11, for PS Brushes about the only thing I need from PS.  

I can easily import Photoshop brushes (,abr) into Affinity Photo.

OK, so just to recap the current  state of your vs. my system, to see if I forgot something:
- [Your system] The content is now on a remote drive (size and type unknown to me)
- [My system] The content is on a remote 4TB SSD drive
- [Your system] CMS has been "reset" and metadata reimported.
- [My system] CMS has been "reset" and metadata reimported.
What file system are you using on the external drive?
I use AFPS (no encryption and no case sensitive <--- Very important)
 

Totte said:

Did you "remove" the old content library from DS knowledge before you reimported meta data, just dropping it from the list of known content directories?
 

HI Totte, yes, before re-importing metadata I removed the path from content manager, and also renamed the local library (making sure DAZ was not open while renaming the directory).

The OBJ and MTL should generally be kept together... I can't think of any reason to separate them, so yeah keep them together.

OBJ import to DAZ generally works for me, but you have to make sure the MTL file is properly referencing the materials/textures... Usually that's not a problem since I'm either exporting from Blender or 3D Coat... but if the references are broken or the MTL is somewhere else, stuff will go wrong.

And as mentioned previously above, you'll always have to reconfigure the textures for DAZ/IRay 

Thanks ;) And good luck with that weighting extra work.

I just though of something else : send your mesh to ZBrush using GoZ if you want to. But send it back to Daz through .obj because GoZ doesn't sent Face Groups info (polygroups).

Create a polygroup in Zbrush for all the very first polygon(s) of each hair strand and define them all as 1 or more polygroups (as many polygroups as you have bones influencing the mesh). Then export your hair from ZBrush as .obj. Import that in Daz and you'll get Face Groups automatically created rom the polygroup information.

1/ Face Groups will help you a lot to select hair(s) when weighting vertices.

2/ Face Groups will help to create Surface Groups in order to set different dForce Surface properties so that hair simulates without falling.

Polygroups that become face groups are very, very useful when working on custom made assets. Same goes in Blender with Vertex groups that will also be converted into Face Groups.

Is there any foolproof technique for importing OBJ. files into DAZ Studio with the textures applied? I can import OBJ. geomertry every single time without a hitch, but importing OBJ. with textures applied is always hhit or miss. From what I understand, as long as the OBJ. file references the .MTL file exactly as it is named it should import the textures that are in the same folder.

I have found that the name of the .MTL file can't have any spaces, dashes or underscores.

I'm not sure what the protocal is for for the first few lines of either the .OBJ or .MTL files, for example, placing # at beginning of line or spaces between lines or whatever the syntax rules are.

Does the OBJ anf MTL files have to be in the same folder as the textures?

Thanks,

I were posted a discussion about it but i were moved to new pc and it was working fine but i moved to new city with my old pc for educational porpuses and now i installed daz3d again and i am getting the same error which says "A valid PostgreSQL CMS connection could not be established". And i cant login or reimport the metadata of the files that i already downloaded. I really could use some help here.

Btw when i try to install postgre sql after i deleted it from DIM windows gives an error message which is added in attachments. It is in Turkish language but here is translated exact words:

app name: windows driver model

error: Another version of this product is already installed. Cannot continue installation of this version.

Use "add and remove programs" in control panel to configure or uninstall an existing version of this product

but i cannot see any postgre sql file there

mmm wonder why mine fail to import, shall try my other computer Win10, was my Win 7

same thing i/0 error

maybe upload your eye duf (it's just a character preset so OK)

EDIT: it's now live at https://www.deviantart.com/perlk/art/Free-Art-nouveau-style-garden-bench-DS-OBJ-934228397 and Renderosity coming soon!

I'm creating my own thread so I can stop hijacking richardandtracy's thread! 

Here's my progress so far. The stupidly high polygon count is definitely going to be the death of this thing. I've done a fair job I think of trying to capture the original spirit of the thing (https://www.daz3d.com/forums/uploads/FileUpload/41/866b2b3256eb001dbbf9905312f716.jpg) but it's so detailed it might crash anything that tries to run it without a ridiculous graphics card. So now I am trying to figure out how to reduce the polygon count without losing the detail. This has definitely been quite a learning opportunity for me. And while I'm not going to be getting a job building models any time soon, I am pretty proud of it.

Last DS import looks interesting:

I have a feeling Blender would be a heck of a lot more stable to be modeling this in...if only it had usable controls.

Chugging along on save....been 3 minutes so far, graphics card running 100%...not looking too promising. :-(

Thank you Totte and wsterdan for your ideas. I did try everything you mentioned, and same result. No smart content works at all, no thumbs etc. But when browsing in content library it is in fact connecting to the ext drive, and loads some content, almost always with files it can't find (/data/, /textures/ etc). it seems random. So i happened to notice a few times that the missing files, although they exist on my ext drive, the file names are out of case (RTPfile.jpg might be Rtpfile.jpg for example). I then checked my sandisk SSD and realized it is in fact formatted to MAC OS extended (case sensitive). So, now I'm thinking that might the root of all (or most) of the issues I'm encountering. Does that make sense? It seem unlikely daz purchased products would be not case correct in their names and paths, but stranger things have happened. Could case sensitive errors cause the smart content to totally not work?

It's either this, or I have to think it's errors in the database that are not correcting themselves (I did reset the database, and re-imported metadata)... Will investigate further. (errrg)

Those MDL files are part of the picture, but a DzBrickMaterial is, I think, more than that. For example, if you import the PBRSkin material into the shader mixer, you can see it is composed of many bricks, only some of which are Custom MDL bricks which reference the pbr_skin.mdl file. So, my assumption is that there is a compilation process that transforms the entire brick network into some MDL code which is given to Iray. There are some hints of such a thing in the SDK, such as DzBrickSet::getFullShaderPath(), DzBrickSetCompilerMgr, DzShaderCompilerProcess, but I don't quite see how it all fits together.

The metadata and database entries will be restored, it won't redownload installed files if you delete them (but nor will it know they are not still there - if you want to remove Connect-installed content you must do it within Daz Studio via the right-click menu on the product)

This might be a feature request or just need someone to point out what I am missing...

In UltraScatterPro, you can reuse a previous scatter set up with the Import Settings function. But if you use this, you still need to go to each panel and change the seed values. If you don't, it just copies the previous scatter exactly.

It would be nice if there was a "Randomize Seeds" check box alongside the Import Settings option.

Krys Kryngle said:

Have you tried Eufy yet?  I did some initial tests today and it seems to work.  I just need to figure out how to re-copy shape keys now.  Diffeo does a great job importing them, I just lose them in the conversion process and the bones are all renamed to match UE4.

Before converting the G8.1 character with Uefy, the morphs need to be converted to shapekeys with Diffeomorphic: Advanced Setup -> Morphs -> Convert Morphs To Shapekeys, because the deforming skeleton will be swapped to the new Unreal skeleton, the morphs can't be controlled from Diffeomorphic.

Don't follow some instructions from the videos to delete the shape keys then transfer them back. Use Diffeomorphic Setup -> Apply Rest Pose to apply the mannequin pose to the character and keep the shapekeys. Also don't use the Uefy "Extract Mesh", instead delete the mesh's armature deform modifier then parent to the new Rigify rig, this way the shapekeys are preserved and don't need the extra process to transfer them back.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summary of the workflow using Diffeomorphic, Rigify, Uefy2:

Create UE Mannequin:
Create original Unreal mannequin rig as reference skeleton:
In Object mode: Shift-A -> Armature -> Uefy Script -> Reference Skeleton -> UE4 Mannequin Proxy (A-Pose)

Import Character:
Import G8.1 character with Diffeomorphic
Refresh List to pick the armatures of the character and the reference Mannequin.
Unrig Armature so that the deform bones are not constrained for Uefy script to pose them
Merge bone weights and reduce bones
Translate the character bone names to match mannequin bone names
Automatically roll the matched bones to mimic bone orientations of mannequin reference
Adjust some bones position to better match the mannequin
Use Uefy to automatically pose the character to match the Unreal reference skeleton

Create Metarig:
Generate metarig using Uefy G8.1 preset for the character
Use Uefy to automatically pose metarig to match the Unreal reference skeleton
Check and tweak the metarig bone joints to precisely match character's converted deform bones

Create Controlling Rig:
Generate controlling rig from the metarig using Rigify for the character
Detach the character meshes from its own armature and parent them to the new Rigify rig
Hide the character's own armature as it's done with the purpose, new deform skeleton will be generated from Rigify rig

Build Skeleton:
Build new mannequin skeleton from the Rigify rig.
During the build skeleton process it automatically swaps the Rigify rig's hidden deform rig to the new mannequin skeleton.

Make Animations:
New animations for the converted skeleton are based on Blender orientation.
Export the new character into Unreal with this Blender orientated skeleton.
This character is used to receive animations made from Blender.

Export Converted Character:
Roll the new skeleton to match Unreal axis orientation (After this step it's not compatible with Rigify and can't be animated)
Export the character again into Unreal with Unreal orientated skeleton.
This character can use Unreal animation packs without retargeting.

Export Animations:
Export Blender animations and choose the Blender orientated skeleton to receive new animations.
Retarget animations to the other character which has the Unreal orientated skeleton.

You can also use puppeteer pane, create a dot in that, then save out the puppeteer preset by using "save as" > "puppeteer preset". be careful with it though since this will restore the entire figure with ALL morphs used. a workaround is to lock the figure morphs you want the pose to apply to, or to go into preview mode in the pupeteer pane, then click your dot, this should keep the figure morphs  intact and only pose the figure.

Been using puppeteer while doing collaboration work with other artists most of the time since you can just save a ton of poses that way without having to browse for them in a filesystem jungle, and instead just import them to the new figure and you got a list of dots you can go through quickly for various poses.

1) Poser 7 and newer rigging isn't compatible with any version of DS, the Poser Import plugin can only read and convert the old "Parametric" rigging.

2) Poser and DS can't use each others shaders as they are specific to the render engines being used.
Any Poser content you import into DS will use the old Default Surface Shader which uses RSL and can be used by 3Delight.
However DS can only read the Poser 4 material settings in any Poser files (CR2,PP2,PZ2,MC6 and MT5), and the P4 settings can only use a handful of the texture types (diffuse,bump, trans etc).
Any materials that only use the Poser 5+ Material Room settings, means that the P4 settings will be empty, so DS wont be able to load anything from those.

Most of us old hands (DS 1.3) learned very early on not to use the Poser material settings, but to rather make our own in DS after the product was loaded.

3) As has been mentioned PMDs can be a pain, they really only work in DS when "called" from a CR2, as they can be hit or miss when called from a PZ3 scene file, and just wont work with a PP2 prop or INJ/REM PZ2.

There is another issue with Poser morphs most probably aren't aware of, normally to INJect a morph into a figure, that figure needs a morph channel to already exist. That is what PMDs were created for as they create the channel "on the fly", however since Poser 9 no Poser figure needs morph channels to already exist, even for non PMD INJ/REM PZ2s. As long as the data in the PZ2 is correct, then P9+ just slots the data onto which ever body part the data needs to be on.

4) Poser dynamics, clothing just loads as a static prop, but can "usually" be used with dforce without any issues.
Poser dynamic hair is Poser only and DS can't use it.

5) Things that can crash DS -

Circular ERC.
Poser has a thing called "Cross Talk", that's where the outfit on figure 2 takes the morph settings from figure 1. Most vendors never got the morph channel names right for it to be an issue, some others tried various methods to stop it, and some went totally ape**** about stopping it. Those are the ones that have the ERC from hell, and DS hates them, DS4 isn't as bad with them as it used to be so most wont crash it, but the items that do load aren't always fully working.

Stray code in the OBJ.
UVMapper Pro has had an issue for a long time, it holds onto data in RAM from the previous mesh, and only closing the program will clear it. If you don't close it and work and save a second mesh, then some of the first mesh data will be attached to the end of the OBJ for the second mesh, and 9 times out of 10 DS will crash when it tries to load the OBJ.

richardandtracy said:

I have a small amount of old Poser Content P4/5, but there are some interesting newer props I've not touched, because I'm not sure how they'll open in DS. So, can I ask..

1. Are there any newer versions of Poser files that DS can't read the geometry and rigging (eg P11 or P12)?
2. Are there any known incompatibilities with shaders etc that will cause DS to curl up & die/crash with no warning?
3. Does Poser/Firefly have shader scripting (like nVidia MDL) that would be so complex it's easier to delete all shaders and start from scratch in iRay?
4. Are there procedural shaders known in the wild that are entirely free of textures?
5. To a large extent I would expect most Poser content to import like old 3delight stuff. Is that an overly optimistic hope with new Poser content?

I'd really like to ask if you could tell me what I need to know, but that wouldn't be particularly useful given that I don't think you'll believe how little I know. 

I get the feeling that Poser can render just as realistically as DS, but it seems fewer people have the skills to force Poser to that level. Is it because there is a problem with the rendering engine or are they trying to squeeze the ultimate last bits out of a 3delight equivalent renderer? 

I'm also wanting to get my head around why the Poser prop promo images look so out-dated compared to DS props and whether it's inherent in the props or an artefact of the vendor or package.

Most poser content works properly in DS with a bit of fiddling, but there are exceptions:

• Figures using Poser weight mapping (like La Femme and L'Homme, and items for them) or capsule rigging (a few poser 8 figures) will load with tons of warnings and distort when posed in DS.
• Poser dynamic cloth would be static objects in DS. Sometimes using dForce on them will work well, sometimes not.
• Poser dynamic hair, characters using PMD injection, or procedural materials won't work at all. They shouldn't cause crashes but simply won't load.
• Python scripts won't work at all
• Poser lights are usually pretty useless in DS as the parameters are very different

Materials will need to be adjusted as DS doesn't read most of the parameters from Poser materials, only basic settings like diffuse, transparency, basic bump, reflection, and specular strength but for example displacement or specular maps won't be read.