I need to rant
nightwolf1982
Posts: 1,166
What is up with DAZ?
I like DAZ. I like their programs, I like their products, hell I spend WAY to much in the store every week. But I just don't get some of the decisions they make.
Take the Install Manager. Great Idea, a single program that can track your content and tell you when there's an update. Brilliant.
But WAIT!! first you have to UNINSTALL the content you want to keep track of. THEN you have to re-download your content. AND you simply must re-install THROUGH the IM, all so it CAN track your content.
WTF!?
I have to RE-DOWNLOAD and RE-INSTALL my content? Oh, and some of my content might not even be available yet?
It makes me want to give up, sometimes. I don't want to spend several days re-downloading content that I ALREADY HAVE! I just want to know when an update comes out!
Seriously, that's the only complaint I've ever really had with DAZ. They never tell you that they've updated a product. I've had to reset my entire download history and check each individual file (that's over 2300 files) to see if there was a change.
Now here we have a program that can notify you of updates, but ONLY if you download and install through that program.
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Comments
The problem is that there isn't anything marking the version of what you currently have installed, other than generating a list of files and hash codes which would be slow for both DAZ to implement and you to apply. That said, if you've left your content in its default locations you could download and install to a dummy folder, then use a file comparison tool to pick up the files from the new installers that are newer or changed and just uninstall/reinstall those - the fact that you did install, as long as you don't delete the manifests, should be enough to make future update alerts work.
There are a couple of threads on the DIM, posting to those will get you more informed responses including official developer answers.
there's actually a lot of problems with the new manager, such as not finding things after they're installed. It's not worth it, IMO.
I have over 20 content folders so I leave them be...check
Install new installers via the Install Manager in to a Dummy folder...check
"then use a file comparison tool to pick up the files from the new installers that are newer or changed and just uninstall/reinstall those" ?? Can you expand on this please Richard for the non-initiated. :)
They install to the same locations as the old installers did.
They install to the same locations as the old installers did.
Exactly. Does everyone keep everything by B25 in the folder called B25 (this being where it installed)? Do you want to from now on?
Exactly. Does everyone keep everything by B25 in the folder called B25 (this being where it installed)? Do you want to from now on?As I stated in the other thread. While we are not going to prevent you from organizing your content the way you want to, just remember the more manual work you do now, the more you will have to do later.
You can install into a dummy runtime, then reorganize and move to your real runtime if you wish. Install Manager will not be able to automatically update for you, but it will still alert you to product updates.
first of all, teh manual work we do now SAVES time later when we're trying to put a piece together and CAN"T FIND THE THINGS WE INSTALLED in logical places.
Second, we can't install EVERYTHING and THEN organize it. You know why? That' would take EVEN LONGER. You'd have a zillion things in randomly named folders and locations, and you'd look at the random name and wonder what th heck it was called ..... so you'd have to search the readme *which is no longer included an at any rate the file often did not have the same name as the readme so you'd end up doing a daz search). Sorry, its a chaotic mess. it stinks to manually install everything, but since Daz doesn't have a good system in place for naming and placing (though I will say it has improved a little with the start of genesis and the new runtime, but still get people who like to name items and folders after themselves and random things).
Pure chaos. Not worth it!
So install to a dummy folder and then delete it. Install Manager still keeps a record of what you installed, and will tell you if it changes. You don't need to redo things you've already installed and organized (although of course if the version you installed was already out-of-date, Install Manager has no way of knowing that).
You can always make changes and move from within the program. Those changes don't nuke things. Nor is the readme an issue any more since the DIM will show it to you with ease.
My whole point, though, is that the DIM SHOULD be able to identify what's already installed and be able to tell if there's been an update or not. I SHOULD NOT have to uninstall my entire runtime AND re-download my content in order to be able to utilize the update function in the DIM.
Right now the DIM shows about 780 products in my download que. That's several hours of downloading that I could spend actually creating.
DIM is a very appropriate acronym for this program!
You could download while you sleep.
What is this thing called "sleep" of which you speak?
So if we have organized our content manually (like putting them into folders where we can find them instead of by vendor name, etc), the new install manager will remove them and then install them again into the default folders that we didn't want them in in the first place? I've been organizing my 3D content since I used Poser 4 and have done it for all...oh, the 1451 pages of content in my Order History, plus the non-DAZ items I've bought as well.
When we can move around content downloaded through the Manager though, I'll give it a try.
You can move stuff around, the only thing is IM will not be able to uninstall them automatically for you. It will not remove files that aren't in default locations.
If you are allowed to name your files anything you want, and move them anywhere you want, how can anyone determine what you have installed?
How many files do you have named pants.obj? Or Makeup1? Or Color7? Open any poser file (it is a simple text file) and tell me how to determine where the revision number for that file is.
Really they would love to be able to do it, but it can't be done. No other software can identify data that you have customized once you have installed it, and there is a reason for that, it can't be done.