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Trouble with M4 Elite

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  • JaderailJaderail Posts: 0
    edited December 1969

    AH the Paths in the items are coded to the Folders and paths in a relative way only inside a Content folder. Some folders should not be renamed. I'll see if the resident Mac CV is online and have them pop in to help you when they are on-line.

  • ValKyrie_1856200ValKyrie_1856200 Posts: 133
    edited December 1969

    Thanks! It would be great if its fixable somehow.

  • SzarkSzark Posts: 10,634
    edited December 1969

    In DS4.5 I can open scenes that have no data and the items don't load but there are placeholders for the non loaded items so you have at least a list of what the scene contains. Then to fix the data problem, when you have everything else fixed, is to load all the items that are in a scene, that will not open properly, no need to place the props, just load and save. Then open the old scene and it should open with items intact...hopefully. :)

  • TotteTotte Posts: 13,979
    edited December 1969

    Spitfirecat said:
    Hey Szark. What I can't open are .daz files - scenes I created in Daz 4.0. I was able to open them in 4.5 with no trouble before I got "creative" with moving folders around on my hard drive. I believe the problem has to do with a deleted data file - I seem to remember reading something about that. Anyway, I'm spending my time re-doing those scenes which is a lot more fun than trying to figure out why the old ones don't open!!

    First off, DS 4.0 saves files using the older format (where local DS converted copies of the content parts in a saved file are stored in the data-folder). The old format was not movable (unless you also had an exact intact and same files in the data-folder. So, by moving files around (which is a nono that just will cause you lots of pain unless you know exactly what you do and are prepared to go in and modify each and every script that points to the related files you moved) you will ruin the references in the data folder pointing to that object and the file wont open.

    Spitfirecat said:
    Jaderail, on a Mac you cannot merge files or folders as such. I had to copy things manually from one folder to another. For some reason, the installers like to put some stuff in my Users Shared folder, and some in my Users Me folder. I did a bunch of installs over the past few days, some using the shiny new DAZ installer (DIM), some using the default settings, and some via a path I specified. None was ideal.

    First off, the manual installers most often never guess the correct install path, you always, I say this again, always, need to select the correct path, that's why DIM is such a brilliant program. You just has to set it once, not for every installer.

    Depends on what version of OS X you are using, merge came in 10.7. But if you want to install .zip files from other sources, can I recommend my RendoInstall found here.
    To merge Runtimes if they are resonable small you can zip them up and use RendoInstall to "install" the zip into another runtime structure.

    Also, you can have content in multiple Runtimes (I have 5 on my system right now), what you need to do is to tell DS where they are and which contain DS files and which contains Poser format files.


    I find this program operates like Adobe Illustrator in some ways, that the resources (textures, geometries etc) are like "linked images" and once you move them or change the name of the folder they're in, the link is broken. Unlike Illustrator however, the various resources have to be in exactly named folders, and once you locate one missing texture, it's not smart enough to notice that all the other missing textures are also in that same folder. That would be a nice upgrade... :)
    The structure was defined by those who created Poser back in 90s, on Mac OS. That's why the internal format for a path in any Poser item is an old :-separated relative Mac OS path. The structure cannot be bent (unless you want someone to have content not compatible with DS, Poser, Carrara etc.)

    Quick description of how things are linked inside the files.

    In for example a prop (.pp2), there is a reference to where the .obj file is located (the mesh)

    objFileGeom 0 0 :runtime:Geometries:BWC:bench:camping-table.obj

    There is also a link describing where the texture maps are located:

    textureMap ":runtime:Textures:BWC:BWCBench:BWC-seatwoodend-1-d.jpg"

    As you see, by moving something within the folder structure you will ruin the link, but as the path is relative, starts with :runtime, you can place it in any mapped runtime.

    So, moving the files around broke the structure, to get it whole again? Delete and reinstall or move things back exactly as they were before.


  • ValKyrie_1856200ValKyrie_1856200 Posts: 133
    edited December 1969

    Wow, Totte, thank you for that extensive reply! I think I understand how this works now. I found the installers really baffling to begin with, especially since they wanted to put things in weirdly different places as I've described up-thread. Of course to begin with I didn't dare modify things. Now I've modified to where they were hopelessly broken, and back to where everything is working nicely, thanks to a lot of help from folks here, and obsessive persistence at my end and a bunch of re-installs and manual clean-up.

    Next time I install something, i'm going to have a much better handle on what I'm supposed to be doing.

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