How to avoid missing files while creating content
drinformation
Posts: 119
My process to create a new clothing item is:
- Model the item and export as .OBJ
- Export Textures as .PNG
- Import .OBJ into daz
- Add the texture and transfer utility
- Save as Figure/Prop assets
I assumed when I save an item, the program simply convert and saves the model, textures and other files into the library but it seems that's not the case and as soon as I remove the files I loaded, I get a missing file.am I missing something? should I add those files to some folder before loading? or after saving?
where can I get a detailed explanation about the right way to create content for daz, the pitfalls and the good practices?
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http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/userguide/creating_content/packaging/tutorials/packaging_genesis_morph_products/start
Have you looked here? This is somewhat out of date, but the basic info is still sound I think.
I've already checked that one, but there's no information about the files and what is saved and what is not, as soon as I remove the texture file I'll get a missing file error.
I can't zip and upload the item I've created if it's still dependent on a file that exist on a specefic address in my hard drive.
You have to know that the texture files don't get copied or converted and saved somewhere. You have to provide the texture file(s) along with your zip file in a defined folder ...Runtime\Textures\...
First make shure you copy the texture file(s) to a Content Directory that is also a library in DazStudio otherwise the texture referece path in the Figure/Prop Asset duf file will point to the absolute path on your computer drive. This could be the issue - the default place for textures is ...MyLibrary\Runtime\Textures\[your vendor name]\[your product name].
Then you can load your Figure/Prop into the DazStudio scene and change the texture in the Surface pane and save the Figure/Prop asset again.
Alternativly you could open the Figure/Prop Asset duf file into a text editor and search/replace all occurences of the old path with the new path. You may have saved the duf file with the compressed option but no problem you can also uncompress a duf file outside of DS - just add the .zip extention at the end of the filename and unpack the duf inside.
Here is a thread with a similar issue: a script to batch find missing files and create a directory
Thank you, that's exactly what I wanted to make sure of..
it was my first guess but I was assuming after years of development, a company as big as daz must've taken care of it and added some function somewhere that I'm missing.
one question remains: I prefer to put the textures in a subfolder inside the product folder that daz have created in this case "data\myname\uniform\pants\textures"
that wouldn't cause any problem would it?
As long as the textures are in a folder inside a mapped library they will work. If you want to make the project a commercial release or even a freebie you should set the textures up the excepted standard way.
sure, if I decided to publish them I'll do it the standard way, for the time being, I prefer to keep the number of folders involved as limited as possible
Dont put textures inside the Data directory. All textures go under "Runtime\Textures\your name\your product" Its the standard
If you save out a prop or figure, Da Studio will want to save the items geometry and skeleton (applicable to figures) to the Data folder. It is very important to pay attention the names you use cause along with the textures, you need to copy the folders out of your data folder in order to package it up for sale or free.
The best way to go about this is to create a temp directory elsewhere on your HDD and populate it with the correct folder structure that is used by Daz Studio. Copy your data folder for the product over to the temp directory along with you Texture folders. Something else you will need to do is to hand edit the file if its looking for the textures elsewhere. Under windows you can use Notepad++ to hand edit the file paths within the duf file to point DS to the correct textures when the file is loaded. Make sure you do not compress your files with saving. If you do, you can use the batch convert tab in DS to decrypt them.
I have never understood why and how this became the standard. I begged and pleaded back in the late 90s when we first started getting more than 1 named figure (Victoria, Stephanie, Michael, David, etc) for content creators to adhere to a more end-user-friendly structure of "Runtime\Textures\Base Figure\your product with your name on it" (i.e. Runtime\Textures\The Girl\Coppertone Tanlines by Bob) but instead we were cursed with people who think their names are household and we should all know exactly what figure everything they've ever made is for, or worse; people who think theirs is the only content anyone should have.
Hubris.
I'm curious to know what you expected to happen. If you remove that file, why do you think you would not get an error that the file was missing?
When you create a Product (free or otherwise) for D|S, if you place the texture in a specific folder, such as in Data\yourname\product, and not in a separate Runtime\Textures\yourproduct subfolder, and load it into the product from there, then Create Product for distribution, then the product package will store that information, and will not default to Runtime\Textures, but instead Data\yourname\product.
Is your texture file located in the content library somewhere (several suggestions above) or is it still in your "working" directory?
I know when I'm modeling, I will often save things in a folder in My Documents. Importing from there, browsing there to get the textures, etc. works just fine for me on my machine, but it won't translate if I were to want someone else to use it. The better workflow is to copy the textures into one of the paths listed above BEFORE you add them to your surface settings inside Studio. Then Studio will save a relative path (e.g. \data\yourname\product\basetexture.jpg) instead of an absolute one (e.g. c:\users\you\documents\projects\product\basetexture.jpg).
Also, I've seen some tutorials where content creators will actually create a separate content library folder specifically for that product in order to make sure that they've captured all the files that are needed for that product.
Since I don't use poser, I prefer to keep all resources in the same folder, it's easier to keep track of. but sure, if I decide to publish them I'll try the runtime folder even though I think it's not the best way to do it.
I can see benefits to both methods, but I think there's more reasons to have one folder containing all products made by a vendor under the same directory, therefore I don't like the poser folder structure and daz folder structure makes perfect sense to me,
that's where textures should go as well
of curse a creator shouldn't have to worry about such things and collecting files must be done automatically by the computer, the same thing for converting daz content to poser and the other way around
like I mentioned, I was under assumption that daz programmers know that those file are needed to load the item later on and wrote few lines of code to gather them under the same folder that other related assets are being saved
I don't think that's necessary, all we need to do is to navigate to where the product folder have been saved and copy it inside a folder with our vendor name then put that folder inside a folder name data and zip that up, I cam write a macro to do that for me, the thing that bothers me is: there's simply too many step that the program could and should do to save our time but it must be done manually for some reason, In any case I just wanted to make sure about the folder structure and I got the answer thank you all ^_^
Never ask a machine to think and creating a project library is the best way to keep all relevant files together.
While I agree with you, at the time Daz Studio started off there were no DS only products, they were all poser products and DS was just an alternative to using Poser. But as things progressed and grew, people started making products for both and instead of adopting a secondary location for textures in DS, they just stayed with the excisting poser runtime. That way you could have the product work in both programs yet only have one set of textures on your hard drive.
there's no thinking involved in the tasks I mentioned.
imagine you're making 1000 products:
while it's our job to create an item, pose, morph and adjust the figures for taking the thumbnails, the machines are made to do the repetitive tasks that have a fixed formula
In creating a product it makes sense to have a separate content directory. You create the /Runtime/textures/Whaever folder and save the textures to that, then you import your model, apply the textuers from the Runtime, save as an asset (using the new content directory, you set that using a button at the top of the option dialogue) placing the user-file in the approriate folder in your content diectory (e.g. People/Genesis whichever/Clothing/Setname). The only folders you have to create are the Runtime and user-facing folders, everything for your product is then grouped - just add read me.
If you want to add better thumbnails (which you would for a store product) you could use https://www.daz3d.com/thumbnail-mastery
well those where just examples of things the computer can and should do automatically, to answer jestmart., I got my answer about the folder structure in the first few answers.
about thumbnail mastery: I don't think it's any good for anything other than textures. unless somebody writes something that asks for my preference at the beginning, renders a thumbnail and replace the daz thumbnail automatically every time I save something, I can write a better macro for it myself.
Believe me... you are N E V E R going to make a thousand products. Especially NOT at once.
The computer is not telepathic.
- After you make your textures in whatever program, you cannot expect it to know where to place them. Each project will have its own folders. Copy and paste or drag and drop is the closest you will get to the computer doing that for you.
- If you have a Windows machine, download Notepad++, drop ALL your presets into it (as long as they are not compressed) and do a search and replace. It will process all of them at the same time and save them afterwards, all at the same time. If you tell it to. But you still have to input the information that needs to be changed.
- What if you want to add text before you finalize the thumbnail? Its not going to do that for you. The larger thumbnail should be the one you render and then batch process all of them in software like XN Convert to the smaller 91x91.
- It does do that for you, when you save your product into your library, it creates the Data folders. But yes, you still have a lot of work to do. Its part of the business
I am making enough things that the time I spend copy pasting files and folders have gotten too boring to telorate.
it doesn't have to be telepathic, the texture image's path is specified, the target is the same folder that the program saves other files and needs the texture images to be there as well is known, it's a matter of copying the image from address A to address B and save all of the time I have to spend navigating to both directory and waste few clicks to do it
My intention is to do less, this adds some unzipping, editing, replacing and zipping to the process while I still have to move the files myself
this is a separate issue with daz and there are other topics started about it, but now it's mentioned:
calculating with pen and paper was part of every business before machines took over that task, you don't open a notepad to start writing zeros and ones when you want to save some file to your disk, the program does it for you.
my point is: if computer can do it with the same result as doing it manually, the computer should do it not us.
The thumbnails created when saving is done with OpenGL so it pretty much the same as a screen shot. Everything you would like the program to do automagically would require a lot of extra code. Extra code equals program bloat and increases the chances of errors and bugs
drinformation,
Im sorry if I come off sounding rather harsh but I just dont see this your way.
If in all honesty you believe that certain processess should be automated, then sit down and write out plainly just that and submit a ticket to support here - https://helpdaz.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new
nah, I just wanted to make sure about the folder structure, the topic got derailed halfway and became an argument. ^_^