Installing jsut to Daz Studio,
kyoto kid
Posts: 41,198
...quick question here.
If someone is just running the latest version of Daz Studio and nothing else like an older version of the application, Poser or Carrara, can you point the DIM to install all your content, (including older content like Gen3 & 4 figures characters and props) to the "My Library" folder or do you still need to install older content into a separate Poser runtime structure?
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You can point the DIM to install it anywhere you want (within reason)...but the basic structure...Runtime hasn't changed for the older content, or really all that much for new content (there are still things that go into a Runtime folder, inside the My Library directory). Basically, anything made in the past couple of months should only have Textures inside the Runtime...but it wasn't all that long ago that new stuff had more than that.
...what about older figures/content like Vicky4 and Mike4? Can they install to the Daz3d//Studio/My Library/Runtime/ or do they still need to go into a standard Daz3D/Studio/Content/Runtime/ structure?
I'm asking this for someone else not myself as I have Poser Pro2012 and Carrara which need the Poser runtime setup.
Basically anything ABOVE 'Runtime' can be named anything you want...as long as you point DS at it. DS doesn't really care what the name of the folder the content is in, is called...the installers did, but since the switch over to zips, it matters less. (And yes, before anyone says anything...you could point the installers elsewhere, too...it just wasn't as easy.)
...so to install say, Vicky4, does one specify "Daz3D/Studio/My Library" then or just "Daz3D/Studio"?
You can, that doesn't mean you should. You are free to designate any installation location for DIM that you want. However, the install location that you choose should be free of non DIM installed content. Using DIM to install content to a location that already has existing content not installed by DIM can lead to issues. DIM needs to know what is installed in the directories it manages. If you have DIM install to a location that has non DIM installed content DIM has no way of knowing what files have been installed there. This can lead to conflicts if/when files are uninstalled or updated.
You point it to the folder containing \Runtime.
If you have Daz3D\Studio\My Library\Runtime, then you would point DIM to Daz3D\Studio\My Library.
...thank you.
You can, that doesn't mean you should. You are free to designate any installation location for DIM that you want. However, the install location that you choose should be free of non DIM installed content. Using DIM to install content to a location that already has existing content not installed by DIM can lead to issues. DIM needs to know what is installed in the directories it manages. If you have DIM install to a location that has non DIM installed content DIM has no way of knowing what files have been installed there. This can lead to conflicts if/when files are uninstalled or updated.
...so OK, how does this relate to freebie content from other sites? How would those files interfere with the DIM if they were installed according to the instructions in their readmes?
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...related...
My own personal setup is a mix of the old Bitrock installers and DIM installed content. When I first set up the workstation I didn't have a stable enough connection to run the DIM. I tried downloading with the DIM to my notebook at a hotspot then transferred the files via flash drive to the workstation but for some reason it refused to t read them. giving me a blank pane in the "ready to download" tab.
Furthermore the first release of the DIM had a bug that kept corrupting my username and wouldn't let me sign in without going though having to create a new sign in each time.
I would say right now my system is something like 65/35 Bitrock/DIM. The only thing I am having an issue with is loading Vicky4. For some reason 4.6 claims it cannot find a certain body .pz2 and then later, a certain jcm delta. (this doesn't happen with Mike4 or Kids4).
I uninstalled v4.2 morphs and unimesh characters using the bitrock uninstallers, reinstalled everything again with the DIM, and re-ran the associated .bat file, but the issue still persists. This is a matter I am still working out with support.
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At this stage, I am not about to wipe everything out to do a full clean DIM install of all content/plugins as that could create new path conflicts with scene projects I have already completed and/or am still working on.
Nothing to do with "older" content, it's "installed with DIM" content that needs to be separate from your "not installed by DIM" content. Of course, DIM can install older content, but the important thing is that the content's been set up so that DIM knows about it.
...so based on the second part of my post above what does that mean?
It sounds like I need one setup for all my Bitrock installed content, one for the DIM and one for any freebies for both the Daz Library and Poser Runtime. That is ridiculous for it would totally break paths for most of my scene projects.
This is the first time I ever heard that these had to be kept separate.
Free content can be installed to My Library just like it could be installed to DS3's Content folder. Nothing has changed except the name of the MAIN folder which is a relative path. I install my Free and Third party content to my Main folder all day. Breaks nothing. No need for more than one folder, never has been, never will be. Just be sure you never install the SAME content twice by accident. Some items will replace the newer content if you are not careful.
One possible gotcha to that "breaks nothing" — does D|S still save files using relative paths only if you save the scene/script/whatever into a mapped content location, and save with absolute paths if you pick a save location using File>Save from the menu?
I remember there used to be regular posts from people saving to a separate "all my stuff" folder instead of a mapped folder then moving the files. Of course they didn't work because all the saved absolute paths no longer matched the actual folder locations. But saving using the Content Tab save function always worked, because those files by definition are in mapped locations, and so used relative paths.
DAZ Studio has always on my PC saved Relative paths when saved to a Mapped content folder. Any folder outside DAZ Studio has always caused Hard coded paths. One thing most never notice is the first read folder (data call) is normally the folder that data for saves will go into. Having only one content folder and only working, saving to it, or creating content from folders within it, will always work and only write relative file paths.
Just wanted to make sure I had it right. I've never saved anywhere else except to my content folder since the very beginnings of D|S — it was so obvious, it never occurred to me not to do it that way.