Help me look under the hood of content files?

tmtmtm_f56c8d4bda

I've dabbled in Poser for a while and am making the switch to DS.

One of the things that really boggles my mind is the convoluted library structure. I just don't like how DS wants to organize things. So I'm interested in knowing precisely what's going on under the hood of DIM and various files. I did some reading and messing around. But before I start porting my Poser library to DS I have a couple of questions:

1.
DIM installers are just archives with meta data, like the old trx.exe archives. Is that right?

2.
When DIM gets installed on the computer, it also installs postgreSQL. What is being stored in that exactly? If something breaks and I want to manually fix it, could I open SQL Server and manually adjust data rows if need be?

3.
When I load a manually created ZIP file into DIM it complains that it doesn't have a meta data file. Do I need to create one? How? I don't like merging loose files to the library because I lose track of what's where.

4.
I set up all my materials in Octane and use mesh lights (planes and spheres with emitters). What's the best way to approximate mesh lights during posing inside DS?

5.
I'm assuming that I should export my work as OBJ for use in Octane. This usually causes loss of texture file links. Is there a good tutorial that covers DS to Octane in depth?

Thanks for any help and pointers. I've looked through the forum quite a bit but mostly there is just really basic information. I'm hoping to learn a bit more about the inner workings so I can trouble shoot better.

sriesch

tmtmtm said:

One of the things that really boggles my mind is the convoluted library structure. I just don't like how DS wants to organize things.

I know I'm not directly answering any of your questions here, but: You don't have to use the default content library structure organization. You can organize the content library any way you want, with the exception that the top level views ("DAZ Studio Formats", "Poser Formats", "Other Import Formats", "Products") and "Default" categories will still be there. Your custom categorization that you can modify will be visible within the "Categories" top level category, excluding the single exception of the "Default" category.

Richard Haseltine

tmtmtm said:

1.
DIM installers are just archives with meta data, like the old trx.exe archives. Is that right?

Yes.

2.
When DIM gets installed on the computer, it also installs postgreSQL. What is being stored in that exactly? If something breaks and I want to manually fix it, could I open SQL Server and manually adjust data rows if need be?

DIM installs the Valentina-based CMS. Installing PostgreSQL is a user decision; it's les prone to corruption than Valentina, and also doesn't run as a service all the time, but it isn't (yet) supported in Carrara. The CMS stores location of items, what figures they are compatible with, and what type of thing they are. Although people have edited the databases with the relevant tools, if you are mainly worried about corruption (of custom data) you can export user data and reimport it (and the default metadata) if need be.

3.
When I load a manually created ZIP file into DIM it complains that it doesn't have a meta data file. Do I need to create one? How? I don't like merging loose files to the library because I lose track of what's where.

DIM is essentially for DAZ content and using it with other content isn't something we can support I'm afraid. You can however create your own "Product" though the DS interface, which will generate the needed metadata files, and that has nothing to do with installing via DIM. There are, I think, a couple of lengthy threads discussing this process.

4.
I set up all my materials in Octane and use mesh lights (planes and spheres with emitters). What's the best way to approximate mesh lights during posing inside DS?

You can't preview mesh lights, but applying the uberArea light to a mesh will give you a mesh light in 3Delight which you can see in spot renders.

5.
I'm assuming that I should export my work as OBJ for use in Octane. This usually causes loss of texture file links. Is there a good tutorial that covers DS to Octane in depth?

I have no experience with octane, but there is a DS plug-in available. I don't know how it works, or how much information it carries over from the DS scene. The equivalent plug-ins for the free Lux render both do a good job of translation.

tmtmtm_f56c8d4bda

Richard Haseltine said:

DIM is essentially for DAZ content and using it with other content isn’t something we can support I’m afraid. You can however create your own “Product” though the DS interface, which will generate the needed metadata files, and that has nothing to do with installing via DIM. There are, I think, a couple of lengthy threads discussing this process.

Thanks for all your answers. In order to use the material in DS I'd have to get it into it's library first, and AFAIK, this requires me to load it into the library folder manually (merging the loose files). But that defeats the purpose of packaging a ZIP.

Is there a way to manually generate a metadata file? All I want is to be able to "uninstall" my prop if I decide I don't want it anymore.