DzGZFile (and its other scripts) - Is it still available?

N-RArts · July 2021

I think this (for my latest headache-inducing car crash), is something that could help me. I found out about it in the Documentation Centre.

IF it still exists, can someone give me a clue as to where I can download it. I have no idea of where to start looking.

Richard Haseltine · July 2021

I'm not quite sure what you mean - DzGZFile isn't a script, it's an object that scripts can use )for reading DS files that may be encrypted for example). As far as I am aware it is still working.

N-RArts · July 2021

Richard Haseltine said:

I'm not quite sure what you mean - DzGZFile isn't a script, it's an object that scripts can use )for reading DS files that may be encrypted for example). As far as I am aware it is still working.

Apologies. I saw: "DAZ Script *.gz (gzip) file I/O class", and thought it was a script.

I've got quite a few gz files that I've managed to recover, and I've read (and probably mis-read, or mis-interpreted), that it can read and load .gz files.

It's my last hope of recovering my old work, that I lost back in March.

Mattymanx · July 2021

Try 7zip, it should work just fine.

N-RArts · July 2021

Mattymanx said:

Try 7zip, it should work just fine.

I've tried 7zip, and I'm not really getting anywhere. There's loads of other files inside the gz files. Some with file extensions labelled .H and .C (those are the only two that I can remember).

If anything needs editing... Then I really don't know where to start.

I was just hoping to get my old content back. Although I was hoping that it was going to be easier than this - But, of course it isn't...

Mattymanx · July 2021

Is it DS content or Poser content?

I ask cause if its poser content, .C could be .CR2 and .H could be .HR2

N-RArts · July 2021

Mattymanx said:

Is it DS content or Poser content?

I ask cause if its poser content, .C could be .CR2 and .H could be .HR2

The .H files are something to do with the program itself. There's files called: "timeout.h" "tablecommands.h" "explain.h"

I can't find anything about the .c files. They're not .cr2 files. I'm telling Daz Studio to load them, but nothing is happening.

I'm changing the .gz extension of files to .duf (in Windows Explorer), but Daz Studio gives me an error message when I try to load them into the program.

7Zip keeps giving me a message when I try to unpack the file: "There are some data after the end of the payload data: f0113456" (the number at the end relates to the name of the file).

~~On the plus side, I've just found old renders that were recovered, which I have backed up, anyway.

But what I want is in those .gz archives. I know it is. I just don't know how to get Daz to acknowledge/detect/load them.

Richard Haseltine · July 2021

So these are not Daz Studio files? It's true that a script could read a compressed file in as raw data (though I'm not sure how well it would cope with all special characters if they were not originally text files), then write it out again uncompressed, but I doubt its code is any more robust than a dedicated archive tool like 7Zip so I'm not sure how helpful it would be.

N-RArts · July 2021

Richard Haseltine said:

So these are not Daz Studio files? It's true that a script could read a compressed file in as raw data (though I'm not sure how well it would cope with all special characters if they were not originally text files), then write it out again uncompressed, but I doubt its code is any more robust than a dedicated archive tool like 7Zip so I'm not sure how helpful it would be.

The files that I'm looking to restore would've been Daz Studio files originally. But TestDisk recovered them as .gz archives.

But I have no way of converting those files into usable files for Daz Studio.

I was hoping to find out how (and where) DzGZFile is located, and if it could help me with what I'm trying to do.

WendyLuvsCatz · July 2021

probably too late to try Recuva instead to restore your lost files

Richard Haseltine · July 2021

You could try changing the extension to .duf then use Window>Panes(Tabs)>Batch Convert, that is using the built-in function without the overhead of having to go through a script. But if they are not working directly I would not hold out great hope - from the description I suspect the recovery tool has recovered blocks of the files, but they need to be stitched to gether into complete files (if possible) before they will be extractable or usable. (Hmm, could .h be header and .c continuation?)

Lord Majestic · July 2021

Try changing the extension to.txt and see what they look like in Notepad. If they are .duf's they should be readable.

BTW it's a good idea to make a backup of all the recovered files, and only work on copies.

But even if you manage to recover the duf's, they might not be much use without the stuff in the data folder, and that will most likely be a lot harder to recover.

richardandtracy · July 2021

Can I suggest that .h files are C/C++ computer language header files and the .c files are the source code files. The .h/.hpp and .c/.cpp files go together in pairs. They are not model files.

N-RArts · July 2021

WendyLuvsCatz said:

probably too late to try Recuva instead to restore your lost files

I'm afraid it is. When I was looking for a recovery program on Google, TestDisk was the won that was always the main one that was suggested. I should've asked on here first, before I did anything.

Richard Haseltine said:

You could try changing the extension to .duf then use Window>Panes(Tabs)>Batch Convert, that is using the built-in function without the overhead of having to go through a script. But if they are not working directly I would not hold out great hope - from the description I suspect the recovery tool has recovered blocks of the files, but they need to be stitched to gether into complete files (if possible) before they will be extractable or usable. (Hmm, could .h be header and .c continuation?)

I have tried Batch Convert, but it didn't do anything.

Maybe TestDisk has changed the file so much, it can't be turned back into a .duf.

Lord Majestic said:

Try changing the extension to.txt and see what they look like in Notepad. If they are .duf's they should be readable.

BTW it's a good idea to make a backup of all the recovered files, and only work on copies.

But even if you manage to recover the duf's, they might not be much use without the stuff in the data folder, and that will most likely be a lot harder to recover.

I have backups of those files and folders coming out of my ears. So no worry there.

They are readable as .txt files, but Daz still gives me an error about not being able to read the file when I change them to .dufs

richardandtracy said:

Can I suggest that .h files are C/C++ computer language header files and the .c files are the source code files. The .h/.hpp and .c/.cpp files go together in pairs. They are not model files

That's it! I couldn't think of what they were called, but yes, that's what they appear to be. I found a file with an .A extension, too. But I couldn't check out what it was. It assume that it might be more coding.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm sorry I haven't replied sooner.

Are there any programs out there that could detect what a .FILE extension used to be, before it became a .FILE extension?

I used a site to determine that file was a JSON. I tried few more random .FILEs, and they were .JSONs too. Although, going by two other files that were uploaded, I don't think the site is going to be able to detect .dufs (or any other Daz Studio files extensions). The site read them as .xml.
Mind you, I'd be happier if I could find out what the files are, without having to upload every single file to a site.

I really think I'm "up a certain creek without a paddle" here.

Omniflux · July 2021

If you are looking for DAZ User File's (*.duf), the contents will be reported by generic utilities as either JSON or gzip containing JSON.

N-RArts · July 2021

Omniflux said:

If you are looking for DAZ User File's (*.duf), the contents will be reported by generic utilities as either JSON or gzip containing JSON.

I've just tried to create a .duf by renaming the .FILE extension as .JSON, then archiving it as a .gz, but Daz Studio still won't recognise it ("no importer for this file" - Or something like that).

Omniflux · July 2021

File type is not the same as file extension. The file type is JSON or gzipped JSON, and this is what utilities that try to identify a DAZ User File will report, but the extension must be .duf for DS to read it.

If you have a valid .duf file, and change the extension and try to open it, DS will report an error even though the data inside the file is valid.

If you find a file that begins with this text

{	"file_version" : "0.6.0.0",

then you have found a DSON file. All .duf files are DSON files (but not all DSON files are .duf files).

Rename the file to whatever.duf and DS should be able to open it if it is a scene file (it could be other things that DAZ cannot open as a scene, for example, morph data).

Not all (or even any) of your scene files may be uncompressed like this. If they are compressed, then you are looking for gzip files. A gzip file is a compressed file, not an archive; when you extract a gzip file (for example with gunzip, or 7-Zip) you will only get one file out. Look at the file you uncompressed, and see if it looks like the above DSON example. If it does, you can rename it, or the original gzip file it came from to whatever.duf and DS should be able to open it (again, if it is a scene file and not some other type of DAZ data).

Omniflux · July 2021

Here's a Python script that will search for DSON files - you will have to install Python and the ijson module to use it.

In the Microsoft Store, install "Python 3.9"

Open a Command Prompt

D:\Users\Omniflux&gt; python -m pip install ijsonD:\Users\Omniflux&gt; cd DownloadsD:\Users\Omniflux\Downloads&gt; python findDSON.py -d "D:\Recovered Files"Found D:\Recovered Files\AirlockFound D:\Recovered Files\Char2.xyzFound D:\Recovered Files\CharBegin.dufFound D:\Recovered Files\Rigging.unknownFound D:\Recovered Files\Test.dufFound D:\Recovered Files\vMaterials Icon.123Found D:\Recovered Files\ABC\DEF\MakingFriends.dufFound D:\Recovered Files\P123\PetBotChar.dufD:\Users\Omniflux\Downloads&gt;

It will print out the filenames of any files that look like DSON files.

N-RArts · July 2021

Omniflux said:
Here's a Python script that will search for DSON files - you will have to install Python and the ijson module to use it.
In the Microsoft Store, install "Python 3.9"
Open a Command Prompt
D:\Users\Omniflux> python -m pip install ijsonD:\Users\Omniflux> cd DownloadsD:\Users\Omniflux\Downloads> python findDSON.py -d "D:\Recovered Files"Found D:\Recovered Files\AirlockFound D:\Recovered Files\Char2.xyzFound D:\Recovered Files\CharBegin.dufFound D:\Recovered Files\Rigging.unknownFound D:\Recovered Files\Test.dufFound D:\Recovered Files\vMaterials Icon.123Found D:\Recovered Files\ABC\DEF\MakingFriends.dufFound D:\Recovered Files\P123\PetBotChar.dufD:\Users\Omniflux\Downloads>
It will print out the filenames of any files that look like DSON files.

Thank you :)

Although, I've got to learn a little about opening files through Command Prompt first. ^^'

Plus, it's late here. But I'll check it out tomorrow.

Notifications

DzGZFile (and its other scripts) - Is it still available?

Comments

Adding to Cart…