Help Turning Files into Products
PersepolisG
Posts: 42
Hi everyone,
This is kind of a long one but I've had a hard time finding relevant information so literally any info that MIGHT help is much appreciated! Maybe that's my fault cause I havent looked at the official documentation but anyway... I'm trying to turn a Card Game into a prop, have it all set up in Daz but don't really know how to take everything in Daz and turn it into a product. They're mainly just general problems with the process but also one issue that might be unique to the product. I'll start with the genearl and, again, all help is appreciated!
- How do I save a Scene Subset as a Support Asset? If I save as a Scene Asset, it makes a file for every prop so everytime me or another user use it, it opens a new file rather than just add a prop to the current scene.
- A card game is clearly a prop though but when I save it as Support Asset>Figure/Prop Asset, it only saves one prop at a time. I have no problem doing this for every prop but then how do I combine them all into a Scene Subset as opposed to a Scene that needs to be opened? It's not a big deal if this isn't possible and I just have to save them as a Scene but I'm pretty sure I've seen other thrid party products that use Subsets.
- Last general problem. Once everything is saved in My Library, can I then simply copy those folders to one on my desktop and zip them together? Would it be better to save save the Support Assets in a fresh folder on my desktop instead of My Library? I found the Renderosity guidelines, which recommend starting with a fresh easy-to-reach folder for everything, but was already too far along to start following - which brings me to my last and unique issue.
- The game involves more than 500 cards and has a lot of textures as a result. I've made a Quick Load option that only uses a few cards, premade hands (with changable textures like one of the regular playing card packs I got from the Daz Store here) and a deck made of a few objects that can be hidden as it shrinks, but I also wanted to include an option that includes every card as a unique object with its corrosponding texture. But all the textures are sort of buried within my Personal Projects Folder on my PC and already linked to cards I have spent a long time tediously arranging in Daz. I know Blender has a function that can re-find and re-assign textures if moved to a different location but haven't been able to find a similar tool in Daz. I'm just really hoping to avoid setting it all up again and linking all the textures but noticed even saving as Support Asset>Scene Asset, the new directories don't contain copies of the textures and are still linked to the ones in Personal Projects. So, how would I get all those textures into a zip folder if I can't move them without ruining the Assests they're already used in? Or do I have to bite the bullet, copy the textures to a new folder and the reassign them from there?
Once again, I know this is a lot so just any info and help is much appreaciated cause I've been scratching my head over this for a little while now! Thanks and regards.
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Comments
These are my ideas, basically how I would approach the matter.
Yes, "bite the bullet" [and next you will remember to always start projects with things in the right place the first time ;-) ]... put all your textures into a subfolder with your name under Textures which is under Runtime which is in My Library [or Content] which is holding all your other purchased content, etc.
Load into a scene each prop, reassign the textures that are in your texture folder, when done, resave that prop saving it to THE location under My Library [or Content] where you want it to be found.
I use My Library, so my example would read:
My Library > Props > YOUR name > whatever subfolder you want to make ...
My Library > Runtime > Textures > YOUR name > whatever subfolders or not that you want in there.
My Library > data > YOUR name or handle > etc. [D/S will auto-populate this as you save out each prop file. All 500 plus of them. You can save yourself some typing by having the name you want it all under set in D/S > Edit > Preferences ... edit your name to whatever you want the folder to be saying.
AFTER you have made "all" the props, set up "scene subsets" ... Save them to the same general locations where those new props were put.
A typical scenario might be:
My Library > Props > YOUR name > Name of entire project > ... here put the subsets.
My Library > Props > YOUR name > Name of entire project > Props {here put the 500 give or take props}
My Library > Props > YOUR name > Name of entire project > Mats > 3Delight ... here put 3Delight mats
My Library > Props > YOUR name > Name of entire project > Mats > Iray ... here put Iray mats
In having the individual props made first, then the geometry data will be made and saved properly into a data folder. If one doesn't make the prop first, then in the scene subset or scene file, ALL the geometry will be written into that file. This is NOT desirable for several reasons.
With 500 or so cards, please don't make large texture images for them. No .tiffs. .png files will probably work best; test them with 500x or 1000x or whatever. Depends too how you have uvmapped them all. IF perchance all 500 cards are on the same uv template, then 4096x is fine as the one image will be loaded into the scene no matter how many cards are in play. Thinking of that for the front of the cards. For the back of the cards whatever will hold the image or colour best is the way to go. If just a colour for example, a small square of 500 would work. If it's a complicated design then would need to go higher of course. And again, all backs for any one deck, could have the same texture image applied to it. [i.e. 52 backs = 1 texture image].
After you have made all the scene subsets you want, you could put several of them together to create a scene file which would have them all loading ...
The big difference between scene files and scene subsets is if one just opens a scene file, it will clear the scene first and then load itself.
A scene subset will add itself to whatever is already present in the scene.
Depending upon the complexity of the scene, you may [or not] also make a bunch of cameras and save those out to a Camera preset ; and ditto for the lights.
My Library > Props > YOUR name > Name of entire project > Cameras
My Library > Props > YOUR name > Name of entire project > Lights
And of course, not to forget a "Readme for 'name of project'" as it is important to state whether or not it may be used for Commercial or only for Personal use renders, etc.
eta: Yes, when done, you can copy all the relevant folders keeping them in the same order, to the Desktop for example, to zip them up.
Thank you so much for the answer, I do really appreciate it and this is very indepth and helpful! I guess I was hoping for a magical fix with the textures but if I have to reassign them, I have to reassign them. I had no idea Daz even had an align tool until I needed it for the deck so held on to hope there might be a tool for this too. I wish I found those Renderosity guidlines a little earlier but, you're right, I wont forget the process in the future now and your answer still fills in lots blanks I had anyway. I didn't realise you could just save a normal (as opposed to a Support Asset) Scene Subset but it makes sense that a normal one works if everything is in and saved to the right location.
Like I said, I have a quick load option with only the necccesary textures and objects but I felt like if I was making a product it was also implied that it would come with a quick way to load in a full game, even if there's not much practical reason to do so.
Thanks again for the help, it will be easier to redo it all now I know where I'm going rather than just wandering around lost!
You're welcome. You'll find that once all the bits and pieces are saved as themselves, then putting several in a scene and saving out a scene subset comes in very handy even for rendering projects.