NEED HELP WITH GETTING STARTED USING MICHAEL 4'S MORPHS++
Mage 13X13
Posts: 435
I have had Michael 4 and Victoria 4.2 for about three years now, but was never able to get the Morphs++ for either of them due to budget constraints. Now I got the M4 Hero Pro Pack for free recently and it includes the Morphs++ for M4. The problem is I have virtually no experience with this. I have used M4 maybe a hundred times or so, always with the default shape, because it was all I had for him. Finding morphs for M4 that do not require the Morphs++ has been an exercise in futility for the most part. Not so with V4.2, as she seems to get the lions share of attention from content creators at practically all sites that offer stuff made for these excellent figures.
So I need help getting started with Morphs++, in order to learn the basics of how they work. I tried to inject the Morphs++ for M4, and it seemed to load, but when I injected morphs from the deeper folders in the library and then go to the Shaping or the Parameters tabs, the Morph dials are not showing. I do know how to find what I want under those tabs. I even tried looking for them by opening the hierarchy of the rigging for M4, selecting the relevant body part to see if the dials would show, but found nothing. I even tried injecting to the relevant body parts and that did not work either. So there is definitely a procedure to follow that I do not yet know. It is that procedure that I need to be taught, so that I can begin using morphs to change the figure's appearance.
Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!
Mage13X13.
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Comments
when I double click on M4 - model starts to load and a box comes up and asked me
what morphs I want to load .
doesn't this come up for you ?
Once Victoria 4, Michael 4, and Kids 4 have been installed (as well as their Morphs++ add-on packs), go to
C:\Users\[UserName]\My Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library\Runtime\Libraries\!DAZ
and run the files that end in .bat (such as DzCreateExPFiles-V4.bat, DzCreateExPFiles-M4.bat, DzCreateExPFiles-K4.bat, DzCreateExPFiles-M4Gens.bat, and DzCreateExPFiles-V4V3.bat) you find there. These batch files are necessary to update and initialize certain aspects of these figures; otherwise, their morphs will not function correctly.
If I remember correctly, the older installer versions of these characters would run these batch files automatically, but ever since DAZ switched to the archives (and thank God for that, BTW), it has to be done manually.
Hope that helps...
Yes, the old Bitrock installers ran those scripts automatically.
I will try that! Thing is I never knew that this was something that needed to be done. As for the path you described, mine is C;/Users/Public/Documents/My DAZ 3D Library/Runtime/Characters/DAZ People. This is because my content gets installed via the DAZ Install Manager. I'll let you know whether It works or not.
The Install Manager should run the batch files for you - or launch the tool directly, but the net result is the same.
That's what I thought also! Maybe I need to uninstall M4 from the original location and re-install him using the DIM to the new location? Someone at another site said that everything has to be in the same directory. Is this true?
Yes, unlike Genesis for the fourth generation figures the base and the morph expansions must be in the same location.
Then that is what I will do. I'll let you know if it works or not.
I don't use DIM (for a variety of reasons): I manually install everything by unzipping the archives (.ZIP or .RAR, depending on the source) and then cut-and-paste the extracted directories over into the library. Yeah, it's tedious at times (for example, reinstalling an entire library that's pushing close to 250 GB), but everything works. And at least by doing it this way, everything starts out where the vendor/content creator intended it to be, not where some piece of library management software decides to put it. If DIM IS putting stuff in places it shouldn't be -- and especially if that stuff isn't working right because of it -- my suggestion would be not to use DIM at all, and instead learn how to install and organize your content on your own.
Unpacking the zip manually and using DIM will give the same result, since DIM goes by the folder structure in the Zip.
I know how to install everything manually. If you read my first post, you would see that M4 was in the original directory of my Content Library. The DIM has a new library by default recommendation where it will install all files and will put then in that library where they are supposed to go as per the content creator's folder structure. I just got the Morphs++ for M4 in the most recently offered limited time freebie "M4 Hero Pro Pack". Before that time I only had the M4 Base Figure and some clothing and accessories for him.
Richard Haseltine, I followed your advice and it worked! I can now use the Morphs++ and all the morphs it can be used to Inject. Here is my first ever image using the Morphs++ for any figure!
Red has a temper, but not one in which he gets loud! Rather it is a silent and deadly type of temper.
Let someone cross him and challenge his worth, and he will rise to the occasion. Insult him and call him a wimp, and this is what you will get. He will come at you arms stretched to the sides, with a wicked mean smirk and say "BRING IT!" in that silently deadly voice of his!
Unpacking the zip manually and using DIM will give the same result, since DIM goes by the folder structure in the Zip.
You'd think so but it certainly doesn't sound like it, not if he's using DIM and his install path is different from mine, and especially if that different install path means his content wasn't working.
Certainly doesn't sound like it if he's using DIM, and his install path is different from mine, and especially if that different install path means his content wasn't working.
My original install path is indeed C:/Users/My User Name/Documents/DAZ 3D/Studio3/Content/Runtime/{Relevant Category. This is where the Bitrock Installers placed my content from DAZ 3D. I also have C:/Users/My User Name/ DAZ 3D/Studio/My Library/Runtime/Relevant Category; which is where I manually install 3rd party products. the M4 Base Figure was installed to the Studio3 path via the Bitrock installers 4 years ago, long before the DIM was available. Until I got the recent freebie, I saw no reason to switch the files to the new directory, as what I had was working as expected for a Base Figure. The recent freebie (available for free now) made the Morphs++ available within the pack, so it finally became necessary to install M4 via the DIM, since I had installed all the other files in the pack that way. My problem arose because never having had the Morphs++ before, I did not know how it works or what was required when installing the files. As it is, I have also done the same with the V4.2 Base Figure so that when I get her Morphs++, she will be ready to use them.
I hope this clarifies where my problem came from, that it was not the fault of the DIM or the Bitrock installers, but rather my lack of knowledge that created the problem. Now that I know, I shall have that problem no longer.
Thanks goes out to all that responded to my request for help. Special thanks goes to Richard Haseltine for having the exact solution to the problem and sharing it with me.
which would mean that DIM WAS organizing content files in ways other than intended, preventing that content from working. But I'm glad everything's working for you now.
which would mean that DIM WAS organizing content files in ways other than intended, preventing that content from working. But I'm glad everything's working for you now.
Indeed I posted the path that the DIM uses, but that was for the files that were installed via the DIM. I did not know that M4 had to be in the same directory and he was already installed long before I got the DIM, using the Bitrock Installers, which installed to the other path. I apologize for any misleading statements I posted. It was not my intention to confuse.
No offense taken or intended -- it's just that in situations like this, the details matter. Fortunately, it sounds like you've got it all resolved now. Have a good one, guy...
No offense taken or intended -- it's just that in situations like this, the details matter. Fortunately, it sounds like you've got it all resolved now. Have a good one, guy...
I shall, and the same to you.
If people would take the time to open the preferences (little cog icon) in DIM they would see that the default download and install locations can be changed. You can even have multiple content install locations/libraries and if you have the Show Details box checked on the Ready To Install tab there will be a button to easily switch to other libraries, of course the libraries must be set in Studio's Content Directory Manager also to be usable.
I know about that, my friend. Had trouble with it when the DIM was first released. Someone had advised not using the recommended path, but did not explain all the details of getting what you describe to work correctly. It caused a strange glitch with G2F in which she loaded as a Block Figure. I spent all of three months looking for info on how to get this fixed, mostly due to my own horrible search skills. Eventually it was another thread in this Forum that helped me learn what to do about everything all at once. I went to using the recommended path, after uninstalling everything I had installed via the DIM (easy enough to do from within the DIM). Once I had the correct path mapped both in the DIM and in DAZ Studio, all files installed correctly and became usable in DAZ Studio. If I have a lot of content from DAZ 3D for DAZ Studio, I will begin creating and mapping new paths and re arranging my files to make stuff easier to find. For now, my content is not as cluttered as many other users' is. In fact, it is my 3rd party content that makes up the bulk of my content, and I am working to fix that in the manual way of creating directories, and mapping their paths for DAZ Studio and Poser. As large as the DAZ Store is, there is perhaps several times as much content from the 3rd party community.