Multiple Daz Version Installs *SOLVED*
Torquinox
Posts: 3,319
I was thinking about how to install extra versions of DS on my system and have them work. As I understand it, I can have one beta and one general release. This works because DS looks for app data in a subfolder of the AppData/Roaming folder of the current Windows account. There is one folder for general release and one for public build. I actually only have a beta (public build) installed now and I might want to install another beta for a later version. is there any reason I can't use an extra Windows account on the computer to add an extra beta installation? Assuming I manual install the software to a separate directory to prevent overwriting, would that work? Has anyone tried this?
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You wouldn't perform an extra installation, just launching from a different account will use different settings (for many things, some are in the Registry and not-per-account as far as I know).
Yes, I would perform an extra installation because the idea is to perform an extra installation in a different directory under a different windows account on the same machine. I am wondering if someone else tried this, if it will work as intended, and if doing that will cause problems.
Why would you want to, though? The common settings would still be common and the individual settings would still be individual. Having separate installs would gain nothing and would probably cause issues.
Thanks for your replies. You say it will cause issues. I suppose shared registry overwriting would do it. Does anyone else have a thought on this?
It's not even that complicated, just go to your Program files folder and add the version number for each installed folder of DS. Then you can have as many versions as you want installed simulaneously. I would not recommend having different versions open at the same time.
Excellent! Thanks zombietaggerung!
Also to add, rename the currently existing DS folder before installing the next version of DS. Like if you already have DS4.20, rename that folder first then install the next version, DS4.16 for example, then rename that folder, and so on.
I'll give that a try now!
Just a stupid question here.
What about the 'shared' directories?
C:\Users\(name)\AppData\Roaming\DAZ 3D\Studio4
Do you also change those paths(Edit>preferences(F2)), or have you not seen any conflicts?
Given the mess that the 4.20.0.17 build was having, such as not saving layouts, it'd be interesting to see if there was any impact on other builds, in relation to those directories.
Also, what about the post gre-sql?
Do you just use what ever version DS installs, which may change depending on last version installed, or do you install a particular stand alone, and have you seen any issues in relation to that?
Also, also, your screen shot only shows 4.10 and 4.11, have you tested this with later versions, 4.15, 4.20, and more disparate versions, such as 4.10 and 4.20 being install simultaneously?
Another option would be Virtualization.
I haven't changed anything else in my set up. I haven't seen any conflicts with the roaming data, or anything like that. I haven't moved up to 4.15 because I have a gtx graphics card, and I know my rendering would be slowed down considerably if I were to attempt to use that version. I do however have all the installers up to 4.20. I can install 4.12 and 4.14 later today, and report back how things do.(turns out I don't have the 4.14 installer but I do have 4.12)
Like I said the best way to avoid any conflicts is to not have multiple versions open at the same time.
Well I installed 4.12, it opened just fine, renders with no issue. I just had to update the destop shortcuts to the two previous versions so they didn't try and default to 4.12. I will admit I am curous about 4.20, but I doubt my poor 6gb GTX graphics card would be able to handle it.
All right, I made a little test scene to see how each version rendered, and they all did just fine, I just used the default hdri as the program loads it. No changes to the render settings except the sample count. And no changes to the material setting the of the objects pictured. Interestingly enough, 4.10 used 2.6GB of VRAM to render this scene to 100 samples, where as 4.11 and 4.12 only used 1.4GB of VRAM. So clearly there is a signifigant improvement in rendering effency between the three versions.
4.10:
4.11:
4.12:
I decided to risk 4.15, to do my due diligence. And it worked OK. had to redo the desktop shortcuts of previous versions again, but that's to be expected. Used the same scene to test render. 4.15 also used 1.4GB of VRAM same as 4.12 and 4.11, it didn't seem to render any faster or slower though. (please ignore the subtitle on my desktop BG)
4.15:
So far, so good. I started with daz 4.15.026 and installed daz 4.20.002 . I will install the newest version 4.20 build because I want to experiment with latest features..At that point, I'll definitely have more than 2 versions installed. I've been saving by version numbers as zombietaggerung suggests and have not had a problem. Shortcuts have to be renamed, and that's easy to do. I have not had time to extensive testing of the installs, and nothing blew up.
Virtualization is a great idea. I'm not planning to do that. More effort than I want to spend! Still a great idea.
Now I've added the latest beta, 4.20.017 - I think that's it. Nothing bad happened.at least as far as I can tell. Since I immediately siloed all the builds in numerically-identifiable folders, there is no normal DazStudio or Public Build folder in my progrms/Daz3D directory. DIM seems unhappy with that and gave some dire warning about how nothing would work without Daz installed. I dismissed that as, of course, Daz is installed - 3 versions! Anyway, all thanks to zombietaggerung for brilliant assistance and thanks to others who replied here. I think all that answers my question!