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You should not have a 'Content' folder at all really.
The folder called 'Content' inside the ZIP file is just a container, and it refers to whatever 'you' call your DAZ 3D library folder. If you install to 'My Library' or 'My DAZ 3D library' or one of your own, like 'My 3D Stuff' or some other name, you need to take the contents of the folder called 'Content' and install them to your library, whatever it is called.
In other words, if you have a folder called content in your library folder, you should take all of the folders out of it, and move them up one level so that they are directly in your library folder. Any folders that have the same name will be Merged (assuming that you are using Windows of some description), and that should fix most of your problems.
The newest zip files are intended for use in DIM which will strip the "Content" folder out on install.
Hello!
Firstly, I appreciate DAZ Studio so much (even more that the POSER software from Smith Micro that I bought in 2010 PRO version...)
I have some interrogations about this DAZ Studio 4.8 PRO version.
In my account, there is only listed the SERIAL NUMBER for DAZ Studio 4.6 PRO version, no for DAZ Studio 4.8 PRO version.
But I have the software (and pro package 4.8 PRO version) in my account !
So...
Which is the way for registering it (registering DAZ Studio 4.8 PRO) ?
By the way: HUGE THANKS for the Iray nVIDIA Renderer !!!!
Just use the serial number for 4.6, it is all any of us have, and it works.
Use the 4.6 serial number. Studio updates so often that it doesn't make sense to keep issuing new numbers until there is major change.
I will have to admit. With the Iray Renderer, it almost seems to crank out probably even better results than Reality/LuxRender is able to. To me, it just seems that Reality's renders are too flaky looking, and the default DAZ renderer just didn't seem to have that realistic feel to the renders. However, I believe DAZ 3D really brought the best of both worlds together with nVidia's help. Seems I'll be using the Iray Rendering Engine from now on. Kudos!
Oh, ok, then, thanks for answer!
Happy renderings :)
Jimmy that is interesting information as concerns the "CONTENT" folder. I had simply thought of it as the DAZ version of Posers DOWNLOADS folder, and I have seen both used enough I never gave it a second thought. Since 2004 anyway. I think I will pester AdamR about that, see if he can explain why the old installers created that one at the same folder level as RUNTIME. Thanks for that one, cleaning up CONTENT will be a pleasure. However, if I am to continue to use DS content, I don't believe that would work.
McG.
Serial number?! WHAT "serial" number??? Why serial number?! Do we NEED one for sure? I sure haven't been prompted for one. YET.
TIA!
McG.
EDIT Nevermind, I looked into Register DAZ Studio in Help and figured it out. GOT IT.
McG.
If your installing with DIM you don't need to enter a serial number. It does it for you.
Frank, thanks!
I don't use DIM.
McG.
That folder level reads CONTENT, RUNTIME, data, ReadMe's.
SO. With highest regards to greater experience in recent years, I give a final answer to moving the contents of CONTENTS up one level: OH HELL NO!
[minor rant follows]
I refuse to clutter my various RUNTIME structures with the apparently thoughtless and willy nilly creation and placement of that batch of folders. In the OLD Runtimes that no longer exist, there were closer to a hundred individual folders in CONTENT.
I HAVE SEEN that the folder tree is never shown when a User chooses to use the newish feature SMART CONTENT, also known as the "DAZ Determined PROPER Path". Which feature I have personally watched render a normal file tree Human Unreadable from the root outward. Ah but DS can see everything it needs to FINE! It is a one way path of destruction.
So forgive this doddering drooling old git his near mindless shaky meanderings in fantasy. I cut my teeth in my twenties in the 70's on NO OS at all. I coded in Z80 ASSY and the highest level language was mnemonics of Assembler. I rejoiced when we could finally BUY a copy of DOS!!!!!!! LOL! My mind still works to the melodies of config.sys and autoexec.bat my friend. I just won't trade the control of my file tree for anyone elses skewed likes. Meaning the creator of the mess, not necessarily you.
Some recent years ago I railed against a thing that was happening that DAZ themselves begat, though the results were totally unintentional. What happened was there were all these oddly named folders popping up ANYWERE inside the folder RUNTIME anytime new things were installed that used DAZ's new scheme of Morph Deltas. I realized the cure was OH so simple, create a folder named MORPHS inside Libraries alongside the likes of Character and Pose and Props and so on. A few people quietly began doing exactly that, and now 99% of all Vendors/PA's content creators simply use that too. No worries! Smart Content isn't going to do that at all, quietly or otherwise. So I do it my way. I am pleasantly surprised to see that choosing "FILES" and "Content" returns an updated and most enjoyable familiar display of my (you guessed it!) CONTENT! :lol:
JimmyC, you got this response because I felt you come over as a bit bossy toward me. Not much appreciated. As I am sure this response isn't.
[end Minor Rant]
But thanks for the information anyway.
McG.
There's nothing wrong with having a folder named Content, as long as you're consistent -- if you have a Data folder INSIDE Content and another one next to Content, you will have problems, the same way you will if you have one Runtime folder nested inside another. The Data folder and the Runtime folder only work if they are directly underneath your content folder, whatever it's called. If you can one next to Content and one inside Content then there's no way for both to be directly underneath content folders without nesting them.
Um..he came across as trying to help... How on earth would he know that you have your files set up in such a way? And more over how would he know that you go through and associate all those additional file locations not just the extra multiple contents but the data out of place under those content files..I didn't know you could even associate that volume of files and sub files and still have all your things load correctly. Live and learn. I mean you must be telling Studio to use the main file of 3DWorkDAZpeople AND the sub folder of content that in theory contains its own data file and all the other files associated with what ever you put in there. I guess most of us go with a more streamline aproach of not having to map a sub folder inside our main folder like that extra content file you have.
Hiya Folks!
@ fixmypcMike and Khory:
Um, reiterating and gleaning from several other posts I left in this thread: I didn't create those folders. They "automagically" appear(ed) with installing the newer packages of content. Well, the .exe versions are where the folder CONTENT first appeared. ALL 29 of these Runtimes are very new. I installed this new HD slightly less than 3 months ago, and have been busy reinstalling ALL my archived content ever since. Since I didn't create these folders in these locations, it is safe for me to think that some installer(s) DID. Poser Pro 2014 does something very new to me. And I was delighted to find that 1) Poser now works to RELATIVE paths ONLY and 2) will simply immediately WRITE path corrections to and save all loading entities that need it WHEN used. Like a .pz2, cr2, pp2. Poser 2014 will never have to ask for the location of an unfound file more than once. It does that for morph deltas too. OUTSTANDING. Brilliant! Also; Poser now endorses and even actively suggests use of External Runtimes.
For Khory; The use of, adherence to; the Rigid Runtume Structure that Poser installs is THE reason such a quantity of content continued to be fully usable, from oldest installed items to newest. It really works. I have proven on a separate drive that DAZ's system will fail and DS itself began returning errors at well under 200 gigs. Note that this was content installed for Studio ONLY. I never even directed Poser to that drive. It appears that various content creators create 'grouping' folders in odd places. These accumulate in number over a few thousand item installs. It is this unstructured file management that blows the works.
My testing that idea of a single gargantuan Runtime was not deliberate at all. I got started with and used D|S in 2004 and continued using it alongside Poser starting with P6 in 2006 through purchase of DS3Advanced Bundle right up to DS4. Specific hardware conflicts and problems that ended with loss of an HD, and I did not reinstall DS until yesterday. Well, I did install DS 0.9 to play with and old times sake enjoyment. Lost yet another HD. OK so I now have 2 brand new drives, and a new method to the madness of installation and use of my mass of content. Many smaller Runtimes that are easily archivable to 25 gig BluRay disks. THAT is so SWEET! But that original Runtime was created by, not Poser, but by DAZ Studio! I installed my first version of D|S in September 2004, and that was the birth of the more than 700 gigabyte single RUNTIME. Yeah I find it incredible myself. But it was very usable right up to when the hd's platter developed its first 'soft spot'. And I neglected to immediately pop in a new hd and copy the old stuff over. I paid dearly for that mistake.
I was finally given some great teaching on Poser and the Runtime by some wonderful people in the usenet:alt.binaries.3d.poser newsgroup. Still populated and active today. I use it daily. And every single time I use Poser, I thank Chaser the most, who was patient, serious, knowledgeable, and amazingly intuitive. Thanks Laura! You're truly an angel! Thanks to her, it all 'clicked!', snapped into place. And just like a little tyke with a cool new toy I picked IT up and ran off with it shouting "HEY! Lookit what I got!" And immediately learned just how much an "artist" I am NOT! :lol:
DAZ and Studio freely gave me the way IN. Between Studio, Poser and the wonderful amounts of easily available content from thousands of great people who ARE true artists; WE, the honest to God Wannabe's, get to TRY! And I am LOVING it!
I want to thank you two for so MUCH terrific and freely given help you have given over the years. Really, Thank You!
Michael
McG.
I read a tad of bossiness in the text, if I am mistaken in that, then I'm sorry. But phrases like "you should NOT have" and "you should DO this" are strong judgement items. Feels 'bossy' to me. Perhaps 'terse' would be more acceptable? Either way, I was mildly offended.
I'd already posted enough information to show the what and where of the CONTENT folder, and he was responding to that I'm sure.
WHEN I install Studio content, I simply drag the Content folder from the temp unzipping location to the final runtime folder, and just drop it in.
For Poser content, I open the unzipped Content folder, and grab the Runtime, ReadMe's and other folders and drag them to the desired destination runtime folder. The main folder 3D Work DAZ People is a runtime for only the DAZ human Figures that don't have their own named individual runtime. ALL the Genesis and later human Figures go there too. And, as I have mentioned a few times in this thread now, I didn't create CONTENT. I have simply been dealing with this DAZ specific folder for years on end. The folder, data, that is a much newer item and I didn't create either of them in either location. I do scratch my head over that one too.
The one that actually bothers me is the new folder DSON. but that's another topic in the DSON thread now.
Then why do I feel like your resistant to removing it based on your being upset with being told that you should?
You should not have an you should stems from getting the files to work properly.. Now your saying that all those folders were added at install but I have never ever seen a studio file like 3d Work DAZ People in my life. If that is the top level of your file for each runtime then there should not be a content folder under that or the files are simply not going to work properly unless your also mapping to not just your top level for that lirbary but also that extra content file inside the library.. And thats going to be really messy. If the content is left as is and not mapped then Studio will not "see" the necessary data files inside of it. If your using a top level called 3D Work DAZ people then no..you really do not need an additional sub folder called. If your must have a file called content then it should be a top level file. There is a big difference between having the user facing product files in separate content librarys and having 50 sets of data files. I'm not sure how studio would handle that honestly. Studio needs data in a set location in order for things to work correctly.
"The folder, data, that is a much newer item and I didn’t create either of them in either location. I do scratch my head over that one too. "
No you didn't create it but it is a key file for studio products working properly. That one is similar to the geometries folder for poser. It contains all the geometry, morph etc information about objects and if it is not in the right place then things will not work correctly. It is a goes right inside your main library folder and you should really only have one of those. The same is true for the runtime folder. You should really only have one of those and it should be directly under your main library folder. Also any poser file type objects etc that you use are going to generate data for studio to read the first time it is used.
Ideally you would have
A main library file
data
runtime ( textures)
readme
all your other library s broken into how ever many sub cats your going to need inside them.. With your system I'm not really sure where runtime would go since Studio only really uses it for texture storage but you have old products that will have a traditional poser set up as well.
Also keep in mind that studio files are not packaged the same way poser files were.. So your going to get inside your DAZ people Library.. um well a daz people category that I guess you need to remove the folder for.. inside that would be each of the figures and under each figure would be all the categories associated with those figures. Inside each of those are the files that products are in. If there is a file for a character then she will have folders inside that with her morphs and materials. Materials are most of the time in a sub folder for the product they go with rather than some random crazy place.
You may want to look at the way Studio files are sorted now because many of the libraries your creating are actually part of the organization inside the studio tree now.
WHICH, altogether, point to the NEED to keep DS ONLY separate from Poser and Poser/Older DS content. I intimated that I realize there IS a need that the separate CONTENT folder meets. And no worries, I have word into authorities on this thing "CONTENT Folder" and will see exactly when, where and with what it originated. For the first five years I DID install both Poser and DS content for each content item. Later, I installed Poser only. But yes, I download and keep both versions of all my content.
With a little thought on the \data\ folders, I know where they come from and why thy exist in two places. As JimmyC suggested, DAZ didn't intend for a separate installation to a CONTENT folder. SOME content is for Poser only and so only the folders INSIDE Content in the zip temp folders get dragged to the runtimes drive. You and JimmyC both say that \Runtime\data is the correct place DAZ DID intend. And since I now install all DAZ content items by simply dragging the Content folder from the zips temp area TO the desired runtime on the other drive, that is where the other data folder comes from. Yeah there IS a Runtime in Content too.
If you look at that file tree I posted a screencap of, you will see a few more folders than are acceptable under RUNTIME and/or LIBRARIES.
Those are why I won't move the contents of CONTENTS up to RUNTIME. That is the only reason.
Note: there is a Content folder only where DAZ only folders would otherwise trash up the folder RUNTIME exists in. Those folders are definitely invisible to Poser, but not to me. The ONLY acceptable way other than the way I am doing this now is to firmly separate EVERY content item that creates what I call extraneous folders such as People. I thought I DID that by creating two distinctly separate runtime folders with DAZ in the name. It doesn't matter if the content item is just a bunch of loose files not even IN a folder in those. They are for DAZ Studio content. In there, no such thing as 'extraneous'. Hey I remember when all this mess got started ok? I remember being "talked to" by David about the issue, and how unreasonable I was being for obstinately sticking with Posers already established architecture. It's OK to blow that wide open, with a Studio ONLY environment.
Please remember, Poser did not create the structure I adhere resolutely to. DAZ Studio did. I simply do not break from the good sense of that structure is all. Yeah I am persnickety about it. Every time I install something, I go behind and clean up any mess or residue, and ensure new content is organized to my preference.
EDIT: Add Endnote; I did some digging and touched base with a man here from the old days too. I wasn't going (additionally) bonkers! Content item installers, the executables, DID install content for DS versions 1 and 2. This ended with DS 3.0. But did not change the old content installers. With DS 3, we started seeing the "There is no longer separate installers for DS and Poser" messages. So I have it straight now. DS 4 should have no problem seeing the USER folders created and left in (for instance) D:\3D WOrk DAZ People\Content plus all runtime and data folders need to be put up above that folder, merging with the regular runtime there and data. There should be only one runtime and one data for each base runtime. The existence of those User folders (like People) caused me to balk. Those ones ain't gonna run loose amongst Runtime and data! They will live happily ever after in Content. :)
Now, I apologise to the whole group here, as my issue with the Content folder has totally de-railed a terrific thread concerning an important software release.
Now, DS 4.8 is NOT having a problem with the existence of Content. Serious. I am also tickled to no end to report that the IRAY renderer does a fine and fast job even on an old jalopy like mine. New EVGA GT 740 sc 2 gig GDDR3 video card worked flawlessly with IRAY. I noted that IRAY pegged all 384 CUDA cores and the full 2 gigs of video ram and warmed the little gem up to 134 F. Very Nice Indeed! I am enjoying DS 4.8.0.59 Pro very much. Sure wish we had a Output Direct to Poser too! :D
And Khory, please accept that I am NOT trying to fight with you or be disrespectful toward you in any way! Nor with anyone. I respect you and the others speaking with me greatly. YOU folks have been helping others around here for years. I appreciate that very much, and I respect you for it. That doesn't mean we have to agree about everything, but I also want that to be in an amicable way. Cool? [holds hand out for shake]
McG.
Depending on how you set up the parameters and the rest of the scene, the default brightness of that spotlight will be either "anaemic firefly" or "WW2 searchlight". Try the default Environment light, I've found it works fairly well for quick test renders. Note that the Environment dome has the sunlight coming from the right hand side of the scene — go into Render Settings, select the Environment parameters, and you can set the Dome Rotation value (from 0° to 360° turning clockwise). There's a lot to re-learn from scratch about the new Iray lights, they're nothing like the old 3Delight system.
I think I recall seeing the IRAY system uses an IBL, or image based lighting. Which is cool, but as you say, to get changes in shadows, brightness and such we have to play with its dome, what the image is mapped to. In another place we had steep discussion about the term HDRI. Which is what this is called apparently. High Dynamic Range Imaging. In photography it is something drastically different. But in 3D, what I call IBL is HDRI. ANYWAY, we should be able to get some really spectacularly lit images from this! And, getting rid of any lights I added then clicking DEFAULTS button and presto changeo! Instant render with color! LOL!
Thanks for helping SpottedKitty!
McG.
I don't think so. I know I did not because I don't believe that data should ever be a sub folder of runtime because runtime is outside the normal location of studio use files. Runtime is a sub folder of the main DAZ Studio library file for most people and some studio files WILL NOT WORK if you put them down in the poser structure. As far as CURRENT studio files care the poser runtime file exists ONLY to hold texture files and that only because it is where people keep putting them. They could be stuff invisibly in the same file as the main object and studio would not care. If someone did a clean install of only current studio files you would have a runtime yes but the only thing in there would be a folder for textures. You wouldn't have any geometry file because that is handled by data, you wouldn't have any content type files in it because they would be laid out in studio files. It still has a function for poser primary products and products where studio surfaces etc are an "addon".
When studio first started to have its own files they were in a section of the library called content. Over the years the the name has changed (my library, my DAZ 3d Library) but the function has remained the same. It is used as the top level file for ALL the daz studio type files (example would be .duf). It does not matter what that file is called but it serves a purpose because some studio files MUST be in certain places for studio to locate them and use them properly. And when I say DAZ associated files I am talking about SYSTEM files and not the stuff that you use to fill a scene. Yes you can have multiple top level files but they all must be mapped to studio. And having a top level file inside another file and mapping it will be very ugly as far as your tree view goes.
I remember several years ago when the HSS came out and people had trouble with it not working. It turned out that people who had set up their own runtime scheme really believed that they could put files anywhere they wanted. But the reality is that if data files, shader files and scripts are not in the correct locations then they just will not work properly. Most user files can go anywhere you want within the studio content area and function fine. Back facing files are picker though about where they need to be.
This is NOT about where you want your products. This is NOT about how you want your files set up. This is about how studio FUNCTIONS. No one is trying to tell you how to break down your products so that you can locate them. We just want you to be able to install things easily and have them work the first time you try them rather than have surface render wrong or the figure/object show up as white boxes because the data is missing.
I have attached some images. One is the view in windows of my studio folder and the sub folders. It does not matter what you call that top level file. Call it anything as long as you remember what that is. But, the files inside that content folder go in there and not the content folder itself. If you want to retain your multiple "runtime" system then you would have that top level file for studio files like data and scripts. Then you could have the separate files where ever you want them as long as each and every one has been mapped to studio. It is just so much easier to put those files inside that top level file and only have to map to it and not worry you will miss install something. Then you can move the figure or object files where ever inside that structure you want them. There is also an image of how the files look in studio.
I have also included an image of how an example studio file is now set up as it installs. With the people folder and the sub folders used to organize the types of files associated with that figure. Then the files, like material files, in a sub folder below so your not running all over to find those files any more. The examples I have posted have no personal modifications yet by the way. I've not had time to move anything around so that is how Studio is organized as it is packaged.
@ Khory
RIGHT! Thanks for the images and explanations. To go with what you have said there, Richard Haseltine and I have hashed over the whole schmear of "Content" folder as used by the DAZ installers and DS oldest versions. Done deal, those DID create and use a Content folder in the BASE install folder, at the same level as Posers Runtime folder. We got straight the only location that DS will recognize the stuff in DATA folder is with it located in the BASE of the runtime. I saw already that DATA contains two basic 'groups' if you will, one has the .cr2's and the other has the .obj's. WHICH is totally agreed with your info, this is now what DAZ uses for geometries. Cool. I ensured THAT folder is properly in the BASE folder of every "runtime" that uses it. ANY time I see a data folder anywhere else, that is where it will be moved to, otherwise neither DS *OR* DSON for Poser will not be able to find many items needed.
I can't think of a working environment without Poser, so where there is DS, there is also Poser. So, all runtimes now will be put in the BASE of the content folders, right along with DATA. Richard believes that leaving the "User" folders in Content will still be seen and used by DS. It will find all its belongings as long as DATA is where it is supposed to be. I know you nor DAZ can vouch for any vendor if they have stuff plopped down right next to runtime and data in the main folder. And, frankly, if that no longer works when it is moved to Content, then it simply no longer works. In no event shall I allow what I consider VANITY folders to run loose in the MAIN folder of any runtime. They will be placed in Content. Not negotiable.
So, for example, what is apparently working well with DS 4.8 right this second:
D:\3D Work DAZ People
>Content
>data
>ReadMe's
>runtime
Poser.exe
That's it for that runtime. In DS 4.8.0.59 for two days it has seen heavy use. Both DS and Poser use this runtime. Both DS and Poser will use ALL my runtimes. Not a big issue that bit.
I don't think so. I know I did not because I don't believe that data should ever be a sub folder of runtime because runtime is outside the normal location of studio use files.
Oops. I think I worded that exactly backward to what I was looking at. DATA goes in the BASE of every runtime set, exactly alongside runtime folder and ReadMe's folder. And in my case, Content folder.
I think this is what has caught out a lot of people over the years — and the name changes only added to the confuzzlement. Back before the release of DIM for automatic installation, the manual instructions we were sometimes given included the phrase "the Content folder". This didn't mean "the folder named Content", it meant "the folder containing your content files, whatever it's named". I really think DAZ could have handled the situation better, or at least explained it better. :-S
I think this is what has caught out a lot of people over the years — and the name changes only added to the confuzzlement. Back before the release of DIM for automatic installation, the manual instructions we were sometimes given included the phrase "the Content folder". This didn't mean "the folder named Content", it meant "the folder containing your content files, whatever it's named". I really think DAZ could have handled the situation better, or at least explained it better. :-S
And part of the confuzzlement was because, way back in Ancient Times, that folder WAS named Content...
Yeah, yes DS 1 and 2 worked out of that Content folder. I simply kept it. 11 years of compiling content in that runtime grew the number of User folders in Content to near 100. I say that if DS can use those folders and their intended content then its existence becomes a good thing. SO FAR; DS 4.8 has been able now to find EVERY file without error. Every file. And what I did to make the difference is put the data folder from Content up one level to where it's supposed to be. And DS has been able to load both DAZ and Poser content with no problem. Makes me happy! :)
Well, I don't know. I run multiple content folders (none of them named 'Content' at the top level) split and named by category and usually entered twice into the program's content manager if they contain both Studio and Poser content. Inside each one that contains Poser content as well as Studio content is a folder that's actually named something like 'Content-(category)'and all the content goes inside each of those. The ones that have only Studio files have everything in the main folder.
I've seen that Studio creates a data folder outside of one of those content subfolders. Generally the same one, but I have sometimes found one in another library at random. I've cleaned it out a couple of times, but it keeps coming back, so I've taken to ignoring it.
Inside it is a folder named 'auto-adapted' and that contains data files for products that I've used in scenes over the past I don't know how long, because the subfolders and files always seem to have a date some time this year. They usually appear to be things that I've done something to, like applied shaders.
I'll try deleting it again (Studio already makes me go manually locate the textures for shaders used in a saved scene when I reopen it so I don't know what the files are supposed to be doing) and report back in a day or do to say whether it's reappeared. And if the program is behaving any differently. So far it's being an unconscionable slug.
Just dusted off the Studio 2.3 installer...and yes, indeed, the top level content folder name is...Content.
But the interesting thing...when it scanned...if found all the other content directories on that drive.
And since I did install 2.3 to check...how about a blast from the past...
the default content, in the 'scene', with the default settings (I hate that default pose, so I swapped that)...
I am seeing that DS 4.8 is definitely seeing what I left in the Content folder I was talking with Khory about. DS even shows that folder in file view as well as all the User folders IN it. No problem with it reading the stuff in those folders. I happy. :)
IS there a way to set system limits in DS 4.8? Like, stop grabbing system ram at a certain point. I started a render a while ago I had no way to interrupt. Studio not only grabbed all available system ram, is also grabbed 12 gigs of page file, and left me staring at a frozen mouse cursor and a solid red HD activity light. And 83 mb ram available. I want Studio and its renderers to stop taking ram when there is 1 gb free ram left. That should allow me to still move around the system a little bit. It took more than five minutes for the CANCEL to take effect on the Render. This made me feel just like Win over DOS days all over again!