If I delete or merge Runtimes...

AnnikasArt

If I delete or merge Runtimes will my saved scenes still work if the Runtime the items came from no longer exists?

BeeMKay

Nope, if you delete it, you get a ton of error messages and bounding boxes (which can create intersting artwork ). But unless you reconnect DAZ Studio to a new place that has all the runtime items you need for your scene, your scene file is just a bunch of file and location references.

So, for example, if you copy your runtime to an external drive, then tell DS where to find that runtime, and delete the old runtime, things should work okay. Or, if you delete your entire runtime, and then reinstall the content you need for your scene.

Merging your runtime with another runtime shouldn't be problematic, as long as DS knows the runtime you are merging with.

nemesis10

Nope! If you merge, you will have to find the sassets and save at least once.

Richard Haseltine

If you delete then they will fail, for the most part scenes and presets are pointing to the data in the content directories. Merging two content directories, however, is fine as the scenes and presets store only the relative paths - the locations within the content directory - and not the location of the original content directory. Do note, however, that Install Manager and Daz Central do record the absolute location, starting from the drive idenitifer, of the files they place.

nonesuch00

Having done this you will toss those old scenes rather than deal with 50 popups for each asset in each scene that ask you to find the location of a missing file if there is any complexity to your scenes whatsoever..

If you absolutute have to keep the old scene files:

a) Copy the runtime folder into it's new location instead of moving it to it's new location.

b) Open the same scene you want to save in two copies of DAZ Studio. Example use the Public Beta to open the scene and the same scene open again in the release version.

c) In the public beta, for each model in the scene, add the same model in the scene again but from the location you just copied the runtime to.

d) Copy the surface, rotation, translation, simulation, subD and other setting onto the model you just loaded to match the model you already had in the scene. 

e) delete the original model once you get the newly loaded model from the new location correctly setup

f) repeat for each model, background, light, and such that is in the scene tab

g) repeat for each scene you want to keep

h) When you are satisfied your scenes are correctly updated with the new runtime location, delete the old runtime.

Yes, it a lot of work but still faster than being prompted with a dialogue to navigate to and find the missing files needed to load a scene correctly.