Best way to manage Meta-data + Thumbnails? (Generic Thumbnails?)
BlueFingers
Posts: 904
I just bought the Merlin 8.1 Starter Bundle and installed it through DIM. To my suprise I found no item specific thumbnails in the content page. This makes navigating through content quite a bit harder, so I'm wondering if something went wrong. This is what it looks like:
Did something go wrong?
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Post edited by BlueFingers on
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Not sure but I had to make my own thumbnails and install them. I now have a folder in Google Docs to transfer thumbnails between my computers because it is easy to make them on my Win 10 computer with Paint, but a nightmare on the Apple computer. There are a lot of those broken up wardrobe and sets that came out that way. Drives me nuts.
I bring up Runtime/Support and copy the name of the .dse file to name the image. But I have found for a few problamatic ones, I need to go into D|S, and find open the metadata and copy data there, to get the correct file name for the image. Especially if there is an accent mark or something.
And one new male outfit, is just missing the last 's' on the name.
(This is off the top of my head as I sit at the computer without D|S on it.)
You're insight is appreciated, and if you say quite a few of the broken up outfits came like that I guess it installed correctly and thumbnaisl were just not included. I agree that is dissapointing. I guess I'll have to look into making my own thumbnails. I still wonder if this isn't just a quality control issue, as it does impact navigation so much and seems te be occuring more with newer content.
Since you use DIM to install, you can just download the thumbnails in DIM (at least 95% of products have them even if the installers don't) then copy those thumbnails into your /Runtime/Support folder and rename them to the same name as the .dsx files for each product. I do this often - quicker than rendering your own. (I don't have the Merlin bundle so I'm not certain that DIM has thumbs for it, but it's worth a look)
I was planning to download them from the website, but if I can do it with DIM even better. I have looked around in DIM to find an option to download just the thumbnails but couldn't find it. Do you have a link with the relevant information how to go about this, or can you point me in the right direction?
I don't use smart content, but I have all the bundle thumbnails in the content library. I also installed with DIM.
Open DIM, go to your Installed tab, click the box to select all of the products missing a thumbnail then right-click and choose (I think - I don't have DIM open right now and it takes ages for DIM to finish loading for me due to thousands of products owned) "Retrieve thumbnails ... all selected". They will be downloaded into whichever library your DIM is setup to store thumbnails (if you don't know where that is, then use the cog-wheel at the top and "Advanced" then somewhere in there the thumb locatiion can be seen.
Thanks for the help! I found the options in DIM and redownloaded the thumbnails wirh the same result, I think I'm going to submit a ticket however much I detest doing so. I went through my content and there are more items with the same issue. Things are getting out of hand with so many thumbnails missing, all relatively new products too.
So all the thumbnails in your DIM thumbnail library had that Daz3D symbol, not a picture of the individual products?
(I'm a bit surprised I must admit, for such new products).
Only for some products I purchased in the last two months, more specifically : dForce The Young Wizard Outfit for Genesis 8 and 8.1 Males Bundle, The Alchemist Workshop Bundle, Wolfgang 8.1, Wolfgang 8.1 HD Add-On. As some of them are packaged as bundles it unfortunatly results in a lot of those generic Daz thumbnails, which means navigating through that content means reading all the titles of every asset.
The King's Magister Outfit, Black Long Dress Outfit, the Iconic Style Outfit also were missing their individual thumbnails. Soiree Styles for Verse Clothing Sets, I had to copy from the metadata name for the thumbnail to work, it is one where it looked like the hyphen was extra long in the .dsx file or something. But there have been many individual items and characters that have been released where there has been a difference in the name of the .jpg from the .dsx file that keeps it from working or the .jpg is missing or is ignored.
I don't bother to submit reports to Daz on these, there are just too many of them. And I am used to creating them for the older files which often don't have them either.
So it is a quality control issue, ugh,...I'm so close returning the stuff because of it.
Is there a place where I can find info how to best manage content meta-data + thumbnails? I have so many things in "Lost and Found", missing thumbnails, content not found when clicking an icon in Smart Content, in the wrong category, etc., that I really feel I need to do something about it.
Even odder. I have the dForce Young Wizard Outfit and also Wolfgang 8.1 and they both have DIM thumbnails for me (as do all the component parts of Young Wizard).
I'm so confused right now. @MelanieL: Do you work with DS being online? I don't as it messed up my thumbnails in the past, perhaps that is the difference.
No I never have DS online - it's on a desktop PC that doesn't even have an internet connection, I do all my DIM downloads on this laptop then copy them over to the desktop PC and run DIM in offline mode there to install them.
If you are in DIM and have pulled down those thumbnails then you should be able to see them in DIM when you hover the mouse pointer over the product name (pic 1 attached)
From the Settings, you can see where they have been downloaded to (pic 2 attached - note that your folder name will be different from mine, because I heavily customise)
Once you know where the thumbnails are located then you can copy them from there to the /Runtime/Support folder where your content is installed and rename them to match the .dsx name (there will already be one of the "Daz Head" images there, so you will need to delete it, or you will be trying to save a file with a duplicate name).
This is very helpful! Still don't get why did not install them automatically, but I'm very happy I can put the thumbnails in place. Thank you so much MelanieL!!!
Well, I guess someone should open a ticket listing the products that don't have correct thumbnails - but personally I can't be bothered, I just fix it myself!
Oh, and I should add: if you need to reinstall the product (e.g. if there is a DIM update for it) then you will lose the thumbnails again and have to repeat this process (unless of course the update fixes the thumbs).
I kind of figured that would be the case. I submitted a ticket yesterday, we'll see I guess.