Why is there no "Runtime" folder in my Daz Studio Content Library tab?

RexRed

Why is there no "Runtime" folder in my Daz Studio Content Library tab?

I have purchased many .hdr and .exr files but in the Smart Content tab, there are some here, some there and some not listed anywhere...

This could not be any more confusing. Really.

 I do a Windows Explorer search for them in "My Daz Studio Library" i.e. *.hdr and *.exr and they all show up.

It lists in the file path that they mostly live in My Daz Studio Library > Runtime > Textures.

Why is there no "Runtime" folder listen in the Daz Content Library tab?

So I have added a Base Directory to my Daz Studio Formats folder in the Daz Content Library and selected "runtime" from the My Daz Studio Library folder on my hard drive.

The folder trees are within the Runtime, but no files showing up...

I have had to copy all of these .hdr and and.exr files from the runtime into another folder.

Is there some reason why these files are scattered all over the Daz Content Library and most of them are not even accessable but actually "hidden"?

It really could not be any more difficult to locate these very large HDRI files and see the thumbnails for them "within" Daz Studio...

 

Richard Haseltine

The Runtime (and Data) folders are hidden by design (some of the /Runtime/Libraries folders show under Poser Formats) as they do not contain user-facing files. HDRs should usually come with presets for applying them, if you want to apply them to something not covered by the presets you will have to browse to them (using the Browse command in the Surfaces pane for a given property or by finding them in a regular system file browser and dragging them into DS).

RexRed

I am currently batch converting 3,555 .hdr and .exr files to .jpg using Photoshop due to the fact there is no single place to view and load these images into Daz from within Daz.

I will have to open the .jpg folder and look for an image then locate that image in my HDRI folder with the same name then manually load the hdr/exr image into the environments tab.

Within Daz I am offered about 200 HDRI images out of the roughly 3555 images I have purchased.

I had to "copy" these images both .hdr and .exr out of My Daz Content Library into another folder and then batch convert them to.jpg.

This batch conversion I suspect will take my PC a day or so to accomplish...

If I purchase any new HDRIs from the Daz Store I will need to manually locate them and convert them as well, as I go along.

Rather than "smart content" gathering these images into a single user-friendly place I have to go to this effort simply to view and use the products I have purchased...

And btw, there is no Windows Explorer image thumbnail creator for Windows for .exr files due to the fact that .exr files are Apple 's proprietary HDRI format.

Again it would be nice if these files were gatherd into one place within Daz Studio.

 This HDRI issue has been a problem for years.

One would think a simple solution to this would have been created by now so these assets could be viewed and applied from within Daz Studio.

A simple *.hdr and *.exr search of the My Daz Content Library folder is all that would be needed to make a script to create a list of available images where small thumbnails could be created from that list.

Just saying...

If anyone knows a way to access these products from within Daz that have been purchased from Daz, please let me know how you do it.

Render-Settings seems to be the area in Smart Content where a relatively few seem to be shown.

barbult

Every HDR product I have purchased ftom Daz comes with a Render Settings preset to load each HDR file. In the Content Library, look in Categories/Render-Settings/Iray. They already have thumbnail previews.

Richard Haseltine

HDR files are not user-facing files, they might be environment maps (for use with the Render Settings pane in Iray or to apply to a light node in 3deligth with pwEnvironment of similar), they might also be for application to some property on some surface on some model. There is no clear thing to do with them, and so double-clicking oen in a content pane is ambiguous. None of your HDRs show in the content pane - what you see are prsets for aplying them; the other maps may well also have presets, but not necessarily  in the same category or with the same type depending on what purpose they serve.

RexRed

I watched a YouTube video once where an "experienced" Daz user advised their subscribers not to buy HDRI files.

They are sold in the Daz stores as HDRIs, although they often come with a myriad of presets. The size and number of HDRIs are often listed.

The enigma comes when you go to use them, and as I said, out of 3,500 images purchased only about 200 appear in content render-settings.

When I isolated the hdr and exr files from My Daz Content Library I was quite surprised. Most of the HDR files I have only a vague memory of even purchasing them.

And then comes the issue of environment settings. Most HDR files require the intensity and rotation to be set before they look right.

But every scene requires tweaking of the environment anyway.

The only way to make a complete inventory of HDRIs (hdr exr) is to isolate them in Windows file manager and copy them, en-masse, to a folder. Then copy/convert them to jpg so you can view them.

The render-settings in smart content may contain a small number of HDRI presets but they may not even be the correct size file if you are looking for the largest and highest quality image.      

Having a way to view these images in Daz would be very helpful, rather they are actually "hidden" in a runtime/textures folder that is inaccessible and viewable only through Windows File Explorer.

To respond to the YouTube video, I disagree, I think purchasing HDRIs is a great asset for making scenes (once you learn how to find them).

I am very impressed by the artistry and quality of the Daz HDRIs. Even though, I might only use a certain image only once, or maybe a few times depending on if i am using the light from the HDRI or the image as a backdrop as well.

I will continue to buy HDRIs If they are smaller than 8k I often put them on a plane/sphere and turn them into emissive backdrops.

I have recently learned that using the Daz content tabs is not the way to utilize HDRIs Windows file explorer is the only precise way of using them.

The very same thing goes for shaders, I have bought literally “thousands” of shaders that are not listed in Daz surface shaders tab…

Next, I will be isolating the shaders as well. It would be nice if these assets were "exhaustively" listed within Daz…

Richard Haseltine

You may well find some HDR presets caegorised under environmanets rather than render settings - I agree this is something that is annoyingly inconsistent.