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Package an animation project to render on another machine

StevieDStevieD Posts: 103
edited November 2015 in Daz Studio Discussion

In Daz Studio, Is there a way to bundle or package up every asset currently being used with one particular project and just that project, (an animation which will take weeks to render), So that I can copy that singel project and every model/asset used for it FROM my computer with every model, texture,and asset I own and which I do most of my work on, to a different computer else where (basically empty), so that I can render it there?  Of course I would put DS on it and anything which it needs to run but I don't want to transfer every asset I have over there because I wouldn't work there.

This way I can let that computer go, rendering the animation for weeks, while I work on something else back on the original computer.

Thanks,

Steve

Post edited by StevieD on

Comments

  • larsmidnattlarsmidnatt Posts: 4,511

    you would have to install all the content on the second machine. the way the DUF format works is it doesn't keep the geometry or textures in the DUF most of the time.

     

     

  • WendyLuvsCatzWendyLuvsCatz Posts: 38,515

    I am not sure but once loaded in scene it may be ok to disconnect the library if you have it on an external

    I know I could in DS3 once tdkmake had converted the textures in DAZ temp folder.

    the few times I used DS3 this was a very handy feature unlike Carrara my usual renderer which rendered subsequent frames untextured!!!

    Never tried it on DS4

  • larsmidnattlarsmidnatt Posts: 4,511
    edited November 2015
    JaguarElla said:

    I am not sure but once loaded in scene it may be ok to disconnect the library if you have it on an external

    My method was to literally have the second computer linked to the original computers content library over the network! Yeah an external would work fine too. But I didn't want to duplicate the runtime on the second computer so I let it read the data over the network. Was fine.

    Once the intitial data is loaded it won't have to check the network again, and it's a trivial issue if the render will take several hours or days/weeks. Assuming that is even an option..(might not be)

    If not, an external might be the best option. Followed by installing everything needed on the new machine(external or otherwise).

    Post edited by larsmidnatt on
  • StevieDStevieD Posts: 103

         This might be a cool idea. The problem I might have is that, Yes, I have my runtime all backed up on an external HD and I was thinking about always running my projects from the drive on different computers but I already have several really complicated projects started on the original computer.  If I start the project file from the back up drive on a different computer, will it find the assets on the HD  (where as it was originally created on the first computer), or would I need to reconnect each of the 10s or 20s of items in the project,,,,,,  and is that even possible?  The actuall inside directories are all the same but the connections would be different.

      I don't know if the security on my network here at work will allow me to run it over the network.

    NOTE to DS developers:  And wouldn't it be a fine feature to be able to package the project to move it somewhere else to render??

    Thanks,

    Steve

  • larsmidnattlarsmidnatt Posts: 4,511
    edited November 2015

    Well prior to DUF you couldn't move to a new computer to render easily, if at all due to the hidden daz files that were created when you started projects.

    With DUF they made it so you could easily move to a new computer assuming you still had the proper assets. Reason they didn't package it up into a self contained file is because they are worried about piracy. They want you to already have all the content needed to render the image. If not, the DUF still works just missing the referenced assets that are not present.

    To answer your question. If all the assets are on the external, yes it will work fine. 

    Post edited by larsmidnatt on
  • StevieDStevieD Posts: 103

    Thanks and Like JaguarElla said I can load the project, remove the drive, then render it? Think That might work? I'll have to try that next week.

    Thank You, everybody

  • larsmidnattlarsmidnatt Posts: 4,511
    StevieD said:

    Thanks and Like JaguarElla said I can load the project, remove the drive, then render it? Think That might work? I'll have to try that next week.

    Thank You, everybody

    I'm going to say not a great idea to remove the media. If you really need it to run for a long time it may need to reload the data into memory.

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 102,401

    This is one of the issues that the new Connect system in DS 4.9 is intended to resolve - if you are logged in you will be prompted to isntall any content (that you own but don't have installed) needed for the scene. You will also get a note of items that aren't in the account giving their paths (which will cover non-Daz items, custom builds and so on) so that you can readily track them down.

  • larsmidnattlarsmidnatt Posts: 4,511
    edited November 2015
    Richard Haseltine said:

    This is one of the issues that the new Connect system in DS 4.9 is intended to resolve 

    A partial solution, is no solution at all. However, in the long distant future I could see how that could work for a sub-set of users. 

    HD are cheap these days, I would just copy everything over to an external (if networking is a concern, which in my case it's not). 

    Besides, he needs a solution now :)

    Post edited by larsmidnatt on
  • StevieDStevieD Posts: 103

    I'm so stupid!!!

    Dear larsmidnatt,

       I did a few tweaks, and presto, I was able to completely link to my machine over the network! I didn't think I could do it because they've been discouraging Network linking here because of security but I was able to do it. Here's my problem now.

    I put a new copy of Daz Studio on one of our network machines. I connected to my computer from that Network Machine. I went to my Scenes Folder on my machine (over the network) and opened up a the scene I wanted to render. As you would expect, (but maybe not) DS couldn't find the Assets. I'm wondering why if I loaded the project file that was on the same computer that contains the assets why didn't it know that the assets were right there too. Apon loading it tells me the assets are missing but it doesn't have a process to link back to the folder where they are.  What would you recomend?  I must tell you because I'm way behind in everything, I am still using DS 4.6.  I seem to remember a way to tell DS to find DS related files and remember them. I'm going to try to remember where that task is loacated. Think this is the way to go or do you have a better way?

    Thanks

    Steve

     

     

  • bromleysteve_eb9b8a7358bromleysteve_eb9b8a7358 Posts: 3

    If all your stuff is on your C drive it's a problem. A lot of people with home render farms will put their data on a different drive and number their data drives starting with Z working their way down. That way you can have all the stuff on the same drive on all the machines. IE data drive on computer #1 is Z. Data drive on computer #2 is Y. The two data drives on computer #3 are W & X. That way they can all always be the same and each has it's own C drive.

  • StevieDStevieD Posts: 103

    I'm on a Mac.

    This solution is too late for me. Yes all my stuff is on the C: drive.

    So I'm screwed,right?

     

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 102,401

    All paths in scene files and presets should be relative, as long as the files they are pointing to are in a content directory when the file is saved, so having everything on the root drive wouldn't be an issue.

  • wolf359wolf359 Posts: 3,834

    Hi I agree a "collect project for output" feature in DS would be awesome.

    alas we can dream

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