Can You Change External Runtime Folder Names?

scullygirl818_02147fecb6

I apologize I wasn't sure what forum to put this in, as it still applies to DS, even though it's technically a Poser question.

I've been using external runtimes for years now, but usually by the time a new version of Poser comes out my Runtimes are all over the place and I tend to start again and copy files from other Runtime folders - long story short it has become a mess - I have multiple folders like Runtimes3 PP2004 etc.

Last time I started from scratch and did a better job of organizing so I have been using it and loading the older one only when I need it. Here is my question after all of that. Sometimes I get confused which is which because I have different Runtimes from other drives, etc. (I know this was bad). Anyway, can I change my outer Runtime Folder to whatever, RuntimeX (I think it's currently PP2014) without breaking anything? I still have nested folders like V4, V5, Sets, etc. within that folder. I assume that as long as I change the Runtimes listed to use in Poser and DS that it should correct it and not have every file I open be searching, or could it screw up my documents/files?

SpottedKitty

scullygirl818_02147fecb6 said:

I assume that as long as I change the Runtimes listed to use in Poser and DS that it should correct it and not have every file I open be searching, or could it screw up my documents/files?

If you've done it properly, there's nothing to correct — file paths D|S (and Poser) use aren't complete, they're split into the location of the content folder, and the location of the file inside the content folder. As long as you set the content folder location, including its name, then Poser and D|S sticky-tapes the two halves of the file path together and retrieves the file. The name of the content folder doesn't matter, only that you tell Poser or D|S where to find it.

scullygirl818_02147fecb6

Thanks, that's what I thought. I was just afraid when I went to open a file it would be searching for every piece (which happens too often, probably because I'm creating new runtimes and probably missed loading in specific content which is why I need to quit doing that lol.

SpottedKitty

That's just it, though — as far as D|S is concerned (not sure about Poser, I never updated past Poser 7) when you load content, there are no separate content folders, all of them are treated as just One Big Content Folder from which all the bits and pieces that make up all the objects in your scene are pulled. The only way this system can fail is if you have a location mapped when you save a scene or an asset, and don't have it mapped (or the entire folder's been moved somewhere else) when you load it again.

It's incredibly robust as long as you understand its limitations — at one point many years ago, I had my Textures folder in an external drive, completely separate from the rest of my content folder: everything still worked perfectly. I wouldn't recommend doing that nowadays, though, content folders were much smaller and more manageable back then.