PW Environments Issue
Halcon Bluesky
Posts: 542
I have two products installed in Daz Studio.
https://www.daz3d.com/pw-crystal-cove-villa
https://www.daz3d.com/pw-italian-villa
Now,I don't see these products into the Content Library for use in a render.
I have tried to look into the Environments, Landscapes. Nothing!
The Author should have made sure is ready for use within the Daz Studio File structure.
The PW Crystal Cove Villa is my preferred choice to work with.
This issue is giving me a headache, locating and loading it into the scene is really hard.
My timeframe for my project is one week.
Can the Daz Team do something about it? If submitting this issue via Support will take ages and I don't have the time.
For me it was supposed to be the solution to give a render to a recipient in a grand style, please help!
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Comments
They're in the Props/Environment/Landscapes folder. No idea why they're in props.
Are you familiar with the ReadMe pages in the documentation center? Every daily release (okay, forget the recent "Welcome" imports, RDNA product migration, and pretty much anything not DO before DAZ 4 and Genesis, but I digress) gets one with details about the product and where to find the assets in the Content Library and in the Categories.
PW Italian Villa [Documentation Center]
PW Crystal Cove Villa [Documentation Center]
Users have been complaining about the lack of standardization in the folder structure for years, and little can or will be done to straighten it out now.
e.g.,
Environment
Environment/Landscape
Environment/Landscapes
Environments
Environments/Architecture
Environments/Landscape
Environments/Landscapes
Props/Architecture
Props/Environment/Landscapes
Props/Environments/Architecture
Props/Environments/Landscapes
and the occasional mis-spelling of one or more keywords...
That gripes me the most.
butterflyfish I went there in the Content Library and located it.
Now navigating where is the lounge room isn't funny about.
Suppose you want to go to the Bedroom, Kitchen or other areas in the house.
Other PAs at least give a rundown of the Environment areas, this is too vague to work with.
barbult I like the design as it was shown in the promo pictures.
I don't want to be tagged as a serial returner for products I don't like.
I returned a few because it did not work as intended.
If the author could just make some corrections of the product, I am willing to wait, what's more, others could buy this product as well.
The idea is the product must be usable, imagine if this is not acceptable, then others may not buy something that has flaws.
A quality assurance is what matters.
The product works and is findable. A lot of products use the props catergory, this comes from old: Poser's file structure. I'd be surprised if its going to be changed just for one buyers preferences, even if they are the first to buy, but considering how long its been in the store I should imagine its sold at least a few times.
If it does need fixing you need to put in a ticket there's nothing anyone in the forums can do.
I've found some typos before and files in strange places, too. Nothing drives me crazier than the duplicate formulas on figures, though. Please, Daz-we need better quality assurance with the products and work with your PAs. We put in tickets but hear nothing back about specific product issues.
Then there is file sizes. PW Italian Villa install file is about 800 MB, installed though it's 1.7 GB, because of uncompressed DSON files.
The worst example I've seen was a hair I bought the other day, install file was 116 MB, but installed it was almost 700 MB, also because of uncompressed DSON files.
For most of these problems it helps to
The second part needs a bit of knowledge about how to use windows mechanics and the readyness to get active when a product get updated.
I have two DAZ Library folders (one with the basic name, one with a different name) on my HD, with the basic one serving as the install folder for DIM and for testing products, and the second one being the final resting place for the products. Most of the time basic copy&paste is all I have to do, just in cases as the one above I do some manual modification to fit the product into the way I want it sorted.
Smart Conent is just "filtered content" - which can be useful and can be shunned in favour of another pane or view when it isn't, but it has nothing to do with installation
which can break a lot, and again has no connection toi Smart Content.
You could also use links, .djl files, to add referencs where you want them without breaking anything and while consuming only a single allocation unit on disc.
Thanks for those remarks, but my way works nicely for me for several years now...
"Smart Content" should be renamed into "Remote Content".
I never use it, for I consider it to be confusing and I prefer the more logical order of the content list.
I can clearly see in my content zip file, where my downloaded file can be found in my content list.
Just simple.
I have no use for DIM or smart content at all.
I once felt the same. I detested smart content, until I had to do a very large project using tons of products. One rendered page had 20GB of content. I found smart content to be the best choice for speed and accuracy. Granted I started out despising smart content, and had to go thru a little learning curve to utilize the filters properly. But it really grew on me and in the end it worked better than the content tab for the majority of the time. The content pane seems to work best with mapped directories, custom content, and project presets. For example I recently mapped a directory for the Christmas gift from RiverSoft Art, because I wanted to test it on a specific version of DAZ. For that type of thing the content tab is the clear winner.
DIM has changed a ton. I download manually to an external 'Downloads 8TB SSD' but I also download via DIM to a different external 'DIM Downloads 8TB SSD'. I use a 3rd external 'Installed 8TB SSD' as a master drive (installed by DIM). But I don't only use DIM for downloads. My custom manual DAM system is incredible (and time consuming) and I find it the best solution for project planning. In the project planning stage I use it and DIM to choose assets. When I couldn't find something using either the smart content pane or the content pane, because I had the name wrong, or the naming convention was . . . weird . . . I resorted to DIM and man was it a lifesaver. If the product did not function correctly I fixed it in seconds by a simply uninstall and reinstalled via DIM. I organize the heck out of my products with manual downloads and a giant spreadsheet that acts as a database, but in a crunch, DIM finds most products faster than any other method. For repeat offenders I need often, I found favorites and custom actions was a good solution.
I realize if some have revamped the install library to the extreme, they will find DIM and smart content useless because only they know how to find them alphabetically or based on mapping, and choosing to switch to DIM would mean a total makeover. But, if you can invest in a drive large enough to hold your content, try doing the DIM dowloads. DIM will install to one external drive or multiple drives, and function great, providing you manage your drives with Disk Management.
Edit: Thought I'd add this: I do have a machine that never goes on line. It's my 'Super Secret Projects' on my 'Super Duper 007 PC', just joking about the 007 part. But, I can unplug the external DIM download drive, plug it into my offline PC and it works like a charm, despite the manifest files and install drive not matching my other render PC. I grab what I need to install and it is bussin. Super easy.
I manually install all of my content into standard and custom folders and I have never had anything 'break' or fail to work properly. I will say that I do not use smart content so I can't speak on that part of your comment.
Smart content is really useful to find a pose, a material preset or a shader or a prop / accessories, etc.
It's not without its faults of course (wrong metadata or like for the Content Library, rules not followed or who changed through time I suppose), but it's a great tool to have alongside the Content Library.
I am an old Poser user, so I never learned to rely on smart content, so I find it more of a hand holding nuisance. I don’t fault anyone that uses it, I was merely stating I had no information on whether the way I set up my content folder would break smart content or not.
I have multiple content libraries for different kinds or generations of content, install Daz store purchases with DIM, and use the Content Library instead of Smart Content, so I can move stuff wherever I want it as soon as I install it. Dealing with the utter chaos of old Poser content is just too much, otherwise.
I agree with you on Poser content libraries, but I have found a work around for that too. Over the years I have been slowly and combining all of my poser content so it feels more like studio content folders.They will never work in Poser again, but I have no plans of going back to Poser. LOL DIM is another one of those things I refuse to use since it puts stuff where it wants instead of where I want. Yeah, it takes longer to download and unzip everything but it also lets me remove all of the vanity folders and other junk I don't want before installing it to my content folders. But I can now go into my G3 folders and open clothing and see all of the subfolders for bodysuits, leotards, shirts and so on all easy to find.