How to make Connect installed content show in Content library tab
Kharma
Posts: 3,214
I have now installed a few items with connect to see how it works and I can manuever around in Smart content to use them somewhat, but I find it very confusing because everything is all lumped together in one folder. So far I really don't like smart content but when I went over to the content tab where DIM would have installed items all the folders are empty except for the G3 starter essentials which I installed with DIM. How can I get the rest of my content showing in content library that was install with Connect the same as it would have if I installed with DIM? I know I read somewhere about being able to make links but I have search through the forums for 2 days and can't find any info...(please fix the search function in the forums)!!!
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Have the item showing - the easiest way I find is to use the Products tab in Smart Content as that shows all files grouped by type - and have a folder you want to place them in in the Content Library pane. Drag the items from Smart Content to the name of the folder you want them in in the Content Library listing (not to the empty space that will show the files).
Ok so I would need both tabs open and not dockedm and then dragging the file from smart content to content library would creat the link and I am not actually moving the files?
I wish someone would creat a really good video tutorial on the smart content and how to navigate it. I would like to use it but I am already confused by it and I only have a few items installed.
But be careful about deleting those created links from within Daz Studio. I found that they deleted the installed file itself, making the product unusable until uninstalled and reinstalled. If you want to delete a link, do it from the operating system file interface, like Windows Explorer, not from within Daz Studio. My bad experience was a couple betas ago. I don't know if anything has been done to improve that since then. I'm loath to try it again after losing my installed Daz Connect files.
Thanks for the tip Barbult, I am liking installing with connect it's the wading through the smart content that baffles me, I have always used content library. Are you using the linking system now?
I have linked a few products which have poor metadata that does not separate the files into usable divisions. One example is the DG Iray Art Glass Shaders. These are Iray shaders and the metadata even categorized some of them as 3Delight. Metadata lumped other files into big categories that do not match the folders that the PA created to make the product usable. So I created folders in Daz Studio Formats>DG Iray Art Glass Shaders to correspond to the folders that the PA had created. Then I had to figure out which files belonged in which folder by looking at the cloud installation folder for the product, and then finding the same files in Smart Content, and dragging them to my corresponding folder. It was a BIG PAIN to sort out all those files. But now I can use the product.
I don't understand why Daz does not automatically create these folders and links when I install a Daz Connect product. That would make life so much easier for customers who prefer to navigate that way.
Kharma, I'm not up to making a video tutorial, but I'd be happy to try to help you here. I love Smart Content, and DS 4.9 has made it better. But part of the confusion comes from the fact that so many products (even brand new ones coming out) still have bad metadata. It is the old GIGO problem (Garbage in (bad metadata) Garbage Out (files not showing up in Smart Content)).
Anyway, I made these images to help you get started enjoying Smart Content. I hope they help. Your workspace is probably organized in a different way than mine, because I moved some panes around. Just find your Smart Content and Scene panes somewhere in your workspace to follow along.
Here are the last three images about Smart Content. Here is where it really gets useful!
Thank you barbult, now it makes alot more sense to me, that really helped, I appreciate that you took the time to do that. I don't have alot installed yet especially things like amazing skins, shapeshift, or shaders but I assume these would show up also if they were compatible with the item you had selected in the scene, like an outfit and you wanted to use PD Iray shaders on it? I have to say the more I am playing around in the smart content and seeing how its working I think I will start liking it more and more.
Morphs, like those in the Shape Shift product, won't show up in Smart Content. (The product will show up to allow you to install it, but the morph files themselves won't show up there.) The morphs don't show up in Content Library either when you look at the product there. The only Shape Shift things you see in either Content Library or Smart Content are Shape presets to zero out Shape Shift morphs. The morphs themselves are "not user facing files". You find morphs in the Parameters pane under Actor usually.
Shaders will be found in Smart Content. You need to go to the Surfaces pane first and select the surface(s) that you want to apply a shader to. If the shader files have good metadata, you will find them in the appropriate subcategory, like Shaders>Iray>Fabric. But I find it much easier to use PD Iray Shader Kit 1 (one of my favorite products!) from the Content Library Products listing. The problem with using Shaders from Smart Content is that too many get jumbled together in generic categories like "fabric" and "metal", and many Shaders have very poor metadata, putting them in incorrect categories. PD Iray Shader Kit 1 is one of those without very good metadata, unfortunately.
Smart Content really shines in finding Material files for props, figures, and wardrobe items. When metadata is good, you find all appropriate materials without having to remember the names of the products that contain them. You will find textures you forgot you even had! When metadata is bad, things will be missing.
Explore the right click options in Smart Content, too. Just snoop around. There are so many features in 4.9 Smart Content.
Congratulations and many thanks for this excellent lesson, full (something rare) of clarity.
And just a little ask (if I dare, but do not feel obliged to reply) : Is there a place in the forum when we can find the METADATA structure description?
And again, many thanks for this usefull tuto.
I'm glad you found it useful!
There used to be some metadata tutorials. Slosh did a great video. However, I hesitate to link to them now. [MY INTERPRETATION OF DAZ FORUM COMMENTS:] Daz has said that that is not the way users should be creating metadata in DS 4.9. Daz says that is for vendors and users will screw up their database by doing that. Daz now distinguishes between "vendor" data and "user" data. I'm not clear about all that yet.
So now I feel kind of crippled. There are lots of Daz metadata errors and omissions, and now I don't really know how to safely fix them for myself anymore. I write bug reports about them, but waiting for a fix is frustrating. We need clarification and tutorial information from Daz about how users can create and fix metadata. I think I have read in the forum someplace that Daz is working on better methods for users to manage/create metadata. I hope so!
I downloaded Aiko 3.0, Victoria 3.0 SAE, and several Morph INJ/REM files for them using DAZ Connect. The problem I am having is that the INJ?REM files won't show in Smart Content. On my older computer, I still run 4.8, and that one will continue to do so. As those same files were downloaded using the DIM, a path is mapped out to include them in My DAZ 3D Library. This lets me use the INJ/REM files from the Pose folder. What I do not understand about DAZ Connect is that there is no Content Library folder to allow use of product features that come with the products. It only installs to Smart Content, and as I read above this post, those files cannot be accessed in Smart Content. So I cannot inject any morphs for the two figures to allow the creation of my characters. I also downloaded similar INJ/REM files for Victoria 4.2, and Michael 4; although the base figures had to be downloaded and installed using the DIM, since they are not available through DAZ Connect. Those INJ/REM files which were downloaded through DAZ Connect are not accessible either.
I like DAZ Connect alright except for the fact that it does not make my products fully usable; especially the Millennium Figures. This tells me that DAZ Connect is not a fully functional option as it stands at this time. Therefore it is either uninstall those files I cannot fully use, and then use the DIM to get them into a library that is fully usable, or do a lot of manual work to place the content into a fully functioning library so I can access the INJ/REM files. That's the rum me the wrong way thing about DAZ Connect; the fact that it is incomplete at this time, and DAZ 3D has chosen to release it to the general customer as it now stands. I thought the Beta Test version was supposed to be used to find and address such issues before it was released! All this is doinf as far as I am concerned is creating a lot of headaches for we the loyal users of DAZ Studio. If I did not have my other machine running 4.8, I'd be up the creek without a paddle. As it is at this time my plans for my new computer are being put on hold as far as DAZ Studio is concerned.
Is there any way to get DAZ to fix this ASAP? If not, I will be uninstalling several products in favor of using the DIM!
I believe the older characters that you mentioned cannot yet be installed with Daz Connect. You can install them with the Daz Install Manager (DIM) and still use them in DS 4.9. I just installed Michael 4 and his Morphs++ that way yesterday and he is working OK in DS 4.9.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/65115/v4-2-and-m4-not-working-in-4-9
The big problem here is that those old morph sets work only if the morphs are installed to the same runtime location as the base figure — and the way Connect works, every single product is essentially in a runtime of its own, so the script files that load the morph data into the figure can't find any of their data. DAZ has said a fix is in the works, but until then the only way to make those old figures and morphs work is to install using DIM or manually.
Considering how many problems like this we've seen recently, I really have to wonder about the design thinking that went on in the development of Connect — there are so many things that are either horribly bugged (for some people) or totally incompatible with the way older DAZ products work. Was Connect pushed out the door before it was ready, or were these things just not considered?
On a similar subject, I tested GenX2 with DAZ Connect installed Genesis, 2 and 3 installed essentials and it didn't find any Genesis figures to load since it's looking for the Genesis figures in the centralized DATA folder where Genesis, 2, 3 and it's morphs are all together.
PS: Anyone know how freshly loaded Genesis figures are finding all of it's morphs with DAZ Connect installed content?
To find them I use the Product view in the smart content tab. Double click on the product and it will open in an overlapping pane in the smart content tab. Under the picture you can see all its content, morphs included.
To be honest DAZ's move to support only smart content when using connect drives me mad: In the former releases of Studio I categorized all installed stuff in my own created categories in the content library. I had to do it every time I installed a new product. This system is not vendor aware thus stuff bought from DAZ can be mixed with stuff coming from elsewhere. It also doesn't use any metadata nor does it need to move files around.
Now I can hardly find my stuff. Things bought elsewhere don't have metadata and there is no user friendly tool to build them. So they must be handled the old way. Stuff bought at DAZ is seldom found at first glance. When I need lights or shaders I always have to first look at the product description to know if they will work as expected in Iray. Then I need to toggle the filter by context checkbox to be sure to have the best scope for what I am searching. All this in a system where I don't even now if what I am looking for has updated metadata.
You can still do this -- that's what I do, as my own Category system makes much more sense to me than the Default categories.
Then I am obviously missing something. Using only the Content Library pane I can indeed create my own categories like before but I can't see the connect installed products and files I want to categorize. It still works with DIM installed products and with products from elsewhere.
Edit. Just checked again to be sure. Connect Products can be seen in the Products folder of the Content Library pane. That is not really usable because there is no hierarchy in what is displayed in the product itself. Furthermore the product needs to be DAZ install system compatible.
I find it rather annoying that metadata wasn't done properly before connect was released as it obviously depends on the metadata. I think every product should have had correct metadata before being released as it would be so much easier to find the products instead of them being shoved into the lost and found category. It's no wonder so many seem confused using the smart content and would prefer to use content library or their own setup. Barbult are you using the beta of 4.9 or the release? I am using the release as beta wasn't an option in DIM or I couldn't find it for some reason, so I am hoping it gets a new release soon with soome new updates to fix a few things.
I'm using Beta 4.9.1.30. It has many fixes over the release. In DIM, look at your download filters and make sure you have Public Beta checked. That should give you access to the Beta. And I totally agree about the missing/bad metadata!!
You can create categories from Content Library > Products or from Smart Content also.
Ok. That is what I guessed. To do that you need a DAZ packaged product. Won't work with non DAZ products unless you can provide metadata and package the product.
For third-party products without metadata you need to categorize from Daz Studio Formats/Poser Formats, as always.