I tried yet again...
joegerardi
Posts: 226
So, I've been a Studio user for over 12 years. I've been stuck on Studio 3 up till now because I can't get my head around Studio 4 in any way. I tried again today, and I'm still as frustrated as ever. Let me set this up for you...
I DON'T use CMS- as a computer engineer for over 30 years, I don't trust online databases, and that whole Smart Content Manager takes over too many resources that it never releases after one is finished with Studio. So I never touch it.
I loathe the interface of 4- that was always my biggest gripe. The developers thought it more important to show how cool they could make it look, rather than make it efficient. It's just plain stupid to make the work window smaller and smaller while making their side panes take up more screen space than everything else. So I have a very tight, concise custom layout. In fact, it's so tight, I think that's my problem... I can't find anything.
Today, I loaded YT Julie- the only Genesis figure I have. it loaded up fine, but when I tried to get the content for it, there's nothing on the menu: not even the tree structure. I know the directory paths are in there, as the attached screenshot will show, but nothing comes up. More to the point, I can't find my scenes from Studio 3, either- nothing. Zero, zilch, nada.
So, as a very last attempt to use a newer version of Studio, I'm asking for help. Please don't tell me to use default setting- I'd rather self-castrate then use the ridiculous interface DAZ created. I have to admit that the new genesis figures and a lot of their content are excellent, but as I have since Studio 4 came out, I will forego them, rather than use the idiotic interface they created. But if someone can point me to a simple tutorial, or tell me how to get to my scenes and content, I will be very grateful
Thanks for any help anyone can offer.
..Joe
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Comments
CMS isn't an online database it replaces the old Valentine database that was in earlier Studio programs.
K. I didn't use the valentine datavade, either. Just a tree view. Studio DID ask to log on to the 'Net every time until I disabled it.
..Joe
To expand a little on what Fishtales said: the CMS runs on your machine. DAZ Connect is the online stuff, and if you're not buying encrypted content, you can do without it. Just don't sign in when you start DS. (After experiencing constant startup issues on my laptop, I decided to avoid DAZ Connect on my main rendering machine, and I have never logged into DAZ Connect from there.)
Your screenshot has been compressed too much for me to read anything, but there are two places to look for content:
I started with DS 4.9, so I don't know what earlier editions were like. Pardon me if I'm describing something you already know, but on my system DS unfortunately defaulted to creating its library under the Public user. So most of my content, loaded by Install Manager, resides in a DAZ library there. But the few random bits and bobs I purchased from a couple of other websites expected to be installed in my personal user directory. So I have two DAZ library locations on my computer. For me, DS sees them both. Perhaps in your setup, DS isn't configured to search in the place where the majority, if not all of your content is stored.
I believe the content library will be empty since DS can't read the CMS data to know what's installed and where, not just for smart content but for the content directory tree as well
Thanks. Yes, I use different directories to DAZ's defaults, because I have a separate data drive from my OS drive. It's quite customized, because to me, things like bottles and watches, and cellphones and stuff are props, not figures, so pretty much everything that's not a figure or clothing is in the props folder. Hence my difficulty- it's not where Studio expects it to be. Sorry it was too compressed: here's the screenshot of just by config:
..Joe
First question - what installation method did you use?
The CMS in Studio 4.9 is PostgreSQL running locally on your system - and its a separate install. When installed you will have 8 postgres tasks running, but ONLY if Studio or the DAZ Install Manager (DIM) is running; they auto-start and self-terminate as needed. And the database does not take up much space - I have over 9,000 items installed and there is only 1.85 GB in use. And the CMS is NOT needed for the content library tab - but it does get used for the auto-fit process that allows clothing to be migrated between generations of figures.
If you installed with DIM - and didn't change anything - DIM installed to a directory that is not defined in Studio (this was/is intentional, to avoid breaking old pre-DIM installations).
I recommend changing the DIM download directory if you have a second drive - (gear icon, top right in DIM, then the download tab); you can change where DIM installs to (Installation tab) or update the DAZ Studio directory list to add the DIM installation directory to Studio - you need to add it to both the Studio and Poser format sections.
And you do NOT need to connect to DAZ - that's primarily for the encrypted DAZ-Connect only products and/or if you decide to do your download/installs from within Studio.
One immediate issue is that you have both D:DAZ/Content/ and D:?DAZ?Content/Runtime/ selected as content directories - having one content directory inside another is likely to lead to malformed relative paths in saved files, and you should not in general select the Runtime folder but the folder that holds the Runtime folder as a content directory
Thanks. In the older days, you had to be a little crazy with the pathing.
I now have my content, but only because of an accident- it was actually there all the time, but becasue there were two separators on top of each other, I didn't know there were two panes there. That's kind of what I was talking about with the developers not doing their jobs- the old Studio have better graphics in the sides so you could see that there were two things in a group.
So. That's one down, one to go. Now I just gotta find where all my old .DAZ scenes are, and how to get Studio 4.9 to see those directories as well.
Thanks for the assists.
..Joe
The D:/Daz/content/Scenes under Poser Formats is bad for the same reasons as the D:/Daz/content/Runtime is bad.
Yeah, well, I have gig upon gig of metadata, so I can't be moving my Runtime around- that was the way it was in the Studio 0.8 days, and after they changed it (Studio 1.6, I think) it was hard to load a lot of items because the program couldn't find the metadata.
..Joe
Metadata is fairily new as it is part the Smart Content system. Nothing has really changed on how content should be mapped in Studio since v1. Thechanges that were made wre done to fix bugs that a lot of people exploiting,
Not true. Metadata has been around since Studio 1.5 (as far as I can speak with certainty) and if you load a saved scene after moving the metadata directories around, Studio asks for the path to the new location for ever single item in the scene, making it agony to get the scene up on the screen. Unfortunately, early versions of Studio used a different default location than later versions, and if you weren't aware of that and alter the installation, the metadata end up all over the place, even the same thing in two different locations.
But- I have started to make progress, and ran into a snag right at the beginning. Here's my problem: How do I adjust separate scales? For example, on any figure's chest, I want to make it broader, but not deeper, I would want to adjust the X scale, but not the Z or Y scale. How do I do that? I see the scale slider, but it only works all 3 axes. I want to adjust just one. I looked for the tutorials on YouTube, rather than bugging people here, but didn't find anything on scaling, except the very broad strokes.
Thanks,
..Joe
There's an icon near the Parameters window (the top left bit of the bottom right pane on many setups), a little Play button and four horizontal lines. Click on that and then select 'Show Hidden Properties.'
You will then see Scale X, Scale Y, and Scale Z even when it's normally hidden. Also be sure to 'unlock' those if they happen to be locked (which isn't common; it's a little icon of a padlock above the numerical value of the scale)
Keep in mind that nonuniform scaling can sometimes do weird things in a body, but chest is one of those that should work decently if you don't go crazy with it.
Yeah, I finally found it by accident. Thanks. I also realized that I hated the interface so much that when Studio 4 came out, I never got the morph packs for Genesis 1, so it makes working with the only Genesis dolly I have (YT Julie) kind of difficult.
I'm almost thinking it's not worth getting those packs, even though they're now under ten bucks for the both of them: it seems that G7 is such a better figure in every way that it might behoove me just to start from scratch at that level.
This is very frustrating for someone used the Studio 3- that was intuitive and far more customizable than 4. For example, I can't even figure out a way to get a Render button up on the 3D Bridge Toolbar.
But thanks again,
..Joe
Not sure what you think metadata is but it was introduces with Smart Content. Studio has aways used relative addressing so as long as your content was in a properly mapped library and you saved to a Studio format library you could move said library and scenes would load just fine as long as Studio knew about the new library
No, it's been around forever. I've attached a picture of my metadata directory, so you can see what it looked like in the older days. The problem was, DAZ kept moving where it was kept with new releases: in the early days, it was just in a directory called \DAZ\studio\condent\scenes\data Then after 2.0 came out, it was in a directory called \DAZ\content\data. When Studio 3.0 came out, they move it again to \DAZ\condent\data\3.0. Problem was, everything that was used prior to that was now in a different directory, and couldn't be found, generating an error.
When Studio 4 came out, they added another directory, called \DAZ\studio\content\data\4.0, and it couldn't find anything in the first directory OR the 3.0 directory, so you would have to manually tell it where everything was by looking at the log, and seeing which metadata piece was needed. It made for loading anything very confusing. Now, with the new file formats, it's in yet another place.
I have to continue using 3.0 because I use the Reality Render engine, and Paolo never configured anything that works with 4.0 to work properly with the older figures. I still use Vic 3 and Michael 3, the Millgirls (because for fae folk, they are simply the best) and others, and they render with black geometry triangles unless you use them in default format- no morphs. So I still have to use it, which is why I still need those directories.
Just the root \DAZ\content\data folder contains over 5Gig in over 450,000 files. I'm not really sure how big it is, because I haven't the patience to let is count all the way up. The other directories are almost as large because I've been using Studio since late 2005 with DAZ|Studio 1.7. (Which is what is was called back then.)
..Joe
The folder that contains the Data folder is the one that must be mapped, the chnages in the sub-folders of the data folder for different versions would be relative paths and would be read correctly as long as the base diectory was set. The drawback of the chnaged location woudl kick in only if trying to rebuild the .dso files and so on for items that lacked them by resaving the original import in a scene.
Correct, and I re-use a lot of stuff: Once I have the sizing, shaping, and morphs in, it's a helluva lot easier than reloading all that stuff all over again. An example: I don't load Victoria 4 from my \figures\DAZ\people directory: I have a scene saved named V4_2_default, with all the morphs and Morphs++ already loaded. If Studio can't find the metadata, then it loads with error, missing morphs/textures.etc. With V3/A3/M3 etc., it's even tougher, because it was out earlier, and the metadata can be in a LOT of different places.
..Joe
It isn't metadata, it's just data that Studio writes. Like I said before, as long as your content is mapped correctly and you are saving to Studio format library all references will be relative. Move your content and it will still be found as long as it moved to another mapped library intacted.
Sorry, but I think we're going to have to agree to disagree. I know you're wrong from experience. Were the old forums still available, you would be able to see the dozens of threads complaining about the metadata directory changes, and the trouble they created.
BTW: as a computer engineer for over 30 years, I would offer that data a program writes about data is the definition of metadata.
..Joe
You can call it what you want but it doesn't change how it works. Yes there was that problem of DS v3 having a unique "data" folder but that was easy to work around for anyone that understands computers.
And what is the "easy" workaround for version 3.0's data in one place, version 4.0's version on another place, version 1.x's version in ANOTHER place, and version 2.x's version in yet another pace?
Because the entire forum was stumped several years ago. Hundreds upon hundreds of us could have used your sage wisdom, regardless of our level of experience. By your own admission, you obviously have more capabilities than those of us that have been making a living "understanding computers" by building, repairing, and coding on them for decades.
This is why I disappeared several years ago- everyone's an expert.
Even when they're not.
..Joe
Are you sure your issue wasn't having the pre DS3 content directories in the application folder, which was the default?
Yes, because I don't use the default layout. I have an OS drive, and a data drive in my PC, and I don't store anything one the OS drive except programs. All content is on the data drive, so I became a bit of an expert with the configuration screen of Studio over the various incarnations.
Those directories I listed above were all the default install directories of Studio. DAZ changed the locations all those times. All I had to do was change the drive from C:\ to D:\. That wasn't the expert part: the real work was because I had rearranged how the content was installed: a winglass ISN'T a figure, it's a prop, so it went in my props directory, etc. Also, listing thing by what they're named, rather than what they are makes it really hard to find anything, especially when you don't know which dolly it's for. I moved all my content into figure-specific directories under the figure name. All my V4 stuff is in a directory named \DAZ\content\runtime\libraries\character\Victoria4; Aiko3 is in DAZ\content\runtime\libraries\character\Aiko3, and so on. It makes for more directories, but really really speeds up trying to find something.
Back onto the original subject: Is there some way to actually aim a light at something? In 3, you highlighted the object that is to be the focal point, and clicked on the target icon: I can't seem to find anything similar, and the manual doesn't list anything about aiming the lights.
Thanks,
..Joe
In the lights panel there is a Point At box.
Ah. thank you- I found it. It's just so completely backwards from the old version. There, you highlighted the part you wanted to focus the light on, select the light in the drop-down window, and click on the point-at icon. Here, you select the light, then click on the Point At drop down, then I get to scroll through a list of maybe hundreds of items to select my target, after possibly having to expand it through twenty or maybe thirty drop down selections....
Is that really how it works, or am I being thick?
..Joe
No Data folder is an install directory - the Data folder is inside the content directory, to which you isntall or save. It sounds as if your issues were down to moving things around and breaking relative paths or to getting confused about which folders should be content directories and ending up with nested folders, which also leads to broken relative paths.
It sounds as if you are using different functions. There's a persistent Point At in parameters, where you select the item(s) you wish to do the pointing, click the button, and select the target from the list: once set the items will continue to move to track the target. There's also the option to select one or more items, right-click on an item in the scene and from the meu Point Selected Items(s) at label of target: that is not persistent, if you move the target item the other items won't track it. Both features have been in DS for a lng time, the chnage from version 3 is the addition of the target's label to the right-click menu command using the non-persistent version.
To your first post:
No. When you loaded something - say a shirt - for the first time, a directory was created in the data folder which then held all the metadata. In early DAZ it was in DAZ\Studio\Content\data. Later it moved to DAZ\content\data. After 3.0 it was moved to DAZ\content\data\3.0 then it was in DAZ\content\data\4.0. However, if you loaded an older scene that originally stored the metadata in, say, DAZ\content\data after Studio 3.x, then it couldn't find the metadata, because the pathing was now to DAZ\content\data\3.0, and you received an error that Studio could not read content. You had to close Studio, then you had to go the the log, and find the errors - which told you what Studio was expecting to find - then copy the metadata from wherever it was to where Studio wants it to be.
Unfortunately, I haven't any of those errors to show you, because I keep paring the log down to nothing to keep its size manageable- it will just continue to grow, and people that haven't emptied it would see a ridiculously large (in Gig) text file. A ti for people is to simply open it in notepad, press Crtl-A to select everything, then press Delete to empty the file, then save the empty file.
And none of this had to do with me rearranging my content- everything is always default, with only the drive letter being different. That's a BIG shortcoming of Studio- they assume everything will live on C:\. Lots of people have C:\'s, D:\'s, even E:\'s, and want their data separate from their programs. From a backup standpoint, that makes lots of sense: programs don't change that often, so why keep them with your data? Should something happen it's easy to reinstall your programs; not so easy to get your data back without a backup. Also it's faster when you don't have to page memory on the same drive you're loading figures from.
As to the second post, I just want to load a character, and then say, point a spotlight at its face. I found that that is in the "View" tab.
Thanks for the help on that one.
Thanks,
..Joe
No, that is not how things typically behaved - the stored scene had the full relative path to the native geometry files (the Data folder on) and would look there. If you had lost the native files and tried to recreate them by reimporting the original and saving as a scene that would fail because of the new paths not matching, but that is a separate issue (and the paths were not changed on a whim but, as I understand it, to avoid breaking older contentin DS 2 by changing its versions of the native geometry).
DS does not assume C: - it is quite happy to use whichever path the user specifies, and always has been. As far as I recall, if the user's Documents path was set to another drive DS3 would use that location by default - certainly I haev always kept all of my content on a drive other than C:. All saved files use relative paths (the location within the content diectory, but not the location of the content directory) rather than absolute paths where possible (which is why nested content diectories can be an issue).