Ok, I'm ready to start using V4.... help!
Scotty Z
Posts: 44
Some might say I'm lagging behind the times, hey I still like and use A3 for nearly everything. However, I think the time may have come where I need to take the next step and begin to use V4 (or more likely A4, but we'll get to that at some later date).
So, I loaded up this V4 thing (in D/S 3, yeah I hated the D/S 4 interface, whatever*). Doesn't seem to have many morphs.... are they hidden in some special place?
I look at my itemized order history and I see "12/27/07 Victoria 4.1 Pro Bundle" so yeah I bought the thing, uh... a while ago. Alrighty then, a few questions:
- Did I possibly not install this Morphs++ thing way back when? Or, do I need to do something special to find the morphs?
- Does it matter that the V4 being referred to now is 4.2? Will my 4.1 stuff work? Does it even matter? What's the difference?
- If it is important , is there an upgrade path? I'd feel pretty stupid (read: used) if I had to buy the 4.2 Pro Bundle to get things working right. Just because I haven't touched this thing in 5 years doesn't mean I didn't purchase it in good faith. It seems like the transition from 4.0 to 4.1 was sort of transparent, it just sort of happened and we all went along for the ride. Or maybe I'm not remembering that right.
Anyway, if someone can put me on the right track here I would sure appreciate it. Thanks!
*If there's a tutorial somewhere that shows how to find everything in D/S4 that you know how to find in D/S I guess I'd be willing to take another look at it, but I got tired of Daz pulling the rug out from under me every year or so with a new interface, so I planted my flag. At this point, unless someone has an easy fix for this problem I'd rather learn to use the obnoxious Poser interface (calm down Poser people, just joking).
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Comments
Firstly what OS are you using?
Does the Powerloader, when loading V4 show Morphs++...does the Powerloader even start up?
No it makes no difference V4, V4.1 and V4.2 are essentailly the same so I wouldn't worry about that too much.
DS3 and DS4.5 have the same Content Library Pane (Tab) and you set up the content folders just the same as in DS3 for DS4.5. If you know DS3 then DS4.5 is just the same in that regard. Just things have moved around a little.
The first thing to do, is to redownload your V4 Pro bundle, and that way, you will get the latest version with any updates or corrections. V4, V4.1 and V4.2 are all the same thing really, the model is usually referred to as 'V4'. There were some updates very early on, which is why we have V4.5 and V4.2, but they are all free updates.
When you install the bundle, install the Base V4 figure first, and then the Morphs++ bundle. You will be asked to initialise both of these, and I strongly advise you to do it. A4 is also a morph of V4, and you MUST have V4 installed first before trying to install it. You also MUST install the Morphs++ and any other morphs of V4 (A4, S4, SF4 etc) into the same Runtime folder as V4, or you will get loads of errors.
There are lots of people still using DS3, I still have it on my PC myself, but I never use it now. DS4.5 is much superior, and the interface is fully customisable. I hated the tabbed interface, so I don't have it. I have the same setup, more or less, that I had in DS3.
If you are having any problems with installing V4, just post again, but it should all be straightforward.
Another XPost Pete, sorry!
hey Jimmy xposting is apart of the daily routine, no need to be sorry as we all offer different bits of advice.
Ok, before I start, thank you for replying, it's awesome that you can get a response here even at this time of day.
I've started the re-downloading process, but it's kinda slow going because apparently DAZ doesn't remember that I don't want to see Mac files and I can find no way of accomplishing this on my own. I figure I probably don't need to re-download and install any of the clothes or hair, right?
Also, I already have a bunch of A4 stuff installed, but it's in a different runtime, do I need to hide it from D/S while I re-install V4?
I guess the power loader doesn't start up since I have no idea what you're talking about. What does a power loader do? Why didn't I need one before? How can I tell if it's doing anything?
I'm using Windows 7.
Unless someone is willing to come over and make D/S4 look and feel just like D/S3 I think I'm going to be more or less immune to anyone extolling it's virtues. I know what it was like for me, I tried it myself, and it made me homicidal.
I'll check back in after the downloading and installing has been completed.
To be safe, redownload everything. Items may have had updates in between (some of them minor enough that it did not require any blurbs or heads up). No, you don't have to hide the runtime. The installer should create the right folder and you can modify it later. The powerloader is a plugin that loads the morphs and everything quickly (M4, F4, and the rest also had a powerloader associated with them).
I can empathize. Though I'm not sure why the interface would be such a dealbreaker, I also use DS3 as well as 4. The former is still pretty good with renders with older products while the latter offers newer toys like Genesis, content creation, etc. However, I do not use 4.5 as I don't feel it would be worth the time to modify everything to optimize its use. Too many hoops to jump through. I'll wait til I get a more powerful rig to take advantage of it. It does leave out the use of new shiny stuff, but I can live with it (and it's DAZ's loss since I and a good number of others are not buying those products unless there's a Legacy Installer).
Anyway, hope you moving up to V4 turns out ok. :coolsmile:
It was the frustration of knowing something is possible and having no idea how to do it. Not that I was some sort of D/S superstar with 3, but I couldn't do much of anything in 4. If something used to take me 10 seconds to do, I was now hunting for how to do it for 5-10 minutes. Life's too short to fight an interface. I'm sure at some point I won't be able to get a D/S3 installer and I'll have new hardware so I'll have to, but I'm going to grumble all the way. :)
Edit to add: And I couldn't use Mood Master which I was fairly addicted to at the time.
You must have V4 installed already to have A4 installed at all, and as long as you are installing to the same runtime folder, it shouldn't matter, but you will probably need to reinstall A4 after the initial reinstall of V4. Just make sure that you don;t have V4 installed to two different places, and also make sure that you run the initialise file when asked.
The PowerLoader has a download file, just install it like the rest. When you double click to load V4, the Powerloader will pop up a window, and you can decide what morphs to load, V4 only, V4 + Base morphs, Morphs++, Aiko 4, and any other characters you have installed, they each have a Powerloader download file. It is very handy. You can also use Powerloader to apply a skin map to V4, other than the purple bikini. It is well worth having.
You don't need to use the powerloader. The powerloader allows you to load V4 and as many of her morph packages as you want with just a few clicks. With the powerloader installed; you click on V4 and a dialog box opens up listing all the morphs you have installed. Just check the ones you want to load with V4 and click the accept button. DS will load V4 & then install whichever morph packages you've checked. It also remembers what you've selected the last time you loaded V4
I personally don't like using the powerloader; but if you like to start with all the bells & whistles on V4; then that might be something worth looking into (I believe the powerloader can be downloader with the base figure).
Hey LMB, welcome back!
Ok, so between DS3 and DS45 I know how you feel. Look on the bright side that we are not still on DS4 cause it was very slow to move around in the scene and UI compared to DS45.
For a nice guide to DS45 and the basics, see the FAQ list here - http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/17/
Compared to DS3 and why you would want to upgrade, I will offer a few reasons.
1. It renders MUCH faster then DS3. Also, DS3 will no recieve any 3Delight updates since DS45 is the current version. So all improvements done to 3Delight, DAZ will add to DS45 and not DS3.
2. There is this wonderful little tool called the "Smoothing Modifier". Its intended for use with clothing on figures but can be used with anything. I often use it for clothes on A3 along with the "Transfer Active Morphs" option for fitted clothes. The Smoothing Modifier also works on figures. We both know how unrealistic A3's joints can look when bent, well this can really help smooth her out.
3. Dynamic cloth works for the 64bit Windows version plus the Mac version.
As for the UI and the way it works and where they hid things in menues, it can take a little adjustment. Again, I know how you feel. Seen below in my screen shots is how I have my DS45 set to. Also you will see a few with V4 in them. I posted those there so you can see where her morphs are and her expressions. Btw, her expressions are great. The Girl 4 brings in some really nice expressiosn. This is simular to how they set up the character shapes in Genesis. One of the screen shots shows the Tool Tab. The reason I did is that DAZ has moved a lot of the Tool Options tot he Tool Tab. Some of the options there are universal, some are not. Just depends on the tool you have selected at the time.
As for Mac files in your download, there is no way to filter that out anymore. You can use the Download Manager to retrieve all your files if you wish and even install them if you so desire.
Ok, checking back in with my progress.
I d/l'ed all the stuff from the Pro Bundle again... that was fun.
I re-installed v4, all seems to have gone well.
I re-installed the Morphs++, and now I have morphs (yay!).
I installed power loader (actually 2 different files that identified themselves as power loader), and... nothing. I'm not sure I would have really liked it, but it's hard to miss something you never had. Though after looking through the morphs (and there are quite a few) I can maybe see the logic behind such a thing. Though it eludes me as to why there can't just be a "load morphs" icon, or better yet, when you install them, your v4 just loads with them, the way A3 did way back in the day.
Anyhow, I got the answer I was looking for as to v4's viability for a project I'm considering and it looks like she'll fit the bill.
Thanks to everyone that helped, and also thanks to those that offered reasons to use D/S4.5, I'm not quite ready to take that leap, but I feel better that when I do I'll have a better experience than last time.
So, been fiddling around a little more and I ended up getting power loader to work. I can certainly see how it would save some time. Now, is there a way I can get it to load all those morphs if I chose A4? It seems very v4-centric.
You can still load morphs the old-fashioned way, by going to the Pose folder and finding the INJ icon for Morphs++, it is much quicker to do that through the Powerloader, just tick the box :)
It is v4-centric, and it has to be really, all other female Gen 4 figures are morphs of V4, so V4 MUST be loaded first. I know there is an Aiko 4 CR2, but it loads V4 before it tackles A4 anyway, so once again, you may as well use the Powerloader, and load what you want.
You can double click on V4, the Powerloader screen should pop up, and then you can select Aiko 4 AND Morphs++ if you like, at the same time. You can also go to the second tab in the Powerloader, and select the skin you would like V4/A4 to load with.
There is a Powerloader installer for each of the itmes that can load for V4, make sure that you install them all, they add options to the basic Powerloader for V4. My PL offers me Aged for V4, International Faces for V4, Stephanie 4, The Girl 4, Reby Sky, Base Morphs, Morphs++ etc etc. Try the Advanced tab, and you will see other option in the PL, it can be really useful, but, at the end of the day, you can still do it the old way if you prefer.
Yeah if you look hard enough in the Content Library under Poser Formats you will find INJ Presets to load all Morphs ++ at the same time.
Not sure I understand the A4 question. A4 is just a morph of V4 so when you load V4 and Morphs++ then you should have them loaded when changing V4 shape to A4.
It's been a few days now and I feel like I'm starting to get a handle on using v4. I haven't done much real work, mostly been loading clothes and applying MAT poses and such just to see how things work. Overall, I can see that the mesh in an improvement over A3, but I don't know if any mesh will ever displace my infatuation with A3.
As for the A4 comment, I have an icon that says A4, and when I click it, it loads V4 with the A4 stuff, but I wasn't getting the power loader thing to fire off. Anyway, long story short I believe I've got that sorted.
Thanks to everyone for their help and encouragement. Maybe in another 5 years I'll make the leap to D/S4.5 or whatever version it's up to. :)