DAZ Runtimes
JoeMamma2000
Posts: 2,615
Okay, just one more question...
Since the DIM apparently isn't going to organize my stuff because it's too old and not directly from DAZ, I've decided to finally bite the bullet and manually re-organize everything. And I won't even comment on how incredibly frustrating all of this content management stuff is, even after they develop this fancy new app that is supposed to clean it all up.
Anyway, biting this bullet caused me to actually find out where all of those Runtimes that are listed in Carrara's content tab are actually located. I've got 4 or 5 separate Runtimes listed, most of which were not my doing...
So I found one under (Windows) Public Documents, one under My Documents in a DAZ Studio folder, one in the same locating under a DAZ Studio 3 folder, and my main runtime where I manually put my stuff. Oh, and one other that I forget where it's located.
Anyway, my question is....is there any easy way to transfer all of the stuff in this superfluous runtimes into ONE location without having to manually go thru and move them? And also make future runtime additions all direct to this single runtime?
Thanks.
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Comments
Drag and drop will be the fastest way to consolidate.
There's no "clean up my computer button" for this.
Select which directory you want to use, and just drag the runtime from the others to there.
Be aware that you may break scenes, as the relative locations will no longer be the same and you may need to completely reconstruct them.
Thanks. Though I think this will take some thought. Since each runtime has a Geometries, Libraries, Textures, etc., folders, it's probably more than just a simple drag/drop....especially if you're gonna use individual runtimes by category to sort your content. Or whatever....I forget how people were doing this.....Arghh.....
Hi Joe.
Dragging and dropping will merge all sub directories, unless you're on a mac... then you have to get fancy (mac's overwrite without prompt rather than merge) (maybe they prompt - I forget!) (I've slept since the last time I tried and things are always different after I finally get some sleep!).
As far as organizing - it's a never ending battle, so I gave up. I have hundreds of "Runtimes" - one for every item I own. I just add them as needed from a folder I named "Runtimes" and hope for the best.
Enormous runtimes bog down the system. I like it better light, so this works for me, however - as my brain is made entirely out of wood, my advice may not work for others as well as it works for me...
I spent a month or more trying to organize my content before I gave up. For me this is a hobby and should be fun. Organizing content is not fun. Now I keep a categorized set of folders of pictures of what I own and let DAZ install the stuff where ever it wants. It takes me hardly any time to keep up with it and I am able to find my content through the Read Mes.
My other solution is to quit buying stuff. That hasn't worked out. :-)
Daz Studio creates runtime directories in it's libraries. They are partly organised as standard poser runtimes but Studio also puts some of its own stuff in there. If you haven't installed any Poser format stuff in there yourself it's probably best to just leave these as they are.
Perhaps you were thinking of P3dO, by SENO software?
P3dO Explorer stands for Photo 3D Exploration.
P3dO is a multimedia browser for viewing and managing Digital Pictures, 3D Objects, 3D Animations with a simple, intuitive, Explorer-ish thumbnailed interface. P3dO is also a major Poser 3D library manager with many Poser helpers. Also super for Daz Studio, Carrara & Quidam.
P3dO Explorer 2.4.6
is freeware (no ads)
Image viewer (40+ formats)
Image rotation
Zip/Rar with thumbnails
Explorer, Mass renamer
Poser 3D library manager
3D viewer (OBJ, MD2)
3D files paths
The purpose is to manage all the digital assets related to 3D graphics (3D Files, Textures, Pictures,...).
Poser is the main 3D software addressed and many P3dO pro features are Poser oriented. However as a browser alone, P3dO is much more than a Poser software.
I use the Pro version, but not for anything like that. I only use it to overwrite images within .car files.
Thanks. Though I think this will take some thought. Since each runtime has a Geometries, Libraries, Textures, etc., folders, it's probably more than just a simple drag/drop....especially if you're gonna use individual runtimes by category to sort your content. Or whatever....I forget how people were doing this.....Arghh.....
It's not as confusing as you might think once you understand the layout.
Here's a rundown i did on another forum recently explaining the runtime structure, and partly my organization.
I'm putting together a tut that goes into more detail, and will post that within the next day or so.
Everything goes in a runtime folder.
Whether the runtime is a sub folder or just put on a drive doesn't matter.
And the programs don't care if parts of content are in one runtime or another.
As long as the directories are mapped.
Here's the basic layout of what a runtime should look like
x:\{Mapped directory}\Runtime\Geometries
x:\{Mapped directory}\Runtime\Textures
x:\{Mapped directory}\Runtime\Libraries
x:\{Mapped directory}\Runtime\Libraries\Camera
x:\{Mapped directory}\Runtime\Libraries\Character*
x:\{Mapped directory}\Runtime\Libraries\Face*
x:\{Mapped directory}\Runtime\Libraries\Hair
x:\{Mapped directory}\Runtime\Libraries\Hand
x:\{Mapped directory}\Runtime\Libraries\Light
x:\{Mapped directory}\Runtime\Libraries\Materials
x:\{Mapped directory}\Runtime\Libraries\Pose
x:\{Mapped directory}\Runtime\Libraries\Props
x:\{Mapped directory}\Runtime\Libraries\Scene
*these two folders actually get renamed to Figures and Expressions, respectively, inside daz and poser
As you can see, there are three primary directories within a runtime folder.
Geometries: Where all the OBJ files should be.
Textures:Where all the Shaders should be(poser materials are seperate)
Libraries:where all the clickable stuff goes.
Folders within textures and geometries should never be moved any where but to a rutime\textures, or runtime\geometries folder respectively.
The libraries sub folders should have the following:
CAMERA: CM2
*CHARACTER:CR2
*FACE:FC2
HAIR:HR2
HAND:HD2
LIGHT:LT2
MATERIALS:mt5 and mc6 predominately. These are poser material files, and generally don’t work in daz.
POSE:PZ2
PROP:PP2
SCENE:PZ3
*The two directories get renamed to Figures and Expressions respectively within the programs.
Now here's the rub.
Any of those file formats can be in any of the directories, including the base Libraries folder.
And you may have duplicate named files in multiple folders.
Such as hairs appearing in hair, character or prop.
They are generally different items.
One is an HR2, the next a cr2 and the other is a pp2. and may function differently.
You'll literally have to check each accordingly.
Basically as long as the content is visible in daz or poser, and it works, the companies don't seem to care how it's placed.
Moving things around....
As i said any of the file types within the libraries sub folders, can generally be placed any where within the libraries folder. including the libraries folder itself.
The exception is when there is actually a named folder beyond the basic ten.
Such as the Morphs folder or python.
In most cases those are additional information for certain content.
It may be a script for adding morph dials to a corset, or python scripting or or or.
You'll want to maintain the relative placement.
That is, wherever it falls within the runtime, it needs to stay there.
Doesn't matter if it's in another runtime, as long as that runtime is mapped.
Such as the morphs folder may be in runtime.
It needs to stay in runtime, and not be placed in a sub directory.
If it's in Runtime\libraries, it needs to stay within the libraries sub directory.
Currently i'm working on consolidating the Geometries, textures, and the random folders into parent folders.
Geometries is in Objects, textures are in textures, and the random folders is in crazy freaking content creators folder.
Each maintains the required structure as far as it needs, with nothing more there.
Now as far as putting the content in the correct place, hair in hair etc, that is completely up to you where to place it.
What i'd recommend is to start with a desktop folder to put the exe, zip, dim file into.
once there, restructure accordingly, but don't move anything to your working directories.
Save it as a new zip/rar etc so you don't have to use the Exe later, or go through the work again.
This is something else i've been doing as i clean out a failing drive.
There is one last thing to keep in mind.
Uninstallers usually don't work after this kind of customization.
so you'll have to manually uninstall the content.
That is where the readme's come in, as most have a file list.
If you significantly change the layout, you may want to make your own file list to refer back to in the event of needing to remove it.
And lastly if you are feeling rather ambitious, you can always edit the cr2 files and change where it draws the files from.
If you do decide to start messing with this, always make a back up of the initial file first, then edit in any text editor.
I've found that notepad++ works the best for this.
Something else, is write down how you want to organize.
It'll make it easier to do as you go, if you have a plan at the start.
For instance, Under Character, Add the directories Base, characters, and clothes.
Base gets the base figure(s) and nothing else.
Characters gets all the add ons. add sub-directories to taste.
ANd of course clothes gets clothes.
With clothes, for each item it gets the texture file put in a material(s) sub.
I use this layout as i have parent folders for each of my characters, Victoria 4, victoria 3, michael 3, michael 4, etc.
My daz content is consolidated into a single directory, but has subdirectories to the nth degree.
The real advantage to getting and staying organized is that it makes the workflow a lot easier.
Instead of having to scroll through dozens of pose files just to find the add on texture for a certain outfit, it's right there with it.
Everything that comes with or is part of a certain outfit is in one folder as opposed to being in character and props.
I won't kid ya it'll take time to organize on the folder level, but once you do, you won't need smart content, cms, and you will find that your production goes way up.
I used to spend more time looking for things then i did actually creating.
Even though i'm still organizing(nearly a TB, and 3 months in), the speed of my setup to final render has dropped significantly.
The key is to always organize when you get new stuff.
hope this helps
Thanks all for the responses....
I did a little searching and found this nice tutorial on organizing runtimes in the DAZ wiki. Now the challenge is to sit down and read it all and start with doing the grunt work of organizing...although as has been suggested, maybe I'll just forget about it and leave everything alone :)
http://wiki.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/tutorials/poser/poser-misc30
It's really unfortunate that for such a major issue there's no simple application to help with all of this. It seems, off the top of my head, to be an incredibly simple task that can and should be done by software. Even the simple grunt work of making runtime sub-folders and organizing them while following the basic rules of runtimes, etc.....But maybe there's more to it than it might seem.
It's really unfortunate that the DAZ Content Management System doesn't do any of this....maybe they need to re-name it.... :)
They prompt. Always. They'll even give you an option or two, but unfortunately, merging is not one of them.
Wow, once you get into this it becomes a major headache very quickly...
Once you kinda figure out the rules of the game in terms of how to "personalize" your runtime(s), you then have to deal with the complexities of the DIM. It wants it's own runtime folder for installs, and doesn't want you to use any existing runtimes you may have previously slaved over to configure the way you want.
And if suddenly realize you've already used the default DIM installation path to install some stuff (Public Documents in Windows) and you no longer want that, you've got to backtrack and uninstall all of that and re-install to the path you want.
And then you've got all of those auto-detected DAZ Studio runtimes that have all of the DAZ Studio-only compatible files (.dsb or whatever...), which you may not need. Unless there's some content in there you can use, so you have to sort thru all of that mess and see if there's anything useful. Or maybe it's all accessible by Carrara but you just haven't figured out how...
And then you have to decide if it's better to rely on the DIM in the future since it makes downloading and installing quite a bit easier, but on the other hand it controls installations and has certain requirements you don't want to mess with or it will junk up the works.
So do you get rid of your manually "personalized" runtime(s), or keep them and try to get the DIM to install to them somehow, or use the DIM installations and try to "personalize" what it comes up with after the fact, or do you just drop the DIM altogether and do it all manually? Or, better yet, just throw up your hands and give up? :)
In my experience of seeing other folks headaches, the big picture here is to either use DIM on a directory or not - period. Then:
If you use DIM on a directory, be sure that it is a directory created BY DIM.
If you personally add anything to a directory, do not use that directory for use with DIM.
Uninstalling items installed by DIM is, by far, the fastest and easiest way to purge specific products from your drive, period.
Simple check the appropriate products and Start Queue.
Creating your own directories for use with DIM, from within DIM, is amazingly simple, and by far the best way - again, my opinion here, to use the DIM.
You could actually break the rules and use DIM to add content to previously used runtimes that already contains product. Just keep in mind that it is not DAZ 3D's development staff to blame for runtime chaos for directly and intentionally disobeying their good advise, given via warnings from within the software.***
The thing is this, if you do; The DIM will not, because it can not deal with anything that it did not install. Also, if your manual additions or other manipulations mess with what it put in place, it will be unable to fully work the way it should (if at all) for those items. DIM might also add things that you already have, since it doesn't know what you do have.
***WARNING: No matter how stubborn the user may feel he or she may want to be regarding all of this, Please Install Genesis and its support products with care - or please expect to have errors. In this I mean; in order to update any one item, uninstall that item first. DIM knows how to handle this - which is why people whom started their voyage into Genesis using DIM, and only use DIM are the people whom don't have these errors. This may be less of a crucial thing now than what it was as Genesis was in its earlier renditions, and we had to keep updating DS to get the latest Genesis. During its growth stages some files needed to be removed and replaced. Something that a simple unzip over the directory would not resolve - so you'd have files within that shouldn't be their. It was all written that, for proper installation, uninstall was required, but some people have still blamed DAZ 3D when the errors occurred.
This can be done manually, if that's how you wish it done. You simply must go into said directory, find the uninstallers folder and uninstall stuff before installing. If you received the content by unzipping to the directory, you could, instead, find the old zip and open it to compare to the new one to see if there are any files that won't get overwritten that you may need to delete. An extremely time-consuming process - but one that really should be done if you don't trust the speed and accuracy of the DIM.
I have an hour long babble session YouTube video that covers the steps I took on my workstation to apply DIM use to it.
Personal philosophy on this whole DIM thing:
It's really fast, accurate, and clean. It's really easy and fun to create your own organizational system - much like when we made our "Runtimes" previously, except that, instead of double clicking .exe files and answering a pile of questions - all while making sure that the correct runtime is selected, in DIM we can just place check marks and select the appropriate directory.
Next,
all of my content is easily searched within the DIM. By default, which I really like because that's still my preferred method of finding things, the DIM gives us an alphabetical list. Not page after page, like in the store... a single list. With nothing typed into the search box, all installed (by DIM) content exists in the list. That list gives info on where the content is installed an when it was installed. It shows whether or not the product is available as 'Smart Content", gives a shortcut to its ReadMe, full uninstall feature, and a slick method to 'Show Order', which will take you into the online order in your DAZ account where you obtained the product.
You may also right-click on a single item and choose to filter the list of all products in the same install directory. This filter will place text in the search for you, so you may easily clear the filter again by clicking the red "X" next to the search box.
I am happy to have my content and only really had problems with the runtime method back when I was first getting used to it. After a year or so in, I realized that I really need a restructuring oof how I sorted my content, and came up with the incredibly vague method used in my video babble session. I have seen plenty of reasons why folks like to be a lot more specific and really break stuff down. But the method of using separate 'runtimes' and installing like I always have, either by .exe or .zip, is fine too - for most things. Genesis really has gone through some changes since its original release - all for the better - most to grant compatibility towards Carrara and Poser, which is a great thing and has been a HUGE effort on DAZ 3D's end. So a little more care in its handling can secure much more stable results in the end. Genesis is one system where old clutter really can drag it down and mess with you results in using it.
So this brings us to a hybrid installation method.
You could actually only use the DIM to install your Genesis material - and download the zips for everything else and install just as you would files from other places that deliver their stuff via "Unzip to runtime". As unnerving as I found it to be to uninstall everything and start from scratch, the outcome is amazing. Simply deciding how I wanted my new structure and where it will be located is all shown on the video. I wasn't planning on making all new runtimes, but i wanted to illustrate how easy it is to do - so I did. I still have my others as they contain a lot of other items I've picked up from other vendors. Creating new ones for use only with DIM doesn't mean you have to get rid of what you have. Oh shoot... I'm babbling again... oh look at the time!
Just remember, too...
Not all of the DAZ store items are currently 'seen' by DIM. So you still might have things (like some of Fenric's plugins for example) that you need to download and install manually - but DAZ has come a long way in a very short time :)
There is, as I've mentioned earlier.
DIM doesn't really care where you install the files.
It's not that smart.
I've tested the DIM on 3 different systems, and 4 different OS(XP32/64, vista ult 64, and 7 64), using a lot of previously created content directories.
And other than where it wants to install initially, it hasn't made two hoots where i drop stuff.
A great chunk of the problems arising with the DIM, have nothing to do with DIM.
They have to do with having legacy, ds* , with current, duf, with a newer version of daz.
Genesis/genesis content is about the only thing that throws errors with that, i've seen so far
Generally it's duplicate formulas error, or one along those lines.
No other content i've encountered throws errors(barring a cr2 error).
Given the few and far between updates of products, and the limited time savings that DIM gives you, it's not really worth using.
That is again personal taste.
Never give up.
Like I said earlier, put how you want it organized on paper.
Then take it one file/folder at a time.
Don't over think the "what if?"s if you do you'll scare and intimidate yourself more than just doing it.
Once you get about half a dozen files customized to your liking, you'll start to be more comfortable with it.
Here's the keys to DIM
THe File name
IMXXXXXXXX-0X_filename.zip
The manifest
These two are not really necessary for most content, unless the DIM file includes mac files as well, you'll have to check accordingly.
<File TARGET="Content" ACTION="Install" VALUE="Content/ "/>
This is the key text to DIM.
As long as you maintain the structure for a runtime, you can customize the install all day.
Currently i've been playing around with some content from rendo and sharecg for testing.
take the file list, and either line by line copy and paste to the end of the above line, inbetween the forward slash( / ) after content, and the quotes(")
The File name is critical as well It must have the IM(capitalized) and 8 digit with -0X(x=1,2, or 3) then the underline( _ ) and the file name.
NO SPACES or underlines In the file name.
I personally use an excel spreadsheet, and for actual DIM installers, i use Print Files Pro to copy my custom install file lists.
Also get rid of the global ID, it doesn't matter.
The DIM will show a purchase date and install date of when you install it, not when you may have actually purchased it.
Please note that this may annoy Daz3d, as information that DIM may send back will not be correct.
Again this will nullify the updates, but will allow you to uninstall the products automatically.
Yeah it's a lot of work, but again i'll take a bit of pain now, for nothing but gain later.
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/26282/
The amount of added space is trivial -- I just checked, and the extra manifests for the 3487 zips I have installed occupy 51.6MB, or an average of 15KB for each zip.
I cannot help but to agree with all counts made by Mike, whom needs his computer to be fixed - or is it that he fixes everyone else's computer?
Night and day faster! OMG, really? Cant we say: "Zing!!!" :)
I often find that, when I open DIM, it has updates available. The other thing is just funny small - well, compared to the loads of content I buy and install.
Another incredibly important fact is this:
It seems to be evident that most folks whom have trouble with errors when loading stuff, are the folks whom either do not use DIM, or ignore DIM's warnings to not use paths that are already being used.
In order to successfully keep clean installations - especially for Genesis and Genesis-related material, you really need to start fresh - letting DIM be the ONLY thing that installs anything Genesis, and the only thing that can install to that location.
At least those are my findings from helping many people get out of horrible situations. ;)
Thanks for the laundry list of stuff on this one, i stand corrected, and humbly eat crow.
To a point, looking at that list, it's mostly about metadata(60+% looks like)
Since i don't use smart content, it's predominately nothing for me.
The rest appear more like mess ups between exe and DIM conversions.
Since i still have a lot of the exe versions(converted manually to zip), and they don't have the problems listed, it's not an issue.
I have bookmarked that page for future reference, so keep up the great work on it.
Thanks again for it
my motto, if it's not needed it gets deleted.
Like most things related to daz, it really boils down to personal style.
Me i like my customized runtimes, so DIM is out(so is smart content and cms).
That's just me though, so take it for what it's worth.
Absolutely.
And you certainly don't want DIM touching your existing runtimes!
I started off using DIM only for my Genesis content - and still reserve that default path for nothing but Genesis. DIM is an excellent way to keep Genesis, because overwriting has not been an option for earlier updates, where uninstallation prior to install was required to prevent errors. I'm not sure if that will ever happen again - now that they've got a more firm grip on DSON. Never know though. I do like how DIM can (and will) uninstall prior to reinstall. It just keeps my Genesis stuff clean and working without erroneous errors.
Define '"...way faster."
For me though i've not found DIM to be that much faster.
It is faster than the old installers though.
as a simple case in point
Victoria 4.2 base:DIM:Download to install 41 seconds
manual 56 seconds
Like i said seconds.
(system specs, 1.5Gb/s net, centrino laptop, pata drive)
Part perception, part reality.
IF i was doing a large batch install, it might save some time, but on a file for file basis, and due to my customized setup, it doesn't cut it.
Also since my production system is offline, it's moot anyway.
Well, I consider cutting the time over 25% significant, even if it's only 15 seconds for one file. Just being able to select all for mass download and letting it download in the background will save a ton of time over having to click on each file to download.
BTW, you can download on one machine, copy it over to the offline machine, and install it there.
And even if you're rearranging the files, you still have to unzip to a dummy location -- just doing that is enough for DIM to be able to tell you about updates, even if you then move the files elsewhere.
Not that you have to use DIM, but I just like to make it known that DIM doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing choice. You can use DIM for part of the process, without having to give up your own custom approach.
Thanks refsocrd1....good stuff. I finally got around to reading up on all this, including your excellent writeup (the clearest explanation I've found, BTW...), and, for me the bottom line is.... I give up.... :)
Now I consider myself at least a reasonably intelligent guy who has been around computers and 3D apps for quite a while, but honestly I just can't wrap my head around all of this. Especially since DIM and CMS came in and muddied the waters.
For those of us who have a lot of "old" content, and after reading so many stories of people who have attempted to tackle this issue, and have taken days/weeks/months trying to sort it all out, for me it just ain't worth it.
Yeah, I suppose if you figure out how to organize the old content runtimes like you describe, and figure out what to do with all the DAZ Studio runtime stuff that appears as empty folders in Carrara, and decide how you're gonna segregate your DIM-installed stuff from the other old stuff, and whether you're gonna use DIM to install or just download, and figure out some way to clarify the INSANE naming structure that the PA's have been giving to their content (I guess you're supposed to remember that the cool two person space ship thingy is located under "IFD Orion", or those V4 jeans are under "3D Wizard"), and somehow deal with those content items with a "!" as the initial character to force them to the top, and on and on, then you might have something.
But i think I'll just muddle along with, hell, I don't know what I'll get with all the manual vs. DIM installations. I just ain't smart enough or have the energy to figure it all out. And clearly DAZ ain't interested in users with old content, they want to make it easy to buy new content, so I ain't expecting much help on this in the future.
Thanks for the help.
I've never had DIM throw a warning about not using old runtimes.
And i've run it every messed up way i can come up with.
Up to creating my own custom manifests for rendo stuff for testing.
and that goes to a test folder that i've had a runtime in since last year, and has a mess in right now from testing stuff.
(time to delete and start over).
At least those are my findings from helping many people get out of horrible situations. ;)
I'll agree with the clean install of genesis/gen-content at each update.
Genesis can be an absolute pain when it comes to updates.
Mainly because if you don't make sure it's totally gone, there is invariably a remnant file that throws the usual errors.
Most everything else i haven't had any major problems(missing textures, broken geometry, etc) with.
And really i haven't seen a reason to update my runtimes with the newer DIM version when the EXE version are working fine.
That is of course non-genesis stuff.
This is of course mostly just my experience so take it for what it's worth.
Define '"...way faster."
For me though i've not found DIM to be that much faster.
It is faster than the old installers though.
as a simple case in point
Victoria 4.2 base:DIM:Download to install 41 seconds
manual 56 seconds
Like i said seconds.
(system specs, 1.5Gb/s net, centrino laptop, pata drive)
Part perception, part reality.
IF i was doing a large batch install, it might save some time, but on a file for file basis, and due to my customized setup, it doesn't cut it.
Also since my production system is offline, it's moot anyway.
Well, I consider cutting the time over 25% significant, even if it's only 15 seconds for one file. Just being able to select all for mass download and letting it download in the background will save a ton of time over having to click on each file to download.
BTW, you can download on one machine, copy it over to the offline machine, and install it there.
And even if you're rearranging the files, you still have to unzip to a dummy location -- just doing that is enough for DIM to be able to tell you about updates, even if you then move the files elsewhere.
Not that you have to use DIM, but I just like to make it known that DIM doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing choice. You can use DIM for part of the process, without having to give up your own custom approach.
All valid points, and i agree that most people can do this.
I can't.
Mainly because my poor laptop is my test bed and the drive gets reimaged about once a month.
I download as soon as i purchase anyway, i never hit the DIM.
i know the button is there, but unless i have DIM installed at the time, and linked to my account, it's not gonna do much good.
But this is just me and my particularly peculiar situation.
The main thing i'd like to know is if the DIM tells ya what the update is before you download it or not?
The only time DIM throws up a warning is when you select the folder as an install path. Perhaps you clicked past the warning without noticing?
But you're probably right about all of the update stuff. I'm really numb to all of the reasoning - I just say: "go ahead" without asking why?
I became overly impressed with the tool when I put it to use, downloading and installing my entire DAZ Store collection. Compared to opening all of those zips and dragging there contents to the appropriate runtimes... it was a huge relief for me.
You really nailed it when you said "To each his own" or whatever your wording was. I just feel that the DIM got a bad rap from when folks tried using it on old directories or other mistreatment. It works great when used as it was designed to function. And it's very capable at making new, fresh runtimes and keeping them fresh and up to date - whatever up to date is. And it then gives us an amazingly simple ability to uninstall and reinstall to new, different locales. I like it. It also gives one single, scrolling list of all Daz products - with links to the read me files.
I have far more DAZ material than anything else - so it works great for me. Now I just have to get round to making new runtimes without the DAZ stuff for the other stuff I have - which won't take long.
never give up.
It's just a bit overwhelming when you think about the time it's going to take to get organized.
Think about it like this, how long did it take you to learn the 3d software you use?
Organization is like that.
It's a learned skill.
Sometimes a very painfully learned skill.
Just take an hour or so each day or week.
Try not to think about how massive your runtime is. I get bewildered everytime i look in that drive.
I just take it one file at a time.
Kinda like eating an elephant.
As far as DIM and CMS making things as clear as mud.
Take them out of the equation.
Since I'm talking about working from folder and file level, neither is particularly useful for that.
Once you get an organization system figured out(write it down), and stick with it it'll become second nature.
Going back to your earlier posts, i'd love to have some software that would take care of this problem for us.
That will never happen due to the inconsistent, incomprehensible, and insane variations that content creators can come up with.
If There were specific rules that had to be followed for poser and daz we wouldn't be stuck with this disaster area, and cleaning up other peoples poop.
A personal thought on naming convetions.
What nutter thinks it's ok to name something the same as something else, or just use a generic term?
i mean crap at this point i think i have 150+ files named SWORD.
How hard would it be to put the name of the sword to it, and or just a 1 or 2 letter identifier.
and i won't get started on the pose sets.
or having characters with the exact same name, but just in different folders.
In closing, don't give up, try different things to organize your content.
Mine works for me, but may not work for you, or anybody else.
You'll get the elephant choked down, but you may have to put it in the fridge for a bit as you go.
I totally agree DIM is a tool.
If you don't understand how it works, or is intended to work, it'll cause more problems than it solves.
Just like Smart content, and CMS, i absolutely love the concepts.
When they work right , they're great.
When your runtimes have less and less meta data, smart content goes right out the window.
CMS is a great organizational tool. Until 3 months of work gets flushed.
The cms thing was one of the major reasons i started playing around with the runtimes and developing my current runtime setup.
It's organized on a folder/file level predominately the same way i had stuff setup in CMS.
Now i don't have to worry about backing up the Database, or copying the file over from the Cms to make sure they don't get ganked again.
Now i just have to worry about a hard drive crash.
That i can deal with a lot easier then trying to figure out why cms won't reimport everything or wait 24+hours for it to get done reimporting the user data. or having to do one user data file at a time because it crashes mid way through.
rebuilding a raid array is a lot easier.
I do like learning how others deal with this kind of insanity.
It always gives me a new perspective on things.
TO bad there's no simple solution for any of this.
we can always hope.
bummer.
Thanks to all for this thread. Ref, you said
A personal thought on naming convetions.
What nutter thinks it’s ok to name something the same as something else, or just use a generic term?
i mean crap at this point i think i have 150+ files named SWORD.
How hard would it be to put the name of the sword to it, and or just a 1 or 2 letter identifier.
and i won’t get started on the pose sets.
or having characters with the exact same name, but just in different folders.
I so agree! There are a couple of artists items where this is a real problem for DS content which I use in Carrara. If a texture has a same name from one item to another under that artists name, it's a pain as the folder it may be in is also named the same, and the next tier up, the folder is named for the artist!!!
All of you have motivated me to clean up my files. I have completely lost Homo Erectus. I unstalled it then reinstalled it via DIM both times. I thought sometimes certain DAZ content won't work in Carrara, but Homo Erectus won't even work in DS 4.6 ! There's just a big exclamation point in the Content Library. It used to work a while back. Haven't a clue how to get it sorted. Maybe will do a manual install when there's time.
My biggest question from reading all these posts. Does having messed up runtime folders slow down Carrara loading time and saving time or scenes? My file is only 300MB but it takes a full 3-5 minutes to open or save the file. There is a lot of dynamic Carrara hair on almost all of the figures.. I have removed some of the large textured items, like cave walls/rocks/floor and just left the figures to work with until they look the way I want, but removing the scenery made no difference.
Thanks again for discussing this... all topics seem to either give me a woo-hoo eureka or an oh-bollox-bugger moment. The more I learn the more I learn I don't know and probably never will!
:) Cheers, SileneUK
Something else, which is by far DIM's best feature is the ability to resume an interrupted download, just like any other download manager. Don't know whether it's our 3rd world internet connections, or Daz'z overloaded servers, but I get a lot of interrupted downloads from Daz. I have a suspicion that it is Daz's servers, because I don't have this problem with other sites
The download speed is a lot faster than a normal download for me and when I get that frequent and misleading "Download failed", I simply click on it and the download resumes from where it was interrupted. Studio, for some reason is particularly bad - it gave four interruptions during the download and if it wasn't for DIM, I would never have got it in.
Now that I've finally worked out how to get it to install where I want it to - content on an external drive, it is really going well - seems to me that what is needed is to start from scratch and allow DIM to do the heavy lifting. If not, when it shows stuff ready to download, I won't know whether it is an updated version, or the original which hasn't been DIM downloaded.
What I'm doing to get my messy runtimes sorted is to get rid of everything I'e ever downloaded from Daz and let DIM install. I'll then have three runtimes all on my external drive - My Daz Library, Poser content and Other.
.
On the H.E. you might try checking where it installed in DIM.
And make sure the particular directory is mapped in carrara.
I've ganked a few installs by not paying attention(ok way more then i'll admit to) to where it gets installed.
One thing i mentioned earlier is the Swap folder on the desk top.
I use it as much for testing newly installed content, before it hits my working runtimes.
It's an added step, but it helps me.
And if you are using DIM, you can set that as your default directory.
Just Kick it over to your working runtime(s) after you're sure it works.
I did check that out, and it shows up under POSE>Mec4d.
I'll try testing this one out, and see if there's a glitch.
Thanks again for discussing this... all topics seem to either give me a woo-hoo eureka or an oh-bollox-bugger moment. The more I learn the more I learn I don't know and probably never will!
:) Cheers, SileneUK
Ok, this one is a bit easier.
It's not the runtime, it's the actual scene size.
The .car maybe 300 mb, but the actual scene maybe a couple gigs or more.
What i'd say off the top of my head is that your comp is dumping the scene into virtual memory.
Here's a way to check to see if i'm FOS on this or not.
If you're on a WIndows based machine, Pull up Task Manager(ctrl+shft+Esc).
You'll have to switch to the Processes tab.
With carrara open, and the scene loaded, look at what the memory usage is.
Both physical and virtual.
If the virtual is larger than the physical for the scene, it probably means that the OS is dumping it into virtual memory.
Virtual memory is actually a swap file created by the OS on your hard drive.
Short of a high speed ssd, or Raptor type drive it'll take longer to to save the file.
It also could be the dynamic hair.
I haven't played with that much, so somebody with more experience might be able to help on that possibility.