What needs to be re-installed?

Ken OBanion

I recently had to upgrade my operating system (from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1 -- it was pretty much forced on me, and I won't disturb you with the details because they would, well, disturb you). As expected, the upgrade clobbered the registry, and 86-ed all of my applications.

I was able to re-install most of my apps (the upgrade was certainly good for cleansing my system of unnecessary, outdated, and generally useless crap, I will acknowledge), and I discovered, to both my delight and chagrin, that my 3-D content folders were left unmolested; delight, because I didn't have to restore them, and chagrin, because I spent the better part of two days backing everything up, in anticipation of having to do exactly that! Oh, well, better safe than sorry, right?

Anyway, my question: I have a lot of DAZ Studio plugins: Gen X, Mimic Live, Subsurface Shader Base, Dynamic Clothing Control, Reality, Decimator, und so weiter.... Which of these needs to be re-installed (and, in the case of Reality, re-registered, which is a whole 'nother issue!), and which are safely in the content libraries?

Richard Haseltine

I think SSS should eb OK if you still have your content folders - as I recall it's a compiled Shader Mixer shader and has its core files in the Data folder. Other shaders and plugins have files in the application folder, though if you still have the original application folder the files should be present - the DAZ-branded plugins should simply need the serial number entering in help>About Installed plug-ins, the others with more complex registration processes will probably need reregistering.

JonnyRay

My problem when I went to re-install was that some of the things I had previously purchased are included in DS 4.x ... so I have a feeling I have things installed that I don't need, and could cause conflicts if I tried to use them. :(

SpottedKitty

Yes, that's one of the reinstall gotchas, if you have a separate plugin installer, but the plugin is now built into D|S, the built in version is almost always newer than the separate one. If you run the out-of-date separate installer, there is a remote chance that the plugin will actually work, but... :shut:

Unfortunately, the easiest (and usually quickest) way to fix this is to reinstall D|S. That will replace the plugin files with the proper versions.

sriesch

If your applications have been cleared out, keep in mind you will need to reinstall some products that are half content and half in the DS program folder. For example, pwGhost. (actually that's the only one I know for sure.)

Richard Haseltine

Almost all shaders* (the exception being Shader Mixer shaders saved as a shader asset) and all plug-ins will require reinstall for that reason, if you've losy the original \Scripts, \Shaders, \Resource and \Plug-ins folders.

* actual shaders, not shader preset-products mis-described as shaders.

Ken OBanion

Richard Haseltine said:

Almost all shaders* (the exception being Shader Mixer shaders saved as a shader asset) and all plug-ins will require reinstall for that reason, if you've losy the original \Scripts, \Shaders, \Resource and \Plug-ins folders.

* actual shaders, not shader preset-products mis-described as shaders.

And that's a fairly large part of my question: I'm not at all sure of just what, exactly, I have and have not lost, given the positively Byzantine nature of the DAZ Studio directory hierarchy -- where things are installed, whether within the application's hierarchy itself, or in the content library. (Or someplace else entirely!)

So far, I haven't seen anything that is glaringly missing, but that's no proof that something isn't. (Made even more complicated by the fact that, in the decade or so that I've been accumulating content, I really don't know where half of it is; hell, I don't know WHAT half of it is!)

I just didn't want to have to start from scratch, and re-install some 240+ gigabytes of content, for both DAZ Studio and the various incarnations of Poser I've used over the years.

Actually, the Poser stuff isn't really an issue -- if it's a Python-based plug-in, it is no longer usable in my current environment; issue resolved (although not necessarily to my satisfaction!) Otherwise, just add the libraries and blaze gaily forward.

Richard Haseltine

Anything pw... or uber/om.... should be an actual shader and need reinstalling.

Jaderail

The Fastest way to check what Plugins are included is Help>About Installed Plugins. Then you know which ones will need a exe install. All that list at first open are included in DAZ Studio at default.