Help with Gen2 and Gen3 essentials
Midyin
Posts: 221
Ok, so this will be a long kinda complicated problem.
for some reason even though I'm logged into your WebSite and I'm logged into your Downloader/installer every time I try to use your installer I get a message telling me
"the account in question is not set up in installer"(I guess all my content got from your store to my PC via wizards), so I decided Screw it, I'll install manually.
I Downloaded the packs I needed and unzipped them into the same place I unzip everything I have to do a manual install too(and they all work), but for some reason anytime I try to run Gen2Male, Gen2Female, or Gen3Female I get a message telling me I need files.
(For Genesis2 Male I need "Genesis2Male.dsf"
for Genesis2 Female I need "Genesis2Female.dsf"
& Genesis 3 Female I need "PHMMouthRealismHD.dsf", "Genesis3Female.dsf", & "PBMNavel.dsf")
then it loads up some kind of creepy gray box-monster from PC Hell...
whats going on here? Why won't my store account talk to you Downloader, and why are you downloadable packs missing files?
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Comments
Did you configure the DIM?
You need to manually add your account information to it...
And the reason you are getting the boxes is because you have the items installed in a location that they aren't being looked for OR you have them installed (or partially installed) twice. Can you post a screenshot of your mapped content folders? (Edit > Preferences > Content Libray > Content Directory Manager).
Oh wow... Ok, I can't host an image here, so I'll have to find a place to post the pic, then link you to it.
Also, I tried the trouble shooter. And it said that if my Account email for the DAZ store is different at all from the account info of the Download Manager, that could cause problems.
so I checked and surely enough mi Email was spelled with a capital letter my store account, so I changed that and changed my password(something else the Help FAQ suggested), my account seems to be talking to the Download Manager now, so I uninstalled Gen2 Male, Gen2 Female, and Gen3 Female, then reinstalled them via the Download Manager...
i went into DAZ to check if that worked, but ALL my smart content is MIA now, so I been looking, but can't find any of the Genesis Figures.. lol
To post an image use "Attach a file", which is just above the Post Comment button.
File too big? WTF? lol
How big is it, and what graphics format?
this?
If you're using the default install location in DIM, you need to add:
C:\Users\Public\Documents\My DAZ 3D Library
to DS under "DAZ Studio Formats" and "Poser Formats".
and that will bring back my missing Smart Content? or is that for intalling Gen2 and Gen3?
After doing that re-import metadata to get your smart content back
I got my smart content back, but after all that i'm still having the same problem...
Exact same message, missing Genesis.dsf?
yep
Ok, this stuffs rediculous. I manually downloaded all the WINZIP files. I usually just unzip things to "C:\Users\Nicholas\Documents\DAZ 3D\Studio\My Library" and it just works like it should, but i guess this stuffs packaged wrong(or at least diffrent) so where do i unzip this crap to?
When you manually unzipped did you remove everything from the Content folder in the zip, or did you pace the Content folder in the My Library folder?
I just opened it and unzipped it. so the Content folder is probably chilling in my My Library folder.
[Rant Removed by user, now that he is calm and thinking clearly]
I'm tired. I'm going to go pack and lay down to try to get some sleep before I have to leave, then I guess I'll be back next weekend to fight with this crap again..
Nothing, huh?... I was hopeing there might be an answer or at least a detailed work-around for how to fix this seeing on how the Installer is obviously junkposted on here by the time I got back home...
I'll keep looking then..
I have to say though. this entire experiance has made me gunshy of ever wanting to buy anything else from this place. I mean, if I buy it, but it wont install right, then that A good chunk of money(cause a lot of things here are pretty pricey) that I may as well fed to my uncles Goat..
The folder "Content", is, for some stupid reason, still used by many installers. You don't need that folder at all, just the contents within it.
(Why they use it... To add non-model crap to bloat the zip-file with spam and complex "manual install info" for the stuff inside the "contents" folder. To a programmer, that somehow seems logical. To the rest of the non-programmers, the majority, it is just another layer of confusion. Since they also put that same junk inside the readme folder, and sometimes a level above the zip in another zip... That is how you end-up with "Runtime/runtime/wrong-locations-content" and "contents/runtime/data/data/wrong-location-contents".)
Even if things are done correctly. Some items are NOT packaged correctly for distribution. They work on the creators computer because they have stupid custom folder-trees like... "D:/My stuff/My Daz things/My projects/my userID/my item name/file with same stupid name.duh"
Then in the installer, it is packed as "Runtime/data/userID/productID/product.wtf", but the files inside have stupidly recorded "D:/My stuff/My Daz things/My projects/my userID/my item name/file with same stupid name.duh" as the location for the other files that "product.wtf" needs, and you may not even have a "D:/" drive to simulate that stupid path. (You have to edit the files manually. Some are "rar" files, not "zip". You have to rename them to product.wtf.rar, then extract the file inside, called product.wtf... Then edit that with wordpad, and put it back, or just dump the product.wtf.rar file after. Don't use notepad, you will kill it trying to read the large files, and it may "cut-off" the end of the file if you try to save it. Wordpad is nearly unlimited and faster for text editing, and it displays the improper CR-only line terminators. Correct format is LF-CR, Line-feed/Carraige-return, or reverse that for MAC/Linux/Unix.)
I am doing this now... Total nightmare to do...
TIP: Use ":" instead of "\" or "/"... It is a universal folder marker. ":Runtime:Folder1:Folder2:Filename.ICU"
They also use %20 for " " [Space], for some stupid reason, bloating the file and causing some issues when locating and searching for, and loading some files. URI junk is stupid to include in "files" that are not HTML. Not sure why they are in there, this stuff doesn't have to be web-safe for URL's. All PC's use ISO formats for characters, if they detect non-standard ASCII and non-ANSI or non-UTF-8 or non-UNICODE.
Whatever... xD
It's a cluster-mess, after years of not following standards, or reinforcing standards, and following objective opinion, integrating it into the results you see within "Runtime", which is a redundant non-existent location, also bloating-up the files, every file...
They still structure things like it's 1990... Then throw a database into the mix, and external installers, when this should all be handled internally. (You shouldn't need a database to make heads or tails of your own content. Adding another layer of bad-linking to things all over, encouraging poor standards, reinforcing confusion.)
Double-check all your main folders...
(All POSER stuff goes ONLY into "Runtime". Well, it should. That is where DAZ allows it to go, and be "found", when it can find it. Apparently it can't look anywhere but where the file says, and can't "correct wrong paths", when you tell it exactly where the missing thing are actually located.)
If you have a folder in "Runtime" called "Runtime", all that stuff inside needs to back-up into the actual "Runtime", the inner one is an accidental install from someone who doesn't know how to setup folders inside zips correctly, or gave everyone poor install instructions.
Same with the designated "Daz only" folders that should NOT be within the runtime, which is where daz will not attempt to look for DAZ content. Another stupid thing... What is the purpose of looking and using file-extensions if you are just going to ignore them and pretend that duf file in the wrong folder isn't yours/ours/a-product-to-display...
When you get an error, on loading something... First check where it THINKS it should be looking... The file may actually be there. If it is, it may not "see it", if the file telling it to look there, has a type-o, like "FileNameWithCapS.obj" May have to be... "Filenamewithcaps.obj" (Case sensitive... seriously, that died in the 70's.) Also check for this common error... "File:" " "C:/something" (Extra quote, it is looking for file " " (Nothing), also Remove anything before the first folder after "Where your files are", and put "Runtime:first-folder-that-isn't-your-runtime-install-location".
What other odd things...
Oh yea, version duplication... "Multiple ID's detected", or whatever... Usually means that you have two of the same file, same object... If not someone just randomly ALSO using that same name and location... (Lack of standards), then it is from one being V0.4 and one being V0.5, or higher. Something, or a manual install, didn't remove the older file. (Usually because of lack of standards, and the new version was stupidly given a whole new name, but the "contents", identify both as "This green sock". Or, one is from BOB, and one is made from JOE, and both belong, but they can't exist in the same folder location. More poor standards and odd rules there.)
{Note, this rarely happens with DAZ items, as they resolve the issue, though they didn't follow their non-existent standards, and usually end-up just breaking BOB and JOE's socks, when they decide to make a pair for themselves. Breaking the other guys products, and just telling you to ignore it, or remove the other socks until BOB or JOE fixes the issue by moving the content, if they still exist at that time.}
Try doing this with my archive... Over 5000 items... Installers are my nightmare, all that freaking clicking!
Here is a quick solution... Novel concept... (Talking to DAZ, not you... This will not work, that I know-of, at the moment...)
No installs unless something needs to actually modify something outside of its own contents. Just a simple ZIP-FILE with the "Paths" inside of it, with all the folders and contents being where they need to be, but we NEVER unzip it. Windows and MAC and Linux/Unix all have native zip-folder ability. (The ability to instantly see inside and extract, as if they were just normal folders, any content within. Even search and CRC-match/check.)
Poof, no more confusion... My socks are in my folder and BOB's socks are in his, and it doesn't matter if they are the same name, because YOU don't care about where it is, when it is in the scene, in memory, where you got it from is irrelevant. You only load one at a time. No accidental "oops, I re-wrote over Victoria7 with my-personal-version#3 of Victoria4, since Victoria7 didn't exist years ago, but now it does. Nor would my Victoria7 get wiped-out when you create one. Your metadata will not match mine, and makes mine unique to all others, as I, Creator BOB, have created BOB-Victoria7, not DAZ-Victoria7, But all we see is two Victoria7's, mine and yours, in the smart-content. Oh, and Sue's "Vic To Ria 7", The new transgender-morph of Vic, into Ria... with the same short name, "Victoria7".
It shouldn't ever matter where anything is, and no paths should ever be needed, and nothing should ever be allowed to be "user allocated" within "system files"... The system should place everything where IT needs it to be, within the system-files. If you want it back out, or uninstalled, it already knows what to do, because IT installs and uninstalls all content. It just packs it up for you into a nice ZIP, for "distribution", so it can digest it on another person's computer and place the files where they need to go, on that person's computer. (Standards, point-blank. Do not touch! Period. Ask, and we will give you what you want, or dissect the original zip and play with that, outside of daz-system folders.) But, for OUR stuff, it should not matter, as long as we tell it where everything is. It just duplicates it into the system, with unique names that are irrelevant to any user-names, as only the METADATA is what matters. (More standards. Requirements for use and distribution, how novel!)
Poser stuff... Eat it up and swallow it the same way. If it is needed. If not, don't eat it! (If there is a daz-version existing or available, you don't need to eat the poser version. If there is no daz-version, then you eat those unique items.)
Okay, done with my TLDR... Hope something in there was useful. I forgot the question...
Trying to sort out some of JDs answers here:
As DAZ Studio was written to load Poser content, but also wanted to handle it’s own content, and Poser did not like getting files added to it’s application folder (where Runtime was originally kept), DS added a wrapper called Content that rally mimics the Poser Application Folder. The basic rule is, things that are common between Poser and DAZ Studio (and Carrara for that matter) is located in the Runtime subtree, like for example Textures as you don’t want to have duplicate sets of textures for items usable both in Poser and DAZ Studio. Other things like shader settings, DAZ Studio props and most important the DAZ Studio base information and the auto converted information is stored in the data-folder. One of the reasons for conversations is that Poser use the size of 1 unit in the .obj.-file is 7 feet-ish (changed between versions), while DAZ Studio uses a more logical scale of one unit = 1 cm. Meshes has to be rescaled when loading them from Poser content.
This isn’t at all an “universal folder marker”. The reason for using : as path separator in Poser files is pretty simple, Poser was developed on Mac OS, and HFS+ (the Mac OS file system) used : as path separator, and a path beginning with : means “subpath under the working directory”, and as I wrote above, in the beginning, Runtime was located in the Poser application folder, which when running Poser, was the current WD (Working Directory).
DAZ Studio do look for it’s files inside the Poser “Runtime”, if they are at the correct place. In :Runtime:libraries:Props… if you have a Poser .pp2 and a DS .duf , DS will load the .duf file while Poser will load the .pp2 file. The main reason this is only happening lately is that Poser users are notoriously unhappy when they have files in their Runtimes that older Poser versions choked on.
That’s not entirely true, of you are talking of the Duplicate ID error. That error was due to a bug in DAZ Studio 4.5.0.3 (if I remember the version correctly) which accidentally used the same ID in two places in the .duf file. There is a script available that weeds through your Content and updates .duf files to get rid of that error.
And back to the Original Poster - your problems with DIM is most likely that you haven’t agreed to the terms of service (which is a link opened from DIM in you web browser to a page in the store where you have to agree to the terms of service, EULA, (which basically tells you don’t upload what you download on pirate bay and tons of other things).
Correct, it "also", was a bug... But I still get it, with the suggested "fixes" and patches. I can cite specific instances, including things you can test yourself.
I have many genitals... Not personally, as content. (Don't ask. xD)
"Genisis Female Anatomy" is a common thing to ID it as, and stick it in the "People/Genesis/Anatomy/" path... Including the OBJ and mappings and images/materials. Naturally, where you expect to find your missing Barbie-gina parts. Had three versions in there. All three were unique, but one ID'd itself as just "Genitals", as the #Geometry and names within. The other two had exact names, but one was V4.0 and one was V0.6 (The V0.6 was the most recent one, and there was a fourth-component object, the V0.4 of the V0.6 model, which remained, because the V0.4 had a date from a month-ago, when it was installed, but the new file had an "Original date" of ...2014... and the file-name for a few components and the loading-file, were not matching. A big cluster-mess from non-daz stuff.)
None would load, and all gave duplicate ID errors, which is a generic error, that came-up for many, when there was ALSO a bug. I still get that error on a few things, due to reloading things "out of order", and windows stupid date-issue making old stuff look newer then many new things, as it changes the date depending if you just "Move" or "Copy" or "Freshly unzip" or "Unzip from temp-folders"...
Yes, DAZ did a GREAT thing by allowing the easy integration with POSER content, but in the process, everyone messed it up, because they could. Many still don't know... (As per this post, and the hundred thousand other posts, and various varieties in installers and instructions.)
I deal with non-daz stuff all day long, and poser, and my own crappy locations. (I am guilty of not following unknown standards that others don't follow too.) However, where there are clear standards, or there is no possibility of manual intervention/hacks, to get content into things, I never have any problems. (Such is with the Daz-Installer, if you get all your files sequentially, and keep them installed and ordered for installing sequentially. But out of order, and all the errors show-up again. That isn't "fixing the bug", that is "providing a workaround"... But it works, until it doesn't.)
Any-who...
I still have no idea where it places all my stuff. I have to hunt for it, after I make anything. That, I imagine, is part of what is leading to much of this. Not just people randomly placing things into folders, but DAZ placing things you create, all over, and us attempting to recreate the locations IT has placed all of our stuff.
Literally, I was poking around in the thousands of folders in the tree-view, and found a bunch of things I made, and saved... Had no clue it ALSO added them there, and some things I never found, but now I stumble across them when I try to find actual stuff I need, that isn't mine. Turn a corner and POOF, "Oh, that's where my morphs went. That's where my scenes were saved..."
Clarity, intuitiveness and ease, are not DAZ's strong points. Ten steps to do anything, and constant flipping back and forth between tabs, menus and windows, just to complete simple tasks. On top of burring content in seemingly random places, and then forgetting where everything is, leaving us constantly digging through menus for reset and cleaning and rebuilding of the database. (One button, if it's that constant, or just do it automatically, every few days, in the background.)
P.S. Wow, you read all my banter and babble. You deserve an award just for that! (Great additions too... I forgot about the bug thing. Adding this little note about the POSER statement. The files are retained, even if you don't have poser, but have a DAZ version... So that you can use the poser-version with poser stuff, in the event that you have poser-stuff that doesn't have a DAZ counter-part... as many of my BDSM outfits, toys and genitals, animations, etc... do not work with the DAZ version of that same model. Something to do with the feet-bones, they tell me...)
P.P.S. Keeping 5000 installers and uninstallers, and the content is not an option. This stuff is so bloated, I have 1TB full, just for installed content. I am constantly downgrading all the EYEs images to 256x256 from 4096x4096, because they don't need that much data in a pixel or two. I make scenerey, not eye-glass comercials for billboards at 10Kx10K resolution. Plus, I am constantly removing all the duplicate files, replacing them with hard-links, so only one file exists but it doesn't break the hard-coded paths in the files. That also protects the images if I place another hard-link in my backup folder. I can delete the original links and the file remains, as long as one hard-link still exists.. but it is only ever just ONE file, not a duplicate. (I copy those to another drive, which you can't hard-link to. So it forces it to duplicate the images.)
It is also bad practice to "zip" every individual file, when one zip with all the files gives you better compression, and not more header-bloating, to save 1K from 40K. I need to save GB, not MB. xD
Please be aware that changing the text background can make it unreadable to those using the dark theme. http://prntscr.com/87ji9s ~Mod
I have 9100 items through DIM and another 1500 from other sources in two library directories and I I DIM for all DAZ content and my own RendoInstall for thirdParty content and I have very few problems. The one I find I report, and mostly they are one of the following;
(a) Path in the cr2 / pp2 / duf file start like C:\Runtime.... and not with /Runtime or :Runtime (often Poser content as Poser will just take a while longer but find the referensed item anyway. The downside with helpful software, it makes you create crap without knowing it
(b) Path in file is Runtime:Textures:... instead of :Runtime:Textures. (See above)
(c) Path is :Runtime:Textures:PAName:Product where the files are stored in :Runtime:Textures:PAName_Product (mos probably a packing issue, or someone renamed the files in :Textures after testing
And the main issue with clearity is that Poser was written in mid 1990s and the file system hasn't really evolved since. And I found another issue in your rant, about case insensitive filenames. That was never a problem on DOS as it had 8.3 letters, but many modern file systems are case sensitive, so it does matter if the content will work on a modern case sensitive file system.
I just hate how cmplicated things are. if is so complicated that DAZ's download manager cant even Install it right, then DAZ made it it too complicated...
Its like the programmers are just assuming EVERYONE is a programmer. but I'm not a programmer.. I'm a diagnosed Schizophenic and a self proclaimed artist. I use DAZ to make art. I dont think in 1s and 0s I think in Abstract colors...
70+% of everything I been reading may as well be writen in German to me because I dont understand most of it. LOL
It's pretty darn simple.
When you start DIM the first time, or after DAZ have updated the EULA (the End user License Agreement), DIM will open an URL (weblink) to a store page for you to accept the EULA. If your firewall or other security software installed prevents this, you need to let DIM do that.
I've installed things with the DLM before, and they worked, so I don't know what the deal is with this thing..
DAZ updated the EULA a couple of months back, and, there has been a fair warning in the shop a few days saying they have had problems with the orders, which noiw is solved.
EULA? the End of User License Agreement?... that just a contract, it has no impact on how the the rest of the software runs..
I cant patch a contract..
two posts up: " EULA (the End user License Agreement)"
Also, I used the DLM to install a couple of things last weekend(Gen2 and Gen3 were just the ones giveing me trouble), so I must allready have agreed to the new EULA, or those things wouldnt be working either..
You can try to hang this on me all you want, but it has to be the way they're packaged.. "Operater Error" is allways the easy excuse/compout for manufatueres, but when EVERYTHING ELSE works, but one or two products, then the Manufatuere has to nut-up and consider "Maybe its our fault."
If you installed them via DIM they will work. Missing .dsf files 99% of the time means DIM points to one location and DAZ Studio to another. What is the exact path you have configured DIM to install to, and what is the exact path DAZ Studio reads from.
Your screenshot says that DAZ Studio reads in:
C:/Users/Nicholas/Documents/DAZ 3D/Studio/My Library
and
C:/ProgramData/DAZ 3D/My Library
So, where does DIM install to?
this?