File Formats for Dummies (i.e., me)

EllieJonesNZ

My sister wants to stay home with her kids and then switch careers, so she gave me her entire hard drive of graphic design resources, including a ton of Daz/Poser content. I have always used Cinema 4D and have a little experience with iClone. Daz is still a mystery to me, though I am figuring it out while trying to organize her files (I don't know how she used them like this). I have Content Gatherer, which is at least a blessing, but more like a necessity. And I have read the articles about file formats, but I think I need someone to explain a few things to me like I'm a child. I need to put things in Content-Daz and Content-Poser root folders for my own sanity...

First, I have several folders that contain only .duf and .png files. Those are current Daz formats, right? So they can go in Content-Daz, as they won't show up under Poser content?

Secondly, I have several folders that contain .dsa, .png and a Poser format (cr2, hr2, etc.). Are these Poser formats that have been made to work in Daz? If so, do they require the original Poser files to work?

Finally, I have started organizing by working my way through one content type - in this case, hair - and creating a list for myself as I go. I have hair that is in hr2 format, some in cr2 format, and some in pp2. Some of it is in multiple formats - for example, I have Melite as both hair and character. Do I need to keep both of these? I guess the question is: is there some reason hair would be easier or better to use as a character or prop, or was there just a time when the hair format didn't exist, and these are leftovers?

I know you pros have probably answered questions like this over and over, but I'd really appreciate the advice. I already know I have inherited a gold mine, as some of this content is just amazing. It's just hard to use flung all over the place as it is.

Richard Haseltine

First, check that the stuff you have been given allows transfer to a new user. For Daz, open a support ticket and with luck the items can be moved to your account so that you will get updates (though I can't promise anything). With content or applications from elsewhere the appraoach will vary.

It's a little hard to speak with certainty - though you don't have to separate the formats, only the items in the \Runtime\Libraries folders will appear under Poser Formats and DAZ Studio Formats will hide the Runtime folder so there's no scope for confusion. Generally, though, you are right, a Poser format file plus a .dsa, .dsf or .duf file (and thumbnail) means you have a loader script or materials preset that will be loaded instead of the Poser file - you need the Poser file to see the DS file, and you may need the Poser file to load the content (for example, a cr2 or a pp2 with a .dsa file usually represents a script that loads the Poser file and applies DS materials).

fixmypcmike

First off, if you aren't using the same Daz 3D account as your sister, you'll want to submit a ticket to customer support to get your content moved to your account.  For items not purchased from Daz 3D, you should check with the place they were purchased -- Daz 3D might allow the content to be transferred to a family member, but items purchased elsewhere might not be.

,duf is the current Daz Studio format, and .dsa/.dsb/.dse/.daz/.ds are older Daz Studio formats.  Nrmally those will go in the DS-format content folders (i.e. not under Runtime); however, in some cases you'll find DS formats alongside Poser formats in the Runtime folder -- in this case the Poser-format file is required, but DS will use the DS-format file instead.  Sometimes the DS file loads the Poser file and adjusts settings; in other cases the Poser file isn't used directly, but is required for the files to show inside Daz Studio.

Hair in .cr2 format is called conforming hair -- it fits to the figure like clothing does.  This is generally longer hair, which needs to follow movements in the shoulders and chest.  Hair in .hr2 or .pp2 format is not conforming -- it sits on the head, and can have morphs to modify its shape.

You can use the same content location for both DS-format and Poser-format content -- the DS-format content will be outside of Runtime and the Poser-format content will be inside Runtime.

Szark

does this http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/artzone/pub/tutorials/poser/poser-misc41 help

EllieJonesNZ

Well, she told me that she checked with Daz beforehand, but there seems to be a lot of stuff from free sites and from Renderosity. A lot of the files have bad file paths, like ":creator:filename.jpg" instead of ":runtime:textures:creator:filename.jpg". I hope Daz wouldn't sell them that way. Like I said, I'm not sure how she used a lot of these, unless she was constantly searching out the .obj and image files. But it is close to 250 gb of files, so I may not ever know what all is in there and get them all organized. That is one reason I didn't want to keep duplicate items with different formats if there is no reason to do so.  Thanks for the info on the hair and the file types. I think I finally understand what each file is for!

SpottedKitty

EllieJonesNZ said:

A lot of the files have bad file paths, like ":creator:filename.jpg" instead of ":runtime:textures:creator:filename.jpg".

Chances are, these are all (hopefully) fairly old and probably free items made for Poser — that used to be a very common wrong way to define texture file paths. The problem is, those paths weren't (very) wrong ten years ago; Poser has a built-in tolerance for many weird and wonderful ways to completely and utterly mess up file setups, so it found the linked file paths anyway. D|S has always been less forgiving, and several versions back the auto-hope-for-the-best function was finally removed altogether (it never really worked right for a lot of people).

Just to confuse things, though, sometimes D|S will find files with dud links. I've never been able to figure out how, or why, or what pattern there might be when it does work.

One thing to watch out for — in many cases, "duplicate items with different formats" aren't actually duplicates, they're different parts of the complete item, that gets split up into sections and stored separately; the actual object mesh data, morphs, textures etc., and finally the scene, figure or prop files that pull them all together to make an object that appears in the Viewport. They're all necessary parts of the whole thing.