PZ2 files and DAZ 4.5
reelyor
Posts: 235
This has probably been mentioned before, and I apologize.
Does 4.5 not work with PZ2 files? I have loaded in some character files, and they are not recognized by the program. They installed correctly and are where they should be - they worked fine in DAZ 4.0
Is there a way to convert these files so thay they can be used in 4.5?
Thank you
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ok. I just ried "importing" the files, and they can be brought in. It seems the attendant .PNG files are not showing up, so they can't be found and clicked on to load the files. Can this be corrected?
The PZ2 and the PNG need to have EXACTLY the same name, and they need to be stored in a folder that DAZ Studio recognises as a Poser Formats folder, or they wont show at all. The best place to put them, would be in the Runtime folder inside My Library in the Pose folder in Libraries. They will be seen in there.
The first part of this is correct. Personal though, I loathe putting material files in a 'pose' folder, separate from the object the materials effect. It makes no logical sense to me. Yes I know and understand the mechanics behind why it was done but it still makes no more sense then sticking the gas pedal next to the carburetor for some 'mechanical' reason. It's idiotic. Not a comment against you or your suggestion Jimmy, just a reaction against what seems to be a knee jerk reaction by many to 'do it the way it's always been done.'
PZ2 are pose files, so need to be in the pose folder. Not because that is the way it's always been done, but because that is the only place they will work from.
You have to remember that Mat pose files are a hack invented by Poser users some years back to make it easy to apply textures.
And without that hack, before ... you got the jpg texture files and was told to apply them yourself.
;)
Thanks.
However, that is EXACTLY where I have placed the files, and the >png's all have the same name as their corresponding PZ2's. I have ssen where others have mentioned the same problem, but I haven't seen the respolution to the matter.
As I mentioned - the files work correctly in Daz 4.0 no problems. And I gan "import" a file individually and it will work. But it's a character file with MATS for textures, etc, and to do one at a time is a huge pain, and not how things were intended.
Is this a bug in 4.5, or a decision made to abandon the function? I have encountered (2) separate subjects, all with the same problem.
PZ2 files work as they always did for me in 4.5, what particular files are you having a problem with?
Is there any error message, and have you looked in the log file, Help > Troubleshooting > View Log File.
One is Die Trying's V4 Sandra
Another is Gianna character (I am at work and dont' have access to the maker). They are character files with injections and mats
Thanks
I downloaded Sandra by Die Trying at ShareCG, and it says the following on the download page :
I am not sure what that means in this context? I downloaded it, and installed to a Temp folder on my Desktop. I declared it as a Poser Runtime folder in DS 4.5, and I was abkle to load the character. I used the '01 Sandra INJ.PZ2' as the 00 version did not seem to work, perhaps the above quote applies?
I used some of the other MAT pose files in the image below.
ok - thank you JimmyC_2009. I wasn't aware there were 2 versions. I will check tonight and retry. Thanks to you at this point, I know it should work.
I do understand what the text means - Die Trying also had morphs that could be used to create the character.
I move pz2 files all the time and they work fine. These particular 'pose' files are acting to change 'surface materials' and can be placed in the characters folder as a subfolder of the item they modify, which makes a lot more sense to the average person.
I apologize if I come across poorly in this area but this caused me much distress to have to keep looking in a totally illogical place, the 'pose' folder to change the material applied to an item. I realize the history behind it, but it does *not* need to be there, and makes no logical sense for it to be there. I know I am not the only person who has had distress over this as I've seen much griping about it in the forums. No explanation of how 'it makes sense' is going to do anything but frustrate me further, as it does not, any more then giving programming names to items in an interface made for an end user.
It's absolutely not a bug, nor a decision to drop .PZ2s. If it was you would have seen an immense uproar as it would have made every 90% of prior purchases obsolete.
That leaves an error in the .PZ2s, or an error in the install. If you open the PZ2 in a text editor and search for .JPG you should be able to find the addresses of the textures, which should start with 'runtime'. You can then go and look to see if that file is in the correct location.
I know this was a while ago but in searching for my problem I found this thread which is related to my problem but the other way.
I am working with an old poser model (I think), the Digiport Elephant. I am trying to animate it through poses. Now all the poses that came with it are pz2 files. OK, fine they work great but..... I am trying to make poses of my own for it to gelp in animating.. I can't. When I go to "Save As - Pose Preset" the files all save as duf files. When I look in the content Library, pose window, where the other "Digi Elephant" poses are the new duf files do not show up. I refresh the window and still they do not show up. I looked around to see if pz2 was an option but I can't find anything.
I even tried to "save as deprecated/ Pose preset but there it only saves as dsa file, which also does not show up in the pose preset window.
Is it impossible yo save pose presets that will work with these types of models?
Thank You
Steve
DAZ Studio 4.5.1.6
For StevieD
If the folder you saved to is NOT listed as a Daz Studio AND a Poser file path then the Daz versions are not seen in DS. Check the Folder path you saved to and see if it is listed in your Content Management Preferences as both a DS folder and a Poser folder.
I hope this helps.
I'm not sure I understand. The old poses pz2 are in this folder and that folder and the old poses show up in Studio because I have been using those poses. So I put the new poses in that same folder because I want all the digiport elephant poses ( mine and the presets) to be in the same place. When I look in finder to that folder, all the poses, mine and theirs are in the fold but the duf files do not show up just the old pz2 files. I'm thinking that that folder is known to DS.
Thanks
Steve
From what I've seen, DUF files are DAZ Studio-specific files and should be placed in your library.
Typically it's located in C:\user\documents\daz3d\library, but correct me if I' m wrong.
I've never found it in the Poser-specific Runtime-folders.
And that is where the Pz2's are usually located IIRC.
Its entirely dependent on where u have them.
If you have the pz2's in DS native folders, they wont show up, coz this library is for DS native stuff only (so my library would be a DS structure, if its anywhere except in Runtime) It has to be in the runtime directory. Me personally, I have my Poser runtime added as its own directory in DS, which is linked from program files. But if you don't have that (or want to add an entire library) it should be placed inside the Runtime folders (in Runtime:Libraries:Pose) that are in your DAZ Studio 4 folder.
Conversely, if you're merging DS native files into the runtime folder in DAZ Studio, you need to have a .pz2 present, as well as a .png, for it to show up. So for example, I have an elephant mat. Its in my DS runtime. It should have Elephant.dsa, Elephant.pz2, Elephant.png
Here's a screenshot
What I'm trying to say is IF the folder you SAVED to is a POSER only READ in the DS folder path preferences then DS will not TRY to read the DS format files even if they exist. The Folder MUST be listed as BOTH a DS and a Poser folder in the DS paths for DS to look for the files. That is why the Default Paths in DS list the Default Content folder as BOTH. It allows DS to read the DS content INSIDE the POSER Runtime if it is pointed to it in the folder path. That is why DS material files can be read and loaded from the POSER>Pose>Mat section with a script that just swaps the auto load of the textures.
EDIT: That was the Default in DS3, I need to really test this in DS4.5. So I may be incorrect as I save DS files to a DS folder only.
First, thanks to everybody for helping out. Second, I don't know if this makes a big difference but I forgot to say I'm on a MAC. Thirdly, I started buying products and installing files without completely understanding how things work. I am still a lot of pennies short of a dollar in understating right now but I am getting better. I don't like it but I do get that poser files are different from DAZ studio files. I usually install both sets of files even though I don't have poser or use it.
Even though I think that they should be independent of each other, I have found times that when I didn't install the poser files that something (usually the texture) gets broken. Some files are obj or poser only, as well. I guess this is the price you have to pay for access to more variety of models. My problem, or what I am talking about, now, is in the runtime folder, set up just the way the structure should be. When I install them, I copy them exactly to the folders, the way they should be set up. I am very careful about that.
So what I am talking about here, this elephant, is a poser type asset. If I look into the DAZ studio section of my Library, I don't find anything to do with it in there. All assets are clearly, only in the runtime folder.
I guess what I am really wondering, is why can't I save the pose files for this Elephant in the same pz2 files that the preset pose files are in??? But duf is the only format that the poses can be saved (or maybe dsa) in DS. I don't even know that that format will work on this poser model. Will it?
It sounds like what some are saying is that If I want to save a pose, I have to save it as a duf file and because it won't be seen in the poser section. I have to save it into the DAZ Studio section EVEN Though all the other assets (including the preset pose pz2 files) are in the runtime section. Or as Jaderail suggests is this an other solution?? Using path preferences?
I am completely unaware of the "path preferences" as described. I didn't know that existed or that the folders were set so restrictively. I've peaked in but I did not see this.. I take it from this suggestion, that I really have to look into this and if I fix this, it will then see and read the duf files and will hence apply the pose. Does sound what you are suggesting? I can't try it until monday because I am not, now, where the computer is.
Thanks,
Steve
If you want Studio to read .duf files in a poser format folder, create a blank txt file, rename it exactly the same as the .duf and change the extension from .txt to .pz2.
For a long long time Studio can read Studio files from a Poser format folder, but only if there is also a poser format file (pz2) that matches.
You, know, this does work but WHY? I can't yet figure out why it works but in addition, it isn't perfect, either. First of all, you can't see the image of what the pose looks like. That would be nice.
So far, I haven't been able to figure out why it works. So I went further. I tried changing the DUF file extension to pz2 along with the image file of it. It did show up in the list but it didn't work as a pose preset. That's insane! A phony file with the exact name of the duf file allows the duf file to work but not the other way around? That doesn't make sense to me.
I'm going to play around with it more but if this makes sense to anyone, please let me know.
Thanks
Steve
If both formats exit DS will autoload the DS format. To get the Image you just copy the DS image and rename as follows..
DazItem.duf.pgn to DazItem.pz2.png then you have the Image too and the proper file will load as well.
This is really a convenience especially for those who have a lot of Poser only files and keep them in separate runtimes, or for those who use both Poser and Studio and have both Content/Libraries and Runtimes. Many Poser files if they support Studio, only have Studio mat files to apply Studio surface settings. They don't have Studio style data files. So, instead of loading an item from a runtime, then navigating to a content/library to apply materials, you can do it all in one place. In my 'runtimes' I put the material files in a sub-folder of the object they apply to whether they also have studio-style materials or not.
It's not supposed to work the other way around because that's what content/libraries are for. Studio won't set the script that reads duf files in motion unless there's a corresponding poser file in the folder. Otherwise people's content would become incoherent and wildly unmanageable for most users.
Just rename the existing png to match the duf and pz2 filename. You should end up with three files: filename.png, filename.duf (or filename.dsa for studio 3), and filename.pz2.
You know, I like that Idea.
I hate,,,,Hate how you have to do summersaults to find the various parts of the asset,, like materials and poses, etc. This would be so much better(and the way it should be) all together in one spot. The only problem is that I am afraid to break things and then spend days trying to put it all back together. I'll have to take some time to try to do the various renaming and moving.
I don't know how long it's going to take until I learn all these things but Thanks for being here to help.
Thanks
Steve
There are a couple of drawbacks that may or may not affect you if you move files around: uninstallers will no longer find the files to uninstall them (including the DIM if you use it) and if you depend on metadata, that won't work on the moved files either.
Whether or not you move your files around, Richard Haseltine's script will help with merging studio materials with the poser ones.
Prep DS files
Be sure to read the readme.
I'm not so much worried about the uninstaller. I haven't yet used the DIM because I hate change and I never started to use Smart Media or the Metadata because, in my thinking, if it won't work on all the content I have, why use at it all. I want things simple and consistent. I don't want to browse and load models one way for one kind of model and a different way for the other kind. That's silly to me.
I'll take a look at the script and see if I can figure it out.
Thanks
Steve
Background explanation: Poser came along before Studio and defined all the file formats ending in '2' or '3' (or 'z' for the occasional compressed version), Studio then came along and to use Poser files had to adopt the existing file formats. But Studio also added its own file formats (.DSF) to allow vendors to optimise files for Studio use. As there was usually a lot of overlap, and people wanted to minimize downloads, the standard was to have all the files in a PS installer, and just the extra ones in a DS installer - so if the two installers are significantly different sizes, you need both; if they are about the same size, they probably both contain the duplicate files, and so you can probably get away with just the DS installer. With DS4, DAZ decided to switch over to solely Studio based files (initially .DSF, later replaced by the updated .DUF, sometimes with separate metadata files), later creating a plugin to allow Poser to read .duf files (which meant an extra installer with 'Poser Companion Files'). And now DAZ are switching to .zip installers to work with the DAZ Installer and replace the earlier executable installers (though as it's a zip you can do everything manually). Files bought from other vendors are still predominantly Poser-based zips
So, you can be sure of things working by installing every installer available, but if you're installing only for DAZ you can ignore Poser Companion Files, and may be able to ignore .PS files if the .DS is a similar size.
I knew that Poser came first but it's nice to hear the history.
I'm using models from all over the place and I have been able to install everything in their proper places but every now and then I run into one of these unexplainable problems, that makes no sense and takes me weeks to figure out..
I know DAZ probably wants to give the advantage to their products and I buy a lot of DAZ models (I think the Genesis humans are unbelievable. That drew me to DAZ Studio in the first place) but they don't have everything you could possibly need. I would think it would make DAZ Studio more desirable if it worked with everything on the market at least in some sensible way. It should keep some flexibility.
It's funny though that this problem that I started this thread with, was a DAZ model but it was in an old Poser format. You would think that the software would offer the ability to save the pose in a format that worked for the model. It used to work but now doesn't and it's for one of their own products from the past. Now I have to jump through hoops just save and use poses for it.
Thanks
Steve
The other thing about all of this from my observation is twofold. DAZ Studio started out as a product to allow people to use content they sold for the Poser environment who didn't own Poser (couldn't afford, or didn't want to invest that much.) In it's beginning, it was a nice program but much more restricted then the 'full' Poser program. I don't remember if they had their own format in the beginning or not but DAZ Studio was actually just an adjunct or, extension of their main goal of selling Poser Content. Well, a lot of people liked DS from the beginning, and it grew it's own core following pretty quickly and that core group were more committed to DS then DAZ themselves had anticipated (based on things I was reading at the time in forums.) This I believe encouraged DAZ to flesh out DS. Whether from the beginning or later, they ended up with their own format, and supported the Poser content. It may have been initially that they intended on selling two different versions of the product, possibly at different markups, I don't know. I believe one reason they developed their own format was to have some control over the repository since Poser tended to make changes to theirs. The changes Poser made to theirs are a long story in itself, but it ended up being a total mess in my opinion (I know the story, but it's irritating to even think about.) The net result is we ended up with the split repository (runtimes) with the dominant one, the non native Poser one, being a mess.
There wasn't anything DS could do about the Poser runtime. Divorcing itself from the Poser runtime and making their own more controlled one was the right decision I believe. However, the Poser market was the elephant in the room which was the real complicating factor. The only thing DAZ could have done was to put a lot more resources into pushing their repository and getting the artists to support that more fully, but this has it's own complications in a market that has evolved since so that would not have been as easy as people might suppose.
Now however, I believe the market has evolved to the point that that is exactly what DAZ should do but it is hard to disentangle itself from it's roots, and the resources necessary to do so are costly and might be hard to commit. The challenge they face as I see it is that is what will strongly effect how well they move into the future.
Note: this is a personal opinion, and one from a totally unqualified outsider who does not know what business dynamics DAZ is facing at the moment.
Wow, I didn't know this existed. Thank you Spit and Richard. I've been hand creating these files, which is a ridiculous amount of work.
Which, speaking of ridiculous amount of work, I would recommend against moving things in the base runtime even though that is exactly what I do. It has some benefits that one cannot get any other way, and results in a beautiful library that is easy to use, find things, and one can focus more fully on the art they create vs sorting through a jumbled mess trying to find something one vaguely remembers but hasn't seen in months. However, the amount of work it takes to do and maintain cannot be over emphasized. The research alone in how to do it without breaking things is intense, and that just gets your foot in the door. It is not something I would wish on an enemy. I had considered putting up a tutorial on how to do it, but decided against it because of this.