How to setup a new Runtime/Content Library in DS?

[Gadget Girl]

Okay first off I should say, I do know in DS how to go to the Content Directory Manager and select an existing folder and tell DS to use it as either a DS or a Poser formatted content library/runtime. But here's the thing I created a huge amount of trouble for myself on my last (and first) DS project by not starting by setting up a runtime just for the DS version of things, and keeping everything there. I'm about ready to start converting something else to from Poser to DS and I'd like to save myself those headaches this time around, so I was wondering what the best way to setup a blank runtime for DS is?

I mean, I can imagine just going to my computer, making a folder, and manually creating folders called People, data, etc. I just wondered if there was a better way to do this? For instance in Poser, I usually created the enclosing folder that has the name of my project, and then one folder called runtime. When I then set this to be a runtime in Poser it creates the rest of the folders for me.

Of course that does mean I do currently have a Poser runtime for this project. Which brings me to question two. Should I make that function as both a DS and Poser library in DS? Or will that also bring me more headaches down the line?

Thanks

 

[Pendraia]

Interesting...I've only just started to set up separate runtimes in DS myself.

I would imaging that if you set the runtime up, as you save each item for the product set up the folders needed. So when you have the Textures set up create the texture folder and save them there as you do them, then as you create mats, create the People/Dawn/Clothing/Your folder/Mats files. That way you'll only have the files you need.

Or you could copy the file structure from the Hivewire resource. In the past I've had it in a separate area and hand picked the files for the product once I have everything set up. If you put a copy of that inside your new directory it would provide you with the structure without having to manually create the files. I really like this idea and might do it myself in the future. You would still need to delete unnecessary files though...

 

[Gadget Girl]

Or you could copy the file structure from the Hivewire resource.

Oh. . . that might be the way to go. Actually I could just use the zip file of my last product, remove the product files and leave the folder structure. One of the big issues I ran into last time was finding that because I hadn't planned where I was saving stuff, I had versions elsewhere that DS was kindly cross linking to. Also because I hadn't found the place to enter my artist name, it was creating folders based off my login name for Daz's site which created other confusion.

 

[Pendraia]

Hivewires structure would be easier than reusing and old product as you wouldn't need to remove the files. Yes DS is very good at finding the requisite files wherever you have them. That can be frustrating especially with Data files. If I resave a product with a different name I save it as a scene file and while it is open I delete all the data files so I get a fresh start for saving otherwise it can do weird stuff.

When you save there is an option to put your vendor name and the product name which I like to do as it will save it all to a file for you.

 

[Alisa]

I don't keep separate Runtimes for my personal stuff, as it just duplicates textures.

If you are creating for DS, you should

1-have a SEPARATE Content Library/Runtime for that product
2-make sure it is the FIRST Content Library showing
3-best: ONLY have that library and anything that is required for it to work.

EG...creating a dress for Dawn that requires only the Dawn base and starter morphs?

Have YOUR creation library be the first one
Have a content library with JUST Dawn base and starter morphs

Don't, for example, have the Dawn Body shapes in there.

 

[Gadget Girl]

2-make sure it is the FIRST Content Library showing

Interesting. I went at looked and just found the place where I can move around the order of the content libraries. Do you know anything on the whys of this (just because I'm curious). Actually, this makes some of what you were telling me with the Tribal Ornaments make a lot more sense (and I did find files hiding in other content libraries which caused some of my issues).

Seeing as how I don't really use DS much, except for stuff I'm trying to create this should be easy for me to do. But I can see it would be a pain for people who use DS as their main program.

 

[Alisa]

Interesting. I went at looked and just found the place where I can move around the order of the content libraries. Do you know anything on the whys of this (just because I'm curious). Actually, this makes some of what you were telling me with the Tribal Ornaments make a lot more sense (and I did find files hiding in other content libraries which caused some of my issues).

Seeing as how I don't really use DS much, except for stuff I'm trying to create this should be easy for me to do. But I can see it would be a pain for people who use DS as their main program.

This is something I learned from Paul. I believe that what happens is that DS automatically writes to the first Content Library, so if you don't have the one you're using to create as the first one, all the references will be missing/or point to the wrong location.

And it's ONLY for content creation. If you're using the program, it's not an issue - you can have a gazillion of them live

With both Poser and DS, it's best for any testing to only have those products which are being tested or are required active (something to tell your beta testers).

This is because the program can find something that is referenced in another Runtime/Library but isn't in the current product's Runtime. We have this happen with products for Harry a lot...and if someone owns all of Harry's products and has them active while testing, they might, for example, not report a texture that is in another pack and should ALSO be in the current one.

 

[Gadget Girl]

So I ran into an interesting issue? trying this out, well to be fair, I didn't start from scratch. But what I did do was get rid of all my content libraries except for my Hivewire figures ones (so I wasn't completely following your instructions, because there are 'other' items in there beyond just what I'm working on). Then I added in a new content library for my project, and moved it to the top. In this case I'm working on some shows for Luna. When I loaded Luna into the scene, because I had removed the Content Library that DS was putting all it's stuff into by default, I got an error that I needed to re download some stuff including the basic shaders, which it then offered to re download for me.

Not a big deal at all, because I can see several ways to resolve it, including just letting DS download those files into that content library (or doing what you told me to do in the first place, and make a new one with just Luna in it) but it was an interesting illustration of what you were saying none the less.

 

[Alisa]

Sorry, didn't mean to have you remove the default content library.

The important part is to NOT have content libraries that contain things that might cause errors to not show up (like what I posted before.

 

[Gadget Girl]

Sorry, didn't mean to have you remove the default content library.

The important part is to NOT have content libraries that contain things that might cause errors to not show up (like what I posted before.

It's okay. It's all about the learning. And the big thing is it's helping me understand the ways DS puts things together vs. Poser.

 

[Alisa]

 

[kobaltkween]

Question in a similar vein:
To make my only DS products I had to hand code some huge DS JSON preset files just to correct the paths for resources. When I do the same in Poser I use PFE, and it's a piece of cake. In DS, I had to do a manual search and replace, and it broke the file multiple times before I got it right. Is there a way to do this more easily?

 

[Pendraia]

I edit DS file using Notepad++ it has a ctrl-f function that allows you to find text and it has a replace function in the same dialogue. Netherworks has just released a language file for this for Poser. This still allows files to collapse when you apply it to a duf file. Not sure about the other features at this point.

 

[kobaltkween]

Oh, that's disappointing. But thank you very much for the information. Yes, I used that method. I use Geany, an editor that's a bit more fully featured than Notepad++ in many respects. Except batch file editing. Well, I guess that depends on your perspective. It can batch edit open files easy, and batch edit files on the disk using grep. Grep is really powerful, but I'm not very familiar with it, and do my file prep in Windows (where I've installed grep for Windows, amazingly, but still). So it's all around less useful to me than Notepad++ when it comes to doing a search and replace on the drive.

Sorry, digression.

I'm seeking a method besides using a plain text editor. It's just a whole lot more error prone than a tool like PFE, which allows for file linking and avoids any typo problems or (as happened to me) misunderstandings about what needs to be replaced where and how. It takes me at least an order of magnitude longer, if not two, to prepare DS files using search and replace on text edited content, and at best I'd end up cutting that in half with familiarity. It would be _so_ much more efficient to use a dedicated editor equivalent to PFE. Especially since I often end up going through multiple versions of preset files and changing properties by hand. Without a PFE equivalent, I just can't make DS products as quickly or as solid.

Just as an FYI: As far as I can tell, DS presets are JSON files and shouldn't need a language file for most editors.

 

[Pendraia]

Sorry I couldn't help more...I don't do a lot of coding, mainly simple stuff.

Thanks for the info...I did know that they are based on DSON which is modified from JSON iirc.

The language file for Poser does allow me to collapse the duf files which I couldn't do previously...so I see that as a win. It may well be that I need to look for one more specific to DSON files but I don't use the editor for much. Mainly minor fixes. I find that I use editing files a lot more when creating for Poser than I do for DS.

 

[Gadget Girl]

Just as an FYI: As far as I can tell, DS presets are JSON files and shouldn't need a language file for most editors.

I would recommend Sublime Text. It's amazing.

I just double checked because I was pretty sure it recognized the formatting in DS files, and it does, meaning you can collapse down areas to make it easier to navigate.

It also has an amazing Find/Replace feature, that allows you to find and replace across multiple open documents. So for instance, I had messed up the file structure for the material files of a recent project, and had to rename the folders. I opened all the material files for the project in Sublime Text and was able to do one Find/Replace to change the wrong folder name to the right folder name in all the files with one click.