i just formatted harddrive, and went through most of the zips files of characters/clothing/morphs/lights/poses/cameras/hands/faces/MATs/etc to reinstall everything, and it took 4 days o_o both bought and free stuff thats what i get for not burning a CD of my runtime folder worse part is most zips dont go with my install layout or worse dont have folders at all! click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click who else hates screwing with the files?:) lol i want to get back to posing!

I've spent the better part of the past 2 years fixing and reorganizing my Poser stuff. Awhile ago, a hard drive died, and I had to go through the same thing you're talking about. Most of my Runtimes are too big for CD's. Heck, some are too big to fit on a DVD disk.

I hate poser alltogether. wait..no..I love poser..no...hate it...hmmm...love it hmmm... wanders off to burn runtime folder on CD

MindVision, time to seek therapy! ;0) Time to save your pennies and get an external harddrive. That's what I use for my Runtimes nowadays (nearing 8GB). A 20 or 40GB drive will suffice for quite some time. If you've got Firewire, go for a drive with that - much much faster than USB. There is no fool-proof way to avoid a possible 'click ad infinitum', but this is the next best thing. :)

As a newbie, I'm comming to dislike the runtime folder and the install click-click madness. I have found however that both winRAR and WinAce are better tools for unizipping that Winzip as you can just open the .zip file and drag'n'drop the (usual) included runtime straight into your ..poser directory. It took me about 2-3 hours to go from a clean install to having around a CD's worth of free-stuff installed and working ok. IMHO however what's really needed however is someone with a bit of visual basic or scripting skill to come up with a Poser packaging util that can read the zip and put the right files in the right place for you like some of the utils for games like The Sims(2).

IMHO the real issue is people not putting things in the proper folder structure for distribution. If you are going to take the time to create poser freebies, take the time to learn how to make a proper nested archive as well. I'm not diss'n the free content creators, but if you want people to enjoy the creativity of you creations, you need to make it as accessable as possible for them.

WinXP can also open a zip file so the runtime can be dragged and dropped.

Nickedshield, I know about XP being able to open zips, but WinRAR will let you open multiple zips after a shift or control-click rather than double clicking each one individually. My biggest complaint with file handling is that the runtime gets so messy so quickly, and then it becomes a nightmare to find anything. Everyone seems to now use ! or !!!!!! etc at the start of the folder names and Poser seems to treat upper and lower case'd folder names in a different order (AB...XYZ follwed by ab...xyz). And the fact that textures, geometries etc are spread over multiple folders and locations makes tidying up another nightmare. If only MS supported proper symlinks.....

megahurts, Thank you for that tidbit about Winrar- I see you can teach an old dog something new.

I use win rar as well.. winzip was causing some weird download issues with Internet Explorer. I uninstalled it, and the problems went away.

I outgrew a 40GB hard drive years ago. And my largest Runtime now tops 15GB. (I use Poser 5, and never install anything directly into Poser 5.) My 120GB hard drive filled up awhile ago.

DAMN DAMN DAMN.... why did someone have to say, ohh my runtime folder is blah blah... yep this idiot had to bloody look at his runtime folder to see it's weight, IM grey now... aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 18.5GB with 67,307 file... damnit.... you think im backing that up.... no way... im just gonna mirror the drive to my other hd... perhaps i should put some of my creations in freestuff again...lol... lets hope with the new Poser 6 comming out i can just plop it right in poser5's place, so that i won't have to install a thing....(bet i won't and curious labs will alter the library.....please god no)...(Save the Runtime folder)

18.5GB? You aren't even trying, sunshine. 26.2 GB, 121,493 files. And I'm a lightweight. :)

They do make 250GB externals, Bobbie. ;0)

You know, though, it's bad when someone's Poser Runtime size competes with 4 hours of raw captured video (AVI), chopped video (AVI), MPeg video, DVD ISOs, Premiere Pro projects, Print-resolution PhotoShop PSDs, and image files for an 11-DVD set (which only fills about 2/3rds of my 250GB drive).

What was that I said to MindVision? ;0P

Message edited on: 02/01/2005 12:25

Yes, I've seen those external hard drives, and they were tempting since I hate to go inside my monster computer case (It's 27" high, and it hurts my back just to move it.) However, you can add close to $100 extra price just to have the external drive, and then there is the desktop space to consider.

I was able to scrape up enough money to buy a 160GB Internal hard drive to replace the 120GB that died.

kuroyume0161: I'm impressed!

Message edited on: 02/01/2005 12:33

one problem is also not everyone has the same "layout" of folders, its their own way i use a nice way to organise that works well for me, maybe not others Runtime ..Libraries ....Hair ......Victoria3 ........Long Hair ........Short Hair ........(brand) Hair (some artists have a series of a style) ......Judy ........(repeat above) ....Poses ......Morphs V3 (completed character morphs) ........Mia V3 (sub folder 1 per char has INJ/REM) ........Mandy V3 ......Poses V3 (poses as in bend leg, arm, etc. sitting is a pose) ........Sitting ......MATs V3 (MAT poses, like eye color, makeup, etc) ........Mia V3 ......Morphs Judy ......Poses Judy ......MATs Judy ....Props ......Tables ......Chairs ......Dynamic Clothing ........Victoria3 ..........Skirts V3 (waist-down items) ..........Dresses V3 (full body dress items) ..........Bras V3 (duh?) ..........Tops V3 list goes on but i shutup now lol but i have to sort to fit my way and no to external HD i have 3 HD interal, 200GB per and are partitioned too lol last look, my runtime was at 58GB o_o not even full installed i aint burning damn CDs!! doesnt anyone remember when they thought 2GB HD was alot? LOL

thanx SamTherapy, i feel much better knowing that i have only 18.5Gb's compared to you heavyweights here, and im not looking forward to it expanding anymore, as for remembering the day when 2Gbs was alot for a HD, the first pc i built back in 1992 had a massive 210Mbs, and i thought that was huge, boy was i wrong,my custom V3 cr2 file wouldn't fit on that....lol... that's change for you, give it 10 years and we will be laughing at 26.2Gb's as being nothing.... then again....lol...

**IMHO the real issue is people not putting things in the proper folder structure for distribution.

If you are going to take the time to create poser freebies, take the time to learn how to make a proper nested archive as well.

I'm not diss'n the free content creators, but if you want people to enjoy the creativity of you creations, you need to make it as accessable as possible for them.**

Bingo!!! My thoughts exactly and I wish the freestuff creators would state what Poser version some of the files are. Some do, some don't. I use P4 & need to know of it's P4 or P5 before installing. More explaining in the readme files are needed. Some older zips only have a folder and state nothing where to place the items in your Runtime. I also have to guess whether it will work with my version of Poser or not. lol. :) Message edited on: 02/01/2005 18:11

I've found a few DAZ3D products that were setup incorrectly. One recent one put the Pose files into a folder called poseS. That "S" meant that I never found the installed files till I did some digging with a file manager. There is just no excuse for this since the Poser folder structure is a "given."

zippyozzy, As far as guessing where to put things from a single folder download, you may have to look at the cr2, if it has one, in order to place the files. Spelling IS important. Been there, had to do that. As far as what version, you can always look at the pz2 or cr2 in a text editor, at the top will be a version number.

soon we'll have HD that are billions of GB and pc will be replaced by a holodeck and true 3d art begins :D o damn....that strawberry V1000 is eating dripped some whipped cream on her nipple clicks delete for M1000 and steps in his place ^_^