Does anyone know of or can suggest a good program for managing the Poser Runtime folder?

HI Jason What I have discovered is that it's easier to make multiple runtime folders under the Poser6 directory. In my system I have a seperate runtime folder called "Victoria Characters". In that runtime I placed all the character morphs, mats, etc. I also have a runtime called "Victoria Items". In it I put clothes, props and incidentals. This way I don't get one giant unmanagable Runtime folder with everything crammed into it. In order to be successful you need to be familiar with the layout of the runtime folder. That is you must understand where to place the associated files for say a prop, or a figure or a pose or texture and so on. Once you look it over closeley and work with it then it becomes second nature. The poser manual gives some basic pointers but doing is the best learning. If I can help further just let me know.

P3d0 at Senosoft.com was the first truly useful tool for managing Poser libraries, and still one of the best and easiest to catch on to. Free version available to try out.

I use P3d0 too - brilliant for sorting runtimes out and deleting what you don't need

i use pboostII, which together with crproII is a lifesaver. both available from hogsoft.

Attached Link: http://poser.rois-sorciers.com/ShaderWorks/index.htm

I made an application that allows to edit the LibraryPrefs.xml. This allows to:

• create a new empty runtime;
• add one runtime;
• add all runtimes located in a folder;
• delete one runtime or delete all runtimes.
• sort the runtimes as you want.

The application allows also to split a runtime in two (or more parts). You need to do the split with the explorer, but the, it will automatically move (or copy) all references files to the correct runtime.
This means you can also clean up the references (it was not designed for, but i'm planning to add this feature soon, as it was already asked one or two times).

Last things... it's for WinXP, with framework 1.1 installed. It's actually still in beta, so make a backup before doing anything. I'm also working on an update, that will come out soon.

Message edited on: 04/02/2006 06:53

I too use multiple runtimes sorted by character or application. Where items fit in more than one lib I use (windows) shortcuts to avoid the drag of lib switching. I consider moving all the referenced files (geometry, texture directories) of the dedicated libs to my main runtime. I think this will save load time of the item (poser not needing to search the whole tree) while not increasing Poser startup time. Anyone done this and wants to share experiences?

@ Bagoas: so, if I kept all Geometries + Textures in main P6 Runtime, and constructed additional runtimes for V3/M3/Clothes/Poses etc, that would work?

@barrowlass: Generally the .cr2's and the .pp2's have a relative path name: ":Runtime:Geometries:whateveryouwant.obj", so it will work. The fact that Poser ginds things in other runtimes is because it searches the runtimes it knows till it finds them. Fustrating is that if there is an error in the file name, Poser starts a scanning process that will take forever while you are waiting and then says it cannot find the file. I am not sure whether cramiming it all in the main runtime will give the desired gain in loading speed, so I wanted to see if there are some reactions form people who may have experience or their ideas before I do this.

I'm doing this... Not sure if it's really really faster, but it's useful, because you can then move your library files as you wish, without any problems. If i have some time, i'll try some comparison.

i've just done a major cleanup of a runtime that was a total mess (whoever came up with the idea to add exclamation points to sort their stuff ahead of others should be shot); complete with renaming of such folders. before the cleanup poser would take forever to start (i used to read slashdot while it was loading). now it is considerably faster. you'd be amazed how many files have bad references, even if you installed everything according to the instructions. there were even some files that had the wrong names for items they needed. nevermind that some things don't even install properly, ending up outside the proper runtime folders. i didn't time the before and after, but the change is so significant that i can really tell (no more slashdot reading :). also, switching between libraries is much faster now that i've grouped things according to how i want them, and combined/renamed folders. i don't think i would have undertaken this effort without the two utilities i mentioned above (though one could do without pboost and do all the moving and renaming in explorer; just that pboost actually shows the thumbnail images which is really helpful if one is not intimately familiar with the items in one's runtime, and it makes on-the-fly switching of runtimes easy).