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Poser - OFFICIAL F.A.Q (Last Updated: 2024 Nov 21 6:06 am)



Subject: Dear Content creators:


jjroland ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 12:31 PM · edited Thu, 21 November 2024 at 5:38 PM

Hi my name is Jaci, I'm a poser noob.

I would like to know what evil plan you have in mind when you name your content files crazy things, and put them inside folders within folders within other folders all with crazy names - with no association whatsoever to the actual content within the folder/s.


Seriously though is this really just some strange poser conspiracy like those fotoonz?   I think I would gladly pay at least 1$ more per item that I purchase if when it went into my insanely unorganized poser files I could find it again by name. 

Like if I buy a cave, can't we just call it a cave - maybe a descriptive term for it like Bobscave (for those who like to name thier folders after themselves).

Next read mes.  Everyone wants to be incredibly creative with the folder naming and hiding, why not the read mes?  Can I get a Bobsreadme please?

Part of this is obviously me being lazy.  I hate having to sit and rename each folder and file and take them out of folders within folders so when I do eventually get around to actually using them in poser I dont have to click 10 times to get to what I want.  The other part is that when I buy something, I just want to use it.

Had to vent = )


I am:  aka Velocity3d 


pjz99 ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 12:46 PM

What's even better is that certain people have gotten wise to the irritating ! trick - so they try !! to be REALLY on top of the list.  Some people (not naming names) have even escalated it to !!! ... when will it end??

My Freebies


BeyondVR ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 1:18 PM

The only place I nest folders is for materials, to keep you from scrolling through a huge list.  Extra categories help there.  And I will add a ! to a file within a folder to keep an important file at the top.

I don't play the other game.  I first brokered at 3DC, and they don't allow special characters.  A very sensible rule.

John


ThrommArcadia ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 1:25 PM

Yeah, the special character thing is a bit annoying.  I also wish there was some kind of agreed upon naming convention.  Scrolling though a gazillion things in the directory trying to remember if that damn wall I want to use was a prop or a character and trying to see if one the names rings a bell is a huge frustration!

Oh, and if everyone wants the end user to honor their statements in the readme, it would be helpful if everyone didn't just dump the readme in the same place with the same name.  I've wisened up over the years, but lots of the early stuff I bought or downloaded has long lost readme's.


Dajadues ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 1:39 PM · edited Wed, 11 April 2007 at 1:41 PM

I hear ya on that. I change my folders to better names. I name them what they are supposed to be then of fancy name they give it and the paths are usually wrong on their end anyway, But, if you do that then you have to change your path but, it's better than having long arse weird folder names or worse a folder with 4 or 5 of !!!!!. I change them but Ive done it like that for years. If its our path anyway why should we have names that mean nothing of what the product actually is? I dont need to see someone's name up in lights on my folders. I hate folder written in Caps too. I take the time to change it but then again, I dont install a ton of content at once because I cant stand the names of the folders.


xantor ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 1:40 PM

A thing that annoys me is when the readme is called readme.txt, it means nothing.

I always call the readme the name of the thing for example standing mirror.txt so that the end user knows right away what the text is about.


Dajadues ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 1:44 PM · edited Wed, 11 April 2007 at 1:57 PM

Poser is the only 3D program that allows these annoying folder names. We know who the content makers are we don't need their names on everything. I even change the texture folder names and geometires because I cant stand the messy folders no wonder why Poser takes forever to load.

Its the texture folder names that annoy the hell out of me. If their name is normal then I leave it if it's not normal I change it to my path. If its written in Caps like a 2 year old typed it than it gets changed too. This is a pet peeve of mine. :)

 

as far as the famous !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! on everything

You can than Daz3D for that.


svdl ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 1:56 PM

There is a reason for file names to be sort of "obscure", especially when it comes to geometry names and texture names. While it is perfectly logical to name the head texture of a character "Head.jpg", there's the chance that many other content creators also use the name "Head.jpg" for their head textures. And alas, sometimes Poser gets confused by paths, and it then searches the current runtime for the first file name that matches. Which is probably not the version of "Head.jpg" you wanted.

Same goes for geometry files.

This does NOT go for folder names. There is no good excuse for using those special chars in a folder name. I highly prefer sensible names.

Texture folder names: again, there is a good reason to start the texture folder name with your own vender/freebie provider name. Preventing overwriting other's textures. If I dumped the textures of my product in the main folder, and every other content provider did the same, chances are that textures get overwrittin, and you don't want that.

So a SENSIBLE folder structure in a product is the best way to go.

The pen is mightier than the sword. But if you literally want to have some impact, use a typewriter

My gallery   My freestuff


Dajadues ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 2:01 PM · edited Wed, 11 April 2007 at 2:05 PM

well I for one dont need a texture folder written like: !!!NAMEINCAPS' how are you supposed to know what it it goes to??? or something like !!!!!sjfitjty. Can you tell from looking at the texture folder written like what it's for? Even the readme's for something like that are so vague you still don't know what it is or where it goes. Geom folders aren't so bad. Im talking folders not files. And speaking of which hunting for the readme's are no joy either. They sometimes put em in geoms & textures. You have open everything to find out where the stuff is. I spend more time sorting folders and readmes then I do rendering. But it will never change they are no rules for naming folders.


jjroland ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 2:24 PM

Nobody would want head.jpg.  The too generic is the other side of the petpeeve (ie readme).  But I would like susieshead.jpg.   Not folder name:bobthevillian/ inside folder Glamorous Fuzziness/ and somewhere inside that folder is actually the location of Susieshead.jpg. 


I am:  aka Velocity3d 


pakled ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 2:58 PM

yup..even with a database I have problems (I'm up to creating objects, uvmapping them, and if I get past that, I promise I'll name them in folders with my handle, and what they are, just to spite the others..;) Only thing holding me back is making .rsrs (I know it can be done, I've just been too lazy) oh..and having a place to host them..;)

and everything I make will be free..;)

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)


DarkEdge ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 3:29 PM

I keep all of my files under the folder DarkEdge and that's it, from there it's grouped by figures (Apollo, Jessi, M3, V3) and then the outfit.

I thinks it's distasteful when some folks do the _!!!CAPSTHING...do you really need to be at the top?

I don't make multiple files to make it confusing I try to make it organized, so if you want something of mine for V3 it's easy to access.

Hope this helps.

Comitted to excellence through art.


igohigh ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 3:38 PM

Quote - What's even better is that certain people have gotten wise to the irritating ! trick - so they try !! to be REALLY on top of the list.  Some people (not naming names) have even escalated it to !!! ... when will it end??

What rock have you been hiding under? Their up to '!!!!!!!this item of mine!!!!!'  now!!

And I would love to know why so much of recent content (both free and purchased) spend so long looking for the texture files? Could it be because the ZIP or installer placed it at:
Runtime:Textures:XYZ:ZYX

BUT the actual CR2 or PP2 is listing it as being located at:
C:This UserDesktopI got a dummy folder herehey stupid Poserwhy are youlooking overthere forthe filewhen itisover here

OR how about all those merchancts that STILL have not learned the proper way to name things...like this WONDERFUL new hair I recently got from Rendo by a Well Known maker and all the textures are named: 01.jpg, 02.jpg, 03.jpg, 03.jpg
or another one I recently purchased that has textures named: shirt.jpg, pant.jpg, sock.jpg

Hey, lets all just name all the shirt textures SHIRT.JPG and when you load one of your dozen or so shirts or use a MAT file to change the textures, we'll just see 'which one' Poser chooses to grab!!!!


Conniekat8 ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 3:40 PM

It's actually easier to find things without the !!!  without it if I want something that starts with K, I type K...   With !!!'s... I can never find things, and so many people are using them that !!!'s don't get anyone at the top.
By now I'm more likely to remember a creator that doesn't use !!!'s

Anyone ever thought of trying to create and publish a 'suggested way of organizing poser content'... if Vendors, or someone, would copme up with an organizing scheme for content, and actually have vendors adhere to it...   
Wow, what a dream that would be. 
I'd pay money for it, or for someone to organize my poser content by now!

Hi, my namez: "NO, Bad Kitteh, NO!"  Whaz yurs?
BadKittehCo Store  BadKittehCo Freebies and product support


archdruid ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 4:03 PM

  Yes, while I do know what you mean.... one time I spent three hours looking for a folder that had, somehow ended up in a secondary file on "E" drive. But, sense of humor rampant, I keep visualising with just basic names, and ending up with a Plaid, Hairy, Jacket-shoe with Spiky bits of Uncertain origin... that is attached mercilessly to an elbow..... munching away, placidly. Lou.

"..... and that was when things got interestiing."


Dajadues ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 4:14 PM · edited Wed, 11 April 2007 at 4:21 PM

I should add though I only rename prop file folders. Not figure folders or their textures. Even if they have the !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't touch those. In extreme cases I do rename them. I dont rename files or vendors with normal names on their folders like VP folders are normal named.

V3/M3 & DAZ items stay as they are. 

I like how DAZ does it. if its DAZ their folders are usually named DAZ.


Conniekat8 ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 4:15 PM

Few more thoughts...

How about... V4-shoes-(shoe name)  ... and add creator logo on the image, or as a part of the file name (as opposed to the directory name). That way people aren't overwriting each others files.....

Just like organizing a closet, I don't keep shoes in the designer boxes they came in, I unpack them and fit them in the closet....  It's the swen in label or a leather tag imprint that does more advertizing then the box does.

Hi, my namez: "NO, Bad Kitteh, NO!"  Whaz yurs?
BadKittehCo Store  BadKittehCo Freebies and product support


Dajadues ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 4:25 PM · edited Wed, 11 April 2007 at 4:26 PM

Vendors should be made to use their name handles not something that doesn't even match their product or even their name. You dont need your real name on your vendor folders whats wrong with using a normal handle for your vendor name?

Id pay for a program that would sort if out for you too. I really would like to stop wasiting time figuring out what goes with what, paid or freebie.

Easy name handles makes me go back and either buy or download their freebies again and again. Weird names does not make it professionial looking in my opinion.

Folders not files Im talking about. and a complete readme to go with it wouldnt hurt.


stormchaser ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 4:50 PM

! ! ! ! ! ! Why isn't this post at the top, I've wrote in the necessary ! ! ! ! !'s!

I manually install everything I download, right into the correct folder by dragging & dropping which I have already organised by category etc & then rename the new subfolder. Straight forward, no problems, things can be found pretty easily, well generally.LOL! Also I won't need to organise my runtime in the whole in the future because I do it with each new product. I decided to do it this way once I got my new machine as I found out all these problems the hard way, having to go through so many folders to find what you need. Admittedly I do add some of my own ! ! ! 's to the folders I use the most. This makes sense, but it's my choice.



MartinW ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 5:28 PM

FWIW I agree with the frustration at the vainty-driven use of '!'

As for folders, I am currently very slowly re-building my runtime from a clean installation and have top-level folders called 'A3', 'V3', etc.

Beyond that, I will re-name anyone's folder to make them fit into my runtime, even using prefixes like 'C!' for clothes, 'M!' for materials, etc...

Hope it all works and I can find things once they're all back ;-)

And thank God for P3Do!


JQP ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 5:31 PM · edited Wed, 11 April 2007 at 5:38 PM

Quote - Part of this is obviously me being lazy.  I hate having to sit and rename each folder and file and take them out of folders within folders so when I do eventually get around to actually using them in poser I dont have to click 10 times to get to what I want.  The other part is that when I buy something, I just want to use it.p

No, sorry, that's not you being lazy.

Lazy is people who create digital content intended for mass redistribution and don't put any thought into naming conventions.

It takes five seconds to realize "readme.txt" is going to create a naming conflict, and fix the problem.  Those five seconds are multiplied by the number of users receiving the content when the problem isn't fixed on the creator end.

Content creators, and their vendors, should hash out some simple rules for directory structure and naming conventions, and stick to them.  This would be amazingly easy, and polite.

 

And no, I have no problem with specificity - I like specificity; I have a problem with everyone having his or her own special version of specificity.  I think it's a good idea to nest folders, just not with as many directory/naming conventions as there are creators x # of vendors.

It's a good thing to include artist/product in these conventions, but vendors should agree on the conventions and make their content creators stick to them.


igohigh ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 5:50 PM

Quote - How about... V4-shoes-(shoe name)  ... and add creator logo on the image, or as a part of the file name (as opposed to the directory name). That way people aren't overwriting each others files.....
Just like organizing a closet, I don't keep shoes in the designer boxes they came in, I unpack them and fit them in the closet....  It's the swen in label or a leather tag imprint that does more advertizing then the box does.

A more logical approach would be...(shoe name)-shoes-V4 ...this way if you are searching for XYZ outfit or ABC outfit or 123 outfit then it will all be alphabetical. I much easier remember "Horizon outfit" then I do "V4 shoes Horizon"

If all my 'Hoizon' clothing parts are alphabeticaly 'together' and all my 'This Outfit' and 'That Garb' then it would be easier to find then a big bunch of files all starting with "V4" (especially since most likely EVERYTHING in that folder is for V4 any way)

 ;p


kalon ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 6:34 PM

I always strip off the !, I know what I want at the top of my library.

But what also irritates me is, if you intend to be a merchant, why can't you establish, early on, what you call your geometry folder, your texture folder... and then create sub folders within those folders... . Why does every product you create need a new folder in my geometries folder? Stop trying to take over my harddrive!

(Thank you, DarkEdge)

kalonart.com


modus0 ( ) posted Wed, 11 April 2007 at 6:46 PM

All, the recurring subject of "!".

Back in P4 (for those who've never used it, or been away so long as to forget), you could only have a specific number of folders within the upper folders in Poser's directory, which IIRC, was 256 folders.

So, you could only have 256 folders in Figures, 256 in Poses, 256 in Props, etc. Long before you reached that point though, Poser began truncating the folder names within it, which made it damn hard to find things when you could only see half the name.

And any folders you put into the program after the 256th, were unaccessible. So someone discovered that adding special characters (not just '!') shot a folder to first place, a discovery which was quickly adopted by merchants eager for their products to be accessible for everyone (ignoring the fact that it would still cause other products at the bottom of the list to be unavailable). And the discovery of multiple instances of a special character trumping fewer instances only served to exasperate the problem.

However, when P5 arrived, not only was that limit removed, but Poser gained the ability to store content in external runtimes, and since you could separate all your V2, V3, M2, and M3 MAT Pose files into separate runtimes, as well as being able to nest folders, meant that even if it was still around, the 256 limit meant much less than it had in P4. However, some merchants had the "!Myproduct" or "!!!!Myproduct" naming convention practically hard-coded into their brains, and despite it being unnecessary, and people repeatedly asking for the use of special characters to STOP, they merrily went on their way, continuing to add the now essentially useless characters to their files in a vain, egotistical attempt to remain "on top".

 

Now, having a .cr2, .pz2, or .pp2 with the '!' doesn't bother me, because as BeyondVR siad, the file might be important enough to need to be at the top (I've seen some merchants do that with MATs, but special notification files are one reason for that), but I haven't seen any folders that are so critically important that they need to be first in line for me to look at.

 

________________________________________________________________

If you're joking that's just cruel, but if you're being sarcastic, that's even worse.


Tashar59 ( ) posted Thu, 12 April 2007 at 9:25 AM

I have all runtimes by figure. Simple. Well, unless your like me and have a bad habit of collecting figures. LOL.

I always unzip in a dummy folder to look through the files before I add them to my Poser runtimes. This way I can read the readme's, see what they have to say and then toast them. I can always unzip the burned main file if I need to read it again. I then check all the forlders and toast all the rsr's except the geometries folder. BTW, the last few versions of poser generates the PNG file from the RSR's so it's a good thing to go through your runtimes and clean those RSR's out because they are not needed. The PNG is generated as soon as you open the list in Poser.

File structure should a simple concept, but I'm proved wrong over and over again. I sometimes wonder if the person is in such a rush to get it out that they don't take the 5 minutes it takes to make sure the files and folders are named and placed right with proper paths. I had one merchant that had all the texture files just thrown into the main poser texture folder, what a mess. Now you know why I open these files in a dummy folder first. Also have never bought from that merchant ever again. I still wonder why R'sity never checked and made the merchant fix it before going to the store.

I think, not sure, that Daz is to blame for the start of the ( ! ), but R'sity is to be blamed for letting it still be allowed here. Even with all the complaints, R'sity has not done anything about it. P4 is long gone and there is no logical reason to let it still be used.


xantor ( ) posted Thu, 12 April 2007 at 9:52 AM

This is not really off topic, does anyone know of a renaming program that will rename directories?   I know that there are plenty of programs to rename files but I couldn`t find any that rename actual folders.

I wanted to rename all the daz folders and any others with strange names in poser but there are quite a few so that is why I want the program.


jjroland ( ) posted Thu, 12 April 2007 at 10:01 AM

Probably not "politically correct" to start a list of those that dont.  Since it sounds like this is something consumers have been complaining about since p4 it doesn't appear the offending vendors are likely to care.  Perhaps a list should be started for the non-offending merchants?  I know a couple who I was very happy with thier file and naming system.


I am:  aka Velocity3d 


Acadia ( ) posted Thu, 12 April 2007 at 11:17 AM

When I first started with Poser I used to install and unzip packages right into the Poser 5 runtime folder.  Then I would be in tears because I couldn't find anything.  An installed item didn't have naming continuity throughout the runtime.  The person may have named the folder in Characters one thing, then named the folders in Poses and Props something else.  Nothing fit together.

Once I learned that I could rename the folders inside the main library folders, I started to install / unzip packages to a separate folder on my desktop. Then I would go browse that folder and name all of the newly deposited folders the same thing (except for morph folders). So in the case of a cave made by Bob, all of the folders for that would be reanmed "Bob - Glittering Cave".  In the case of Daz items I put the catalogue number followed by the name of the item IE:  "ps_ab1234c  - Noble Red Dress"

By doing this I know that when I go folder to folder in the library, that I can see at a glance if there is something in there that is part of an outfit  that I am using.

I also found that it helps to have external runtime folders.  I have 42 I think. I have a runtime for each theme such as Christmas, Halloween, Props, Poses, Lighting, Hair, Mermaids, Angels/Faeries (both have wings), Vehicles.  And when it comes to figures other than Aiko and Mil Kids, I have 2 folders, one for  the figure's character addons and another for their clothing IE: "V3 Character Addons" and "V3 Clothing"

I know exactly what I have in each runtime and I know exactly where to find it. Plus it makes backing up and saving the runtimes much easier because instead of one runtime that is multiple gigs large, I have a number of smaller ones, some of which are still multiple gigs large, but they are still smaller than what it would be if all of them were together in one.

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi



Unicornst ( ) posted Thu, 12 April 2007 at 11:18 AM

**Pertaining to the !!!!!! on the folder name, I can't give you an answer as to why this is still being used. I only kow that I and several other merchants stopped using that a long time ago. Most of the latest products don't have that anymore. You may find them in the actual name for the MAT pose, but that's for organizing the MATS in the folder. For example, I may have !nameskin or !!namebodyinj. Sometimes, the name of the product can keep things from appearing in an listing that  makes sense. I've always assumed that people want the skin texture and inj poses before the eyes or whatever. And it can keep all the skin options together instead of you having to hunt for the extras like tattoo skins.

As for having a folder with my name....yep. In the texture folder, I do that. And there's a reason for it. I set up my runtime folders the same way each time so that if you own more than one product from me, then you know where the textures for it are. If you know my name, that is. Most vendors do this for the same reason. Perhaps it's my mind set, but I tend to look for textures under who made them rather than the name of the product. So you have Textures:Unicornst:Productname. But that is the only place you'll see a folder with my name on it.

As for the readme...I totally agree. Name it with the product name.

Not trying to toot my own horn here. Just want everyone to know that some of us vendors do read these opinions and do our best to comply while at the same time following the rules for how it's supposed to be set up and keep it as easy to find things as possible.**


Conniekat8 ( ) posted Thu, 12 April 2007 at 11:27 AM

Quote -
A more logical approach would be...(shoe name)-shoes-V4 ...this way if you are searching for XYZ outfit or ABC outfit or 123 outfit then it will all be alphabetical. I much easier remember "Horizon outfit" then I do "V4 shoes Horizon" If all my 'Hoizon' clothing parts are alphabeticaly 'together' and all my 'This Outfit' and 'That Garb' then it would be easier to find then a big bunch of files all starting with "V4" (especially since most likely EVERYTHING in that folder is for V4 any way)

Yeah, actually I could see myself looing for something either way, by outfit or by figure, or by creator or whatnot....
If i had my drudders and the extra time, I'd have it all in a fast acting searchable database... with pictures :D  ....  and a rolls royce and a pony .... and a pet tiger  ;P

Hi, my namez: "NO, Bad Kitteh, NO!"  Whaz yurs?
BadKittehCo Store  BadKittehCo Freebies and product support


Unicornst ( ) posted Thu, 12 April 2007 at 11:49 AM

Make that an Arabian and a jaguar and I'm with you. grin


Conniekat8 ( ) posted Thu, 12 April 2007 at 12:00 PM

oooh, Unicorn, You clever girl you!!!
A jaguar!  That way the car and the pet cat can match :)
And a prince on the arabian.... Hmm... apollo  ... batting eyelashes ...

Hi, my namez: "NO, Bad Kitteh, NO!"  Whaz yurs?
BadKittehCo Store  BadKittehCo Freebies and product support


jjroland ( ) posted Thu, 12 April 2007 at 12:07 PM

Yeah I don't know the content creators all by name.  Unfortunately I'm new to poser and I'm having a hard enough time remembering things I need to for the program much less remembering the name of every person who created the items.  NOT (and I stress this) that they don't need to be recognized and appreciated for their work, just I feel that something in the namedafterthierproduct readme would suffice.  Unless its something like DMsNanette.   I like it like that, short simple to the point, tells me who made it and what it is.

I do understand to an extent, wanting to brand your products.  Everyone does.  But on the same token I don't buy jeans with FUBU (gg) painted all over them either.  The simple levis tag on the back is plenty.

I want to use your product, not be overwhelmed by it. 

That said, if using the merchants name is something that most people want.  Rather than naming folders by product.  It would just be nice if then the file system was kept simple.  I do not understand the folder within an empty folder thing.  Most people here seem to agree this is a time issue.  We don't want to have to spend the time to go through and sort folders constantly.

For me in order of priority it is: 

Simple file system

Named read me

properly and specifically named folders/files.

This way at least if the file system is simple, it is easy for me to go through and rename Bobthevillainessextrodinairescave to just Bobscave.


I am:  aka Velocity3d 


Tashar59 ( ) posted Thu, 12 April 2007 at 5:46 PM

The creators name in the textures has saved my butt more than a few times when I have needed to find a " Poser cannot find file, you will have to do it yourself," thingy. Which seems to happen once in awhile.

The ( ! ) in front of an inject/remove or to organize the mat/mor files inside a file, is a good thing too. I agree that some of those Mats/Mors should be at the top. Which shows there is a right way and a wrong way to use the ( ! ).  It's those artistic Png/RSR thumbs that don't show what the Mat/Mor is for that burns me. 

It would be nice to get some form of universal rule/ structure and then inforce it. This would make things easier for newbies  as in user and creator. They would learn this structure and it would become second nature. As it is right now, even us veterans have to guess at some of the structures. One of my pet peeves, having to pay to fix someones work.


Morgano ( ) posted Thu, 12 April 2007 at 7:44 PM

That sound must be either the belated bolting of stable doors, or the clattering of ever more distant hooves.   Partly, it's too late to impose standards on Poser folder names.   Partly, the standards were never Poser's in the first place.   An individual site may ban the excalamation mark, but its competitors are under no compulsion to do likewise.   In any case, there will always be a way to get your product to the top of the list, because some kind of ordering hierarchy will always exist.   Why do you think dodgy plumbers are always called "123ABC" in the Yellow Pages?   To be fair to Poser vendors, use of superfluous exclamation marks certainly does not indicate poor quality products.

The existing rules can also work against those who try to jump the queue.  A Pose library set I use a lot begins with "Mat", rather than "MAT".  Since there are not very many "Mat" folders, it is easy to find.   The implication of this thread is that vendors should be prevented from exploiting the idiosyncracies of the file hierarchy system to give their products unfair prominence, but , if you penalise the north end of the list, people will simply start using the quirks of the system to place their products down south (it happens already). 


JQP ( ) posted Thu, 12 April 2007 at 8:07 PM

This is not really off topic, does anyone know of a renaming program that will rename directories?   I know that there are plenty of programs to rename files but I couldn`t find any that rename actual folders.

There's a pretty good free app called File Renamer Basic (I have 2.1 but it's probably been updated) that does almost everything I've ever wanted it to do, including rename folders.  Takes a minute to pick up the way it works, but after that it's easy to use.

Make SURE you use preview, and are sure of your changes though, because the free version doesn't have undo.


xantor ( ) posted Thu, 12 April 2007 at 9:19 PM

Thank you, JQP.


obm890 ( ) posted Fri, 13 April 2007 at 3:45 AM

Quote - Anyone ever thought of trying to create and publish a 'suggested way of organizing poser content'... if Vendors, or someone, would copme up with an organizing scheme for content, and actually have vendors adhere to it...    

 

The first people who should be forced to read it are DAZ and E-frontier. DAZ started the whole !!!!! folder name craze and we are still suffering the consequences. And e-frontier (and their predecessors)  seem to screw up the content organization a little more with each release: The same clothes which used to be figures in one release are now props in the next release, geometry files used to be in the geometries folder and they are now in with the cr2 files. Stuff is labelled P5 woman in one place and 'judy' in another etc etc. The folder naming conventions used in the geometries and textures folders bear absolutely no relation to the folder names in the libraries, why can't an identical structure be used? Try to find, I dunno,  posette in your library and then go looking for her geometry file and texture image. Good luck to ya. With a heritage like that it's no wonder vendors and freebie makers mess it up too.

Quote - The creators name in the textures has saved my butt more than a few times when I have needed to find a " Poser cannot find file, you will have to do it yourself," thingy. Which seems to happen once in awhile.

 

It kills me that Poser gives that STUPID message but it doesn't tell you the path it was trying to use. How dumb is that!? So you have to guess at the obscure folder naming conventions the vendor might have used or open the cr2 file in a text editor to find out where it was supposed to be looking. When DAZ studio can't find a file it displays the given path which makes it a whole lot easier to redirect it. I really, really hate poser sometimes  ;o)

As for the deeply nested folders within folders within folders for one stupid prop, sheesh!! And they usually have really long names too, so all you can see is the useless preamble in each name, the important bit hangs off the end and you can't read it.



JoEtzold ( ) posted Sun, 15 April 2007 at 10:19 AM

Hi all,
nomally I don't post in forums cause as a programmer I have so much mail of customers to answer that I sometimes start hating writing :biggrin:

But this thread is such interesting and really necessary ...

I have lastly spend over a year in sorting all my content to more than a dozend external runtimes so I know about what really creative people the content providers are ... and what a bad knowledge of IT systems some of them show ... :sad: ... ok, I have learned IT with DOS. That means handling folders and files was of existential neccessarity to survive on a PC ... :laugh:

First of all why are this dozends of "thumbs.db" and "store.ds" in the zips, its so easy to regulate that ... Ok, ok, its MS politics to bring lots of gadgets to the people, which are rather useless for professionals (they download at first a real tool e.g. irfan-view) and rather dangerous to non-professionals cause they make things they don't know and don't want and produce a lot of work to admins ... :crying:
I use W2K so the thumbs.db's are not of real danger but it needs a lot of time to delete that useless waste.

Second thing read.me's ... I agree with all said up to now, vender's/provider's want to show licences, there ego's and sometimes also give some advices ... ok, ok, all good and sometimes neccessary.
But it make no fun to look into hundreds of that readme's (if finding them) without finding something interesting advice for the product (most cases). And thats really the only which is of interest or do you really read everytime licenses or ego statements ??? :rolleyes:
So why not splitting the readme's in three files license, my-ads AND product-use ... and thats all in 1 folder "readme for ..." at top-level under "runtime" ... so this make it easy to read what you want or delete that all.

Third thing ... the general structure ... might be that "runtime:geometries", "runtime:library:...", "runtime:texture" is not the best choice, but (also as programmer) I prefer some backward compatibility.  And if someone sometimes has decided that this is the way it should be obeyed furtheron and changes should made only very sensitive.
And I think this structure is not so bad ... equal if you look for mesh objects or textures or descriptive files like cr2 or else, you know there to look. Puting all that for example into the cr2-path results time-by-time in a worst overcrowded folder.

So I can't understand why specialy e-frontier is puting all in the library paths. (there was a other thread on this theme somewhere around) As "master" of that software they should at first give a good example how to do such things. I told them months ago without getting answer (ok, nothing new in IT business 👎 ).
The big point in e-frontier files they use the windows notation c:.... and that means you have to change several lines in each description file if working with external runtimes. Using the old relative notation runtime:library:... you only have to move all content where you want it.
So, this way e-frontier is doing that on the structure is really contraproductive and timewasting, I think ... 😄

There are lots of small "buggies" more ... not only folders with anarchical signs like ! or leading blanks " ", most of this has been said in the last messages ... so my only advice for that is never, never, never unpack a zip to the real location there it should come to (exception DAZ-downloads :thumbupboth: they are very good with that). I have made a temporarily second folder structure for unpacking the freebies. Makes sorting more easy.

Also I have such a structure as test-runtime connected to poser (5,6,7), so I am able to check if the fresh meal is good enough for my girls and guys or at least useable ... special textures and/or mat-poses are not correct named each time (although there might be a readme) for which original they are meant.

But not all things are bad ... looking over the years and tons of freebies it is becoming better and better since Poser 5 👍 ... might be the rest will also sometimes be done correctly (or we get again some new "best of ever" pc system ... :ohmy: )


Ghostofmacbeth ( ) posted Sun, 15 April 2007 at 2:55 PM

Actually, DAZ Didn't start the ! craze but they did proliferate it but now the ! is banned from all products released there. It will probably mean more nested folders though ...



Tashar59 ( ) posted Mon, 16 April 2007 at 4:20 AM · edited Mon, 16 April 2007 at 4:25 AM

*"*now the ! is banned from all products released there."

When did this happen?

Edit , OH you mean at Daz and not here. Figures, well there is hope that this will happen here too. That and the banning of baked on hi-lites.


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