Hi all,

I am using P7 with the latest SR under Win XP SP 3.
I keep all of my characters (i.e. V4, M4, G4, H4, V3, D3. etc.etc.) in their own runtimes.

Question : Is it better to have their Geometries and Textures files in the same runtime as the character, or put all Geom and Text files in the main Poser runtime ?

thanks,
Andrew

Much better to keep the geometries and textures in the same runtime as the figure.

thanks, Phil.

I was afraid of that. For some reason, currently I keep all geom and text files in the main runtime. But that arrangement doesn't play nice with other programs such as WW or Carrara, etc.

I don't suppose you know of a quick way of getting these files into their proper runtimes (keeping in mind that there are a lot of them, and they are for many characters, and that they are currently all mixed in together).

Maybe a 3rd party tool ?

regards,
Andrew

Anything is scriptable but I think one would need to be pretty brave to click the "OK move - copy - delete - reorganize all my Poser assets" button.

Are you feeling lucky :))

Take the time to do an organized reinstall. It is worth it. I do that once every 6 months or so. It forces me to be really organized with all of my original content.

Easy for you to say, LukeA. You haven't seen the size of (and number of) my runtimes.

True True :)

I have to agree with Luke.  Sometimes the best thing you can do is an organized re-install.  I know it takes a long time, but many time you find models that you just no longer need.  Overall the new performance gain in loading your runtimes over time should more than make up for the few days of re-installing.  I probably do a re-install once a year though.

I like to keep my uninstalled assets really organized. I never reinstall everything anyway. I guess in my case I rarely use other products as I usually focused on creating my own so it is easier for me to start over.

By the way, M4 and V4 are sensitive to which runtime they need to be installed. They need to be in Posers original runtime. It has something to do with paths to support files.

AFAIK, other figures are not sensitive to this.

After my first messy 'all in one' runtime, I copied it outside poser folder, made it into my "Old Runtime". Started a new native runtime for Poser, and started a set of organized runtimes.

This way, I still had access to my old one, and newer and more frequently used content, I bother to install into the organized side, as I go.

The only thing that should be installed in the main runtime for is the !DAZ folder in runtimelibraries

The rest you can move to a directory of your own. I have them installed eg. in V3, V4, M4, V3 etc.

For those who do an "organised reinstall", can you tell me exactly what it is that you do, i.e. what steps do you take ? ... e.g. do you completely wipe out all of your runtimes incl the Poser main runtime, do you re-format your PC ??

Quote - Easy for you to say, LukeA. You haven't seen the size of (and number of) my runtimes.

I think a lot of us can sympathize with the size of your runtime. Mine is nothing short of enormous....LOL.

Laurie

Quote - For those who do an "organised reinstall", can you tell me exactly what it is that you do, i.e. what steps do you take ? ... e.g. do you completely wipe out all of your runtimes incl the Poser main runtime, do you re-format your PC ??

What I did was set up all my external runtimes folders and just installed (reinstalled really) all my stuff to those and linked them. You can point the Daz installers to your new runtimes and as for the zipped files you can just drop those in your new, fresh runtimes ;o).

Laurie

 "By the way, M4 and V4 are sensitive to which runtime they need to be installed. They need to be in Posers original runtime. It has something to do with paths to support files."

I don't think the above statement is strictly correct.
I have my V4 and M4 in their own external runtime.  The only folder that must  be in the main runtime is the iDAZ (that contains the deltas) folder, then it all works fine.
Love esther

The !DAZ folder has similar stuff for the previous generation of DAZ figures.

 For me personally on my Windows machine I will do a complete fresh install of Windows and my applications - probably yearly.  On the Mac it may be closer to 2 years.  I'm currently in the process of rebuilding my Mac now and it is definitely not for the faint of heart.  For me personally it makes sure that all of my content is current as when I re-download it I'm assured it has all the latest updates to the figures and other bundles.

This is just my personal taste in order to keep my machine in top performance, after a year or two there is just so much bloatware that accumulates over time.

Quote - Take the time to do an organized reinstall. It is worth it.

Yeppers!  That's what I did when I turned to external runtimes.  It allowed me to weed out my runtimes of things I installed and tried and found it wasn't "all that", plus it allowed me to organize my content in such a way that I know where everything is without having to search for it.

OK.....I have bitten the bullet, and am currently re-organizing my runtimes.

I've installed V4. Of course, I installed her to the main runtime initially, and then moved the V4-related character, pose, geometries and textures files to her own runtime.

However .... when I loaded her into Poser, it straight away went looking for blMilWom_v4b.obj. The "Please Locate" dialog has gone straight back to the main runtime.

I have double-checked, and the obj file is in the correct place in v4's runtime.

Please help !!!

Thanks and regards,
Andrew

 Have you merged the iDAZ folder of the V4 external runtime yet into your main poser runtime.  that particular folder HAS to be in the main poser runtime.  All the rest can be external.
Love esther

esther, yes I have. The problem was with looking for the geom and texture files. For some reason, Poser decided that they had to be in the main runtime.

BTW, I have Poser v7 under Win XP.

 really odd - i am on mac but i am sure i am not the only onee who it works for

 maybe u should wait - in case there is a poser 8 that has a different way to organize

I don't buy that.

There must be another explanation....particularly in the light of philc's recommendation earlier in this thread. Is it something to do with the way you set up your Poser preferences ? 

 Maybe it is something to do with the original V4 becoming V.1 and V.2 - I had the same external runtime and just overwrote with the new files.
Love esther

Hmmm....I'd like to see what philc says about this.

OK, I've now tested with Apollo as well, and got the same result, i.e. put the geometries and textures in Apollo's runtime. But, when I went to load up Apollo it went searching in the main runtime.

So...this being the case, why is it preferable to put the geometries and textures in the same runtime.

The only other thing that I can think of is that I am not using the Poser library palette, rather I am using the P3DO Explorer to load up content. Wonder if that is making a difference ?

Is your Poser 7 preference set for deep scan?  It might make a difference.  I have both Poser 7 and PoserPro installed and my V4, M4, Apollo reside in the P7 runtime folder.  I predominantly use PoserPro and I experience no issues with the reference paths.  Another suggestion, run your updater for V4 and M4, it might correct the problem.

Open your CR2 of the characters in a text editor and see if the references are relative (":runtime:geometries:foo:bar.obj") or absolute ("c:poserruntimegeometriesfoobar.obj").  if it looks like the latter, then that's what's causing the problem if you've moved that file from that specific location.

hborre - i tried the different "file search" preference options and they made no difference to the behavior.

Keith - the references are relative.

Hello ? ... philc, are you there ?

Sorry, I take that back. I think I may have resolved the issue.

Firstly, even though I am avoiding the use of the library palette, I discovered that I still have to add the external runtime to the library palette.

Secondly, deep scan does appear to make a difference. It appears inevitable that it will look at the main runtime first, and then the external runtime. A bit slower, but it seems to work.

Attached Link: http://www.senosoft.com/plugins/AwkPlugin.php

What you would have to do is:

• call Manage directory (for a directory and subdirectories)
• a list of all Figures and references is shown
• select the destination Runtime as the one you want to repair (do it only once)
• click move

The problem is that there are some geometries that you probably don't want to move from main Runtime and his tool will move all references. So there is a certain risk of errors when doing massive moves.
But I can arrange that a bit by hightlighting files with many references (Awk is a plugin so I can customize it quickly).

It will move Gigs in a few minutes.

Yarp
www.senosoft.com

Good to hear from you again, yarp !
I will give this a go :)

Hi Andrew,
The only point I'm not sure is if you have to uncheck the Figure files (since destination will be the same as source), but I think the plugin takes it into account and will ignore it if destination=source (it should).

If not drop me a line and I'll fix it quickly.

Same if any other problem, Awk is easy to customize and If find this problem is interesting enough.
For you it is a problem and for me it is interesting ;)

Yarp

Yarp,

I'm actually finding the AWK plugin difficult to locate. I've been looking for "Manage Directories" or "Manage Scene" under the Tools menu, and also the right-click menu when clicking on Geometries.

I have v2.2 loaded.

regards,
Andrew

You got a recent P3dO pro due to our testings on PoserPython (btw thanks again) and you probably have a AwkPlugin numbered 2.2 but it's not the same (I did the Manage Directory function after the PoserPython affair).

So, you'de probably better download both P3dO pro and Poser plugins again (both of them is important Awk 2.2 require a recent P3dO pro):
http://www.senosoft.com/softp3doproDownload.php

It will look like this in Tools menu :

Runtime Manager   
  |__ Manage Current Scene
  |__ Manage Directory

2.3 will put Icons somewhere for plugins function so that they are easier to locate.

Hey yarp,

I've downloaded and installed the version from your link, and I can now see the AWK plugin, however the "Manage Current Scene" and "Manage Directory" items are grayed out.

regards,
Andrew

PS Will be off to bed soon (Aust. EST), as I have a splitting headache. Will log in again in the morning.

Is your P3dO pro registered ?
An unregistered P3dO pro will show "(unregistered)" in top caption bar.
You should contact me directly it will be easier to fix this issue.