Hi all,

Just a couple of questions re upgrading to Poser 8.

I have quite a few external runtimes which I use with Poser 7.

Does anyone know if I can point Poser 8 to them and use them without any further work?

Also will V4 and others from Daz still insist on installing to the same directory as Poser 8 or can I, at last, use external runtimes for them too?

Thanks in advance for any help.

AFAIK, I've always seen it recommended that V4 should be installed directly into the main
runtime.  Why, I don't know.  If I"m wrong, I hope somebody else will say so.

I'm wondering about the external runtimes too.  I see an "Add Library" button, but not an
"Add Runtime" button.   Do you see an "Add Runtime" button?

Let the explorations begin.  :)

PS ... All the content I buy I'm going to put in external runtimes, that's for sure.

Okay.  It's me again.

Yes.

Clicking on "Add Library" accesses your external runtimes.  Excellent.  Easy.

We had an interesting discussion of Library versus Runtime.

I argued that "Library", though not what people are used to, is more accurate. The GUI does not show you your entire Runtime. It only shows you your Library within that Runtime. It doesn't show you textures, geometries, python files, etc.

I argued that unless we included the ability to browse and invoke Python scripts, drag and drop images onto shaders, etc., it really wasn't right to use the word Runtime there. SM agreed.

Other reasons were:

New users, not familiar with Poser lore, have no idea what a "runtime" is, but content "library" is pretty obvious to anybody, even if they've never been in a CG program before.

The word "runtime" is overused and actually means something important in computerese outside Poser. My ".NET Runtime" and  "C++ Runtime" are programs, not content.

Similarly, we changed from "Collections" to "Favorites". Everybody knows what a Favorite is by now. What's a collection? Collection has implications that are not true. The Favorites are just links or shortcuts to things you use a lot - your favorite things, organized however you like, regardless of which Library they are in, or where in.

Very cool insights!

Thanks, Bill!

Well, not a great success here with Poser 8 and my Poser 7 downloads library/runtime. Most of it is missing and I have to search to find most items.. this is on a mac. I will raise a ticket with SM when I have time. I have removed and re-added to no avail.

and for installing V4/M4/A4 in an external Runtime, check out the product Wiki. The zest of it is that you make a simple text file in the folder that contains the Runtime folder you want to install to, content of file is not important, rename it  'poser.exe'  and instruct the wantever4 installer to install there. Installer is happy if it sees a 'poser.exe'. 
DAZ recommends to have the morph definition files (those in the !DAZ folder) to be in the main Poser Runtime for better performance, so you can place a copy there. When seeking for a file, Poser goes down the list of Runtimes and simply takes the first file that fits it's search pattern.

 Well I can confirm that adding a runtime wher eV4 has already been installed works just fine. Ever since Poser 4 I've installed everything into that (PBooosted) runtime and it still works today, 10 years later L - including V4.

Quote - I argued that "Library", though not what people are used to, is more accurate. The GUI does not show you your entire Runtime. It only shows you your Library within that Runtime. It doesn't show you textures, geometries, python files, etc.

True, but on the other hand you need a name for the poser-specific, structured and self-contained entity we know as "runtime".
Something like "Poser library" or some such comes to mind. Just to make it clear it isn't just a random folder with a couple files in it; It has to have a specific structure.

Anyway, no biggie. Given we're in Poserland, I immediately assumed "library" must be another word to say "Poser runtime".

Poser 8 actually has instructions on how to use external runtimes.  I myself don't use external runtimes but I do remember coming across the instructions for it.

Frederick
Poser By Design

Hi, Frederick.  Very, very nice site you have there!   Well done.  I'll surely be a regular
visitor.

What I like best about external runtimes is that it's just like organizing everything the way
it works in my head.  Like the pose folder for instance.  It seems like everything from hair
mats to character sets all end up in the pose folder.  So I have external runtimes set up
specifically for hair, actual poses, shoes, clothes, etc. 

I wish I would have learned how to do it sooner though with P7.  I ended up with tons of
content, some of which I hardly ever used, clogging my brain.

I'm taking it slow with setting up my P8 runtimes though.  I wholeheartedly share in your
enthusiasm and I've been kind of high cycling ever since the release.  IMO, this roll out
has had the feel of a big event ever since word of it started trickling out and I feel that the
event, the product, has definitely lived up to expectations.  Very happy here to be
experiencing it.

Alright.  Good luck and have fun!  Best wishes all!

Quote -
Also will V4 and others from Daz still insist on installing to the same directory as Poser 8 or can I, at last, use external runtimes for them too?

For whatever idiotic reason, the people at DAZ decided it was a good idea to create an installer that absolutely requires finding a "poser.exe" file before it will install the generation4 people, so that's why you had to install it into the main Poser runtime.

However, once there, it all can be moved wherever. It doesn't have to stay in your Poser7/PoserPro/whatever version runtime. I have all my runtimes on a separate HDD and have used them all over the course of 4 different PCs over the last few years and have never had to reinstall anything, and I use the Poser Pro runtime only for Poser Pro content. None of my DAZ stuff at all is even on the same physical disk as Poser Pro, let alone in the runtime, and it all works just fine.
Python stuff, however, is probably best placed under the main Poser program runtime.

But also as others have mentioned, you can fool DAZ' idiotic installer by creating a dummy Poser.exe file anywhere you want.

IIRC , when I got M4 I installed it into a folder on my desktop that way, for the same reason I install all stuff into a temp folder first- to see what all it contains and to change folder names to suit how I want to work, not how some merchant thinks I should.

Quote - Well, not a great success here with Poser 8 and my Poser 7 downloads library/runtime. Most of it is missing and I have to search to find most items.. this is on a mac. I will raise a ticket with SM when I have time. I have removed and re-added to no avail.

Stevey3D,
Please submit a trouble ticket to SM if you haven't done so already.  I have one with this very issue (also on a Mac.)  John and the developer(s) are looking at the problem, but if you can send additional info to them, it may speed up the resolution of our problem.
Thanks so much!

LeeMoon: Problem raised with SM...

Thanks for all your help, much appreciated.

Not sure if/when I'll upgrade. Probably wait a while though. P7 crashed alot when I bought it but has been very stable for the last 18 months or so, no crashes at all.

Currently stability wins over new features.

Nice to hear of the V4/M4 workarounds. My own method was to load the figures and save them in my V4/M4 external figures library together with versions with morphs++ and creature injections. Your methods seem better IMO.

Thanks again.

I am on an intel mac and have been able to load all of my old runtimes. My PoserPro runtime is where are my textures,  geometries and my !DAZ folder are located. When I added my PoserPro runtime I had to relaunch P8 to get it to find the textures for the characters IE V4. But here DAZ morphs work just fine without moving the !Daz folder. YMMV

Under partners Shaderworks there is a script that is supposed to add all your old runtimes into to P8. It worked under windows but got errors on Mac's There is a revised script here http://www.runtimedna.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46120 that works on macs now.

grichter: Thanks for the script link. Unfortunately it returns the same problem with incomplete runtimes on my system.

I'd like to make this upgrade from P7 to P8.. and also (finally) move to Mac. My problem is that all my bought/downloaded Poser props and addons are for PC. Could I just move the runtime folder from the P7 (PC) installation to the new P8(Mac) installation ?

 @ragnar: Yes, you could do that, just make sure you do not overwrite any files that Poser needs. However my recommendation would be to copy your Windows runtime to the Mac, remove all windows executables and add it in poser as an external runtime. At least that is how I did it when I switched to Mac. All you have to do then is to re-install/extract any Python scripts into the Poser Runtime Poser8 set up during installation and you should be set. That way you can still use poser while you might be setting up a clean runtime.

@everyone else: I have the same problem as Stevey3d. Just as a test I copied the contents of my Poser Pro runtime into the Poser 8 runtime and even then only a small percentage showed up, so I think that  there is something wrong with the way the runtime contents are displayed, because when I load an older file that was set up in Poser Pro it loads fine, so Poser8 knows were the files are, just does not show them in the library.
Anyway, just my 2 cents on the issue.

   Seb

@Sebam, yes it does seem to be a display problem. I can use the search facility in P8 and find any of the missing content, it just doesn't display in the runtime lists.

Have you tried the "Refresh" function on the RH side of the library in question?

Hi mariner.. yep tried that and removal and re-add and restart and reboot.. no joy. Problem raised with SM.

UPDATE: After a great deal of time and sending SM large amounts of evidence and information the problem with missing items in my P7 downloads library has been solved (but not fixed).

SM:"This has been discovered to be an issue with the Cache in the new Library on MACs that prevents the some items from displaying when a Runtime has a large number of folders and will be fixed in the Service Release."

SM inform me that they working on the problem over the weekend, and a Service Release is imminent.

In the meantime using the search option remains the only way to use external runtime content if you have missing items.

Quote - SM:"This has been discovered to be an issue with the Cache in the new Library on MACs that prevents the some items from displaying when a Runtime has a large number of folders and will be fixed in the Service Release."

SM inform me that they working on the problem over the weekend, and a Service Release is imminent.

In the meantime using the search option remains the only way to use external runtime content if you have missing items.

Good to see that they're listening and doing something about it, a very positive sign from SM.