I've noticed that unzipping items aren't immediately available in the library when the program is open and in use.  I have to save, close and re-open P8 for them to show up.  Has anyone else noticed this?  It's quite frustrating.  (but then this program has been nothing but frustrating.  It runs better on my XP desktop with the service release and better on my vista laptop with out the sr)

Yep, I see it too. Very slow - frustrating.

Are you saying that the Refresh button doesn't work when you select the desired runtime or folder?

I don't think many people realize there is a refresh, at least by the amount of times on different forums I've seen that question.

As for speed, If you are like me and have poser start up in an empty scene, when a camera or light is selected it makes the cpu run at 100%, try selecting the ground prop as soon as you can and you'll see the library speed way up.

Refresh don't work for new installed content. Closing and reopening P8 is a must.

You phrased that in such a way that implies you think it is not applicable, and are suggesting that my question is not relevant.

I am the author of the P8 Library GUI. Please answer the question.

What I mean is, did you add some content to a known folder, then refresh that folder, and you still do not see the new content?

I have no probs with the refresh function, youonly have to click on the "wheel" on the right side of the library.

Quote - I don't think many people realize there is a refresh, at least by the amount of times on different forums I've seen that question.

As for speed, If you are like me and have poser start up in an empty scene, when a camera or light is selected it makes the cpu run at 100%, try selecting the ground prop as soon as you can and you'll see the library speed way up.

You're right.  I hadn't a clue there was a refresh for the library and it took me a bit to find it.   Thanks for the cpu tip.  I do see a little difference by doing that.  Between the bugs in the program and the Content Paradise site running slow and then giving me server errors it's been a very frustrating day. 

Aha, I know what the problem is (error 40). Im too fast :-)
Cleared the runtime again and copyed everything back. Opened P8 and if I now wait for a long time the items seems to be found. Just way slower now than PoserPro as I can't see when the search is over. I was trying to access and search folders that wasn't finished by the search.
A project Im working on has many folders and files. It took a long time to find but in the end it was found.
So sorry - me bad. The search seems to work, but It just take a long time to get through the search. 28 sec. to put a time on it which is a very very long time for me compared to PoserPro.
I also tryed to adjust the thumbnail size but P8 crashed. Again I waited for the search to finish and this time it didn't crash. So a suggestion would be to only have the library window open when a search is completed - or atleast a notification that the search is still in progress.

Now that I know what my problem has been all along I made a few tests. Rebooted my PC. When my Vista was loaded (no HD activity) I started PoserPro to see how fast it was to start compared to P8. PoserPro took 1 minut and 14 sec. to start until there was no CPU/HDD activity and ready for action. I had 6.3GB of ram free (I have 8GB installed).
Now it was P8s turn. Same steps as above. It took P8 3minutes and 38 sec. to start up!! The search was the bad guy here as I could see on the folder numbers when the search was over. No wonder I sometimes couldn't find anything in the folders :-) But after it was loaded I had only 4.4GB of ram left. Can this be the search thing that does that or is it the new P8 engine that eat up all my ram?  Almost 2GB more than PoserPro! My CPU was also using 25% of a 4core CPU even though P8 was finishing to load and was idle. If I minimized P8 or closed the preview windows the CPU load dropped to 0%.

On my systems P8 starts up in about 7 seconds compared to about 180 seconds for PoserPro. I have a large library, so if I turn off the tree functionality of PoserPro it will load in about 20 seconds.
Filling the library of P8 with items depends on the number of open folders. Normally that will take about 5 seconds. PoserPro does not have a Search function, but P8 search takes about 5-20 seconds depending on the category setting and the number of results.

Regarding memory usage: If P8 is loaded with my unreasonably large library, it will take up 233MB of adress space, which is comparable to PoserPro

So P8 is much more efficient as PoserPro in these points

 On my system, an  AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black, with 8 Gigs memory it takes P8 about 15 seconds to load. Whether the content manager works is a coin toss. Sometimes it's a champ, doing everything right and very quickly. Sometimes it can take it upwards of three minutes to finish scanning on a runtime change. I've got a dozen runtimes of about 5-10 gigs each, total of 80 Gigs. There is no rhyme or reason as to why this change will be fast and the next one slow.

As to the search, it searches all my runtimes,but takes a good little while to do it (4-5 minutes) Not sure if this would be considered good or bad, as I've nothing the really compare it to. BB? Is this what should be expected?

I also notice that sometimes a saved scene my load in 15 seconds, and the next time it loads may take almost a minute. Again, no rhyme or reason. I had written this off to internet related issues tied to the content system, but BB has said in other threads this is not the case, so I'm at a loss to offer a suggestion as to why this occurs.

I also have times when it takes a while for Poser to realize which dial I am trying to turn for a morph.

Summation: There are a lot of things still flaky, but nothing I can file a report on because I can't pinpoint causes. Even with all of this, I STILL think P8 is a better system than Poser Pro (which is still installed on my system.)

My $.02

Monitor your resources when you test. How long does the HD use to fire up P8 until it stops. How much does the Poser.exe allocate in the ram, how much does it cache.
And do it just after a reboot - if you already had it loaded before does not count. Then everything will be loaded from the ram and not HD.
Windows tells me that 450MB ram is allocated to Poser.exe. But since 2GB have been cached - why does it do that when PoserPro doesn't?
I have 120GB of content in 9000 folders and about 300.000 files and my P8 content hasn't even been installed yet :-)

Did another test. Under "Show Library" I set it to Downloads. I have nothing in that folder. Closed P8 and rebooted. Now it only took 25 seconds to start P8 and 7 seconds like Wimvdb if it had been cached first. So I guess it's my big runtime dir it has a tough time to handle :-(
Free ram is 6.3GB now so P8 will eat 2GB of my free ram to "handle" my big runtime dir while PoserPro doesn't.

I hope bagginsbill can come up with something to fix this. I'm willing to beta test!

I know runtime size effected earlier posers, but I thought that wasn't the case for p8 (I don't know what I read that I miss understood).

My runtime is about 398GB (1.4M files, 53.7K folders), so I don't think runtime size matters.

This is a intel quad system with 8GB of memory running Vista64. I get similar results on an i7 with 6GB on Windows 7-64. On this last system I have the external runtime attached as a networked drive. So it is a bit slower when filling the library.

What tool do you use to monitor RAM usage? I run (Microsoft's System Internal) Process Explorer all the time which gives me a complete overview of what every process and program uses for resources.

Memory usage is very complicated issue, especially where virtual memory is concerned. In task manager you can look at the "working set". That is the actual amount of memory the program has allocated and reserved for its own usage. This will increase when you load figures and props. Once you reach the 4GB barrier on a 64bit system you run out of memory on Poser.

Wow - I have a presario with only 2 gig RAM and a 500 gig HDD. Boy do I feel impotent right about now, :lol: .

Any progress on this problem bagginsbill?

I don't know. SM wrote the part that actually scans the folders, and I have no visibility into how that has changed.

Well, the only library frustration I am having is actually moving the slider.

Bagginsbill, is there any way to make the hotspot for the slider wider than 1 pixel?  It is very difficult for my mouse to grap the slider & move it up or down.

The only problems I have with the library are:

1. it sometimes (not always) takes f-o-r-e-v-e-r to populate after launching P8
2. if I add new content with P8 running and refresh, the new items show up twice - not a major deal

Any tips on how to address point 1) would be welcome!

Quote - Well, the only library frustration I am having is actually moving the slider.

Bagginsbill, is there any way to make the hotspot for the slider wider than 1 pixel?  It is very difficult for my mouse to grap the slider & move it up or down.

 

The slider is 6 pixels wide, I think. When SM asked me to make it like that, I was pretty concerned about how small it was.

I can change it easily, but they have "graphics" people who were not happy when the library had a wider scrollbar thumb than the rest of Poser. I'll bring it up with them.

the easy solution to this is to load new items, shutdown Poser, and restart. Then it sees the new goods. I'm on a Mac, so ymmv, but I find that trying to have Poser 8 detect and register the newly added stuff without a restart often results in a crash.

Its a minor annoyance, compared to the much faster library system, and the search function

Quote -

The slider is 6 pixels wide, I think. When SM asked me to make it like that, I was pretty concerned about how small it was.

I can change it easily, but they have "graphics" people who were not happy when the library had a wider scrollbar thumb than the rest of Poser. I'll bring it up with them.

Please do.   Same issue when clicking on something, a lot of times I have to double-click twice to get something to activate.

Tell the "graphics" people I said "It isn't about you, you don't pay the bills.  I do."

Oh, by the way, thanks for a great library. 

I have Poser 7 and 8 installed on my comp, Poser 8, the program, loads a lot faster than Poser 7 but... it takes like a couple of minutes to load the runtime content which is mostly installed on the Poser 7 runtime library.

So i have a question about it: Do you recommend me to start installing new content to the Poser 8 main runtime or do you think i should continue to use the Poser 7 runtime folder?

I think you should install content in content specific category runtimes, and never install 3rd party content in your main runtime.

Imagine someday you are on Poser 14, and you decide that you're done with Poser 7 or Poser 8 and the native content they came with. How would you get rid of them from your computer, but keep all the other content you added to them, such as V4, that you still want to use?

Also, it makes much more sense to keep related content together and unrelated content separate. I have, for example, a V4 runtime for all things V4. I use this runtime in Poser 7, Poser Pro, and Poser 8.  I have another runtime for all things Antonia. Another for all things Bagginsbill. And when I want to focus on Antonia, in Poser 8 I select the Antonia runtime and then that is all I see, and it is very convenient.

Mixing Poser content with other content is a very bad idea IMO.

 I agree. I have my content in separate runtimes too.
As for the slider.  The libraryhelper python script from rdna by semidieu has lovely wide scroll slider that looks very mac like on  my mac - pretty blue and the same colour and size as in safari.  very nice to use.  Unfortunately the drawbacks of the semidieu library script is that undo doesn't work and also you can't add new runtime folders this way.  I do like the sliders though and also can conform as one loads the library object - makes things very quick.
Love esther

Quote -  I agree. I have my content in separate runtimes too.
As for the slider.  The libraryhelper python script from rdna by semidieu has lovely wide scroll slider that looks very mac like on  my mac - pretty blue and the same colour and size as in safari.  very nice to use.  Unfortunately the drawbacks of the semidieu library script is that undo doesn't work and also you can't add new runtime folders this way.  I do like the sliders though and also can conform as one loads the library object - makes things very quick.
Love esther

Which libraryhelper python script are you referring to?

Quote - Mixing Poser content with other content is a very bad idea IMO.

Then i have to rebuild my whole runtime library yes? ... it's going to be a headache >.<

Any tips on how to do it without too much problem?

 actually it would not be hard for you to do at all Suucat.
Leave everything where it is (assuming you have plenty of disk space), then make new external runtimes by just unzipping each content package you have bought and putting that runtime into a folder eg Greenpotts_School then the runtime goes inside it.
Love esther

Attached Link: library manager

Quote - > Quote - Mixing Poser content with other content is a very bad idea IMO.

Then i have to rebuild my whole runtime library yes? ... it's going to be a headache >.<

Any tips on how to do it without too much problem?

Do it the way you want the first time, then there is no problem! (until the next time after that, when you decide there is a new way you want it)

Seriously, When Poser 5 came out and we could have multiple Runtimes, I sat down and looked at how I used content and built my Libraries that way. For me it made sense.

I use Figure Centric and Theme Centric Runtimes. (Figure by Name, Animals all grouped together, Scenes, Props, Vehicles, Fantasy, Sci Fi, etc... ) Some items I have installed in two locations (A Space Ship in Vehicles and Sci Fi) Some I install and then remove extra files. (Hair for V3 that also supported M3, I delete the M3 files in the DAZ Females (V3, A3, SP3) Runtime and keep the files for the female figures in that Runtime. I then installed it in the DAZ Males Runtime and delete the Females versions.

When I get a new product, I install it into test Runtime and look at the files...I find that I sometimes rework the Folder Names and such and then move the Runtime to the final Runtime.

Start Rant... I really wish creators would stop using their name in the Runtime Folders for content.. If I am looking for a Miki2 Dress that I remember, I so not think of the creator, I think of the name of the product. To be honest, I ususally avoid creators that use their name in the Runtime to organize content. I only want to navigate one folder, unless there are two distinct things in that folder (Materials and Poses... please do separate them) , then I want those in Sub Folders. Nothing more annoying than going to the Pose Library, and having to scroll through 7 armband texures, 7 boot textures, 7 gloves textures,  7 Skirt textures, to get to the 7 top textures... what is so hard about having the Parent Folder the Product name with any Poses and having each different color or texture group in its own folder so when you open Black and white, you do not also have Black and Red, Blue and Green, etc... all in the same folder?

End Rant

I don't quite get it but it's cool, i'm going back to Poser 7, it's more stable than Poser 8 anyway.

Thanks tho...

My questions, is how do i load it into P8? I am just coming off of using Poser 6, and the layout iin P8 is way different then the  older P6. i use my pz3's but i have to go everywhere to find everything.

anyone have a quick tip?

Content Installation has not changed... locations are more varied and you should not have your Main Library in your Program Files if you use Windows...

So for Zip Files, you extract to the Library Folder that you want the Content in (Poser 8 Content or Poser 8 Content Downloads for the two default... MAC users will want to use Stuffit with the Merge Feature.

For installers, you may need to fake them out. Some installers for Windows are stuck back in Poser 4 when Content had to be in the Main Program Folder...Since Poser 5 that has not been needed. There is a KB article over at Smith Micro Support that explains how to install content and how to use those installers that want the Main Program Folder with Poser 7 and later that allow you to have the Main Runtime outside of the Program Folder.

If you can not find them, or need help, contact Smith Micro Support. I know this guy there that will help you find the links and answer your questions. (Put Attn John in the Subject so he can find it!)

Quote - I don't know. SM wrote the part that actually scans the folders, and I have no visibility into how that has changed.

This is interesting to learn!  My library seems to keep doing undesirable scanning and the SM helpdesk played dumb about it for a month.  Hmm.