Being a complete novice at this, and at the risk of appearing stupid because I've missed something glaringly obvious, I am sure somebody can tell me where I'm going wrong.

I have Daz Studio4.6 with Genesis, Genesis2 and Victoria4.2 to play with. Not wanting to shell out too much money I haven't got on something I don't if I'm going to take to, I downloaded a few bits  from here and unzipped the packages into the appropriate file.

However, whatever I try to use from these files, I get the same error message that DAZ can't find the appropriate .dsf file

Is it me? Is it the DAZ software? or am I missing something stupidly simple?

Hey Masterharper,

This is a bit of a common problem when first using Daz Studio. And it generally relates to where your runtime is located. It generally means DS hasn't been configured to locate your content.

Try this in DS go to Edit > Preferences > Content Library > Content Directory Manager, (or on Mac Daz Studio/Preferences/Content Library/ Content Directory Manager - expand the “DAZ Studio Formats” and “Poser Formats”, and make sure Daz is directed to look in the correct location where your content is installed. Also make sure you have the Genesis Starter Essentials installed as well.

Let me know how you go.

Thanks for the assist, Razor. Checked all locations and all are correct. Got GSE with Daz software, so I know that's installed. Tried again but still without success. Any other suggestions?

What is the path for the content you have installed sometimes daz balks at nested folders?

For instance my library inside another my library.

Is it all content not loading or is it specific items?

what is the exact error your receiving and what are you loading?

Is genesis loading correctly? Do you receive an error on startup Of DS?

are you installing with DIM?

GSE will be a seperate install after installing the main app so just double checking that one.

All locations sounds kind of ominus as there is only one location for Studio content. that is this PC, documents, DAZ 3D, studio, my library. More over DAZ content is zipped in a "content" folder, thing is it was changed to "my library" years ago. So as Razor42 pointed out make sure you don't have an imbeded content folder, as in a "content" folder inside your "my library" folder. It's a simple fix though. On a PC just cut all the folders from in the "content" folder and paiste it to your my library folder.

Now this is what is going to get me in trouble, I do not recomend DIM or CMS. It's like Scotty says "the more complex the plumbing, the easier to stop up the works". 

Now I think it's smart to just download the content zip, this way you can check it before adding it to your "my library" folder. One of my issues with DIM is it doesn't teach you how to install nonDAZ content. As DIM and CMS only work with DAZ content and DAZ certainly isn't the only content broker out there.

And I'll leave it at that, my opinion of why DAZ has done it that way will just kick off an argument.

Thanks, Manley. I think I know where you're coming from wih your opinion of DAZ odwnloader. Had similar experiences with certain sim games too.

Razor, DAZ, Genesis,G2 and V4 all work fine as do the couple of bits I downloaded from DAZ.

Everything I've downloaded from here shows up fine in the Content Folder tab but when I try and use the content, I get :

"Some assets needed to load the file were missing. The content may not work as expected. The following files could not be found"

This is invariably followed by a file path with a file extension  .dsf

Clicking okay results in my base figure being engulfed in grey cuboids.

Having taken a look into a couple of the zip files I downloaded, DAZ may have a point.

The files I expected to have .dsf extension are labelled as DSON User files - not a trace of a .dsf file. Looking into it a bit further, it seems these are DAZ files created to use in other programs. Is there any way to get them to work in DS or are they simply terminally incompatible?

What are you trying to use and from where? It sounds as if you have either character presets for figures you don't have or Poser Companion Files for use with the DSON Importer for Poser but not the base DSON files used by DS itself.

Been trying to use "Dawn" character and several bits for her downloaded from hivewire also a couple of bits for Genesis2 from here...Complete list of figures I have - Victoria4.2, Genesis, Genesis2

Quote - Been trying to use "Dawn" character and several bits for her downloaded from hivewire also a couple of bits for Genesis2 from here...Complete list of figures I have - Victoria4.2, Genesis, Genesis2

I believe to install the Dawn character in DAZ Studio, you need to download the zip files named "DAZ Studio Files - Main ZIP" and "DAZ Studio & Poser Files - Main Textures".

In the zip file "10001-dawn-sr1-ds.zip" you will find directories:

data

People

ReadMes

Runtime

Templates

The folders "data", "People" and "Runtime" need to be merged with the directories of the same name in your "My Library" or "My DAZ3d Library" directories.  The "ReadMes" and "Templates" directories are not really needed, but it would be harmless to copy or merge them under "My Libary".

In the zip file "10001-dawn-sr1-textures-ds_psr.zip" you will find directories:

ReadMes

Runtime

The directory "Runtime" needs to be merged with the directory of the same name under "My Library" or "My DAZ3D Library".  You can merge the "ReadMes" directory too, but it may contain duplicate content to the "ReadMes" from the other zip file.

Quote - Been trying to use "Dawn" character and several bits for her downloaded from hivewire also a couple of bits for Genesis2 from here...Complete list of figures I have - Victoria4.2, Genesis, Genesis2

Vendors who sell Genesis2 products here usually package there products similar to the way Dawn is packaged. There will usually be a DAZ zip, sometimes there will be more than one DAZ zip. Sometimes the textures are put in the DAZ zip. Sometimes the textures are in a file that can be used in both DS and Poser.

If there are DSON zips, you don't need those and should not install them. Those are for Poser.

The DAZ zips may be like the Dawn zip with top level 'data', 'People', 'Runtime' directories, or they may have top level directories 'Content' or 'My Library' under which you will find the 'data', 'People', .... directories.

Thanks, Mark. I'll give that a go. I don't want to give up on a potential new hobby just yet. Being disabled, I spend a lot of time at the computer and am trying to find ways of doing something a little more constructive than just playing games!!!

Quote - > Quote - Been trying to use "Dawn" character and several bits for her downloaded from hivewire also a couple of bits for Genesis2 from here...Complete list of figures I have - Victoria4.2, Genesis, Genesis2

Vendors who sell Genesis2 products here usually package there products similar to the way Dawn is packaged. There will usually be a DAZ zip, sometimes there will be more than one DAZ zip. Sometimes the textures are put in the DAZ zip. Sometimes the textures are in a file that can be used in both DS and Poser.

If there are DSON zips, you don't need those and should not install them. Those are for Poser.

The DAZ zips may be like the Dawn zip with top level 'data', 'People', 'Runtime' directories, or they may have top level directories 'Content' or 'My Library' under which you will find the 'data', 'People', .... directories.

Thanks for the help, Mark. Having followed your instructions, Dawn now works perfectly in DS. Will apply same to my other downloads - hopefully with the same success....and thanks to everyone else for their help.