AmbientShade posted at 1:30PM Tue, 30 July 2019 - #4358341

I don't understand what you mean by this, "exist outside the library" ? The best place to put all referenced files is outside of the libraries folder. For example, Runtime > Geometries, or Runtime > Images. If this folder doesn't exist already, make it. It will install like any other folder.

In modern versions of Poser, morphs are in .PMD files. By default, Poser puts those .PMD files in the library with the .cr2, .pp2, or .pz2 files that reference them. Many people, Poser team included, leave them in the library with the presets that access them. Which is a bad idea for the same reason it's a bad idea to put meshes and images in the library with their presets.

Poser preset files link from the Runtime folder down. Let's say you bought a figure. If a preset file (.cr2), mesh (.obj or .obz), images (.jpg), and morphs (.pmd) files are all in a folder "My Fig" in the library, unless the creator edited the links by hand in the preset, all of the links to the resources will start like ":Runtime:libraries:character:My Fig:". But let's say you decide this one figure doesn't need it's own folder, and you want to group it with other figures. Or you find its folder is (or will be) packed full, and you want to put the base figure in MyFig > Base. So you move the figure and its files, but now all the links are broken.

This is why almost all brokerages long ago wouldn't accept any products that didn't have their meshes in Runtime:Geometries and their images in Runtime:Textures. In point of fact, most insist on a naming convention within those folders. As in they will not accept your product if its files aren't in the right place. They do not, however, have a similar standard for morphs. But its even more necessary than for those other types of files.

Poser will tell you that it can't find the obj file. It will tell you that it can't find images. It will say nothing when it can't find the .pmd file. The morphs just won't do anything. To the user, it just looks like the morphs are broken. The dials will be there, they just won't do anything. It fails silently, and unless you're fairly knowledgeable, you'll have no clue why. You'll just assume the creator and the product suck.

Imagine I want to make a dial-spin character. Legally and just plain politely, I will do this by referencing someone else's PMD file, not embedding the other person's morphs in my own new PMD. If I do the latter, my customers will get the other person's morphs without paying for them. At least the ones in the new PMD. If I do the former, it's just an add-on to their work, like most V4 dial spin characters needed you to buy Morphs++. But if that person packaged their morphs like Runtime > libraries > pose > My Name > My Morphs > INJ My Morphs. pz2, INJ My Morphs.pmd, then my product referencing their PMD file will break the moment someone decides to move it to libraries > pose > My Morphs, or libraries > pose > Fig Name > My Morphs, or libraries > pose > Fig Name. All of which are pretty logical alternative structures.

Many content users install into an empty Runtime so they can move files where they want them to go.

If the original artist instead treats their PMD morph file like a mesh, and puts it in Runtime > Morphs > MyName > MyFig, anyone can reference those morphs for dial spin characters and give away or sell dial-spin characters for those morphs. La Femme's base morphs, for instance, are in the Geometries folder, not in the Libraries folder. Making her easy to support. But part of why Dawn character support never took off might be because her morphs are in the library. That means that any characters made for her either have to risk breaking the moment a customer decides to reorganize their library to fit their comfort or use entirely custom morphs. I love sculpting and have a free tool for it, and it's still a PITA to have to create my own versions of utilitarian morphs just because I can't build off of any Dawn's morphs. By far most character creators, even best selling ones, do not create their own morphs or 3d paint. They need to be able to reference other people's injections as much as they need merchant resource textures.

One of the ways the Poser team consistently demonstrated how they don't understand their own user base by doing this with their own figures since zipped OBZs were introduced (again, pre-SM). I actually reported this to them, and was rebuffed and told I shouldn't reorganize my library. They thought it was fine to make stuff that breaks and requires hours of hand editing references each time you update (I've done it several times) if you just make your library work for you. Which tells me that they didn't really mean for their content to be used.