Hi

I haven't used DAZ studio forever, since 3.1 or so. Anyway, I noticevthere are 2 ways to inbstall it, via that DAZ Cental thing, and the old fashioned way. And it seems to keep its libraries in different places depending on how you install it. I have fair bit of Poser stuff and older DAz content, so I was wondering whats the best way to install Studio if are going to be using Poser and legacy content with it. I prefer keeping all my runtimes and so on under a directory called D:/Runtimes if that's relevant.

Also, is there a 3rd party script for Studio that lets it read CRZ's or is it built in these days? Dont really want to unpack all those compressed files.

Finally any good tutorials on creating IRAY textures for older content? I had a quick look and the stuff on the DAZ website was a bit lacking to say the least.

PS: Any good tutorials on the differences between DAZ Studio 3.6 and 4.15? I could have sworn that in 3.6 you could just choose to rerender a section of a render but cant find that in 4.15 so far. I imagine that isn't supported by IRAY, but doesnt seem to show if you are using 3DLight either.

If you want to use custom directories it is probably best to use Install Manager rather than Daz Central - there is a link on (almost) every product page. You will need to go into Advanced Settings (gear icon) to adjust the ones it inherited from Daz Central, and you will either need to use Edit>Preferences>Content tab>Content Directory Manager to adjust the paths in Daz Studio or download http://docs.daz3d.com/doku.php/public/software/dazstudio/4/referenceguide/scripting/api_reference/samples/file_io/install_manager_config_import/start (using the link above the code) and drag the file into the Daz Studio Viewport to run it and copy the pathjs from Install Manager.

Compressed Poser files are read without issue (assuming Daz Studio knows what to do with the uncompressed data).

Daz Studio will convert 3Delight materials using the default shaders at render time, you don't need to do anything unless you wish to customise them.

Thanks!

Are PMD's still an issue or does it read them now?

PMDs are often an issue - they will, I think, work alongside a CR2 but they don't load from a pose, as I recall.

Am I right in saying that with older stuff without 3DLight materials, if you following the tutorials for creating decent 3DLight materials for them then you will have a material that wont look like ass in IRay and can be tweaked to look decent from there? I recall several good tuts, unfortunately I dont have them bookmarked.

On the subject of PMD's I didnt use them much in Poser and luckily I dont have much stuff which uses PMD's, just the few things from Content Paradise.

Most 3Delight materials will render reasonably - it tends to be metals and glass, perhaps ceramics, that are most in need of revision.