Question about DSON Importer for Poser
EightiesIsEnough
Posts: 1,110
I am not sure if this is related to DAZ Studio, but it was about sojmething I purchased through the DAZ 3D site.
I just downloaded the DSON Importer for Poser, but I am unable to install it into Poser 11. A message said something along the lines of only installing into the most recent versions of Poser Pro,and all I got is Poser 11.
The reason I ask is because I would like to import a Victoria 4 figure from DAZ Studio into Poser 11. Any ideas on where I went wrong?
Post edited by Richard Haseltine on
Comments
Moved to Poser Discussion
Victoria 4 is a native Poser figure and does not require any additional software to use, though you will have to run the update utiltiy to make the morphs work.
If you do want to install the DSON Importer, fro Genesis and the Genesis 2 figures, then how are you isntalling? If using Install Manager you need to add your copy of Poser to its list of installed applications - click the gear icon at top-right to open preferences, then in the Applications tab click the + button to add an application, enter the details for Poser 11, and click the ... to set the path to the application - the DSON Importer should then install.
So, what step by step instructions would I have to do in order to import Victoria 4 to Poser 11?
Are there any tips to make dson load faster it takes up to 10 min sometimes longer to load a figure
Install Victroia 4, and any other content. In the isntall folder (the library you are using) go to /Runtime/Libraries/!DAZ and double-click the DzCreate ExPFiles-v4 batch file. You will need to redo that anytime you add a new ExP moprh expansion (all of which must be in the same external Runtime as the base figure). That's it - load the figure from the DAZ People folder in the Figure library, go to DAZ's Victoria 4 in the Pose library for poses, materials, and the INJ poses that lod (inject) the morph sets ready for use.
Having the DSON files in a library near, or even at, the top of the list will often help.
Install manager installs all my files usually :/
You can tell Install Manager where to put your files - just set it to install to the Smith Micro/Poser #/ folder. Click the gear icon at top-right, go to the Installation tab, and click the + to add a new directory.
There are some decent videos on this topic at YouTube. I suggest going there and doing a search for "DSON Importer Poser" and see what you can find.
Help. AGAIN. MOST of the DAZ Figure *DATA* have simply vanished suddenly, leaving me with only the most basic DAZ Figures in the way of Genesis and higher, male and female. Oh the folders have the png icons and cr2's but without all those geometry and morph bits from DATA, they got less than doodly squat for any character or dial. Sooo why leave this here in the DSON thread? My guestimations as a troubleshooter leave me with one place to start. I use Poser Pro 7 occasionally, just to check the odd thing or two. I run Poser Pro 2014 and Poser Pro 11, either or both, just about daily. I also use the Gen 4 Figures a LOT, right alongside the Gen 6 (Genesis 2) ones. So, I update to the latest version of Poser Pro 11, then note that I cannot create a new character using the base G2F. One thing leads to another and I find that nearly ALL of the DATA has vanished. And the only clue I think I have is that DSON has one folder for its designated Writable Folder for PP 11 and a different one for PP 2014. I ain't saying that IS the problem. Just could be it or a part of it. And when I say vanished, I mean the missing DATA is NOT anywhere in drive D where it should be. *NO* content information of ANY kind should ever be anywhere on my system/boot drive. E V E R . OK DAZ? S-M too. And I haven't found any missing data on drive F, the system drive, either anyway. I am just riled and rankled a bit about this. Hopefully reinstalling ALL those characters and morphs and Figures will fix it. ALL of that should be located exclusively within the Runtime on Drive D: named \3D Work DAZ People. Which means the DATA folder used to have a LOT of stuff for all the genesis, genesis 2 m/f, and even genesis 3 m/f. Gone. But for a few basic items DATA is dang near empty now.
All CONTENT is on the content drive D. All the programs are installed on the system drive, F. I do not mix them up. Currently I am asking questions in here and I am reinstalling ALL my genesis and genesis 2 characters. Likely clothes and accessories will have to follow as well. Seems something is messing with DATA. And messing wrongfully.
Any help on this????
TIA!
McG.
Hey Richard, will the DIM use my external runtimes, ALL on a different HD than the programs? We've talked about the ability DS has to find stuff in a less strict heirarchy of folders and data types than Poser has to adhere to. And how I have every one of my Runtimes (over 3 dozen) set up now with Content, DATA, ReadMe's and Runtime in the first subfolder under the Runtime folders name. It works. I am still installing all content manually, first to temp "install" folders under ARCS on F, do the housekeeping/sorting of files, names and folders, then move the lot over to its permanent home Runtime on D. DAZ made it a LOT easier to get this done when they started using zips instead of executable installers. Yaknow, I can keep doing it manually. I know where everything is going this way. :)
Possibly a couple of places. One, DSON isn't necessary for the Generation 4 and earlier Figures. BUT DSON is needed if you want to use anything with Genesis in the name. Like Genesis, Genesis 2 male and female. All newer DAZ animals need it too. Look inside the zip and if you see a folder named DATA (caps or lower case) in there, then it needs DSON to load it into Poser. DSON is simply a script (PYTHON) that allows Poser to see and load stuff in its Library that otherwise wouldn't even show up in there. DSON is transparent to the user. You just look in your content Library and it's either there or it ain't. Very easy to install. Just put the CORRECT version into the Poser 11 program folder. If you are using the 64 bit Poser, then you have to use the 64 bit DSON version.
Installing Victoria 4. Easy. Install the zips to your desired Runtime, then do as Richard indicates above and run the DzCreate ExPFiles-v4.bat file (double click it) which will initialize V4. If you don't do this then there will be no new channels in the basic Figure to hold the morphs. THEN you install all the morphs you got, such as Aiko 4, Stephanie 4, Girl 4. All those names are morphs that load into Victoria 4. Same goes for Michael 4, The Kids 4. Those three are the Figures.
I hope I am helping, at least a little!
McG.
Question for Those Who Know, about DSON. I "get" the DATA folder, it replaces both the Geometries folder and all those morph Deltas folders/files. All that information still exists, but inside the DATA folder. OK. So then what is this other one that automagically appears inside the Runtime folder itself? Inside that is a folder named auto-adapted which I did NOT create. inside that one are content_files and data. GRRRR! I did NOT create those!!!! WHY is this there? What are all those "Windows Mumbo Jumbo" file name folders inside content_files? Did DSON itself MOVE those files to this location? What's going on? This is a very confusing mess folks!
Yes, you can set up multiple directories - as far as content is concerned it's having the right base directory that matters, whether we are talking about Poser or DS content. In DIM you set which directory to use using the drop down box that appers when the details checkbox is on.
Those are, I believe, the intermediate files created in covnerting from DSON to Poser (which is why theya re in the Runtime folder, not in Data).
OK. So if Poser Pro crashed before all that 'converting' was complete, it would leave a mess to clean up. Well, at the worst, I'd just be reinstalling a few gigs worth of Figures and character sets. I did that for the Genesis and G2F stuff this morning, and it all worked fine in PP 11 SR6. I still have no idea at all where the missing stuff in DATA went. Or why. I do see that if I set up a character/Figure then save the Genesis/Genesis 2 item out as a new .cr2 it will load back in fine even if the DATA folder leaves the building. I mean a few that I did save out as cr2's loaded back in fine, even when their data was missing. I just could not create a new one.
Intermediate. Converting. The data folder was pretty much cleaned out. Empty. AFAIK, that isn't supposed to happen. HD is good, checked them at boot, JIC. Remembering last year and the whole terabyte drive going South. The only thing I can see that might be at issue was two versions of Poser using their own (obviously) installs of DSON, but with a different Writable Runtime Folder for each. One of them wasn't even an actual runtime, but the TEMP folders. Both now have the same Runtime folder listed. This is version 1.1.3.50, BTW.
Yeah, all the files are still where they should be, just the data folder went nearly empty.
The DSON Data folder, or the writable runimte used by the importer?
The DSON data folder next to Runtime and Content and ReadMe's. THE Four Folders, as it were. :) Right its the one where the item installs it to. I have no idea about any 'converter' thing going on. Far as I knew the DATA was never touched once written, only read.
example:
D:\3D Work DAZ People
Content
DATA
ReadMe's
Runtime
Yes, the data folder should eb read-only. It shouldn't be emptied unless you uninstall the content, so I don't know what might have happened for you.
OK there *IS* a serious little problem with all DSON versions that work with Poser Pro 2014 and Poser Pro 11. And I've caught it in the act, it is DSON doing this.
DSON does not *copy* anything. It flat out MOVES, as in pick an item out of DATA and delete it, then put it where it wants to in whatever format it wants to. So, next time Poser tries to find that item it gives me a dialog looking for a (sorry messed up file name).pmd file. I have used all versions of Poser and Poser Pro quite happily for many years with "Use External Binary Morph Targets" UNCHECKED, as in Turned Off. I have my reasons and they seem quite good to me the paying user. End of that. So, why is my Poser, don't matter which one they both are doing this, asking me for a PMD file? Well, so far, my experience with this issue has shown me that IF Poser is looking for such and such specific file that DSON has messed up, then that file does not actually exist anywhere. And that statement is true, I've been checking and following up this issue determined to find if the problem is Poser, DSON or ME. Well that'd be ME for using DSON in the first place, it seems. Oh but wait, there is all this stuff I've been buying that *HAVE* to have DSON just for Poser to even see it. Hmm.
Setting that DATA folder to Read Only. Do I have to go in and manually set every file in it to Read Only too, Richard? Will DSON be forced to obey that setting, or will DSON go round my effort and change something else in POSER to get its own way?
Longer story short: DSON is able to do whatever it wants to with any folder and file from DATA all the way through, even though every single folder has been marked Read Only and the Properties page checked by hand to be sure of it. DSON, for whatever reason, is able to change permissions in folders and files and do whatever the devs want to do.
THAT HAS TO STOP.
Thank you, Richard.
I didn't mean set the folder to read-only, just that the importer should be treating it that way. What you are seeing is certainly unexpected (other than the creation of .pmd files - I think that is done by the importer directly). All I can suggest at this point is opening a support ticket.
Oh kay. Again thank you for your help. All through the years you have been a LOT of help for a lot of people. I appreciate it!
The folders are, by default, Read Only. Need to find a utility that will recursively change files properties to Read Only also. Thing is, DSON seems quite able to disable properties and do whatever it wants to. So the devs need to set DSON to *NOT* move, but copy, and check posers settings to see if .PMDs are allowed. If not, then do not write .PMD. Yeah I know it creates .OBJ's too. It can also create .CR2s but doesn't. Seems the real problem is that something it is doing makes it suddenly impossible for Poser, any installed version I use, to use anything DSON has "controlled". If it is doing this to make things faster in Poser or something, it totally failed at its job!
Open a ticket huh. l get to explore how to do that now I guess.
McG.
Poser always allows PMDs - the preference setting controls whether they are used when saving, not whether or not they will load.
I'm not unerstanding what you mean about the folder already being read-only - is that soemthign you have done or that the OS did? It probably isn't a good idea in general principle.
Ahh, ok on Poser and the PMD's. Though I don't save with them enabled because I WANT the morph targets to be part of the CR2. Not a sidecar type thing.
AFAIK, with Windows back even with W95, when folders are created, the properties of every folder I've seen shows its Read Only box checked. Means you got to have the permission set to change that Folder. You can write stuff into it but not, like rename it or delete it IF you don't have permissions set for that. I discovered today that even when I set every FILE in a given folder to Read Only DSON still MOVES it, that is something that needs explaining. I don't know why they have this "auto adapted" thing going on at all. The whole system up through Genesis 2 worked fine without that mess. Seems to be that having TWO working versions of Poser Pro, 2014 and 11, each with the same version of DSON installed, confuses DSON. Working this out while I am watching it DO this stuff I see that having multiple external Runtimes is not the issue. It is apparently that there are two Poser programs using them. Not at the same time. One day I may use PP 11, and that night close it and run PP 2014. There never used to be a problem man. But now, whole characters and outfits vanish from the Runtime. Poser says its loaded but there is no geometry or morphs at all. So to get it I have to reinstall whatever it is from scratch. And this is really getting old now. The more I use Genesis 2 Figures/Characters and Clothing the worse it gets.
I just submitted a Help Ticket, Richard. Hope they can BE some help!
For me the Read Only box in properties is not on or off but mixed - it has a solid fill, rather than being clear (not read only) or checked (read only).
I have solid fill also, on all folders.
Richard, how far back in DSON versions will I need to go to not have that "auto_adapted" function? It IS that thing that is harming my data. I need that stopped. We all do.
auto adapted is used for necessary format conversions. I don't know what is going on with your installation, but it isn't normal.
Using Poser 11 (newbie). I tried these instructions to install DSON Importer. Based on the error code I'm getting, it seems that DSON Importer is only compatible with Poser 10 and earlier. Is this correct? I've pointed the Install Manager to the right folder for Poser 11. Still getting this error message I get when trying to insall:
McG,
I don't know whay anything would disappear from your Data folder, but having more than one Runtime/DSON/auto_adapted folder ANYWHERE in your Poser Library will cause problems. This is quite likely the case, since you have more than one version of Poser installed. I changed both of my importers (Poser 11 and 2014)to use the runtime where I have my Genesis 1 content installed, ('DAZ Content' on my machine). Then move the contents of the auto_adapted folder coresponding to the Poser version you use most to the new auto_adapted folder. Do a search of your Poser Library Runtime folders and move all of the other auto_adapted folders and their content to a folder outside of the Poser Library; there may be saved scenes that will be looking for missing geometries and PMD's when you load them, so you can then copy the missing files back to your auto_adapted folder.
If you are brave, you can try making backup copies of all of the auto_adapted folders, and simply combine them all together in the new location...
Either download and install manually: https://www.daz3d.com/downloader/customer/files#prod_14897
Or try this: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/1596396/#Comment_1596396