The "circular link" load message revisited - again

nowefg

There are a few entries on this topic, one my own from a while back, but having gotten the Aiko4Pro-Free set, and getting the same, (and other) problems, I'm reposting to see if there is any way to fix this.

Since installing Posermatic's NBM for V4 about a year ago, every time I load V4, the load messages run through this list of "circular link" entries, all related to NBM morphs, even though NBM is not loaded.

I wondered, then, how an unloaded morph set could affect a freshly loaded Daz model like v4. I did find out "what" a circular link is, but not how to fix the issue, which I see as a problem. Morphs that haven't yet been loaded shouldn't be showing up in my loading process at all.

With the Aiko4 cr2, same thing happens, now.

I understand that this circular link issue doesn't affect the model once loaded, (or doesn't seem to,) but when things that shouldn't happen happen all the time, one wonders. It does affect loading times. slightly, and clogs up the log. More of a nuisance, than functionality issue, apparently. That's questionable, though; any time software acts on it's own, like this, I know there's a problem somewhere, and it may be causing other problems I attribute to other things. The occasional inexplicable crash, etc. Who knows?

Initially, I reinstalled V4.2 several times, and have upgraded Studio through several versions, now at 4.6. Nothing has had any effect on this circular link business. Uninstalling NBM stops it, but NBM is a very effective morph set that I use often, so I've just grown accustomed to this hassle. Now, with Aiko4, I have to look forward to ignoring thIs problem whenever I load that model, too.

My reason for re-posting is that I did look at the other posts, same problem, but maybe not the same apparent culprit product.

Is there a way to eliminate circular link issues?

Richard Haseltine

The ERC is there in the files loaded with the figure, and it's the ERC that is causing the error - it is trying to link a control to itself, or to a property that is already linked to the property in question as far as DS is concerned. I don't know what NBM is trying to do that would trigger this, and I don't think I have it to test, but "fixing" it would probably entail editing the files.

nowefg

Thank you, Richard,

If I'm understanding what you're saying:

I don't know what an ERC is, and assume it's one of V4's files. So, whenever I load V4, or now Aiko 4, this ERC (file?) is involved.

The control it's trying to link to is used in every morph in the NBM product, (I get this circular link message for each one of the morphs), or to a property that is already linked to these properties. That sounds like installation of NBM-time, and track-able.

What "NBM is trying to do," and this is where it goes never-never-land for me, shouldn't be happening at all until I inject the NBM product in a previously loaded V4 or Aiko figure. Prior to that, NBM is just one of many sets of morphs on my hard drive.

Where does the connection originate? Is it that, during the NBM installation, something from those NBM files insinuates itself into the V4 loading procedure? Or, more likely, some sort of exposed link or flag in the NBM files is vulnerable to get called when the V4 ERC loads? Something mislabelled?

Is V4 acting like a mini-powerloader, grabbing at the NBM file sets, or the areas they work on, which have been previously connected to an individual NBM morph? How'd that happen; during install?

How would DS even know the NBM files are on the computer, until they're called for by inject? But the log of the load does reference each NBM morph by explicit name.

I load V4 without powerloader for morphs++ and then load those morphs manually, to keep the models as simple and determinable as possible. The log doesn't show errors during V4 loading, just the circular link entries.

If I'm understanding what you're getting at at all, it would have to be some close tie in between the ERC and the NBM files; otherwise, all morph sets that affect particular areas of V4 would cause the same thing.

Without knowing even what the acronym, ERC, stands for, and with a decade-long, but couple-of-decades-dated, high-level-language programming experience, and Notepad++, do I have a chance of tracking this problem down?

I'll hunt for this ERC in the V4 files, and then hunt through a couple of the specific NBM morph files, hopefully figuring out what I'm doing along the way. So much of what Studio does is invisible.

( After all this, it occurs to me to check and see if the Daz Installer for NBM has been superceded by a zip file, yet. Maybe a reinstall from a new zip solves all this? That has happened for me, since the changeover from installers to zips).

Incidentally, if you do much artwork with female figures, Posermatic's NBM is an incredibly effective and versatile tool. The promo images don't begin to do justice to what NBM can do for developing a believable, realistically posed and shaped figure. I use it in ninety percent or more of scenes with V4. It makes that big and subtle a difference in a pose. Easy to use, as well.

Richard Haseltine

ERC, enhanced remote control, is the process which allows one parameter to control another - as when a slider on the body controls morphs one one or more body parts (in V4), or when a joint's bending turns a morph on. What the errors mean is that the files for the links in NBM, which load with V4 (as do the channel definitions, saying what morphs make up the set), are trying to link a morph to itself either directly or through an intermediary. I don't know hat the NBM set-up is doing that is being seen this way - it happens with some things that want to link to a prop or another figure, which DS doesn't see - and so treats as a circular internal reference - on importing the file, but I don't think that the NBM morphs do that sort of thing.