Poser for beginners

[Jherrith]

So now that we have determined that you have it the next step is to insert the installation disk and follow the instructions

Then the real fun will begin

Creating art

[DarkAngel]

no hurry good idea and I have P6 on the Mac and P8 on the pc...lol

[OFW]

As most of you know, I'm really just starting out using my poser (I have both Poser 8 and poser 2010) and really need all the help I can get....starting with the organization piece....with a runtime of well over 50gig...I need some serious help...then to be able to set up separately for testing and my own working folders...I need SERIOUS help in this area.
I want to set it up so that I can use it for both DAZ and Poser, until I get more comfortable using poser to do my textures and stuff....which in and of its self is a huge pain....don't know whether I should run 2 separate runtime structures to accommodate this or what to do here. 
Any help/advice would be greatly appriciated...and yes, I will be checking out the links, but nice to know that there are some things there to watch out for :)

[DarkAngel]

it is my understanding that now all zips or exe files for poser have the ds files too...unless they are specific to DS only.

I am in reverse situation OFW, I have and use Poser exclusively...I have DS 4 iinstalled and that is as far as DS has gotten.

I do have my external runtimes set up as People, Buildings, Creatures and testing

people contains all seperate folders in each of the normal runtime folders for mil 4 girls, mil 4 guys, a3 and v3 got jealous and upset about sumpin cause she quit working--I guess cause v4 got used more...lol

I thought that there was a way for ds to see the poser runtimes too but that is as far as i go.

[OFW]

technically, Daz is supposed to read Poser runtime structures as long as you have the directory listed correctly in your preferences...however, what I find more often than not is, Daz doesn't like about 1/4 of the files and just skips them all together, often times leaving huge gaps in certain products.  The other problem that comes up is, if you use Daz's content manager, you end up with multiple copies of the same file if you have both the Daz version and Poser version installed, as with the newer stuff or stuff that comes out with both versions in the zip file. 
So the best solution is to try and sort out the Daz from the Poser and run 2 seperate runtime structure settings...but, as I stated, with over 50 gigs of stuff in my poor runtime, by the time I did that, it would be over 100 gigs, and my poor external would be eaten up lol.   
Ultimately, with the help of everyone here, hopefully I will be able to ditch Daz all together but until that time, I guess I'll just have to keep working on a solution. 

[Jherrith]

Well I only have Poser 7 but most of my thoughts should be usable in version 8 and 2010. Least I would think there would not be too much difference.

I would believe from what I have seen of DAZ is that you need two runtimes as the extension are different then what Poser uses. Some of the newer products tend to install both DAZ and Poser files even if you only install it in Poser.
Annoys me that I have to go back in and delete the unneeded files as it is just junk files on my system. So you might get lucky but I would tend to err on the side of caution and have two separate runtimes.

Next up is I run external runtimes and only keep in the default runtime what I must. In other words the 4th generation figures. Other then that I sort all of my content into individual runtimes per character or type of file. See the other thread in the board for a beginning discussion of the topic.

So although my default runtime within Poser 7 is only 17 GB, my externals weigh in at 75 GB. However with it sorted out as mentioned it is quite easy to find what I want when I want it. Then again since I have rather large HD's (500GB and a 750GB) to start with tis not much of a problem. Plus a TB external. So space is not something I have to worry about at last.

Another tip is to get the free version of P3DO Explorer from Senosoft as it allows you to view Poser files including pz3 files and see what it looks like instead of having to go through each and every folder via Poser to see what the heck Pamopen actually is, it is an outfit by the way. LOL

It is much faster to use P3DO to view the files instead of viewing the files in Poser is the logic.

[DarkAngel]

that is the confusing part alrighty, the installer will install all files/ poser files or daz files. If they choose all then ds and poser files should be in there and that is why DS should see the runtime that is used by poser.

In the beginning there was a place is DS that you could import the Poser runtime into it to view and use the items....but in the beginning that is all any of the DS trials I tried did.

I have high hopes that this one will work actually with everything and not just its own components and also let me see the preview pngs in the runtime folders...lol

[OFW]

So, let me see if I have this straight...only the gen 4 (Michael, Hiro 4, Stephanie 4, Aiko 4, Victoria 4, The Girl 4 and Kids 4) has to be in the default runtime folder?  All the rest can be install elsewhere?  Also, when I installed Poser, it asked for a folder location and I directed it to a folder on my external.  Is this the default or is the default the one that is actually inside the /program files/smith micro/poser 8 (or 2010 as the case may be) folder?

I know these are probably stupid questions, but if I'm going to go through and spend the time to set this up, I want to make sure I understand what I am doing :)

I did read your other post, and have started to set up a new runtime structure...the trick then will be to wade through the multitude of install/zip files I have to figure out what goes where.  I have them sorted, kind of...When I started to install for poser, I also started sorting so hopefully this wont be quite the nightmare...

As for size, I'm at 50 gigs and still don't have everything installed that I have.  Lord only knows how big it will be by the time I am finished LOL...

I did download p3do, tho I think I'm gonna have to spend some time reading about it, because it didn't read the one pz3 file I tried to look at....it told me it was a pz3 but that was all, gave me the generic poser icon.

This is going to be a long process...but hopefully when I get it done I will have  a much better handle on what I have and don't have...

[OFW]

don't hold out to much hope DA....I installed it and after facing yet another nightmare of a "content manager" that did not merge into the system they created (which looks like it would be great, if only) and more than half of the icons missing I said to H*** with it and went back to DS3.  I was so disappointed in it that that was my main reason for deciding it was time to learn how to use poser. 

[DarkAngel]

that figures. I have DS3 too but never unpacked it...thought to try 4 but lol now I think I will just stay with poser and hope they start with the rendering that DS has...love the way DS makes them muscles and veins look so real