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Hi all! I'm relatively new to the Daz stuff and have a question about my content library. I've currently got the default library stored on my C: drive which is an SSD but it's filling up and I've looked into making an additional "new" content library but thought maybe I'd move the whole thing onto a larger mechanical drive (5200rpm). Would the access speed be detrimental to working within Daz or does it load all the current scene content to memory anyway?
Also I've been relatively cavalier about what content I've been putting where and as I load it all manually anyway, does anyone have any recommendations on file structure within the content library?
On a slightly unrelated note I've been on a rampage recently of trying to tidy up all my pirated zip's/rar's, using Daz's file structure as a base. Whereas they have their content (along with manifest and supplement docs) inside a zip with "IM[8-digit catalogue number]-[part number]_[Product name]", I've been doing the same for different vendors. So "RE-[catalogue number]-[Product name]" for RendErotica and "RO-[catalogue number]-[Product name]" for RenderOsity. BUT! I've found that Rendo's catalogue numbering doesn't actually make any sense! The page address gives me what I would think of a catalogue number but it's not mentioned on the product page and often the zip is labelled with a different number, even for files split into multiple parts. And searching Rendo's site with either number turns up nothing! Daz, Renderosity and CGbytes all have a SKU system why does Renderosity have one that makes no sense?
Ignoring that rant, I've then been putting all downloaded images along with any documentation/readme's inside a RAR wrapper with the product name as it is presented on the product page. For RendErotica I've been adding the vendor name as a prefix, "[Sledgehammer] OMGDK3.0 For G3M.rar", for example. I've then put all the RE files within it's own folder and I'm thinking of installing them to a separate content library.
For Daz product I've been separating it via category, "hair", "Poses and Expressions", "Surface shaders", etc. I've got a folder for "Figures" which I've been sorting into generation, so "Genesis", "Genesis 2", etc and I was wondering how everyone else does their archiving, folder structure and naming conventions to keep on top of everything. Any suggestions or input is welcomed!
Aaaah, a subject close to my heart...storing stuff.
1) Many oldtimers put their libraries on a large conventional drive for all the reasons you mentioned. Regular drives still have a massive cost advantage over SSDs and their slower access speed is not an issue once the item is loaded (and your 'C:' drive on the SSD will thank you). You have to let Poser and/or Studio know where your stuff is of course.
2) Keep everything in TWO places and keep it simple. My expensive NAS went south and the company told me to fuck myself, albeit much more politely. I even made a complaint through the Consumer's Union to no avail. I keep my good computer offline and back everything up every month to external harddrives.
3) Use an organizational system that makes sense to you
and eschew the manufacturer numbers.
4) Because I use both programs (but am leaning more and more to Studio) I still use Poser's organization system. I also find it much simpler. Because I make some of my own stuff, Poser's system of runtimes is well documented and easy.Yeah, when I first got into Daz (a few months back) I cleared space on my SSD (mostly games I didn't play) and thought that a 460GB drive would be fine for my OS and all my Daz stuff. Now I've got all my zip's and rar's on a mechanical drive and I've nearly filled my OS drive but have installed barely 20% of the stuff I want (greedy I know). I was of the mindset initially that fast access times of the SSD would benefit the program but as I'm accessing a minute amount of content at a time it just seems a waste of SSD potential.
I'm thinking that I'll have a "DAZ" content library for everything legitimate, then a "PirateDAZ" content library for all the illegitimate stuff and then a 3rd "Other vendors" content library but I'm still on the fence about this as it will split up texture sets from their original outfits and other facetious things that will annoy me. I'll have to think about it and maybe reinstall the whole thing because it's bugging me....
Backups are something I'm all too aware of but I've never bothered with NAS's. Currently for every drive in my PC I have a corresponding sized external drive and every month (or 2 or 3...) I run FreeFileSync on each drive to backup the data. They are sitting on a shelf in the same room that my PC is but if I had my way I'd have offsite backups and keep all the drives in a lead lined fire proof box. But I don't have my way often (ooo-er missus).
I've tried keeping an organisational structure that makes sense to me and SKU numbers do (except Renderosity ffs) but I keep that only for the content folder. Everything that I put in a RAR wrapper uses the Product name and any notes I want to add to it. I then use subfolders for grouping items of the same set together and put them into folders of similar category. For example I have a "Sci Fi" folder and within that I have folders for "Robots", "Sci Fi Outfits and Armour", "Scifi buildings, environments and props", etc. Then within the "Scifi buildings..." folder I have folders for "Odysseon Station", "SS Marcoor" etc. Could you tell me or show me how you have your folder structure set up @not-hunter?
I also realise why I shouldn't have any power over people when I get frustrated over file structure and the strange ways some people arrange things. I would bend them all to my will!!!
*Chuckle* Yup, when I become king of the world there'll be some changes, with Poser and Daz being the first ones to bend to my superior will.
I don't separate in my installed directories where items came from, just their purpose. I do. however, keep a separate directory in the storage department for things I've bought. My biggest runtimes are female clothing within which I've got separate runtimes for various lingerie (yum).
Games are a hog aren't they. I had to remove all my older Half-Life II and Wolfenstein games to make room for the latest 'Wolfenstein II: The New Collosus' (which I bought).
I have a separate Drive for just Windows on C:, then a D: drive for programs. Unfortunately their both just partitions on the same SSD. I'm looking at another SSD and move all the programs to it. Prices keep dropping as they get bigger, faster and more reliable.Thanks for the tip on Free File Sync, I'll check it out. My backups are done manually in Dopus file manager because every backup utility I've tried seems too effing complicated for something that's quite simple.
You might find this thread of interest?
' https://zonegfx.com/forums/topic/manual-install-to-ds/ '
It at least touches on the subject you are asking about, & if you need further info just ask on the thread.
🙂
Cheers! Thanks @eelgoo I'll have a gander.
@not-hunter, I've got a 460GB (actual space) SSD as my OS drive as it was on sale and replaced my 256GB drive, which now houses some of my games. I had to move Fallout 4 onto a backup drive, there was nearly 200GB of game files for it with all the mods I had installed. I'll get back to it again some day but I haven't played it in months anyway.
Free File Sync is a great utility and once you have the gist of it you can just use it to mirror a drive. Basically there is a file/folder/drive location you set up on the left, that is your source with destination on the right. I set it as mirror, to just make a copy of the left-hand drive but if you're updating to a previous backup, the utility will leave the copies already present on the right, delete files that don't appear on the source and update the new files. At least that's the way I use it, there are other options but mirror is what I want it to do.
I went nuts with mods for many of the FPS games. I was hooked on (in order) Doom II, Quake, Quake II, HL1 and II. It's disappointing that the SDKs where never released for any of the Wolfenstein games. Wolfenstein II is great fun only two hours in but I had to crank up the difficulty. I don't consider myself a great gamer, but all those years of killing stuff has made me pretty sharp.
I can get obsessed with some games, I have 925 hours logged on FO4 on PC and I had it on PS4 before that.... Regarding shooting games, on BF3 and BF4 I've probably got a good couple of hundred hours on each but I used to get shit on quite often from people who are far better than me at it. I was never really into the "Arena shooters" but to show my age I used to love a bit of 4 player Goldeneye ;).
Dragging this thread back up from the dead.
With all the concerns about archiving, backing up, and not losing carefully hoarded content I spent some time reading forums and talking to real IT folks.It seems that tape drives are still the most reliable, and therefore the preferred method of archiving stuff by business. The tapes are quite reasonably priced and, as I've discovered, desktop drives are becoming increasingly available and a good bit cheaper. Newegg has lots of refurbished units for under $500 and some new ones for not much more.
I'm going that route.Reading this thread. Kinder glad the set up that I have. On my computer, I have three drives (500GB SSD, 1TB HD and 3TB HD). Everything with DAZ3D is located on my 3TB hard drive. Everything is manually installed. That does lead to some stuff not being installed when I get it, but but more often I install it, if I need it.
Already been thinking about my next system, but that will probably be another 18 months until I look at buying it.
Pardon me if this has been said above, but if it's just "storage" as opposed to your working runtime, it doesn't really matter about access (read/write speed) or if the content is on a HDD or SDD.
Even with SDD vs HDD for your runtime library the difference is negligible. The only problem I had with my DS library on a HDD was that it would go to sleep and take a few seconds to spin up again. That lag gets annoying when it happens multiple times during a session.If you really want to go to extremes.. just have everything Poser and DS related in their own separate folders on an extenal hard drive(s). Copy every content you need (or are going to need) over to the main hard drive and work on that.
SSDs are still ridiculously priced considering that tech is going towards NVMs... etc. Just buy two standard hard drives for backup, etc.
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