Any broken icons in 'Smart Content'?

bringho

A few days ago I finally scrapped my old content installation and started using the Install Manager.

So far, except from copying my own Gen X conversion from the old back up all content has been installed with the Install Manager.

Side note: I finally bought the 'Girl 4 Army Pinup' #9136 during March Madness and since there is no DS installer available in the Install Manager I downloaded that installer through the account page and installed it manually..

It took some tinkering to figure out why the following pictures are marked as missing in the Smart Content:
Benjamin for M5
Casual Afternoon for Genesis
Making Faces for Aiko 5
Toon Amy for Genesis Accessories
Victoria Elite Texture Nicole

Error:

When opening the product 'Victoria Elite Texture Nicole' in the Content DB Editor there were not a single support file added.

Solution:

Add the support files and save the file.

Probably the same with the rest of the 'Icon Missing Errors' in the smart content...

Not to mention all the older stuff (starting with #14378 Soo Jin for V4 among my installed stuff) where the smart content .dsa and icon image file is missing...

cridgit

Redacted

fixmypcmike

Install Manager and DS currently use different default locations for content -- you need to change one or the other, or else DS will not be able to find the files.

bringho

fixmypcmike said:

Install Manager and DS currently use different default locations for content -- you need to change one or the other, or else DS will not be able to find the files.

Maybe it was a bad idea, but after contemplating the pros and cons I decided to install everything into the managed directory so there is only one place to look for files I guess...

Regarding the #9136 Girl 4 Army Pinup. I don't *KNOW* if all the files for P and DS is distributed in the file 'IM00009136-01_Girl4ArmyPinupPs.zip' but I do know that there are different files for P and DS if I download them from my account and there is only one file available to download with the Download Manager. The name of the file indicates that it does NOT contains the DS specific files.

Judging by the difference in size of the install files my best guess is that '9136_2_ds_Girl4ArmyPinup_2.exe' (2823 kB) only contains the DS specific files while the file '9136_1_dpc_Girl4ArmyPinup_1.exe' (26924 kB) conating everything one needs to use the product with Poser.

bringho

cridgit said:

bringho said:

A few days ago I finally scrapped my old content installation and started using the Install Manager.

So far, except from copying my own Gen X conversion from the old back up all content has been installed with the Install Manager.

Side note: I finally bought the 'Girl 4 Army Pinup' #9136 during March Madness and since there is no DS installer available in the Install Manager I downloaded that installer through the account page and installed it manually..

It took some tinkering to figure out why the following pictures are marked as missing in the Smart Content:
Benjamin for M5
Casual Afternoon for Genesis
Making Faces for Aiko 5
Toon Amy for Genesis Accessories
Victoria Elite Texture Nicole

Error:

When opening the product 'Victoria Elite Texture Nicole' in the Content DB Editor there were not a single support file added.

Solution:

Add the support files and save the file.

Probably the same with the rest of the 'Icon Missing Errors' in the smart content...

Not to mention all the older stuff (starting with #14378 Soo Jin for V4 among my installed stuff) where the smart content .dsa and icon image file is missing...

Mysefl and others have been submitting gazillions of bug reports for all the missing icons and other metadata problems. If you find a problem please report it so DAZ can fix it for everyone. See bugs.daz3d.com/

My post was not intended to bash Daz in any way.

For quite some time I've been trying to figure out why some Icons were broken in the Smart Content Pane.

Now that I've figured it out and found a simple fix for it I wanted to share my findings for anyone to correct their own data while waiting for Daz to correct the errors.

At least now I know why some Icons break when products are updated and can fix the problem by myself...

cridgit

Redacted

bringho

cridgit said:

My post was inteded to bash the quality of DAZ's metadata ;-)

DIM is fantastic and they've worked very hard to get that up, unfortunately the metadata quality has taken a hit with loads and loads of products without metadata, and those that have metadata in general are incomplete, inconsistent and inaccurate. Product and asset naming conventions don't exist yet, and categorization is wildly erratic. They are clearly relying on community input to know what to fix (which I don't agree with BTW for paid-for content) but it is what it is.

The good news is that progress is being made, with product updates starting to flow through DIM. Let's hope we see the metadata standards start converging and the quality pick up.

I agree that DIM as a great step in the right direction.

Also, there should be some kind of bonus awarded to customers spending time doing the job of the seemingly defunct QA department...

Although most released products are flawless there's a large enough number of embarrassing errors still remaining in released products still to be corrected long time after the error was reported.... On the other hand, according to the 'Steps to Publish at DAZ 3D' "The QA group is responsible to do a final test of the product to make sure it meets the outlined product features." nothing is mentioned about QA being responsible for quality... Only that the product meets the "outlined product features."...

There are always three competing criteria when designing anything: time, cost and quality. I guess Daz wants to publish as high quality they can, at the lowest possible cost, as often as possible. Contemplate for a moment in which order Daz have to prioritize to stay in business...