DAZ 4.23 Surfaces/Shaders not animating? Please help! [Solved]

Ryuu@AMcCFRyuu@AMcCF Posts: 680

My last beast of a machine crashed and burned last year, and I was finally able to get a new machine that could handle DAZ Studio. YAY!!!

During my downtime, I saw that DAZ upgraded to version 4.23. After installing into my new beast, I'm overjoyed at how it is able to handle the CGI work--MUCH better than my old machine.

However, I noticed that I'm having issue with trying to animate object materials--with the previous versions of DAZ on my old machine, I could create animations where the colors/emission/transparancy/etc could change throughout the animation (although with my old machine, it was almost impossible to even think about being that ambitious)

Except now, I'm unable to create any keyframe settings for surfaces/volume appearances. No matter what values I assign for surface parameters at each key frame, ALL surfaces retain the LAST value set throughout the entire timeline. I can't figure out how to get them to animate like we can for position/rotation/scale parameters.

 

Thanks in advance,

Ryuu

 

Post edited by Ryuu@AMcCF on

Comments

  • CES3DCES3D Posts: 73

    Didn't your previous machine have a plugin like ABAS installed?

  • Ryuu@AMcCFRyuu@AMcCF Posts: 680

    Probably. It was something I had purchased in Nov 2023 before the crash of the old system. I did a full DIM install of everything with this new machine, and it's showing up in the Smart Content.

    I'm looking at the PlugIn list, but I'm not seeing where it's supposed to be in there.

  • Ryuu@AMcCFRyuu@AMcCF Posts: 680

    And nothing happens when I tried adding an ABAS VB Container to the scene and parent the objects I want to change.

  • Ryuu@AMcCFRyuu@AMcCF Posts: 680

    Okay, I see from the videos there's supposed to be an "ABas" tab installed into DS with this system. However, DIM didn't install such, and there's nothing explaing where/how to get the tab to show up???

     

  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,408

    It's a plug-in, so it would need to install through DIM Helper with a UAC prompt asking if you want DIM Helper to make changes on your system. It would then appear in Help>About Installed Plug-ins.

  • Ryuu@AMcCFRyuu@AMcCF Posts: 680
    edited December 7

    Richard Haseltine said:

    It's a plug-in, so it would need to install through DIM Helper with a UAC prompt asking if you want DIM Helper to make changes on your system. It would then appear in Help>About Installed Plug-ins.

    Thanks Richard.

     

    Is DIM Helper different from the regular DIM?

    If they're the same thing, then something must have gone wrong. According to DIM, it's already installed. But it's only showing up as an item in Smart Content & the Content Library. There doesn't seem to be a Plug-In related to ABas and no option for the ABas tab in the Window/Panes (Tab)/ menu.

    Post edited by Ryuu@AMcCF on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,408

    DIM launches DIMHelper for things which require elevated privileges (software and plug-ins, mainly), which triggers the UAC prompt. Have you checked Help>About Installed Plug-ins - that should list any plug-in present, even if it isn't working for any reason. Are you using the General Release or beta version of DS? I don't know about Abas bu some plug-ins do not install to the beta.

  • Ryuu@AMcCFRyuu@AMcCF Posts: 680
    edited December 7

    Oh, okay. Understood.

    Yes, this is the general release of DS. I searched high and low in the Plug-Ins list, but nothing seems to be related to it. I probably will have to uninstall & try reinstalling. I know I have to 1st remove using DIM, and IIRC, I have to delete from the Content Library (and maybe something else) before reinstalling with DIM.

     

    Post edited by Ryuu@AMcCF on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,408

    The plug-in itself won't appear in the content library. It is important to make sure that the copy of daz Studio you are running is the one DIM installed, otherwise it may have the wrong path for placing the plug-in.

  • Ryuu@AMcCFRyuu@AMcCF Posts: 680

    Yes, it was (supposedly) in the general release for 4.23. I did the uninstall with DIM (2 files--one was the item showing up in the Smart & Content tabs), did the removal from Content (Smart didn't disappear), then tried to reinstall.

    DIM says it did, but no UAC  prompt showed up and still no joy with Plug-Ins or Windw/Pane (Tabs). I've got tons of other Plun-Ins, so I'm assuming DIM has the right routing.

  • Ryuu@AMcCFRyuu@AMcCF Posts: 680
    edited December 7

    Okay, I think I found the problem.

    Somehow, DIM created 2 SEPARATE versions of 64-bit DAZ Studio in my bloody Program Files folder!! angry It installed the ABas in one, but has copies of several Plug-In for both sets of 64-bit---so we can guess at which one the Desktop shortcut opens up......

     

    Looks like I'm going to have to RIP EVERYTHING OUT (only just 8.6 TB) and start over from scratch!!!!

    Post edited by Ryuu@AMcCF on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,408

    Your content shouldn't need any changes, it's installation and finding should have nothing to do with the application locations. Are you sure you don't just have the beta and non beta versions installed? What are the two application paths you have?

  • Ryuu@AMcCFRyuu@AMcCF Posts: 680
    edited December 8

    Yeah, I'm sure. I had planned for all 4 versions, and I was trying to be careful how they were set up.

    I've got the 32-bit set in E:\Program Files (x86)\3D\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\.  The 32-Beta is  E:\Program Files (x86)\3D\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4 Public Build\.

    The 64-Beta is in  E:\Program Files\3D\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4 Public Build\. Those 3 seemed to be okay for their installs.

    The 64-bit general build was supposed to be in E:\Program Files\3D\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\,

    however--somehow--there was a 2nd folder--E:\Program Files\3D\DAZ 3D\DAZ 3D\DAZStudio4\ where the Plug-Ins for the 64-bit set got split between them.

     

    But since DIM has everything mixed together, to fix the messed-up 64-General DS, I still need to strip everything out, clean up that directory mess and fix DIM so it doesn't happen again, then reinstall everything.

    On the plus side, this new machine is a hell of a trooper! ATT (20:26), it's already halfway done with the uninstall that was started at my last post. Another couple hours, it should be done, then I clean up the directories, and start the reinstall--should be another 4hrs for that.

    Post edited by Ryuu@AMcCF on
  • Richard HaseltineRichard Haseltine Posts: 101,408

    If you keep the zips all you need to do si correct the base application path, if that is not correct, and then reisntall Daz Studio, the daz Studio plug-ins, and possibly some older scripts or shaders (though recent ones should go to the content paths and not be affected). If you use the filters in DIM's Installed pane to limit the scope to software and plug-ins (I can't recall the exact phrasing) that should then just be maatter of checking the non-beta, 64-bit packages.

  • Ryuu@AMcCFRyuu@AMcCF Posts: 680

    Thanks, Richard. I'm just frankly puzzled WHY it happened in the first place, given that there were 2 disticnt Production DS installs. But I was able to correct the installation paths and get everything started again. No way I was going to scrap the zip files--downloading all that stuff was over 4 days!

    Well, reinstalling took longer than anticipated (about 1.5 days plus RL getting in the way, still cost me ~4days), but it looks like everything went where it was supposed to go. Happy to see the ABas was installed in both 64-bit DS and Beta sets. The ABas Plug-In and Tab are showing up, and the textures are animating! However, NOW I need to figure out how to properly tweak the settings to get the results I want! But this is tremendous progress!

    We can close this issue and call it solved.

    Thanks for all the help! laugh

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