DUF vs DSF, nothing to identify which is which...
JD_Mortal
Posts: 760
I have a few duplicates, which I originally thought might be because I installed "Daz3D models", along-side "Poser models", of the same model. However, I see that the duplicates are both Daz3D files. One is, for example, "Dresser.dsf" and the other is "Dresser.duf", both use the same icon, "Dresser.png" as the icon.
Before going deeper... Can I just delete the older file? (DUF seems to always have the newer dates, except where windows replaces teh date with the current install date.)
Could you, if one should be used over the other... Hide the older one... Or, if for some reason the older one is needed, just indicate with an icon-overlay or mouse-over INFO, that one is DUF and the other is DSF. I am unsure what each one is individually for, but I have a LOT of them. I must have overlapped restore-sessions, where older content was mixed with new content. (Where an installer may have removed the older content first, before installing the new content. Not sure if the installers are that smart. They seem to just copy and paste over anything that exists, even if the stuff is older than what is already there.)
P.S. Can Daz include a "Version" and "Owner" with each individual daz-file. Related to the original creators progressive releases. Since "dates" are irrelevant in windows. Seems that installers just tack-on the current date as the files date, in many instances, which makes comparison by dates fail... (When installing a file from 2012, an older file installed yesterday has 2016 as the date, though the original files date was 2002. Thus, the 2012 file will not copy.) If Daz itself did the installs, it could look at the "Version" info, and "Owners" info, for each file and determine if the current file is newer or older... if older, and installing, it could just remove the older files, without an uninstaller. (All the ones that share ownership. EG... A parent file would claim to own "towel.obj" and "towel.jpg", and "towel.duf". Also, towel.duf" would claim to own both those other files also, but be owned by the parent file "bathroom.dsf". Note, all images can contain metadata too, after the image in every case, and before the image in the "metadata" format area. Most things allow that form of data, except standard raw TXT files.)
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Comments
AFAIK, DSF are the geometry and morph files, DUF are user-interfacing files for presets and such. So you wouldn't want to delete either.
There were some older PC products that had both .dsf (legacy) and .duf files with the same name in the same folder. You see two because they have different file extensions. Unfortunately, they share the same icon file. If I recall correctly, it was some of the Carnival or Moonlit products. If you deleted the .dsf file from within the Content Library, the icon went with it leaving the .duf file with no icon.. The work-around is to select the folder with the duplicates, right click and select "Browse to folder location.." From there you can delete the .dsf file leaving the .duf and it's icon.
I never reported the problem as it was quicker to just address the problem myself.
Edit: I posted the problem here back in February 2013: http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/17709/installers-containing-both-legacy-and-duf-files-for-each-item#latest These weren't .dsf but .daz and/or .ds files in additon to .duf files in the same folder.
I checked the current installers and the Moonshines Diner DS and Moonlit Moonshine's Diner DS installers were fixed, but the others have the same files .duf and legacy formats in the same folder.
Got it... Thank-you.
I just wasn't sure if that would "break" anything, as I know a lot of files are linked with hard-paths to specific files. (Something might try to load xxx.dsf and not xxx.duf, leaving me fishing-around for a file that doesn't exist, and one that daz won't accept the alternate file as a "new file" to use.)
This is why I hate hard-coded paths and specific files, as much as changing standard formats mid-stream for no reason. (Thus, not being standard and breaking standards. Defeating the purpose of having any at all.) :P
Not sure if any are actually "Daz3D" associated products. I am quite sure it is the free stuff I have installed, over and over again.
Just for now, I am actually having the items simply removed from smart-content display. (The ones I can't tell if there is anything different between the two files, once loaded into a scene.)
They should just change the program so if BOTH are seen, only ONE is displayed... The non-legacy item. Even better, if both exist, show one, but when loading, pop-up "Load the NEW or LEGACY version?" (Since I am sure someone MAY have a use for the legacy file in a project or two. That same cross-reff issue, where the program doesn't even attempt to look for, or locate the new file, even if a legacy one exists right next to it.)
That might be "One use", but both load the same exact things...
Abused standards...
I guess the DUF is loading the objects from another location, but the DSF is the actual object itself, without a loader, as it is the loader itself. One does not load the other, in the files I have... EG, loading the DUF is not loading the DSF. It points to other files in other locations. These are both side by side in the same folder, with the icon, both resulting in the same exact "scenery" being loaded. With duplicate items of the same name, displayed as the same image, loading two different things that are exactly the same.
No...
Rather changed standards...and the product in question hasn't been updated to account for it.