changing computers

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changing computers

Postby billyjoe2014 » Sat Dec 09, 2017 4:12 pm

billyjoe2014 Sat Dec 09, 2017 4:12 pm
Hi, I've recently had to upgrade my computer since my previous one was getting quite old. Is there some way to access the octane file for a poser project directly? All the directories and files used are still relatively in their places but the drive letters are of course different and my app roaming directory is now under my full name so Octane needs help to find each directory repeatedly on load up. All it needs is an update on which drive things are on etc. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
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Re: changing computers

Postby wimvdb » Sat Dec 09, 2017 6:48 pm

wimvdb Sat Dec 09, 2017 6:48 pm
There are 2 different situations: The converted Poser materials and the LiveDB materials you have used.

Converted Poser Materials
The file references which Otane/plugin uses are absolute path references. If you save a scene, they are stored as User data in the scene file with their absolute path names.
So when you load a scene with octane data it will read the absolute references which are in the scene file in user Data.
When you reconvert from Poser material (or reconvert the entire scene) you will get the new revised absolute path, but you will lose all modifications you have made within Octane.
The drive letters are stored in the scene, one way or another and can have even have different ones in the same scene (multiple runtimes on different drives). So, besides replicating the Poser search code in the plugin, there is little which can be done about it.
I think the only way to generally prevent this problem is by keeping your drive letters the same.

LiveDB materials
They are stored in the location provided in the Plugin SetUp page. You can change that to the new location (copy the contents of the old location to the new location as well).
One thing I have done is to move this location to inside a textures folder in my Poser runtime. This way it will always move with my runtimes and I do not forget to do that.

These are the lessons I have learned when I ecountered this problem a few years ago. The next time I switched I had no problems at all using the procedures described above.
Configuration: Windows 11 Pro, I9 12900K, 128GB, RTX 3090, P12 b1029
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Re: changing computers

Postby billyjoe2014 » Sat Dec 09, 2017 9:35 pm

billyjoe2014 Sat Dec 09, 2017 9:35 pm
Hi, thanks for the info. It was exactly as I feared it would be. I did see that the setup file holds two references to the path of the octane materials. I have changed that to the name win 10 has since given the new directory path. ie, my full name. I will check if I can re-name the drive letter assignments without losing data. I'm not sure yet since I'm no techie :)

Thanks again for your help.
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Re: changing computers

Postby wimvdb » Sun Dec 10, 2017 5:36 am

wimvdb Sun Dec 10, 2017 5:36 am
Changing drive letters if fairly easy - IF - you have not installed other software which uses that drive. In that case you have to change the pathnames there as well (usually an easy thing to do)

Here is how you do it:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/790 ... -10-a.html
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Re: changing computers

Postby billyjoe2014 » Sun Dec 10, 2017 5:35 pm

billyjoe2014 Sun Dec 10, 2017 5:35 pm
Hi, I was able to change the drive letter for one drive which helped a lot for octane. In Poser things were much simpler, just re-installing the runtimes was all that was needed. Incidentally I poked inside one of the pz3 files and found some text strings referencing the drives, folders and the user name. I corrected it according to the new setup. Again Poser loaded it easily after the alterations. When loading Octane , however, I had to manually load them with the plugin. Incidentally, in such a case the plugin won't allow reconverting everything from Poser until I finish helping the plugin locate everything as it was initially. If I just cancel each one it eventually becomes unstable. I also think it must use a separate file of its own since the earlier corrections to the pz3 file have no effect on its load up.

Thanks again for your help :)
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Re: changing computers

Postby wimvdb » Mon Dec 11, 2017 12:07 pm

wimvdb Mon Dec 11, 2017 12:07 pm
Theoretically you should be able to cancel all searches and after it has finished loading the scene, you can do a Reconvert All Materials from Poser

If that for some reason that does not work, you could hack the PZ3 to remove all Octane data.
The plugin stores all its information for a scene in the PZ3 file. It is called addonData {"com.physicalc-software.octanerender": {etc.
It is at almost the end of the PZ3 file.

Before you make any changes - make a backup - it is easy to make a mistake and you could lose the entire scene.
The scene file is probably very large, so you would need a good text editor (like editpad or notepad+) which does no do formatting whatsoever, to open it.
Remove that addonData line (or change the pathnames in that line) and save it. That line is very long, so changing all of the references in it, is tedious work.

The cancel method is the safest option to fix it.
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Re: changing computers

Postby samhal » Sun Mar 11, 2018 10:47 am

samhal Sun Mar 11, 2018 10:47 am
I know this is an older post but I ran into the same thing (kinda) and here is what I learned:

1. If you need to remove Octane data, hacking the PZ3 will definitely work, but a much easier way is to invoke "Remove all Octane data" (or something like that) menu option in the scripts pull down menu in Poser (not the render engine, but the Octane menu where you can convert lights, etc. Works great everytime.

2. I have moved Poser/Octane to a new computer twice now and the first time I burned alot of bytes on this forum with the same questions. No easy answer then. Orginally my runtime and Octane directory (where I keep all my HDRI lights, Redspec files, etc.) were split across two drives, C: and D:. My 2nd system I was using D: and E: drives and previously created content with the plug-in was a nightmare to realign to the new drive and that poser search window got a serious workout. I found it was easier to use option 1 above and just start over. Newly created and saved scenes were no problem just previously (pre-2nd computer) saved scenes.


THIS TIME I simply put my Octane content directory directly in poser's runtime directory and it works seamlessly 95% of the time. Not PP11's directory, but the HUGE runtime I have been working with since Poser 4! Not sure why this worked so well, and I don't really care...it works.

Hope this helps someone out there...

Sam
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