Brad Blancheburry

Looks Brad Blancheburry

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alexasdf

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alexasdf submitted a new resource:

Brad Blancheburry - Famous Adult Star!

Disclaimer: I do not intend to break any License Rules and if I did, please let me know so I can correct it. That being said, all morphs, clothes, mods belong to the respective owner. I just wanted to share my look!

With that covered, here is the description:

My first attempt at using Foto2VAM and uploading a resource (first personal milestone)! I gravitate towards free resources in Hub, hence, all of my resources will be free (this one and future content). Feel free to give...
Click to expand...

Read more about this resource...
 
I've been through the pain recently with the dependnecies
The problem is pre vars everyone had loads of mophes in their custom directory that they then include in their var, which then gets referenced and then that gets references and you end with stuipd amounts of deps.

But really they're mostly just from this https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/import-reloaded-lite.77/

To fix it, well, I ended up editting the json directly - finding the bad vars - for instance anything by Wolverine333 - and swapping the line out for spacedog
for instance
Zerg3D.J_Roads.1:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Neck_Reloaded-Lite/Neck scale X.vmi
becomes
Spacedog.Import_Reloaded_Lite.2:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Neck_Reloaded-Lite/Neck scale X.vmi

Also go and disable all the vars that are problematic such as Wolverine333's and many others - once all the vmi's are mostly spacedog I suspect you'll find the dependency list will have reduced a lot
 
Best way I found is have 2 versions (at least) of VAM on your computer. One that only has the dependancies you want to use in your creations and one to test the VAR you create. I have a 3rd that I throw everything into that I want to try out but I do not create in that one.
 
Like @redeyes said, mayor issue here are local morphs from pre .var/hub era.
In your case well known dependecies maze (with morphs) is Wolverine333's content.
Not that i have anything against him/her, overall it's just terrible packaging,
referencing own var's in between +duplicate morph that are already available on hub (at least some are).

Your first mission should be to try and remove/replace all "reloaded morphs" with Import Reloaded Lite,
and any other duplicates with TenStrip.Morphs & kemenate.Morphs.

As for CTRL/FBM/PBM/PHM/shapeshift/realworld/etc morphs...they are mostly licensed/paid from daz.
They are available inside so called "Morph.Morphs_Mega_Pack" that's not HUB hosted, since most of them are of questionable source.
if you can't go without them, link those morphs to "that package" or maybe consider using Morph Merger.
(for reason above, i am not gonna share mega.nz link to Mega_Pack, but you can find it around on hub)

Code: 
    Line 2352:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/AUTO/Nipple Length.vmi",
    Line 2357:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.BARBIE.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Arms&Hands_Reloaded-Lite/Shoulder small.vmi",
    Line 2387:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.LAUREN_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Eyes_Reloaded-Lite/Eyes big.vmi",
    Line 2392:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.LAUREN_3.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Eyes_Reloaded-Lite/Eyes big.vmi",
    Line 2402:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.LAUREN_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Eyes_Reloaded-Lite/Eyes move outside.vmi",
    Line 2442:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.SHELBY.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/reloaded lite/Head_Reloaded-Lite/Face thin.vmi",
    Line 2447:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.SHELBY.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/Face young.vmi",
    Line 2452:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.SHELBY.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Head_Reloaded-Lite/Head shape pear.vmi",
    Line 2457:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.SHELBY.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/Head shape round.vmi",
    Line 2467:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Mouth_Reloaded-Lite/Lips bubble bottom.vmi",
    Line 2472:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Mouth_Reloaded-Lite/Lips bubble top.vmi",
    Line 2477:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Mouth_Reloaded-Lite/Lips curves lower.vmi",
    Line 2482:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Lips curves upper.vmi",
    Line 2492:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Mouth_Reloaded-Lite/Lips shape 2.vmi",
    Line 2497:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/reloaded lite/Mouth_Reloaded-Lite/Lips shape 3.vmi",
    Line 2507:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Mouth_Reloaded-Lite/Lips small Y.vmi",
    Line 2527:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Mouth_Reloaded-Lite/Mouth corner define.vmi",
    Line 2532:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Mouth corner up.vmi",
    Line 2547:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Mouth lower to front.vmi",
    Line 2552:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Mouth_Reloaded-Lite/Mouth relax bottom.vmi",
    Line 2557:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Mouth relax top.vmi",
    Line 2562:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/Mouth upper to front.vmi",
    Line 2567:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Nose_Reloaded-Lite/Nose big.vmi",
    Line 2572:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Nose_Reloaded-Lite/Nose center wide.vmi",
    Line 2577:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Nose_Reloaded-Lite/Nose flat.vmi",
    Line 2582:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Nose_Reloaded-Lite/Nose height.vmi",
    Line 2592:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Nose_Reloaded-Lite/Nose ridge round.vmi",
    Line 2632:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.LAUREN_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Eyes_Reloaded/Deep Eyelid.vmi",
    Line 2687:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.SHELBY.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/GC Breast Preset/Breast Preset 05.vmi",
    Line 2797:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.INITIATION_DAY.1:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female_genitalia/AUTO/Anus inside longer.vmi",
    Line 3097:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.LAUREN_3.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/Eyebrows big.vmi",
    Line 3102:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.LAUREN_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/Eyebrows outer up.vmi",
    Line 3117:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.BARBIE.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/CTRLEyelidsUpperHeight.vmi",
    Line 3197:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.LAUREN_4.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMEyesHeightInner.vmi",
    Line 3207:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.AMBER.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMEyesHeightOuter.vmi",
    Line 3297:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.AMBER.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMCraniumSlope.vmi",
    Line 3347:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.AMBER.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/CTRLFaceRound.vmi",
    Line 3392:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Forehead Height.vmi",
    Line 3417:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMJawDefine.vmi",
    Line 3427:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMJawLineDepth.vmi",
    Line 3432:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/CTRLJawSize.vmi",
    Line 3492:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.BARBIE.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/AUTO/HD Teeth.vmi",
    Line 3512:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.SHELBY.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMLipTopPeak.vmi",
    Line 3522:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.AMBER.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMLipUpperDepth.vmi",
    Line 3527:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.SHELBY.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMLipUpperSize.vmi",
    Line 3572:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMLipsThin.vmi",
    Line 3597:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.LAUREN_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/Mouth arc.vmi",
    Line 3602:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.LAUREN_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Pack/Mouth big.vmi",
    Line 3637:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMMouthDepth.vmi",
    Line 3707:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.AMBER.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMNoseBump.vmi",
    Line 3712:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.AMANDA_LOOK.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMNoseDepth.vmi",
    Line 3717:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.BARBIE.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/CTRLNoseFleshSize.vmi",
    Line 3752:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.maria2_0_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMNoseSeptumHeight.vmi",
    Line 3782:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.SHELBY.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMNoseTipDepth.vmi",
    Line 3792:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.SHELBY.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMNoseTipRound.vmi",
    Line 3802:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.LAUREN_3.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMNoseTipWidth.vmi",
    Line 3837:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.SHELBY.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/CTRLNostrilsHeight.vmi",
    Line 3892:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.SHELBY.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMPhiltrumAngle.vmi",
    Line 3897:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.SHELBY.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMPhiltrumDepth.vmi",
    Line 3902:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.SHELBY.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/PHMPhiltrumWidth.vmi",
    Line 3992:                      "uid" : "Wolverine333.LAUREN_2.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/AUTO/G3F_Booty 02.vmi",

Resolving that part should remove solid chunk of dependencies...afterwards we can go furter.
Also what @Slam Thunderhide said,
if you consider sharing more stuff on hub, it's best to have 2nd VAM client (clean & up2date), so you can test your packages before uploading.
It's only ~20GB but it can help you alot, even better is making content on clean client, but that depends on content i guess.


EDIT: example of single package mess, so you can get better idea on how not to reference own stuff.
you only use 4 morphs from that package and that's it:
Line 2357: "uid" : "Wolverine333.BARBIE.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Arms&Hands_Reloaded-Lite/Shoulder small.vmi",
Line 3117: "uid" : "Wolverine333.BARBIE.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/CTRLEyelidsUpperHeight.vmi",
Line 3492: "uid" : "Wolverine333.BARBIE.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/AUTO/HD Teeth.vmi",
Line 3717: "uid" : "Wolverine333.BARBIE.latest:/Custom/Atom/Person/Morphs/female/Morphs Mega Pack/CTRLNoseFleshSize.vmi",

here is example of the mess that package is pulling (green are your main dependencies, everything else is not used by your look)
wolverineMess.jpg

This is just extended path example for
Wolverine333.BARBIE.latest >Wolverine333.AMBER.latest >Wolverine333.SHELBY.latest >Wolverine333.INITIATION_DAY.1
 
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Just chiming in to say that nobody is accusing you of doing something wrong. This is a community-wide problem, and it's rooted in VaM's packaging system (meeting ppls messy installations).

This is good work and I'm looking forward to an updated version & I'd also be glad to see more from you in the future.
 
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@redeyes @Slam Thunderhide @RandomVAMUser @Case

I just wanted to say that you all are awesome! I almost didn't post this resource because of this issue (what a maze!). But, I am glad I did. Thank you for pointing me to what I was doing wrong so I can fix it and post more looks that I have created :)

Hopefully, I will post the updated version soon which should take care of these dependency issues. Would it be better to simply update the resource or delete this one and add the fixed one?
 
alexasdf said:
Would it be better to simply update the resource or delete this one and add the fixed one?
Click to expand...

Ooooof ... on the one hand, it's "One Moar Horrible Package" that is circulating around - which means there's a nonzero chance we'll see it again in the future when it's referenced in somebodies' brandnew look (I'm curious how far this'll go - maybe we'll look back on the good old days when .vars only had ~150 deps).

Otoh, there's a lot of those already - and I think this is neither your fault, nor Wolverine333's, it's a consequence of VaM's packaging algorithm, the state of the installations of most creators back when the .var system was introduced (see above) and human nature. You guys will certainly not be the last people to publish .vars like that, and it's not your fault in the end - I think this has been building for quite a while, and you're just the guys who where there when it became too big to overlook. Those packages (and other, less obvious ones) are now spread out over thousands of installations, and there'll always be a bright newbie creator with a gorgeous look and an ugly installation.

Also, you'll lose this discussion thread if you delete the look (I think)?

But it's your call - What I think would be helpful would be to create a dedicated thread in the forum "A Dummies Guide to proper packaging: How I cleaned up my horrible .var with 141 dependencies". Make notes of the steps you've taken, and ask ppl if you get stuck. People will drop in, answer your questions, add their ideas etcetc.

Make it a community project, you know? You'll get help, and we'll have a thread that can serve as a reference to point people at.

P.S.: Maybe do both - copy the posts in this thread over to a dedicated forum thread & then temporarily delete the resource?
 
@Case yeah, I get what you are saying! I am going to update this resource instead of deleting it. That way, people who downloaded this look will (possibly) update via the hub and potentially reduce the propagation of horrible packaging. At the same time, I like your idea of a discussion post for a potential community project!
 
Yeah I wasn't blaming Wolverine333 though I can see it might look like that, it's too easy with an old install to create these large dependencies vars

I might myself try the morph merger again - I've create a 2nd install as well which should hopefully help
 
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alexasdf updated Brad Blancheburry with a new update entry:

Brad Blancheburry v2 [Reworked]

Right before I get into it, I would like to give a shout out to @redeyes @Slam Thunderhide @RandomVAMUser and @Case for encouraging and pointing me to the correct resources to improve my previous work and solve a massive issue with my resource.

I am sure a lot of you folks steered away from my resource because of the ridiculous dependencies needed to make the look work (141!). Jeez that's a lot. In this version, I...
Click to expand...

Read the rest of this update entry...
 
1624616777997.png

Well done!

Case said:
What I think would be helpful would be to create a dedicated thread in the forum "A Dummies Guide to proper packaging: How I cleaned up my horrible .var with 141 dependencies". Make notes of the steps you've taken, and ask ppl if you get stuck. People will drop in, answer your questions, add their ideas etcetc.
Click to expand...
Somebody ought to make a guide on this, yeah. I'd say a "Guide" resource rather than a thread on the forum.

I may do it someday if no one is up for it.
 
ZRSX said:
View attachment 51249
Well done!


Somebody ought to make a guide on this, yeah. I'd say a "Guide" resource rather than a thread on the forum.

I may do it someday if no one is up for it.
Click to expand...

Thank you! I made notes on how I reduced my dependencies, but since I am new to creating on VaM, my suggestions might not work for everyone. Plus, my workflow is probably not optimized. Anyway, I am open to helping you on creating this guide.
 
alexasdf said:
Thank you! I made notes on how I reduced my dependencies, but since I am new to creating on VaM, my suggestions might not work for everyone. Plus, my workflow is probably not optimized. Anyway, I am open to helping you on creating this guide.
Click to expand...


If I may: I would encourage you to work together - expertise & experience are certainly assets when writing a guide, but so is 'a newbie perspective'. Newbies know best what confuses newbies (Well, to be truthfull, ever since alexasdf updated his var, I am the resident newbie :eek:)

I think it would also be important to see the guide as a work in progress that needs periodic maintenance - It's unlikely that any of us knows all the tricks and finer points, and the best guides are those that are continually updated when new information or better tactics emerge through discussion. Take justlookingfornothing's series of guides - they're superb, but they're also starting to age.
 
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I'm currently confused as to what to do to reduce a large number of dependencies. Honestly, I was debating whether or not to upload my scene at all days ago because of the issue. I think having access to at least a basic, step-by-step guide would be a great help to us noobie creators. It's a hit to your morale once you discover you've got like over 50 dependencies and your scene won't be on the convenient hub, lmao. I'm really glad to see the community is kind enough to actually help to the extent you guys have.

Just thought I'd share. Great discussion!
 
Case said:
If I may: I would encourage you to work together - expertise & experience are certainly assets when writing a guide, but so is 'a newbie perspective'. Newbies know best what confuses newbies (Well, to be truthfull, ever since alexasdf updated his var, I am the resident newbie :eek:)

I think it would also be important to see the guide as a work in progress that needs periodic maintenance - It's unlikely that any of us knows all the tricks and finer points, and the best guides are those that are continually updated when new information or better tactics emerge through discussion. Take justlookingfornothing's series of guides - they're superb, but they're also starting to age.
Click to expand...

Lol, I don't think you are a newbie. Users drive creators to improve their work. The more user friendly the resource, the more it is used!

But I get your point that some of the guides need to show the 'newbie' perspective. I guess I will get started on this guide and keep updating it whenever new information is available! To be honest, most of this is trial and error. What works for one resource might not work for others.
 
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Peanut said:
I'm currently confused as to what to do to reduce a large number of dependencies. Honestly, I was debating whether or not to upload my scene at all days ago because of the issue. I think having access to at least a basic, step-by-step guide would be a great help to us noobie creators. It's a hit to your morale once you discover you've got like over 50 dependencies and your scene won't be on the convenient hub, lmao. I'm really glad to see the community is kind enough to actually help to the extent you guys have.

Just thought I'd share. Great discussion!
Click to expand...

Definitely been there! I was hesitant to upload my resource as well. But, I am glad I did. I will be posting a guide (just the workflow on how I fixed my resource) sometime over the weekend or next week. However, I'll list down some of the things I did to improve my look (a lot of these suggestions are also in this discussion):

Diagnosis:
  1. JSON edit the existing file to remove conflicting packages + disable conflicting vars. (This did not work for me. Seems like I went overboard with the morphs and for some weird reason, all these morphs were interconnected. Which made it impossible to fix the look and keep the dependencies low).
  2. Check which packages were causing issues and which ones were packaged terribly.
  3. Check var references to identify licensing issues
  4. Check morphs making the most impact on the look using Morph Merger by Project Canyon
Result:
I realized that even though I could use morph merger to create the morphs needed for the look, it wont solve the licensing issue for my look. As a user, I did not care about Paid morphs, plugins, etc. However, as a creator, I needed to be more aware of this and how I should use it. JSON editing messed everything up. Var disabling rendered my look unsuitable for editing. All of this led me to my solution...

Solution:
  1. Clean Install of VaM
  2. Download: Import Reloaded Lite, TenStrip.Morphs, kemenate.Morphs, or any other morph packs you would like to use. As suggested in this discussion post.
  3. In my case, I had no choice but to open both instances of VaM to compare which morphs I needed to use for a complete new look. This process was extremely tedious. Basically, using morphs alternatives. (re did the entire look apart from the face base
  4. Download FC or CC by X textures, hair, and clothing. (Users change this stuff anyway so the best strategy is to keep it simple for distribution and if you want, take images of how you would want it to look ideally).
  5. Test your resource in Desktop and VR in both the clean VaM install and the one with everything in it.
  6. I noticed that the resource manager for building vars works in the clean install and not in one with everything cluttered.
Anyway, this is just a synopsis of what I did to fix stuff but the process might be different for a scene.
 
alexasdf said:
I will be posting a guide (just the workflow on how I fixed my resource) sometime over the weekend or next week. However, I'll list down some of the things I did to improve my look (a lot of these suggestions are also in this discussion)
Click to expand...
Good to hear! And good start :)

To throw some more suggestions in this discussion:
  • I'd do 2 parts in the guide :
    • How to fix an ugly dependency list (what you described in diagnosis & result)
    • How to avoid it in the first place (which is also your definitive solution)
      => Just so people who haven't started to package know where to look to make a "proper" one
  • You're focused on Morphs because that's what you encountered, but it apply to more than that. So the second point of the solution should be: "Download only the VAR packages you need and nothing more.". And then throw in the suggestions for the morphs!
Some best practices:
  • Never ever make a package out of stuff you've extracted from a VAR. Extracting a VAR is a bad idea in the first place.
    • If you use external stuff that were initially not packaged into a VAR, ask the creator if they could make it as a VAR. This would avoid to repack it each time somebody want to use it and will contribute to a better Hub :)
  • For clothing & morphs:
    • Use in priority the default (gray) ones.
    • The pink ones with a package icon will create a dependency: to use only if you need it. Note that you can click on the package icon for more info.
    • The purple ones are the ones in your "Custom" folder. Do not use them for your packages; unless you're the creator and you're in the process of creating a package out of it, of course.
  • For morphs:
    • To check what morphs are active on your Person, just click on the "Only active" checkbox in the Morphs tab. Set back to default what is not needed or can be made with default morphs.
    • You can set all morphs back to default before starting to create a new look by clicking on the big "Default..." button on the top right of the Morphs tab, then "All".
    • If you're creating a package for your custom morphs, don't forget to tick on the "Morph pack (if set, the users will see morphs in the UI by default)" checkbox on the VAR creation screen.
  • For clothing:
    • You can customize quite a lot the default one. Go in "Customize" then into the purple material tabs to change colors and textures. Most of the default clothing have a "Texture group" hidden in the "Texture" tab. Some of them even have a "State" option.
      1624703414339.png
    • Appearance presets will link the clothes as well. Make sure you're clean on that aspect too if you include some in your scene.
  • For scenes:
    • Unless you deem it necessary, try to avoid using custom looks, especially the ones with a huge dependency list. Looks mostly have a long list of them. Yeah, that's a bit sad and blend; but people can easily load their own appearances (and will likely do it anyway). Just make sure to use a standard size for your models, otherwise the animations will break (even with standard size there will likely be some issues).
  • When creating a VAR:
    • After clicking on "Prep package", make sure to check the list of things to fix before clicking on the "Fix reference issues that are fixable (adds more local files to content)" button. If anything looks weird, close the VAR creation UI (don't worry, everything you've entered will be kept in your current session) and go change your content. Don't forget to save the fixed content. Then remove the files in the VAR creation UI and add them again.
    • After clicking on "Prep package", also check the "Reference Licence Report": those are your dependencies, with the corresponding required credits. Make sure anything is needed. Otherwise, same process: abort, fix it, save, remove, re-add, prep.
  • I personally use 3 VAM installs:
    • The "everyday" good old one, where I throw in everything I download from the Hub. It's messy - especially because of all the stuff from the "pre-VAR" era - but I have the full array of possibilities here and I can try out other creators stuff freely.
    • The "Build" one, where I create stuff and package my VARs. Like you said, throw in only the very strict minimum required for building your scenes/morphs/whatever. This includes productivity/helper plugins.
    • The perfectly "Clean" one, for testing out your finished packaged VAR. This install has nothing except your newly created VAR that you want to test and the required dependencies of the tested VAR. Ideally you should clean up the "AddonPackage" folder after having finishing testing your VAR. That way you're sure that there is no issue hidden by the fact that you've got something somewhere in your install that makes it work for you (and you only).
      Or you can see if your package had no dependencies only because you've solely packaged the JPG thumbmail of your scene instead of the actual JSON... Yep, that happened to me and I was so glad to have this VAM install.
  • How to quickly make a new VAM install: copy the "VaM_Updater.exe" from an existing install. Put it in a new folder & run it.
 
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ZRSX said:
Good to hear! And good start :)

To throw some more suggestions in this discussion:
  • I'd do 2 parts in the guide :
    • How to fix an ugly dependency list (what you described in diagnosis & result)
    • How to avoid it in the first place (which is also your definitive solution)
      => Just so people who haven't started to package know where to look to make a "proper" one
  • You're focused on Morphs because that's what you encountered, but it apply to more than that. So the second point of the solution should be: "Download only the VAR packages you need and nothing more.". And then throw in the suggestions for the morphs!
Some best practices: ...
Click to expand...
Wow, This is awesome! Exactly what I meant by the fact that I am new creator and unaware of best practices. This serves as an excellent guide on what could be described as "best current practice". I learnt "looks" practices after trail and error but I hold no authority on any other type of resource (let alone looks). Your comment is holistic and serves the greater purpose to the point.

Would you be willing to check my markdown file with my findings and your suggestions listed down? Perhaps. this would lead to more seasoned creators sharing some of their trade secrets!
 
ZRSX said:
The pink ones with a package icon will create a dependency: to use only if you need it. Note that you can click on the package icon for more info.
Click to expand...

Thanks for drawing up that list! Agree with everything - I'm just wondering if it might be legit to relax that rule considering morph packs.

I'm a great fan of the standard morphpacks hosted on the Hub - in fact, I think everybody should have them, and I wouldn't consider it too onerous for users having to download those. Note I'm only speaking about the Hub-hosted "standard" packages - Spacedog, Kemenate, etc. - I would consider it quite a limitation to do without those.


And I'd like to add a best practise - primarily for Looks-creators:

Do not check the "morphpack"-flag on your shiny new package for any reason other than it actually being a dedicated morphpack. Case is going to be ... vigorously unhappy with you. Don't make Case unhappy, please.
* Corollary: By definition, Looks aren't Morphpacks.
* Corollary II: Unless they're that gorgeous look by Kevin Burinn that came with 10 clever custom morphs.
Click to expand...

What that flag will do is that all morphs in your .var package will be shown in the morph menu of anybody who has added your pack. There's really only one good reason why that would ever be necessary: If the morphs in your package aren't published anywhere else.

MeshedVR introduced that system to get a handle on .var-packed morph duplication - checking that flag without a pressing reason means circumventing a system that was created to handle a problem that has caused much annoyance in the community.

There's quite a few creators who check that flag on their looks-packages even though all the morphs in that pack are humdrum ordinary ones already contained in standard, hubhosted packs. What this does is that it creates duplicates in ppl's morph tab. I've had up to five duplicates of eg Kemenate morphs due to one creator who insisted on checking that flag on all their looks. Sure, there's an option in the packagemanager to manually override that checkbox - but the packagemanager is a damn nuissance to operate (esp in VR), and it's a bloody hassle.
 
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