Question Clean Project

[3Dfantasia]

I have a question. When I finalize my LOOK at the end, I still see the notes of clothes in the list that I only tried and already deselected. Is there any way to clean up the project so that it really only shows what was used at the end?

 

[atani]

When you're saving the scene, making a appearance preset, packaging to a VAR? What list is that?

 

[3Dfantasia]

This list. 80% of it I didn't even use for my Look.

 

[atani]

This is a common occurrence when packaging from the production VAM. Packaging has its issues and ideally should be done with a different clean VAM with the addition of the scene's needed assets.
Check out this guide:

Guides - How to package like a pro: a guide on proper VAR building

Intro There is a recurring issue with VAR packaging. No one's to blame, really, as there is no guide on how to make a "good" VAR package. I'll try to remedy to that. In short, this guide is for you: If you’re about to post a resource starting...

hub.virtamate.com

 

[3Dfantasia]

Maybe I still have a thinking error, but how do I get the VAR packed again later when I have changed the meta.json?

 

[atani]

I never packaged a look, so there may be some more things to consider. Here's what I do when I make and package a scene:

On the scene I made I have an idea of what plugins, looks, audio, etc, are used. I copy to a clean VaM folder - a original VAM download with no added stuff - my scene and the stuff that is used in the scene. I usually try it to check if there's no errors and it works as intended. If I forgot to copy something over it's usually noticeable or shown in the error log.
If this is all good, I then use the Package Manager, add a name for the VAR, add the file scene and some info about. Usually the " Prep package" adds what is referenced in the scene and a "Fix reference issues that are fixable" shows up, with a list on the side of what is fixable. If there's something marked as broken this you need to pay closer attention why that is, you probably missed something when copying over.
After clicking "Fix reference issues..." the final list of everything referenced is shown, this is what will be in the meta.json file. If you see stuff that shouldn't be there you'll need to investigate where is that reference coming from; is it in the scene, a preset that is also packaged, etc.
If all good click Finalize Pacakage and you have a new VAR. Should be a clean VAR, you can check the meta.json inside it to see again what is pulling as dependencies.

Packaging looks can have different things to pay attention to, especially on morphs. Try always to pick the grey morphs (built-in) over the other colors as they are either custom ones on your disk (purple) or coming from other VARs (red). The red ones will call for the original VAR to be a dependency and whatever dependencies that VAR has.

 

[3Dfantasia]

Thank you for your detailed and helpful reply. I will try it this way. I'll just create another clean version VAM. I guess my problem is that I like to try what I want to create first. I test different clothes, different poses, etc.... But then I just have to put a little more effort and create the whole thing twice.

 

[atani]

You can try out things as much as you want. If they're not used they don't show up in the scene or preset, and you can always open the json or vab to confirm what is there.
When you use something from another VAR, that VAR's dependencies are added to your VAR's meta.json. I suspect this is what happened in your list. While you may not need the other VAR's dependencies, because you require that VAR those dependencies (1 level deep) will be counted as well. You can see how this can easily grow into ever more dependencies for a user.

A good way to keep this minimal is to limit as much as possible the use of referenced material or to those that have very few dependencies.
Eg.1: there's a "Mouth open" morph you want to use and see a grey one (built-in) and a red one (from a VAR); if you pick the red one you get that VAR as a dependency and its dependencies; if you pick the grey one there's no dependencies.
Eg.2: there's a couple of skirts you could use on the scene/preset; one is a VAR with just the skirt and maybe some other clothing with little or no dependencies, and the other one is a skirt packaged in VAR with a scene and loads of dependencies; you probably should pick the first one.

Anyway, lots of compromises in any method, but as key points is to package in a clean VAM and pick as much as possible assets without or few dependencies.