Question Question about loading looks

[trialemail891]

Hey all,

I am struggling with some of my looks.

For example, when I manually download a look there are often 2 files - Looks.var file and Looks.txt file.

When I put the Looks.var file in AddonPackages, then open the game I don't see it popping out in the ''Everyone' ' tab in the home page of VaM.

Question 1- how to open the look and where exactly I should put the Looks.var file?

Question 2- What am I supposed to do with the Looks.txt file?

Edit:
Question 3- if there are any dependencies, should I put them all in PackageAddons as well?

Thanks

 

[TToby]

Hi,
all Var files have to go to the AddonPackages folder, no matter if they are looks, or hair, or plugins, or other kinds of dependencies. Don't think of dependencies as being tied to the main look you have downloaded. They are most of the time independent stuff that can be used alone and with other looks, too.

If there is a Var file and a text file, the text is most of the time a list of dependencies or other comments from the author. You don't neccessary have to save this anywhere.

If content is not popping up somewhere as expected, then you unfortunately might have to search for it... VaM often has some different redundant ways to do one-and-the-same thing, which can be sometimes quite confusing.
For instance: Some looks or appearances have to be load from the person main tab, some have to be load as appearance preset, and some are only included in scenes with lighting and stuff (you can save your own appearance preset or look from this).

 

[HolySchmidt]

In general, if you want to load a look, the normal way should be ...

(you have to have a scene with a person)

1. select an atom of a person
2. select "Root" in the top left corner
3. if you aren't already in the "control" tab (first from bottom), select it
4. select "load look"

But as TToby already mentioned, not every look is stored in the upcoming folder and I highly recommend after selecting "load look" to sort the list then by "new to old" and select the button "all flattened from ...".
Then you have a complete list of all saved looks in this folder with all subfolders.

If you sort items by "new to old" you have to be aware of the fact that VaM sorts your items by the date the file was changed the last time. Meaning the date the creator created it. This is creating a nice mess to me, cause some looks are down the list somewhere, though you just downloaded it and it's practically not a day old on your computer.

 

[Captain Varghoss]

If you're still having trouble after the above answers, here's a video showing how to use looks.
As far as the files, .var files always go in the AddonPackages folder no matter what they are. the .txt files are not needed for anything.

 

[ilovebasilm]

Hi,
all Var files have to go to the AddonPackages folder, no matter if they are looks, or hair, or plugins, or other kinds of dependencies. Don't think of dependencies as being tied to the main look you have downloaded. They are most of the time independent stuff that can be used alone and with other looks, too.

If there is a Var file and a text file, the text is most of the time a list of dependencies or other comments from the author. You don't neccessary have to save this anywhere.

If content is not popping up somewhere as expected, then you unfortunately might have to search for it... VaM often has some different redundant ways to do one-and-the-same thing, which can be sometimes quite confusing.
For instance: Some looks or appearances have to be load from the person main tab, some have to be load as appearance preset, and some are only included in scenes with lighting and stuff (you can save your own appearance preset or look from this).

Thank you! OH MY GOD how long I have searched for characters whom only was present in scenes!!!

 

[HolySchmidt]

We all went trough this process
Totally confusing at the beginning, and still is ...

 

[TToby]

After all that years in VaM, I still have the feeling I only know half of all those buttons. IMHO it is a good thing that they are there in case you will ever need them, but actually you will only have to learn a small percentage of them... The big problem is only to know which of them.

 

[HolySchmidt]

I feel I'm still using only 10% of the games possibilities. But I'm totally happy with that

 

[Tyler Durdenski]

Thanks for sharing! I am new here too and a bit overwhelmed by this whole new world but loving it, sleeping only 3h. a night for the last 4 days trying to understand how, where and what??? I read that we should not extract zip files from downloaded patreon sites and just place them in the addonpackage file but doing that for me, i can't see the scene in VAM, if i extract them in subfolders, they appear so this is confusing... Also, i downloaded a complete clothe catalog and added it in a subfolder i created (_Clothes) in Addonpackage file and i am trying to figure out why i can't see all the content when i go in the clothes menu for a specific atom ( I can only see the clothes created for that scene) so what if i want to use everything else i got from anywhere...
I also manage to replace appearance in a scene but even if i have let say 10 in the scene browser, i can see only 5 in the appearance selecting menu (files shows empty) this is strange...
Anyway, Thanks and have a nice week!

 

[HolySchmidt]

First rule of VaM: never talk about VaM
Kidding, Mr. Durdenski.

1. Never create subfolders in the addonpackage folder, just throw everything in and let VaM do the rest. Except for point 2 ...
2. If you have an old zip file which contains folders like "custom/atom/person/..." and other folders, just copy all this folders to the original VaM-folders with exact the same name. So the "custom/atom/person..." to the VaM "custom" folder. Then everything should be fine.
3. Looks aren't always appearances! Sometimes they are scenes as well, you can't load a scene as a look or an appearance. You have to load the scene, save the look or the appearance and there you go.
4. Get more sleep!

 

[Tyler Durdenski]

First rule of VaM: never talk about VaM
Kidding, Mr. Durdenski.

1. Never create subfolders in the addonpackage folder, just throw everything in and let VaM do the rest. Except for point 2 ...
2. If you have an old zip file which contains folders like "custom/atom/person/..." and other folders, just copy all this folders to the original VaM-folders with exact the same name. So the "custom/atom/person..." to the VaM "custom" folder. Then everything should be fine.
3. Looks aren't always appearances! Sometimes they are scenes as well, you can't load a scene as a look or an appearance. You have to load the scene, save the look or the appearance and there you go.
4. Get more sleep!

Haha, very clever
1. Ok i get it, i feel the need to be organized but hey, all i do is make and sell soap ;o)) I will deconstruct i do as you say tonight and see.
2. I still have all the zip files, so should i still extract or not? Is copying the 'custom/atom/person' folder to the V..(word) custom folder will kind of replace the original folder and lose the actual files in it? Or should i copy the 'files' instead to equivalent folders?
3. Aaaaaaaaaahhhh Now i see, many thanks!!!!
4. No sleep till.........Brooklyn! I need to make more soap.

Thanks a bunch!

 

[HolySchmidt]

Like I said: if you have a folder structure in the zip file with custom and so on, just copy them over to your original VaM folder, they'll integrate. But only if they have the same structure with all the original sub-folders. They don't delete nothing, you're just adding them to the folder(s).

Simple rule: if you have *.var files, just put them in addonpackages. If you have *.scene, *.json or *.vac files, you have to go to the right folders which are mainly to find in "custom" or "saves".

 

[TToby]

I guess the confusion comes from the fact, that .Var files are technically Zip files, too.
We often answer questions with "don't extract them".
You can open them with a Zip tool, if you like, but you should not extract them. Just put them in the AddonPackages folder.

Real Zip files are an other pair of shoes. If they have the file ending ".zip", they have to be extracted!
But like HolySchmidt said, don't put or extract them into the AddonPackages folder, only if they maybe including a .Var file (allready have seen this).

But be careful where you have to place the files! It depends on the type of content.
-CUAs (like environments) have to go to the "/custom/assets/" folder.
-Clothes have to go to the "/custom/clothes" folder.
-Morphs have to go to the "/custom/atom/person/morphs/female(male) folder.
-aso

By the way @Tyler Durdenski , if you feel the need to organize .Var files into sub-folder, you can do that. But you don't have to!! The AddonPackages folder is indeed the only folder in VaM where it doesn't matter if you create sub-folders: they will be automatically scanned at start, anyways.

 

[HolySchmidt]

By the way @Tyler Durdenski , if you feel the need to organize .Var files into sub-folder, you can do that. But you don't have to!! The AddonPackages folder is indeed the only folder in VaM where it doesn't matter if you create sub-folders: they will be automatically scanned at start, anyways.

Didn't know that! Could have been useful from the start

 

[TToby]

Didn't know that! Could have been useful from the start

Sorry! Maybe you can still organize your var files this way. They "should" load correctly anyways.
I did this right from the start with different categories, but I gave up after some weeks. lol

 

[HolySchmidt]

Sounds like when I tidy up my desk: "From now on, I will always sort every document in the right folder straight up!"
4 weeks later: "What is this mess?"

I was organizing all my downloads from the start which makes even more sense to me
So everytime I would do a clean install I have everything sorted from the beginning anyway.

 

[TToby]

That sounds familiar
I think for me it was the "have to be sorted out and maybe deleted" category growing big and bigger, until containing 90% of the stuff.

I could easiely delete most of the scenes and looks, if it wasn't for the included morphs I maybe (or not) have used for one of my custom figures. I really need a tool to find this out!

 

[HolySchmidt]

Don't make the mistake and delete scenes or looks! To me it was pretty impressive loading one of my first scenes and then loading one of my latest scenes. The improvement I made with the game and the mechanics, the lighting, whatever, was like looking at some old photos from childhood compared to be grown up now. Like a trip to the past ... I'm getting philosophical

I even started to improve an old scene regarding lights and stuff, but afterwards it wasn't the same scene anymore. So I stopped. It was like manipulating the past ... but you can't change the past, the past changes you

I'm going to bed soon now. Have a good night TToby!

 

[TToby]

That is the same with me looking at an early look I made...
Very creepy

good night!

 

[Captain Varghoss]

Just a note since the topic of 'organizing' the AddonPackages folders came up..

While technically you can put packages in subfolders, there are potential problems with doing so.

First and most important, if you ever use the in-game hub to 'download all' on a scene, it may not see that you already have the package and you'll end up with duplicates.
Second, if you use the in-game hub to update your packages, it may not find updates for packages in subfolders.

I used to be the same way, I wanted to try and organize everything like I did with loose files before var packages, but the simple fact is that there's no actual benefit at all since it doesn't change the way you browse them and with potential duplication or missed updates it's just not worth it.

 

[TToby]

Thats a valid point!
I don't use the ingame downloader much, but even for normal downloading I have missed the "it's allready there" Windows message, when having stuff hidden in various subfolders.
At the start of the Var system, we were worrying about "I will never find that certain stuff again, if all files were thrown into a single folder." ........... And we were right
But sorting the stuff in subfolders didn't made it much better.

 

[Tyler Durdenski]

Thanks for the help guys. Well last night i was trying to sort files and folders out and i went into som issues with some zip folders with 'custom' and 'save' folders in it containing VAM and JSON files. When trying to copy them into the right place 'custom/clothes/.....I keep getting error message preventing copying. I will probably have to download again. I managed to do a 'save look' and 'load look' in a different scene that is awesome but sometime is awkward because of previous look attributes.
I will take your advice and put everything back in the addonpackage folder and see how it goes from there, maybe solve the issue of loading up a scene with clothes missing even if i have them stored somewhere....
Thanks again!

 

[TToby]

I will take your advice and put everything back in the addonpackage folder and see how it goes from ther

I know, you allready know that, but I feel the need to point this out again (maybe for other readers):

In theory there should be absolutely no doubt wether to put it in "AddonPackages" OR "/custom/" folder.
Var files always have to go directly to the "AddonPackages" without unpacking(!),
and only old stuff wich is NOT included in a var file, but in a .zip file, has to be extracted and moved to the appropriate "custom/" folders. (period)

There are threads where experienced users are discussing other methodes, but this is only for people who exactly know what they are doing! Don't do this at home

 

[Spider_Man_1996]

Hello. I need some assistance with how to use Vam. I need to know how to find addin packages