Answered Where do the AUTO morphs come from?

[ClubJulze]

I have a bunch of custom morphs in my VaM directory where I typically create stuff. I thought maybe I had accidentally installed them from someone else's package I was studying. Then I thought maybe they came with VaM since I was pretty sure I never installed them, but I could have done so a couple months ago. I made a clean install of VaM 1.9.2.2 and these morphs were not included.

Does anyone know where they come from?

 

[meshedvr]

These come from saving a scene or preset when a "Transient" morph is in use. Upon save, the transient morph is copied into the AUTO directory so it can be properly found upon loading that scene or preset.

What is a "Transient" morph? This is a morph that is saved in a directory relative to the scene save file. Most likely, transient morphs are coming from a VAC. VACs are created by storing the scene and then storing all the morphs in use by that scene into a subdirectory so they can be neatly packaged up and shared. This turns those used morphs into transient morphs so when the VAC scene is then used it contains the morphs that are needed. In older versions of VaM, transient morphs were immediately all imported to the AUTO directory upon open of the VAC scene. In newer version of VaM this was changed so that transient morphs are only imported to AUTO directory if you save a scene or preset that is using one of them. This change was to help prevent pollution of your AUTO folder with stuff you don't care about. So it is assumed if you save a scene or preset using a transient morph, you are indicating you care about that morph so it is placed into your AUTO folder and will then appear as a normal custom morph.

We're working on an official wiki, and stuff like this will end up in there. Thanks for asking as it helps build the wiki.

 

[bumblebaetuna]

These come from saving a scene or preset when a "Transient" morph is in use.

Bit late on this, but are auto morphs generated from existing morphs? If I were to delete my auto morphs, would VAM load the original in this case? I can't find a difference between the auto/transient morphs and others with the same name. I don't understand their purpose in the new system.

 

[DJ]

Bit late on this, but are auto morphs generated from existing morphs? If I were to delete my auto morphs, would VAM load the original in this case? I can't find a difference between the auto/transient morphs and others with the same name. I don't understand their purpose in the new system.

No. The AUTO directory is filled with morphs added to your system when you opened a .vac file. If you delete the directory, all those custom morphs will be permanently removed from your system. Any looks that use those morphs will now look different. The morphs will not be replaced unless you open the .vac file they originally came from and save the scene, look, appearance, etc.

In the new system, morphs stay in their .var packages, so wont be added to the AUTO directory.

 

[bumblebaetuna]

No. The AUTO directory is filled with morphs added to your system when you opened a .vac file. If you delete the directory, all those custom morphs will be permanently removed from your system. Any looks that use those morphs will now look different. The morphs will not be replaced unless you open the .vac file they originally came from and save the scene, look, appearance, etc.

In the new system, morphs stay in their .var packages, so wont be added to the AUTO directory.

So if VAM imported the same morph into AUTO from two VACs, it would just overwrite the other with no issues? I have tons of duplicates but notice the VMI/VMB files aren't different. So it sounds like it's just the path of the morph that's significant.

Won't VARs result in more duplicates now, since two creators can package the same morph, and they'll never merge in AUTO?

 

[DJ]

So if VAM imported the same morph into AUTO from two VACs, it would just overwrite the other with no issues?

Yup.

Won't VARs result in more duplicates now, since two creators can package the same morph, and they'll never merge in AUTO?

Again, yup. The best way to avoid this is to make sure every package containing morphs (except actual morph packs) has "preload morphs" unchecked in the "user preferences" tab when the package is open in "Addon Package Manager". That prevents any morphs from showing up in your morph list unless they're actually in use in one of the models in the scene.

The more fundamental problem is that in order to function correctly, packages have to be made by people who know exactly what they're doing. But there's no documentation, so barely anybody does.

 

[bumblebaetuna]

Appreciate the info!