Well, I'm hunting high and low for a positive side to this, and I'll be damned if I can find one. The Saga of the Computer has reached its Epilog. And it's not a happy ending.
The computer is fine, which I guess is something BIG to be thankful for; but I just made the discovery that none (read that: NONE) of my old project scenes will re-open in DAZ Studio 3 after the computer reformat. It seems that the reinstallation of every single file has cause some of the support files to get moved around. The program puts up a message every time you try to open any of the scenes, words along the lines of, "Cannot find file abc, xyz -- make sure you have your folder hierarchy correct."
Well, duh. Of course it's bloody correct!!!!! And the program can't find anything. There's nothing to fix. It's all BEEN fixed, and it's still broken.
Yes, naturally I've written to DAZ, and in a few days I hope to have an answer, but I'll tell you truthfully, I don't expect tech support to be able to solve this, because the solution is to (!) make sure you have your folder hierarchy correct. And it is correct. And it doesn't work. Next???
The bad news is that, right now Jarrat and Stone ... and all the NARC characters, plus all the Hellgate characters, and all of my own characters ... do not exist. They are gone.
Will I recreate them? Yes. How long will it take? Quite a long time; and -- as I told Mel Keegan not an hour ago, apropos of the NARC characters -- the new faces will be similar, but there's no way I can get them absolutely identical.
Well ... rats. And I could phrase that in very much more pungent language (and this from a person who rarely ever cusses).
I'll keep you posted as to what I get back from DAZ. They're great to deal with, but this one wouldn't take skill or technology, it would take magic. What's the difference? Well ... technology is using a food processor, a microwave and the big gas grill to cook up a BBQ spareribs feast that your eight visitors will be telling stories about for the next decade. Magic would be starting with the eight enthusiastic visitors and reconstructing the pig.
Like I said: rats.
Back to the drawing board.
Jade, 5 April
