Renderotica

So, I'm not adding anything new here - at least a few others have posted before me on this.  I've looked at several other threads on this topic here, and tried pretty much everything at this point.  

Unlike some others, the shell has never worked for me in terms of loading textures and colors.  The shell itself loads just fine, and both the shell fix and the shell fix omni scripts work.  

But that's all, folks! 

The texture presets and colorizing scripts have no effect.  I've tried them with the shell selected in the surfaces tab, I've tried them with the shell selected in the parameters and scene tabs: I've tried them with and without the shell fix scripts loaded: I've tried them with the shell parented to Dicktator Genitalia, with the shell parented to G8M figure.   

Same deal with Pumping Pole Pallettes.

And yes, I made sure only the node selection tool was in play.  

Error message I get when I use the Shell Choose Color Iray - 'No materials edited... surfaces not found.'  Would be glad of an assist here, guys. Thanks!

 

 

Can you post some screenshots?

The shell must be loaded on G8M/GM8.1, and as a result the surface names must be the ones in the picture, otherwise the material presets won't work.

Broad Easy Fixers
=========================
Close Daz
Reinstall/Update Product (Making sure files go into the "Data" and "Runtime" paths correctly if installing manually)
Re-Open DS Retry

Test
=========================
1. Open DS
2. Check your Viewport is in textured or Iray (preferably Iray for shader testing) and viewport shader updates complete to visibility.
3. Check you have the Node Selection Tool active (Geometry Editor and Joint Editor have been known to hide shells textures)
4. Load G8M or G8.1M
5. Select G8M/G8.1M Figure in scene
6. Load Graft to G8M or G8.1M
7. Run Copy Materials Scripts (This matches surfaces on the Graft and adds base color to Graft)
* Note: This works by default for base G8 figures,
However, for G8.1 Figures you will need to get the hot fix or updated Mat Copy Scripts for G8.1 Figures (Due to New UVs and PBR Skin Shaders)
Also note these are for base figure UVs and Shaders, occasionally, some custom characters will have custom UVs or Shaders that wont be compatible with the Mat Copy Scripts.
Surfaces need to be manually copied and pasted or UVs changed in these instances.
(These special occasions are so rare that errors like your "Surfaces Not Found" make me want to lean towards it being an install error or bug with file allocation)
I get similar error messages from time to time because windows bugs out and cant find my drive. A clash with antivirus software I think.
Check file explorer to see if your drives are visible if using multiple drives.
8. Load Shell to G8M or G8.1M
9. Select the Shell in the Scene Tab
10. If the Shell is White, Run the Shell Fix Script (This makes the shell masking transparent, a locked or limit edited surface value could lead to error here)
11. With the Shell Selected in the Scene Tab run additional Shell Color scripts of your choosing for the Shell (Note: some colorization products require additional Shells to be loaded on figure or graft)
* Note: The same materials issues from the graft apply to the shells materials as well, (G.81M Dickator/Pole Pump May Have Different Shell), some custom characters may not be 100%
compatible by default due to UVs or Shaders.

Pass? Fail? What step?

Larger Issues
=====================================
Sometimes DS's shader drawing just bugs out as well.
1. Rotate perspective view camera a bit and back to reload Iray view.
2. Change viewport to textured then back to Iray to reload Iray view.
3. Save a scene if you need to, then close DS. Restart and Reload your Scene.
The draw-in order, number of UV maps, or shader space might be maxed on your GPU as well.
1. Lighten the scene load or change surface render order.

Hope this helps without overcomplicating.