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Subject: My Head Hurts...
If you're wondering why one post says "Hey, I'll just copy the culled P3 run-time to an 'external' folder !!", and the next mutters, "Must untangle the zips"...

Less than half of that P3 Runtime's classic freebies were actually *functional*, and many didn't link to their textures etc. Just don't ask where their accessories and *their* textures got to...

Alas, too many didn't fit well as AD/MD, V 1/2/3, P3F and Posette (P4F) outfits were all mixed up. Not helping that many early artists didn't even mention which figure was their base. Hey, if a freebie had poke-through, you just dialled it a bit...

{ Let's not discuss fun sets needing PCF vs P3F beyond saying I'm so glad I've kept a P3 run-time with Metacreations' original, lo-res figures... }

I reckon I'm going to be *very familiar* with CR2 internals by the time this is done !!

And, then, of course, I'll be able to fire up XD4 to craft a really fun retro-wardrobe for Posette & Co...

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Subject: Re: Poser11 Pro .... A Big Jump From P4 !!
So if we all sneak our messed up content into Nik's, he can figure them all out.

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Subject: Re: Poser11 Pro .... A Big Jump From P4 !!
Thanks for all the information Nik. Even if I don't comment on every post, I read them all and find them very interesting.
My serious start with Poser was a Cover P3, too. I played a bit with P2 before, but that doesn't count.
There are some of that area backup CDs in my drawer as well. I didn't check them since years. :mmmh:
Maybe I'll have a look at them (if they read still) as it doesn't stop raining :roll:

P.S.: I remember a script around, for "translating" Japanese files, but I don't quite remember where to get it and if it would work in P11P, if it worked at all.
About old .rsr files. The ones that contain thumbnail data you can keep or delete after first load. png thumbnail should be crated by P11. My P7 does it like this. You might check this.
The geometry .rsr (much bigger, containing binary geometry for faster loading on the weak systems way back, created from the obj on first load) you can dump at once, if you don't need it to restore a missing obj. In that case I remember a tool by Antony Appleyard . RSRtoOBJ or something...

Subject: Re: Poser11 Pro .... A Big Jump From P4 !!
Yes, John Hoagland's 'Geometry Stripper' will pull geometry from a PP2 file, save the OBJ and update the PP2. It will save each of multiple found objects separately.

And, yes, Anthony Appleyard's rsr2obj will translate a geometry RSR to OBJ...

One advantage of having three (3) screens is I can have a serious bunch of folders open at the same time. By sheer persistence, I've managed to collate a lot of clothing with PNG & RSR but missing OBJ to the *same* clothing with thumbnail and OBJ but no RSR / PP2 etc...

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Subject: Re: Poser11 Pro .... A Big Jump From P4 !!
Seeing one on offer in local 'Maplin Electronics', I bought a neat Intuos Draw pen-tablet. It's a nice piece of work, will fit on this desk where my old 'Trust' A4+ mega-tablet won't.

Plug and played with Win'10 as a pointing device, but there the fun ended.

Intuos do not fully support spreading desktop across multiple screens.

First, the driver & utility software default cheerfully mapped my three screens to a letterbox across the tablet.

Yes, you can set [X1Y1, X2Y2] parameters to map tablet to a program's window, but they're NOT dynamic. If you re-size or move your window, or if a pop-up menu spreads to the side, you've lost the mapping. Surely such software can be set to track a specified program's position ?? Seems not...

This is especially annoying when working with something like IrfanView which may re-size when you edit, may have multiple windows open...

Nearest thing to a fix would be maximising eg Poser on the central display, but what if I want to work on a panoramic set ? Or overlapping the side-bars onto adjacent screens ? And HOW ON EARTH would it cope with eg TurboCAD and my preferred mix of orthogonal, perspective and info views ??

When I've had enough sleep to be sure I've not missed some essential appendix or foot-note, I'll raise another 'issue' report. First was about how difficult their site made registration...
And they don't seem to have a forum...
:bad-words: :bad-words: :bad-words:

Anyhow, the Intuos is basically a nice piece of kit but, like my twin graphics cards, whose default gamer-optimised Gigabyte driver simply couldn't handle both, just needed chip-maker Nvidia's definitive down-load...
==
Other fun toy that arrived was a USB triple foot-pedal which could be mapped to eg left/centre/right mouse-clicks to save changing grip on graphic tablet's pen's silly 'rocker' switch...

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Subject: Identifying Old Zips' 'figure', And Organising External Run Times-- SOLVED-ish !!
Between dealing with family health problems --My dear wife is in hospital *again*-- I've been investigating zips...

Gathering an artist's stuff together, related by style and/or date, I've usually been able to spot *one* essential reference among their ReadMe files. Sometimes Posette, sometimes V2, a few early up-takers with V3...

And, yes, there were a few P3 / V1 whatsits in the mix...
:D
===

You can tell Poser 11 hails from US; the manual has a characteristic, exasperating style I remember from wrangling Agilent lab equipment. Typically, a new HPLC system's module stack was a similar size and weight to its many manuals and validation data binders...

I'd set to work with a set of manuals, a fresh pad of post-its and my office door signed 'Do NOT Disturb'. Being a reasonable guy, that had 'Unless REALLY urgent' in small print beneath...

To put it politely, Poser's 'index' is little more than a collection of chapter and topic headings. If you're looking for something that didn't merit such, you gotta take pot-luck with the search engine...

So, via a grim mix of bloody-minded perseverance plus a pinch of serendipity, I found the innocently mis-titled section that explains, in passing, how to set up external run-times. One un-indexed paragraph solved it.

NOW, at last, all those arcane tutorials, threads etc on subject make sense. I need to create eg...

E:\ First_ERT \ First_topic \ Runtime

Browse Poser's library system to that Runtime, select 'add' and the 'First-topic' folder is duly connected.

Rinse and repeat...

I may have multiple, meaningfully named top-folders, each holding multiple, meaningfully named topics. I'll need them. I've decided to segregate the non-specific props, sets, set-kits etc from the crew and the zoo...

My first take would split Poser characters such as dear Posette from the DAZ team. A third group gets the 'Independents'-- AD/MD, Staci etc. Fourth group is the zoo.

With drive space to spare, I've decided clothing sets etc that fit multiple characters, eg A3/V3, A3/V3/V4 or V3/V4 should be copied to each 'fork'.

I'm still trying to figure how to best organise the zillion props, sets etc...

Okay, hospital visiting time approaches, and I've a list of stuff to take...

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Subject: Re: Poser11 Pro .... A Big Jump From P4 !!
My wife is still in hospital, is making slow progress following a bad fall on ward which broke her leg. She's struggling with a non-'Flu respiratory virus. I've got it, too, but I can help myself to non-prescription meds for the coughing and wheezing.

I've not done much with P11. Finally connected that P3 Runtime, did a trial render. Solara lives !! Upside, this CAD Tower is very, very fast. I vaguely remember the same scene taking five minutes or so to process. This time around, about one minute. Solara was one figure. Another scene, 'Getting the Point', with five P3 figures plus some detailed scenery, totally maxed out the old Tower. This time, Swoosh !!

Scene just calls for terrain, architecture, archers and a swam of hostile wingy-thingies...
==

Now, some serendipity.

" Though I lost my Poser 4 Runtime to multiple drive failures,"

While loading an old WIP PZ3 scene, the texture search threw up a hit from a P4 Runtime I didn't know I had. Buried deep, deep down an obscure folder tree salvaged from the old CAD Tower's failing drives, it looks like a 'mirror' back-up from several weeks before the mega-crash. I'm not sure what it holds, but there's 3+ GB to explore.

I'm currently struggling with that non-'Flu virus but, soon as the symptoms ease, I'll point P11 library at that sprawling 'External Runtime', see what I've got...

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Subject: Re: Poser11 Pro .... A Big Jump From P4 !!
P11's external runtime system can be a bit fussy. I've now realised I must unpack 'sets' into a common runtime, as the library will NOT look below the top folder...

Example: SCG has 15 *free* SciFi corridor modules by 3dc. I collected them in a folder named 6_3dc SciFi.

So, that held 3dc-freecorr_p01, 3dc-freecorr_p02 .... 3dc-freecor_p15 etc

Within those were eg 3dc-freecorr_p01.zip which unpacked to 3dc-freebie_corr.txt and a runtime folder, also 53322.jpg the SCG thumbnail and my folder.jpg.

Of course, when I pointed P11 at 6_3dc SciFi, it saw no models there-in.
{ Exasperating, but logical...}

So, one by one, I copy/pasted the individual modules' runtimes into 6_3dc SciFi, ignoring all duplicates with the same size/date.

Upside, P11 is happy. Downside, 3dc used different file-sizes of image for the 'same' texture in different modules...

I've got one 641 kb and fourteen 703 kb but otherwise apparently identical w_1_tex.jpg (2500x2319x24)
Likewise, one 541 kb and twelve 615 kb w_1x_tex.jpg (1180x2100x24)...

I've now culled the clones, but it is a tad tedious...

Last edited by Nik on 27 Oct 2017 01:33; edited 1 time in total
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Subject: Re: Poser11 Pro .... A Big Jump From P4 !!
FWIW, here's my 'PoSorted' as it stands. The old P4 runtime is elsewhere until I gather my wits...

The numbered folders hold props arranged by size then category, ranging from 1_small to 6_terrain. Characters and their clothing are generally alphabetical, with bots/borgs, flora and the Zoo thrown in.

I still haven't decided the best way to organise clothing for each figure. Much of their hair has made its way to a central location, ditto head and neck wear. Footwear may follow...

Attached:

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Subject: Re: Poser11 Pro .... A Big Jump From P4 !!
I do not envy anyone that is organising their Runtimes, as if one is not bad enough.

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Subject: Re: Poser11 Pro .... A Big Jump From P4 !!
They will NOT be 'live' at the same time.

I made that mistake with P3 and then P4...

Beyond core installs, such as main characters, their 'bundles' and essential morphs, I'll be connecting and disconnecting their external runtimes as required.

In fact, I may leave P11's runtime 'sparse', leave almost everything external.

Still the stuff of nightmare...
==
FWIW, my wife's now been told part of her broken leg has still not 'knitted', and she faces yet more bed-rest. I googled around, found an NHS/NICE report from ~2010 *okaying* the use of pulsed ultrasound therapy to stimulate fracture healing. Printed it off, took it in, left it where my wife's orthopaedic consultant and the physiotherapists should notice...

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Subject: Re: Poser11 Pro .... A Big Jump From P4 !!
For the Poser 9 install, I left the default Runtime pretty much empty (for WM characters only), and used my Poser 6 runtime as an external, it made sense, and saved a lot of time.

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Subject: Re: Poser11 Pro .... A Big Jump From P4 !!
Sounds like a plan...
:friends:

I'm also scratching my head over some of the D*Z figures. As you can see from the piccy, I've legacy V1~2~3. I added the inexpensive V4 & M4, discovered V5 & M5 were bundled with my Carrara 8.5 that was on sale 'really cheap'. There are some remarkable 'terrain' and 'prop' freebies in .CAR format, which only Carrara can read. I hope to export those in a portable format such as OBJ...

Snag is many of D*Z' recent figures & costumes are primarily meant for DS. Yes, a lot do come with a DSON importer script for Poser, but I've yet to figure how that works...

I'm also trying to make sense of the many, many 3DS files I'd salvaged from their dying drives. Even my own architectural models are a tangled mess-- Ten years is a long time to remember those modules' arcane but *logical* naming system, and I've a growing suspicion I'm dealing with several archive versions, of which only one was 'tidied'...

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Subject: Re: Poser11 Pro .... A Big Jump From P4 !!
You'll read this when you're good and ready, as you've lost your love and nothing will have much relevance right now.

Much like you I went and got the free G2 figures bundled with that app.

The DS figures beyond V4, work best in DS, so I guess they belong there, but you acquired a work around in Carrara.

DSON, is nothing more than a python script, that translates code, you can import with DSON, and save out a cr2, but it will not have the features that are in the native app (DS), so save the DSON work around for when you want a challenge. But you have Carrara, so use your new DS figures in there for now.

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Subject: Re: Poser11 Pro .... A Big Jump From P4 !!
I'm using Poser sessions to chill as I can only do so much admin etc before my wits begin to spin...

Still feeling my way towards a workable 'External Runtime' set-up. Have just added a new category, '2_Office', with stuff like staplers & white-boards.

I've M3 from years back, with not a lot of 'stuff', so that figure seemed a good way to explore how to get legacy D*Z figures into P11Pro.

After much Googlin', grimly cross-referencing reams of contradictory advice, plus much, much muttering, I finally stumbled upon something that makes sense. The problem with such legacy figures and their self-installers is that Poser's ownership has changed several times. Left to itself, the installer will hunt out an old P4 or P5 run-time, go there, NOT to P11.

So, the *official* fix is to tick the installer option for D*Z Studio, but browse to eg the M3 folder with its empty 'External Runtime'. With that populated, add the M3 folder to library, hit 'refresh' a few times and sigh with relief...

I'm still fumbling my way around the complex Poser interface; tools I half-remember as being on one menu seems to have spawned multiple tabs, out-placed themselves...

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