I try not to get on the soapbox too often about the underappreciated Mac users, but I know I'm not the only one out there and I've come across something that I found particularly upsetting.

I've had numerous problems getting morph targets in obj format to load, and after a while I figured something was wrong with my Poser copy. CLabs suggested that I re-install, and after doing that the problem didn't get any better. But then I came across a morph target that did work, without any problems, and so I contacted them again. Here's what I've received in response:

"Hello there, unfortunately the problem lies in the difference between Mac's and Windows. These morphs work on Windows.

Apparently in the Poser Mac version the difference between a carriage return and a new line is critical. In this case, to the obj and morph importer plugins on Mac.

Mac's want/use a new line entry where as Windows will work with both a new line entry and or carriage return.

Finding and replacing these entries may fix the file."

The morph target which did work for me is the Elowen head morph, and that file was exported from ZBrush according to the file. Files that have not worked for me include Falcon's head morph and Falconette for Stephanie, dcort's Electra Arms (the morphs for Vicki's shoulders, exported from Lightwave), as well as the Abby morph for the Millennium PT Girl in freestuff. Its not just upsetting that I paid money for products that I can't utilize to their full extent, but once again there's a glitch that makes it more difficult for people to create products for Mac users.

I'm not well acquainted with high end 3D programs, and I've never created any morph targets myself, so I'm not sure where to go at this point. If someone could perhaps explain the difference between a carriage return and a new line? And how I would go about changing these files so that they'll work for me? I'm certainly happy to do the work myself if someone could just point me in the right direction.

I've even considered putting together a "Mac Poser Support Group" if there isn't such a thing already, and I certainly don't think Mac users deserve to 'lose out' simply because they're not in the majority. Sorry for the rant, but its been a long day... I appreciate any helpful suggestions, and I'd love to hear from other Mac users out there. :)

Best wishes,
Molly

Molly, if you look through your mac system files, I beleive you have a dos to *nix converter in it somewhere. rename the .obj to a .txt, run it through the converter, then name it back to .obj that should clean it up no problem for you. actually, windoze won't read a newline without the carriage return. the obj can be saved in either format with uv mapper as well ( I think there is a mac version available ) that would also work to get rid of the dos format in the obj for the mt's

a carriage return is a character sequence that tells dos ( windoze ) to go to the beginning of the next line, when used in conjunction with the new line character sequence. the new line is roughly n the carriage return is roughly r one says to start a new line, the other says, return to left margin and go down to next line. accomplish the same task, just implemented differently.

Well, I couldn't find the dos to *nix converter, but I downloaded UV Mapper... and I must have some sort of curse, because UV Mapper can't open the files either. It says, "This OBJ file has no facet information." I've already re-downloaded the files, so it can't be that... any ideas?

Did you try hitting the problem files with Maconverter?

Yes, I've run them all through Maconverter, but it doesn't do the trick. From what I know, Maconverter doesn't change the content of the actual obj file and that's where the problem lies. I could be wrong about that first part. If I could only get UV Mapper to open the files I could solve the problem I believe, but it would appear that UV Mapper on a Mac has the same problem reading the morphs that Poser does. I've tried just about every logical solution I can come up with, to no avail.

Attached Link: http://www.morphworld30.com/tutorials/squishing.html

these obj morphs are "stripped" to protect Daz's copyright.(see link above for a technical explanation about this) It's the reason why you can't load them in UVMapper. In Poser you can't use "File-->Import-->Wavefront OBJ" for the same reason. "Object-->Load Morph Target" should work, though.

Dagon,

Thanks for the info, that does clear up some confusion. But the problem is, I can't load them as morph targets which is why I need to be able to open them in UVMapper... to make the files Mac friendly. But now that I know that its impossible to do that, I'll give up on that idea. I've still tried to look at the obj files in a text editor, but the whole carriage return/new line thing isn't apparent to me, so I don't know how to "fix" them. I'm really not one to easily give up, so any more suggestions are certainly appreciated.

I've had similar problems with freeware .OBJ files under windows in the past - odd/unexpected combinations of r and n or just one of either. It's a pain in the extreme as it means it's harder to write reliable .OBJ file readers/importers etc. etc. to cope with these variations (assuming one takes the extra effort to do so). My only halfway-helpful suggestion is that someone needs to write a byte-level "filter" or "converter" program for the Mac, if one doesn't exist already, that looks at ALL possible variations of "start a new line now" in the file it is reading and writes out the platform-specific "new line now" sequence in the file it writes. These kinds of programs are generally not hard to write, but annoying :( It's this kind of effort that Jaqui's suggested DOS to *nix converter would have put in :)

Attached Link: http://www.anybrowser.org/bbedit/#GeneralTips

I'm running a PC, but isn't a Mac utility named BBedit ?(see link) "Companion Tools for BBEdit Users Line Formats: If you need to have files in the appropriate line format (Mac, UNIX, or DOS), BBEdit will do the trick. But if you need to change a bunch of files at the same time, it's probably not the most effective way to do it. One program which is good for drag and drop line format changing is Text to Mac. If you're running MacOS 8 or greater, Trygve's CMM Plugins have a contextual menu plugin which will allow you to change the line formats directly in the finder. Both of these should be available at your friendly neighborhood info-Mac mirror." An obj file is a text file, OK ? IMO, you just need a text editor to convert PC/Windows text to Mac text Hope it helps

I have only heard of the problem on Pro Pack with the Mac . I load things most times fine on mine. Are you running Pro Pack?

Same here. I've gotten a ton of morphs here from free stuff. And other sites like Traveler's. I just run them through macconverter and they load fine on my G3 Powerbook running P4 on OS9. Just be sure you're loading the appropriate morph target to the appropriate model & body part.

If Maconverter doesn't work, run them thru BBEdit. Zap gremlins to delete all the DOS crap like lfs and/or crs. Save as simpletext, saved state:none, Mac line breaks.

Attached Link: http://download.com.com/3120-20-0.html?qt=bbedit&tg=dl-2003&search=+Go%21+

mateo'a suggestion works for me as well - the Zap Gremlins command is under the Text Menu in BBEdit 4.0. The Save As fields are under the Options button at bottom right of the the Save As dialog (very important!). You can get BBedit at th elink above (www.download.com and it's free)-Dan

When I upgraded Poser 4 with ProPack I found that stripped morph targets wouldn't load (no problems with regular ones). I believe I ended up loading the stripped .obj files to the figure in Poser 4, then moving the figure into ProPack's Runtime. (Are you sure the morph targets are for the figure you're trying to add them to?) And you can move morphs between characters with MartinC's nifty Maconstructor utility. HTH - Elisa/gryffnn

Thanks for all the suggestions, I think I'm finally starting to get the picture. I also emailed MartinC, and he confirmed that there's a terrible bug in ProPack which makes it unable to import certain .obj files that work on PC and P4 on Mac. Apparently CL knew about this bug from the start and was unable to locate and fox it, which is pretty ridiculous. The problem has nothing to do with line breaks, and once again I'm pretty disappointed with CL's level of tech support. Martin suggested keeping Poser4 installed, importing the morph targets with P4 and then using Maconstructor to move the "loaded" morph targets into the ProPack library files, as someone mentioned here as well. Personally, I'm amazed that any software developer would release a buggy product and then offer false information as to where the problem lies... but I'm glad that there's such a strong Poser community to keep the program alive. Thanks again for the help. :) Molly