I was thrilled to find Philip Foss's RSR converter to make thumbnails for Poser, but alas it does not work. I get the highly informative error message "Cannot open file" when I click the OK button. I'm trying to convert a .pct file - do I have to do anything fancy with the file first? It seems straightforward... but no luck. Does anyone have any suggestions for this?

I forgot to add - and no doubt this is important - the readme says to move the dll files in the System folder. Well, mine won't go. It says it can't move them when existing files of the same name are in there, but then it won't let me delete the existing files because "the application is in use" (even though everything except Explorer are shut down).

... move the dll files INTO the System folder, is what I meant to say. And is there a difference between the System and System32 folders? Oh, why can't things be simple?

I downloaded and tried out the RSR converter; it seems to work fine. In general, you don't need to move DLL's to the system folder. Applications always look first in their own working folder for DLL's they need. This was specifically arranged so that alternate versions of the same DLL can co-exist in one computer. One thing I did notice is that the file choice boxes on the RSR converter are sort of designed backwards. I had to try a couple of times before I realized which box gets which file. Was that your trouble, maybe?

Well, it says "enter the path to your PICT file" for the top box, so that's where I put my pct file. Then I copied the same path down to the second box but changed the extension to .rsr. I am frustrated!

Does it want the file extension to be .PICT instead of .PCT?

Oh. I just tried it in the PCT to RSR direction and it failed just as you said. I think it's broken.

A little more info: it seems to be designed only for 91 * 91 pixel files. I tried it with one of Poser's Reflection map PCT files, and it gave a specific error.

I used a 91 pixel file. How can I use a .pict extension on a PC? I thought I could only use .pct (and I have no option to save as .pict anyway). ... yet this is not supposed to be used on a Mac??? So ockham, what DID you do to make it work?

Well, it only seemed to work in the RSR to PCT direction. Taking the very same file -back- from PCT to RSR didn't work. So the verdict is at best inconclusive....

Grrrrrr! So is there any other way to get thumbnails into Poser's menu thingy? How do people usually do it when they make new stuff for us to download? Does someone have a magic wand?

For more recent versions of Poser, the thumbnails are PNG. Actually the RSR files were really PNG with the extension changed to RSR. Most 2D graphics programs can change PCT or other things to PNG form, and you can then simply rename the PNG file to RSR. When making new props or figures, Poser generates the PNG automatically, using the current display.

By 'more recent' I think you mean PoserPro(?) and Poser 5? I have Poser 4.

Okay, now this is strange. I haven't used Philip Foss's RSR converter for quite a while 'cause I use P3DO but it's still on my PC so I did a test. Created a 91x91 file in PSP and saved it, selecting the MAC Pict file type from the drop down as "Image1.pct" to my desktop. Ran RSR converter, selected the .pct using the first browse button and spacified the output as Image1.rsr in the 2nd field. Then I followed the same process rendering a 91x91 image in Poser. No problems. It worked find, piece o'cake. There's no version number on the utility but my executable's "rsrconv.exe" dated 7/11/99. -Nancy.

Don't know if you're using UK or US date format there, but mine is dated 10 July 99. So mine is either one day or four months older than yours. Out with the old, in with the new. (Do you know where I can download the newer one?!)

I used US date format but I must have been tired or I'd have typed it 2003-07-11. It means your executable is one day older than mine :) There's an e-mail address for Philip in the readme.txt file but somehow I don't think that the executable's the problem.

You mean, I'm the problem. :(

Oh dear, not specifically I hope, but I was thinking about the possible reasons you might be having trouble. I know that on occasion I'd run into situations where the program wouldn't convert .pct's to .rsr's and when I ferreted out the reason it turned out to be something that I'd done when creating the original .pct but it's been so long ago, I can't remember what those were! It was usually something simple.

I found a tutorial which went through a whole lot of complicated stuff you're supposed to do with alpha channels in PhotoShop. I only have PaintShop Pro and I couldn't find the equivalent things. Maybe that's the problem. I don't see why the converter program cares one way or the other about alpha channels but maybe it's picky.

In addition to PS, I also use PSP, In the example methods I noted in my earlier post, I created the first .PCT file in PSP and didn't touch the alpha channel.

I'm using poser4 with propack in Windows XP. I've never had good luck making png's with third party programs. I tried PSP and always got purple lines across the image. Now I use poser itself. I setup the render options in the render pulldown menu. I choose to render into a new window 91x91 pixels. I check anti aliasing. I render the prop and get an image I like then I save as a png into my prop or character folder over the old png file. Once the menu is closed and reopened the new png appears in place of the old. If you're using regular 4 and have to use rsr you can change the png extension on the file to rsr.

well rather than arguing with these programs I went for the "Idiot' method. Render what you want for the preview. Now open a new scene and place a square prop in it. Apply the render to the prop. Save the prop to your prop library somewhere. Use File Manager and move the rsr from the peops folder to the folder where your actual file is. Rename the rsr to match your file so Poser will see it as the correct rsr for it. Trash the pp2 of the square. All done :) yes there may be more elegant ways to do it ... but this WORKS :)

I usually just render the image I want, save it as a tif and open it in Corel PhotoPaint where I add whatever text I may want, add a page curl or other fancy effect and then rseize to 91x91 save as png and use P3DO to convert the png to rsr. I don't need the transparent look, I use a white background so I don't worry about alpha channels. You can't just rename it (png to rsr) - completely different file format.

Ockham... Sorry, but that's not right! RSR thumbnails are not PNG files, they are PICT format. renaming RSR's to PNG and vice versa won't work. H:)

lmckenzie what is P3DO please?

Lyrra - I like your method. I tried it but the square prop only saves as a blank square. How do I save it WITH the render?

nontroppa set the scene to 'texture shaded' (ball all the way on the left). Then when you save the prop the picture should show up.

Lyrra - it worked! Thank you!! All my problems are solved.

nontroppo ... like I said .. not sophisticated, but it works. glad that helped :)

Attached Link: http://lcrepiliere.free.fr/softp3do.html