E-on software Ships Vue dEsprit 4.2 Update IMPROVED CURIOUS LABS POSER 5 IMPORT SUPPORT October 9, 2003. Beaverton, OR. e-on software, the developer of award winning 3D natural scenery products, announces the immediate availability of Vue dEsprit 4.2 updater. Vue dEsprit 4.2 is a free, downloadable update to e-on softwares award winning 3D natural scenery creator and animator. Vue dEsprit 4.2 updater includes several performance improvements, including basic support for direct import of native Curious Labs Poser 5 scenes. The update also includes improvements to Mover 4 to allow import of animated Poser 5 content. Certain features such as hair and cloth are not supported in this release. Some 3D model vendors use modified versions of the base Poser file format and should test their models for compatibility with Vue dEsprit 4.2. Please contact your model vendor for additional compatibility information. Vue dEsprit 4.2 has also been tested with Daz Productions popular Victoria 3 and Michael 3 base models. We appreciate the patience our users have had in waiting for this release, said Nicholas Phelps, president of e-on software, Both e-on software and Curious Labs have been working to ensure that our products work together as seamlessly as possible, with separate internal support for both the Poser 4 and Poser 5 object models. Vue dEsprit 4 comes with 2 CDs, bursting with 30 SolidGrowth 2 tree and plants, over 100 atmospheres, 100 different types of clouds, 300 materials, 250 high quality fully textured 3D objects, 50 example scenes and a 340-page manual. Vue 4 by itself costs $199. Mover 4 for Windows and Mac OS X expands on the already powerful animation in Vue dEsprit 4.2, allowing for inclusion of fully animated digital characters, enhanced, new motion effects, and network rendering. Mover 4 is available for $99 and requires Poser 4 or Poser 5 for Poser animation import and use of Poser models. The Vue dEsprit 4.2 updater is available for immediate download from the e-on software website at http://www.e-onsoftware.com. About e-on software Founded in 1997, e-on software was established to develop and promote the highest quality graphics tools. E-on software was founded on the premise that powerful graphics tools should never get in the way of a designers creativity. E-on softwares product line includes the award winning Vue dEsprit 4 and the Ozone 2.0 line of professional atmospheric plugins. E-on software is based in Beaverton, Oregon.

Hi Lynn, does that mean that Vue 4 now can import both Poser 4 and Poser 5 scenes? Does it "keep memory" of both Poser 4 and Poser 5 locations? Another question: since the extension is the same (and the format also, because one can open in Poser 4 a scene made in Poser 5 and saved non-compressed), how does Vue differentiate? Or does it mean that Vue can load the PZZ compressed format? thanks in advance :-) Orio

Without much success with the beta patch, I was a little wary of the official release. However, I'm pleased to announce that it works ... sort of. (read on) THE GOOD ... -> This was not listed (surprisingly), but the OpenGL implementation is MUCH more stable, and I dare say a little faster! However, it still does not display complex objects correctly (even in wireframe mode) such as Poser figures, etc. -> The software appears to be much more stable, and no Poser import lockups or crashes so far. THE BAD ... -> Aforementioned OpenGL ... still not 100%, but much improved, IMHO. -> Will not import Poser 4 scenes (in Poser 4 directory) if upon initial launch I chose the Poser 5 executable. I assume the converse is true. -> Also, if Poser 5 scene contains objects, textures, etc. from another RUNTIME directory, Vue displays a message it cannot find them, and will not load them. THE UGLY ... -> Timeline is still totally unresponsive after Poser import. Arrgghh! Please, does anyone know if PRO fixes this? Are there any plans to address this in an update for Vue 4? -Tim

well to be honest i dl the update and it dont work i cant import any pz3 file in to vue 4 or vue pro and it is getting right up my nose regards seeklight

Hi Orio, Honestly, Im not sure, yet. I wasnt on the beta team and we are still yawning and stretching here on the Pacific coast ;-) Under the hood, there are two engines at play -- one for Poser 4 and the other for Poser 5. My understanding is that the two engines are not aware of each other. That might be one to ask Steve so we can get it up on our Knowledge Base. What I can say now is that we've tested with all of the default models in both Poser 4 and Poser 5 and also the latest Michael and Victoria, and it seems to be working well. But the implementation is a fairly strict adherence to "normal" pz3's, so we cannot make guarantees about models that have been customized with various utilities. Best regards, Lynn Fredricks e-on software

Tim, One of the nice features of Pro is that you can import from other packages, reduce the number of polygons while your working on the animation and then bring back in the full high res version of the figure later. I've not had a lot of time to play with Pro yet but I did find this helped with the issue of using the slider. Cheers Mark

Wonder how long it will take to fix this stuff or if we will be "encouraged" to drop money on the pro version? Marque

Lynn, did I understand you correctly (in the earlier thread on Vue Pro Prices) that you've had to incorporate much of the Poser application into Vue itself in order to create a high degree of interoperatability between the two apps? Can you expand on this, for those of us that are computer science types? (Man, I'm not sure I want my nice Vue landscaping modelling program devoted heavily to Poser. None of the other other big apps like Max or Maya try to go this far to accomodate Poser figures.)

I think that a tight integration with Poser is the best thing that could ever happen to Vue (both Esprit and Pro). It makes Vue life so much easier. Then of course one has always to fine tune the texturing to get the best results, but it's nothing compared to the odyssey of bringing Poser figures into programs (even high end programs) that don't support a direct import. Only the time saved, from manually assigning all those material parts for each Poser import, is worth a Nobel prize alone! ;-)

Odd, I've never had to assing any material parts, they all come in fine, even transparent hair shows up correctly. Marque

I cannot go into details as it impacts more than just e-on software, but I can say that we have incorporated specific runtimes into Vue to enable both static (Vue 4, Vue 4 Pro) and animated (Mover) capabilities. What's in there for static imports is pretty lightweight but its more sophisticated than, say, a 3DS importer. But otherwise, you wouldnt have the capability to import Poser stuff at all. Some developers tried to do some tricks with OBJs to bring in Poser content, but my feeling is that is complexity balloon ripe for an ugly explosion. Much of the Poser format has been decoded by users, but there is much that isnt exposed, especially in Poser 5 --what is exposed in a pz3 file may have no relevance without the right interpreter. We see Poser support as a feature that's very relevant to some customers, especially Vue d'Esprit customers. Vue d'Esprit is priced in the same ballpark as Poser and has a compatible but not exactly the same customer mix (we've bundled Vue 4 and Poser 4 before). Pro was released after a significant amount of feedback from interested parties we met with at SIGGRAPH and follow up feedback from others. While Poser support didnt figure much in that feedback, the support for Poser is very important to a number of customers who have Vue d'Esprit already and considering Pro, and we wouldnt have wanted to disappoint them. Best regards, Lynn Fredricks e-on software

I haven't had any problems with poser 5 and vue since the update. A few props, but I'd say 95% import perfectly without any problems at all. And the last 5 percent that doesn't is easy to fix, usually dropping the obj in the main runtime will fix. Something I'm more than willing to do since I have to have poser and vue working together. Off to check with ups to see where my pro is. ~G~

To seeklight. When you hear from so many people that Poser import works, don't you think that something in your personal system settings is wrong? I think it makes much more sense to search for differences to others where it works than to blame someone else. Maybe you IM to a person which says that it works and is on the same platform than you are and compare. Much more chances to succeed than anything else. My personal experiences tell me that more than 50 % of the problems are based on individual wrong settings or missunderstandings. It is not so easy to find real bugs. Maybe easier in a complete new piece of software like Vue Pro, but not so easy in a grown one. That means that i really try to check my system first, talk to others about the problem and only if they do run into the same thing i talk about bugs. Well, became a little long now. If you are on a Mac, IM me and ask wether i do have the same problem or not. Walther

I dissagree as i even asked steve over at eon and suggested i reinstall my poser and vue4 and vue pro and still i get the same problems i have cheacked all else and thats y i get angry i know what im doing with these progs im not a complete fool you know lol the updats just donot work for me that is all seeklight

I love it when someone comes in and states it's probably the user's fault, same thing happened with poser 5, worked great on some systems and not at all on others with the same setup. Marque

Thank you for the reply Lynn. That helps a lot. And in plain language. Speaking of, "a complexity balloon ripe for an ugly explosion" you really have a good ability to turn a phrase. And you sound like either a good systems analyst or an excellent IT manager, rather than a good programmer. I just finished a long letter to the Malaysian Department of Health that deals with Oracle. I wish I'd read this before I pressed the Send button. I sure could have used your phrase.

I just installed the update and am pleased to say that it imported at least one .pzz file without a problem! :) I've not had time to try .pz3 or to try importing from one of the other of my many P5 runtimes. This import was from the default runtime and was of M3. The hair, textures and clothing all imported....even the glint in his eyes :) I am just thrilled that I can finally use Vue with Poser 5. I don't have Poser 4 :) I do notice that a higher level of rendering may be necessary to eliminate some of the "edginess" on the model, but it doesn't look half bad. Close ups of characters I will probably still do in Poser, but this is great for images where the environment is the key player.

"One of the nice features of Pro is that you can import from other packages, reduce the number of polygons while your working on the animation and then bring back in the full high res version of the figure later." Well there's a KEY piece of info I've never heard before! THANKS!! That may or may not do it, but it is encouraging. In the event that Pro does not fix the "ANIMATED poser scene import interface slowdown" bug, this may help speed things up. Then again, it may only help with still/object Poser imports. Who knows. But thanks again. -Tim

Has anyone been able to import a PZ3 that includes objects from various (i.e. two or more) Poser runtimes? Also, when importing your very first Poser scene it prompts you to locate your Poser.exe ... which one did you choose? Poser 4 or Poser 5 executable? Very curious, Tim

For me it does not even ask me for my poser exe i wished it would lol ,but it just refueses to seeklight

It asked for mine and since I only have one (P5), that's what it got! :)

I don't understand what this update does. I have Vue 4.12, and I've been importing Poser 5 scenes ever since I got it. It's worked fine, except dynamic hair doesn't come in. (The dynamic cloth does, but it doesn't conform correctly.) As I understand it, this new update doesn't allow you to import dynamic hair and cloth. So why do I need it? Right now, I'm inclined not to install the update. Since it sounds like if I do, I won't be able to import both Poser 4 and Poser 5 scenes any more.

What it does is provide a way for those of us who don't have Poser 4, to import .pzz and .pz3. It only worked for you in Poser 5, because you already had Poser 4 installed on your system. In your case randym77, I don't think I would install it. It seems like it would reduce your options. For me, on the other hand, it finally makes it possible to use Vue and Poser 5 together. Someone else asked if anyone was able to import .pzz/.pz3 files from other than the default runtime. I just tried and yes....I can! I think it may be because I have all my .obj files and textures located in the default runtime and use seperate runtimes for the libraries and scenes. I've found that even with Poser, having all your textures in one runtime saves a lot of load time.

Vue still only wants to see Poser 4. How can I point it too P5, short of re-install?

Thanks, Sandoppe! I think I understand now. Thanks for the tip about textures, too. Sounds like a great idea.

er7ic7: Just run the update again. Then run Vue and import a Poser scene. It will ask for your Poser executable. Point it to the Poser 5 exe. -Tim

Maybe a caution to er7ic7: From what some report, it appears that if you do the update, you will only be able to do P4 or P5 and not both? If that's the case, you may be better off sticking with Vue 4.12 which apparently will read P5 .pz3's already if you have P4 on your system. It would seem that those of us who really benefit from this update are those of us who have P5 only.

The Vue 4.2 full installer will not launch on either of my macintosh systems. Maybe the patch has a 10.2.8 issue? I have a G4 Powerbook (aluminum) and a Dual G4 800 Desktop and the update patch will not so much as even launch on either system. Double click and nothing at all happens. I've downloaded the file serveral times so there is something going on. Anyone else have this issue?

Ok, my findings are: - Poser 4 pZ3's no longer import. It acts like its importing, but the Poser figure(s) never show up. - Easy fix though, simply load the Poser 4 file into Poser 5, resave into a Poser 5 directory. Now that is is a P5 PZ3, it will load into Vue without a hitch. At least it worked for me, your milage may vary. Best of luck. -Tim

To Quoll. I have a G4 768 MHz 10.2.8 OS. I downloaded the update (full update) yesterday and installed it without any problem. Could it be a Stuffit issue at your computer? To Tim. What you are describing now looks like a "can't find the geometry and texture files anymore because i search the wrong directories" problem. Pathnames are the theme. And that is something i can imagine. Vue has a close relationship to the identified Poser version and ignores other directories. This would explain the problems. You should feedback this to e-on. I am sure others do have similar problems - with either different Poser versions on their hard disk or different runtime folders in Poser 5. This should be fixable, not a big issue.

Yeah, you're right, and it would be fairly easy (I think)to fix ... just have a prompt pop up asking you to point it to the top-level directory where the OBJs, text's, etc are in. -Tim

I dunno about that. Remember, 4.2 has 2 interface engines, one for P4, the other for P5. Odds are that one deactivates the other, to avoid conflicts. Probably the easiest way to deal with the issue for P45 dual installers is to use the P4 code section, which seems more stable, and then copy the runtime files for P5 into the P4 runtime, leaving out all of the dynamic stuff, of course. Did this test, and the only things it imported of the P5 part of the test were the things I'd copied into the P4 runtime.

What i am doing to avoid plastering my hard disks with duplicate copies i use aliases instead the real thing. Copy those aliases into the folder where a program expects things. It works pretty good with objects, materials and atmos. Where it causes crashes are textures.

I have a G4 768 MHz 10.2.8 OS. I downloaded the update (full update) >yesterday and installed it without any problem. Could it be a Stuffit >issue at your computer? Hmmm..... that's good thinking. Exceopt that I have two different stuffit versions on these two computers and I have the same problem with each one.