I am talking about a Poser 4.03 fresh installation. In the Poser 4 folder, several files are installed, but apparently, only Poser.exe is needed to run Poser. You can, in fact, delete all other files, and Poser will still start and work at least it does for me). So I am guessing what the other files are for. Some are or should be obvious, like the unPoser4.isu which should be for uninstalling, or the regPoseri.exe to register, etc.. But some are not so obvious and so here I ask about them, which is their function: asi32_12.dll imageioEngineWin.DLL (this, and the following one, should be for input/output routines, although they don't seem to be vital for the application) imageioUtilities.DLL MtsWriter.dll ASIFONT.FON (what is this font for here, and why isn't it in the font system folder?) ASIPORT.RSR asifont.map Poser.rsr (what kind of resource is this, if it's not needed to run Poser?) Poser.dta

I have Poser 4.03 installed and I don't think I have any of it's original content in it anymore. Sharen

I'd like to know what each of them does precisely. Call me the curious type ;-) but I'm going to write a tutorial about the use of Poser and I need this info to make the tutorial accurate. Once complete, I'll post it to the tutorials section. So if any one could help it would be appreciated (and credited).

I can't answer the question, but I can add one piece of information. The poser.rsr file is a kind of shortcut, I think. Geometry .rsr (resource) files in poser are created to speed things up by using a resource, rather than build a figure from scratch each time you open it, so I assume that the main poser.rsr contains things like interface icons and other info that helps poser open more quickly. Whatever.... The main point I wanted to make is this. If you want poser to run more smoothly, change that file to 'read-only'. When poser crashes, it frequently corrupts that file. If it's read-only, a crash can't affect it. I discovered this about a year ago and it definitely makes a difference. If you're doing a poser tute, you should include some of the little-known information regarding the poser.ini file. I've picked up a few great tricks, like switching off the stupid red vertice lines and making the hierachy box bigger. I now keep a separate file called 'myposer.ini' which is a souped-up version of the default one. Any time poser reverts to the factory settings, I have a spare .ini file and back-up pref files that I can use to get my own settings back. mac

PS Swamp posted a tip in the main poser forum (about 2 weeks ago if you feel like searching) concerning what he calls 'Poser Quick Fix'. He recommends copying all the files in the main poser folder (after a clean install) and putting them in a spare folder. Then, when poser goes mad, he replaces all the files with the 'clean' spares. He reckons it helps a lot, and since he's talking about exactly the same files as you are, it's obvious that they do something fairly critical. mac

I tried renaming the Poser.RSR file and found that Poser 4.0.3.126 will not start without it, I'm on a PC, running Win98 SE.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=1460893

Orio, Re rsr files, see my posting of last week - link above, Item #17. You should be able to search for more info on Resource Forks in MacOS related literature. The font you referenced is the standard Windoze system font (try right clicking it and Open in Win Explorer). Why it's there I have no idea - perhaps it dates from the days of early Windows versions, when this font wasn't always present - just guessing as I can't remeber when this font became the default one in Windows, possibly Win95. I'm also not sure what it's used for by Poser - that's a very basic font. Wait, is it the camera name displayed in upper left corner of the main scene window? As for the asi32_12.dll I have no idea - perhaps to connect a piece of MacOS code to Windows font handling API? As to the I/O dll's beging in the "wrong" place, that seems a small error compared to some issues in Poser - e.g. memory and fiel management. Hope thsi helps some.

The file Poser.RSR is indeed crucial to Poser. It just won't run without it! Actually I've write protected mine (and I would suggest you to do the same) so that it is kept safe. Afaik the POSER.RSR is a third kind of RSR, different from the geometry rsr's and the thumbnail rsr's.

An .rsr is an .rsr is a .rsr. All Macs (MacOS) have a good solid clean file structure with the instruction (code) part of the file separated from the data (image) part. (Whereas Windoze files muddle it all up - and if you want to see the potential outcome of that approach just consider your weekly pilgrimage to Windoze Update!) It's in all files. It's called the Resource Fork. If you just format a floppy on a Mac for a PC and read it on a PC you'll see the Resource Fork for the file system sat there as a hidden file. The .rsr is simply the home of the part of the file that was the Resource Fork on the Mac. Rather than "properly" porting Poser from the Mac to the PC, Metacreations just created a concept of a .rsr file and shoved everything from a file's resource fork into a file named with the same root filename stem, but with extension of .rsr. (This "quick port" from Mac to PC is IMHO the main reason why the PC version of Poser, PP and Poser 5 have so many legacy problems on the PC. These problems don't exist on the Mac, and because the code was never really ported to the PC, it can't be debugged on the PC using modern tools. Ergo we're stuck with an ever growing list of legacy bugs.) This .rsr approach is a cop-out for a number of reasons. The primary one being that we now have 2 files holding the data that originally was designed to be in one single file. And the code only expected one so there is no code to deal with half the data going AWOL, so if the info in the .rsr file ever gets out-of-step with that of its corresponding "master" file, we're in trouble. How much damage is done by deleting the .rsr file depends on how much valuable data is in the .rsr file in question. Delete one from a library and you lose all the image data - i.e. the pict image, so you get the shruggy fella. Delete one from Geometry and Poser has to rebuild it. Delete it from Poser.exe and there are no images available for the Poser application - can you spell NoGO ;-)

Yeah but Pro Pack has mostly dealt with that issue though. Only RSR left on my system is the Poser.RSR.

because poser came from the mac platform it runs diff than usual pc programs so any extra files would be for 1 memory use 2 file system interaction 3 windows compatibility(regestry work arounds etc) just a few ideas