Ah ......... another satisfied customer! ....... ;=]

LOL! Actually the material room in P5 is one of the few things that work quite well. The shaders are extremely powerful. Just takes a bit of experimentation to figure it out, but its got P4 beat by a long shot. I understand D/Studio will be shader based too, so we will soon see - I can hardly wait!

I've pretty much decided that the Material Room is my favourite P5 feature.

The mat room is both powerful, AND easy to use, if you actually try. It's a million times more versitile than P4.

Dynamic clothing works beautifully with the mat room too -!

The material room is the one feature in Poser5 that will make stay with it, at least till Daz Studio will offer something comparable. If I understand correctly, Studio will contain one or more predefinde shaders, but with Poser 5, I like to use custom material shaders individually twaked to my images.
Actually 3Delight, the renderer Daz Studio uses offers something even more powerfull than P5, fully programmable Renderman shader, but working with that is a programming job. May be I will try that. (Note: You can use 3Delight with Poser, thank to Stewers sripts)
The material dialog in Poser 4 is only easy to use, because it can do nearly nothing.

Stefan

phong phong phong ... no wonder people think we're weird

Nice leather, Narsil!

blinn blinn its like phuzzy phong!

... have an answering machine for your phong? NaySayGuy wants to know.

I LOVE the mat room, a very nice feature, actually the only room I hardly use in p5 is the hair room cause of the collisons thing.

The material room is the best part of P5...IMO

I've only started using the material room and I think it rocks. No more flat scenes, lots of shiney, bumpy things for me. 8) Catlin

I then used the same texture from the arch so the scene will match.

However the back wall does not render properly.

It has to be said in response to the earlier remarks.....I love a leather phong( as long as I don't have to wear it!)

If you lighten the ambient color, wouldn't that lighten the bricks? Catlin

jerr3d, which service release of P5 are you using? Is this the Mac version? My PC version doesn't have that option for 2D texture nodes.

Incidentally, you're having that problem with your render because you're using one of Poser's double-sided squares.

Attach your texture node to the Displacement channel, with a value of 0.001, and enable displacement in your Render Options. That should solve the problem.

Or use a single-sided square, instead.

Thanks Little Dragon, you were right! I changed the square from double sided to single, and now it renders fine! I feel dumb! Yes, it is the Mac version

Thanks Little Dragon I've learnt something new too. 8)

I must admit I am completely daunted by the material room I take a peak in every now and then. I then tuck my tail firmly between my legs and run for the hills ...LOL there must be a tutorial out there somewhere suitable for Material room Phobics, any hints?????

Attached Link: http://www.fallencity.net/tut-p5/index.php

The key to learning the mat room is to just take a day and PLAY with it. don't look at it as work or trying to accomplis something. Just load up a fairly simple object... like say a chair or a table and start plugging nodes. Use the eyedropper tool to select a material (I LOVE the eyedropper) then just go thru the list of materials that come with P5... pick one... change the mat (by double clicking in the library) then Look at the structure of the mat.,.. Thats a good way to learn how a shader is put together. Most important thing is don't look at it as a daunting task, that you are afraid to fail at. Just look at it as a new toy or game to explore and play with. You can't screw anything up. (unless you save it. :p)

Stewer, a material room tutorial from you would be great! Stefan

Yeah, a materials room tutorial would be fantastic!

Oh yes please stewer. I'm only just starting with the material room and advice from an expert is not to be missed. 8) Catlin

Attached Link: http://www.poserpros.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6969

Thanks stewer that's a big help. 8)