Attached Link: http://www.barrie-phillips.fsnet.co.uk/saratop01.zip

Hi, I want to publish the top above, thats available at the link. Its my first bit of clothing so I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice as to the packaging, and in particular if it will or wont work in poser 4 or not. Its pretty much packaged as I want it so any advice or tips before I publish would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance, Barrie.

Packaging looks good to me. :) Will wanna' include a 'Readme' file though. Thanks for the freebie! My Sara definately needs some clothes. Genevieve

thanx, you don't happen to know if theres a free readme file that I can put in to cover against commercial use ? (doubtful but just in case, lol). Barrie

Personally, and mind you this is just me, but I have far too much in my Geometries folder. While I like to put things in folders to remind me who made them I have been forced (by Microsoft's limits) to consolodate my folders. Therefore I will be putting your OBJ in: Runtime:Geometries:Dark Whisper:Sara:Barrie Aside from that it all looks great exept a Readme.txt or better yet BarrieTop.txt would be a final touch.

Barrie, There is a standard readme file download (created by Quoll) in the Free Stuff section here on 'rosity. If you do a search in the Free Stuff for 'readme', it should come up. I haven't looked at the file itself, but I think you more or less fill in the blanks. Hope this helps, if not, I can help you create one, no prob at all. :) Genevieve

Dont you find it labourious renaming everything, ? cant you just use multiple runtimes ? (you dont happen to be on poser 4 do you ? ). I do intend to keep all my future geometry in the same folder if that helps. Thanks for the feedback. Barrie

Well I have 115 000 files in my Runtime (of which nearly 5000 are in Geometries, in 292 folders) and have no problems with any limits. Put the geom in the folder of your choice, as long as it's somewhere in the Geometries folder and not in the same folder as the cr2. Basic rule is just use the standard folder structure with Runtime, HGeometries, Libraires etc, create a zip that echoes that structure and include a basic readme. The top looks very nice - will certainly have a use for it! :o) :] Fish

I did say this is just me, I have 8,000+ files in just my P4 Geometries folder and they are in 386 folders now. this is not counting P5 folders. If I kept everything in the folders they installed to I would have over 3,000 folder in my Libraries and never be able to find things when I need them. The Geometries are easier if I keep it organized too as I do like to remap stuff from time to time. As far as being laborous, I find it easier to do it once and then spend less time in projects then in hunting stuff down and tracking down who made them. But like I said, this is just the way I do it, I am sure if you ask around you will find 101 differnt ways folk manage thier folder system.

Thanks for the tips, Ive added a readme to the archive now, I'm still lost as to wether or not it will work in poser 4. Barrie.

I think Fishnose has more than nosed past me. I've only got 12,000 or so..;) none loaded yet but Milo an Vlo (lo-res Mike and Vickie)

If it is NOT dynamic cloth, then it will work in P4. Is there a bump map pre-applied? If so, and it's in JPG, it'll throw an error when loaded (and so if you could take it out of the character itself, that'd be happier). Otherwise, it should be fine in P4.

Attached Link: http://www.fallencity.net/tut-posi/p-packaging.php

If you're interested, I have a tutorial on packaging files up with WinZip so they extract to the proper folders. Nice top, btw. Cheers!

FyreSpiryte: no its conforming not dynamic, and has no bump map (thanx for that info though something to be careful of if i create bump maps). The reason why I ask is that I looked in the CR2 and there were entries for material nodes and I dont seem to remember poser 4 having nodes it was just one texture for each channel and thats it ? .. Crescent, thanks for the link I've pretty much got to grips with the zipping part and, following advice from others, have written a readme file. Thanks all. Barrie.

Barrie - I have Poser 4, and Poser 4 only. I tested your top in 8 or 10 poses and it stuck to Sara like glue. Nice top and it works great in P4. Thanks! My Sara was still nekkid til now!

Thank you :), I needed to know for certain, because poser 5 material is so different from poser 4, and I saved out the cr2 in poser 5. I guess they made it partially backwards compatible somehow. Thanks for the confirmation.. Barrie. (now how do I get over this bump map as .jpg issue ? .. does the ame apply to a material pose ? )

One thing I will give Poser credit for, it is very good about forwards and backwards compatibility. It'll just ignore the material nodes; it won't be able to use them, but it won't choke on them either. Usually I package the bump map in jpg format and two different material poses: one calling for the jpg and one calling for the same file name except with a .BUM extension. Then I include a note in the readme for P4 users to convert the jpg to BUM in Poser before using the MAT. A lot of items do it that way, so most people understand it. (Or at least know what to mutter curses about if they forget to convert. ;) )

Actually I prefer to load P5 type CR2s in P4, it won't create any error but it does load the JPG in the Bump slot. I prefer NOT to load any BUM maps untill I am ready render as this makes it easier to work within the scene. While you certainly do not want to render a P4 with JPG loaded in place of a real BUM it does make it easier when I am ready to convert as the 'seed' file is already 'marked'; just click BROWSE and OK and it will ask to convert the file. The only message you get upon first loading the CR2 from the Library is "This appears to be a newer file, do you want to try to load it anyway?" - just say yes and no more error and no heavy load while setting things up. I Never put files into my P4 libraries with BUMs applied, I always edit any out and save without. for one I can no longer afford 10Gig dedicated just to BUM storage and like I said it dogs P4 down enormasly while working. I just create them when I want them and delete them when I am finished. But then most of my rendering is done now in P5...

Thanks a lot FyreSpiryte, that looks like the way to go then :( bit of a pain installing 2 files for each 1, now I know why I get loads of double entries for things now... xxx P4, xxx P5 or xxx PP . That looks like the only reasonable option then without asking the user to edit the cr2 :( .. or to do what igohigh (thanks) does. Igohigh, it sounds like maintaining your runtime/s is a full time occupation ? cant you just buy a new hard disk ? Personally Im trying to keep seperate runtimes, so I can offload stuff to archive CD's when/if it reaches 500MB or more , maybe one for props etc .. then when I need to get something, just pop in the CD and pull off the item. Of course its not as fast as HD, but overall its got to be more time economical than your constant updating of files ? .. Best wishes, Barrie. And THANKS EVERYONE!!!!!! for their help, I can put my top in freestuff now , and maybe publish some material poses next..