I could scream! I've never been able to satisfactorily apply bump maps to figures when using MAT files. The bump map texture node always used to appear in the material room... but was totally unconnected to any channels. I've just purchased Miss Steph Petite - I really like her too :)... and surprise, surprise all the MAT bump settings (in the DAZ PP MAT files) worked brilliantly (applied to the gradient bump channel). I tried the Vicki3 MATs (where I had always experienced problems with disconnected bump nodes) and yet again (for the first time) they worked brilliantly (connected to the gradient bump channel). My start-up P5 document preference setting uses a Vicki3 character (and I've never been able to apply MAT poses with bump settings). So, I've just reloaded a new document in an attempt to find out why. I love the material room in Poser 5, and I'm always in out of there. However, in an attempt to trace the cause of my problem, I've discovered that if I load a blank new figure, and then immediately apply a MAT pose, there is no problem whatsoever with gradient bump nodes being connected by the MAT pose. However, if the very same figure is loaded, and then I enter the material room (before loading the MAT pose)... all of the materials which I might select whilst I'm in there will have orphan bump texture nodes if I apply the same MAT file again... whilst materials which hadn't been selected will still apply the bump correctly.

well I wouldnt use the gradient bump if you are rendering in firefly you will get a bump that blurrs out in areas, its really designed for the p4 renderer. to get the bump to work properly using a mat pose in p5 you need to have shader tree info in the mat pose.

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Yup I'm with wdupre don't use gradient bumps Use the shader nodes and plugin in what you need - the P5 bump channel is a bit fierce so play with what you need until it looks ok

MAT poses made for Poser 4 do not properly apply the bump maps in Poser 5 (unless they are *.BUM files). If you are using anything except a *.BUM file then you should use the bump node and NOT the gradient bump node in P5. Remember too that P5 bump maps are MUCH stronger than P4 can do, so to convert the P4 values, consider that a bump strength of 1 in P4 is about 0.001 in P5 and a setting of 100 in P4 is about 0.1 in P5. MAT Pose Edit v3.1 will have a batch conversion process which will convert P4 style MAT poses into proper P5 format including bump, reflection and transparancy settings, so an easy solution is on the way.

Great News, and thanks for the info.