Hi,after detecting that my Poser4 folder had grown in size, without me having added any new items, I have discovered some new RSR files named after files I had used recently. Some of them are BIG (a Dendras MadLab3 has produced a 16MB RSR file). Incidentally, Poser4 had hanged up when I had been working with this MadLab file. My question is, can I delete these files or are they needed in some way? And, how can I detect un-wanted/un-needed RSR files in my Runtime? Do they appear when Poser crashes, or am I doing something wrong? I'm afraid I even don't know what really are these .RSR files in Geometries...

There are 2 different kinds, one is for the geometries file, that one is usually the larger one, the second one is the thumbnail used by poser in your libraries...that is usually the smaller one. Poser creates the .rsr files when you decide to use an object file (obj) in the geometries folder and places it with the geometries folder. You can delete them and if you use the object file again, Poser will recreate another rsr file for it. SHaren

Also the one used in the thumbnails....if you delete them then you get that guy with the shrugging shoulders. It is the thumbnail (small pic) for that object you add to the scene. The geometries rsr, can be deleted....like I said before it is in the geometries folder an is created everytime you click on an object...for example, you want to use Vic 3 and have never used her before, so in the geometries folder her .obj sits, now you click on her in Poser, Poser then creates an rsr file so next time you use her she will load quicker....but that is all it does, so you can delete it, Poser will create it again if needed. Sharen

Poser uses the RSR suffix for several different kinds of files, resulting in massive confusion. If you're using plain Poser 4, or the new Poser Artist, you should leave ALL RSR files in place. If you're using ProPack, you can get rid of the RSR files in the Geometries folders and the Libraries subfolders. They are no longer used in ProPack or P5. The RSR's in the Libraries area are the thumbnail images; they should not be deleted in P4.0. The RSR's in Geometries are a mysterious sort of shorthand file, which Poser creates to help read the OBJ files faster. (This is what you're seeing with the MadLab file that you describe.) These should normally be left in place, but sometimes it helps to delete them when things go wrong. Poser 4 will re-create them. But for ANY version of Poser, you must leave the POSER.RSR file in the main folder intact. That file is actually part of the executable. Same goes for other RSR's that may appear in the main folder.

Okham, I seem to remember that it's a good idea to write protect the Poser.rsr. Is that correct?

Yes, you can write protect them to prevent them from becoming corrupted. If poser crashes, it tends to corrupt any geometry rsr file it currently has open unless that file is write protected. This most commonly happens with the larger or more complicated figures and props, so for any really polygon heavy model it's a good idea to write protect the rsr while the model is working so that it can't become corrupted later on. You can also just upgrade to Pro Pack or P5, which don't use rsr files. That gets rid of the whole problem and saves you a heap of disk space.

Well, I'm using P5 so I guess it won't be a problem for me. :)

Yep, that's right :-) If you copied your old P4 runtime to P5 when you installed, you might want to do a search of your geometries folder for all rsr files there and delete them. You'll recover a pile of hard drive space. You may also have rsr thumbnails in your libraries that you don't need anymore. Correct Reference Pro will remove those wherever there's a png to replace them and leave them if there isn't.

IIRC, rsr files exist because Macs split data into 2 forks, one of them the "resource" fork, and Poser was first implemented on the Mac and then in version 2 ported to the PC. Carolly

I'm sure that's partially correct, but it must be more complicated than that, because Mac P4 doesn't use rsr files at all for geometry. It reads the obj direct, as PP and P5 do. At least, that's my PC person understanding of how Mac poser works.

To the last point: Macs have a data (resource) fork, and a program fork. Both are stored within the single program file. (This is where resedit - Resource Editor - comes in.) Windows unfortuantely had no such concept back when Poser was first ported to the PC. So the solution that CL, or more correctly Metacreations, or even Fractal Designs (?), took when porting was to create a separate file on the PC to house the rsr part. This is a disaster-waiting-to-happen solution, 'cos 2 files to be updated synchronously spells point of failure in a crash. (One gets written/updated, one doesn't.) Fortunately later versions of Poser have removed the dependence on all .rsr files bar the poser.rsr one, as indicated above. Presumably when Poser 5+something gets written the switch to XML configuration started in PPP and extended considerably in P5 will be completed, and result in the dropping of this last "rsr" file.

Hi again, thanks to everyone for the replies, it's much clearer now. I really believe that Poser 4 manual should include a section about the different types of files used, what every one of them really does, and in what folder are they suposed to be kept. The first few times a rookie (like myself a few months ago) attempts to add some free item to his Poser, he really has not enough information about what must be done. Fortunately there are a lot of people out there willing to help new people; otherwise expanding the basic Poser could be a very frustrating thing for starters. Of course all veterans know where the .obj or the .cr2 or the .pz2 should be stored when downloading, but this is not exactly an intuitive process and Curious Labs should help a bit here with the Manual. It seems they rely that answers will be found in the Forums, or in the ReadMe which (thankfully!) are included in most downloads. Let the NCOs train the new recruits... Thanks again for your help.