I'd like to know how essential it is for supplemental files (props, poses, textures, etc.) to be properly filed in the Runtime or Extra Runtime folders. The problem is that I have just become involved in the online Poser community, and I've been amazed at the number of great items available for download. So I've downloaded hundreds of goodies, as (I'm sure) have most of you. My concern is that to load these goodies into the program might cause serious performance problems, as they will each have to be loaded at startup and kept in memory throughout each work session. I've created a "Poser Supplemental" folder within the Poser folder, but I have NOT installed all these doggone files into the program itself. Will Poser still be able to find everything, or can I expect crashes and chaos? I'm especially concerned about high-resolution Vicki maps, of which I've assembled a considerable collection. I'm using a PowerMac with dual G4 processors, and I have 200 megs of RAM alotted to Poser with 512 megs total. It's a big computer with RAM to spare, but is ANYTHING big enough to manage a thousand-odd files at startup?

The props and poses need to be in the runtime folder, textures you can store where you like.

Well, the textures are certainly my main concern, as poses and props use up very little memory. So perhaps I can work this out. I asked this question because I'm a LightWave user. If you file anything improperly in LightWave, they send somebody to your house to shoot out your porch light. Just wondering if the Poser folks were equally unreasonable.

Whistler, if you have a CD burner, you can move a lot of things to CD's. I've found that I use very particular textures and just hoard the rest G. No, we won't shoot out your porch lights, but we may do a crash and burn LOL. You do have to have the geometry in the right folder (and the right files within the right folder). You can pretty much put the cr2 and rsr wherever you want in your libraries. Same with textures--but of course, this is within your runtime, as pdblake says. However, if you put them on CD (textures) you can just point to there. I found that it worked for me to backup everything on CD and then as I found what textures I worked with most, I just deleted the others because I knew I could go get them whenever I wanted them (my are well organized so not too hard to find--though there are a lot of CDs by now--you're finding this out, right LOL??)

Thanks for the note! I don't mean to brag, but I just HAPPEN to have a DVD burner built into my system, and each disk holds about 3 gigs. We will now pause for a moment of silence as you all reflect upon how seriously cool my computer is.

If you buy a decent Powerbook or a fast G4, DVD RAM comes as standard on an Apple Mac. Besides which I'd only consider it flash if you were running on a FireWire bus, that way you'd have decent throughput. If you're still labouring with IDE then you're a pedestrian like the rest of us :) Needless to say, the latest Powerbooks come with FireWire as standard. ;) later jb

Hi Folks! May I present another perspective? Lots of the materials I take from FreeStuff are used as scenes in non-posing, simple-textured props. As such, I can often store them as .obj files or Poser props on my hard drive or an external medium like a Zip disk without actually having to save them to the Runtime folder (which for most of us, I suspect, is getting pretty stuffed).The trade-off of course is that some of the objects lose their morph controls, although most retain their ability to accept separate textures for specific elements/parts. For example, I've decided that there's no need for me store a piano .obj and cr2 file in the appropriate Runtime folders if I'm only going to use it in a few scenes as a stationary prop. I simply find a 3DS or .obj file from 3D Cafe or such, open it in the Painter3D application that comes with Poser4, and export it as a new .obj file. If I really want to customize the texture I can reopen it with UV Mapper and create a new .obj file and texture map. The other thing I often do is to load the file into the appropriate Runtime folders, open it in Poser, export it as a Poser prop, and then remove the .obj and cr2 files I loaded earlier. I don't dare to suggest that this works for anyone but me. Certain props (like a lot of the morphing stuff created by Traveler) simply have to be stored in the Runtime Geometries, and Character or Props folders to be fully functional. But in exchange for giving up some of a prop's morphing abilities, I have been able to keep my Runtime folder within a very manageable size. Peter (Dr Zik)

You really need to check out MartinC's "Macinstaller" free program to store Poser files anywhere you want, saves much effort on your part with all those files & can be stored outside the runtime folder. Site at: http://home.main-rheiner.de/soft.rabbit/

Yeah, real nice ... too bad its a Mac. Waaayy too bad. Also, just an observation, but you're definetly bragging ... your first message seems to be one big setup to brag about your overpriced Mac setup.

I wouldn't call it bragging if someone tells details about his system - a lot of questions could be answered much faster and better if everyone would tell basic details with the request - whatever OS it may be. Whistler, my Macinstaller tool manages a special "ExtraRuntime" folder which works like your "Poser Supplemental", you can keep your Runtime free of all custom stuff. Basically you have two alternatives, you can either setup the installer to put everything into ExtraRuntime (this way you have one single folder for all custom files - Textures, libraries, Geometries), or you can even leave everything at the original destination. If you want, this may include ejectables like CD-Rs, but you should keep in mind that all files should be reachable when Poser needs them. I personally recommend to chose ExtraRuntime, this way you can easily back it up, and you can also easily update/re-install Poser at any time without spending hours to re-install your extra models.

Go ahead & brag Whistler; that is a way cool machine & I hate macs;)

Of course I'm bragging! Don't you guys recognize IRONY? All the same, platform and configuration are EVERYTHING in such a discussion and would have been essential information at any rate. However, I refuse to participate in a platform war. I have chosen the machine that is right for me, as has each of you. Somebody here sounds as though he didn't get a marshmallow in his cocoa this morning. ;-) I have tried MacInstaller and it did some VERY strange things which I had to undo. But I'll give it another try, and thanks. Bill Gates is the Devil. Ooops! Did I say that?

Hi, Bill Gates isn't the devil... The devil has more style, and of course, "all the best tunes", all Bill's got is a monopoly and a bad hair cut ;> later jb

Hi Folks! Hmmm--maybe I'll take a closer look at Macinstaller too! BTW Whistler: go ahead and brag (just a little). Computer graphics is the one area online where Mac users usually aren't made to feel like illegal aliens. I use Windows and Mac OS, and now I'm even considering Linux, but as both a practitioner and teacher of computer graphics, the Mac is my bread and butter. I think most of us at this forum are cool enough that we won't allow a discussion such as to evolve into a platform debate--even a civil one. I actually posted a similar question here some time ago, asking how folks stored and organized all their Poser stuff. A lot of helpful and creative suggestions came back. Perhaps you can find that thread in this Forum's archives if you're willing to go thru all the fluff you'll get if you use my name as the keyword for a search. Peter (Dr Zik)

I'm not sure, but I THINK someone here attempted to e-mail me with a MacInstaller question. At any rate, the mail was deleted accidentally. Please write me at mrwhistler@excite.com and I'll be glad to respond. BTW...the address I'm listed under is my work address, which I really can't use for e-mail anyway. I plan to let my membership expire and then re-enroll using my personal e-mail instead. Sorry about the confusion.

Oh, and...thank you, Dr. Zik! The mere mention of the name "Macintosh" automatically elicits a rude and angry response from some people. Someday I expect to see public restrooms labeled "PC" and "Macintosh."

Well, the sorry fact, (and the commercial reality) is that Apple build bespoke " designer" PC's (as in Personal Computer) custom tools for the enlightened, the s nobbish, the diggeratti. Whereas most others build comodity "beige boxes" for th e masses, they're simple "box shifters" Mac's have always been "cooler than thou" which is annoying to the masses since they're stuck with a beige box, (and by "stuck" I mean either financially, or by defacto since thier app isn't available, etc.) Mac's are expensive toys, but they're "cool" toys, they're functional eye candy, don't you wish your box had won design awards? It ads nothing to the base funct ionality except bragging rights. Apple, (well OK, Apple under Steve Jobs :) have always understood that romance a nd interface will go a long way to selling a machine. Apple owners are fanatica lly loyal, which is even more amazing given the legendarily poor customer suppo rt/service that Apple have dolled out to it's users as and when it suited them. I think what it comes down to in the end is the "C" word, just like us, Apple us ers have "community" and that will get you through the hard times of no support, better than support will get you through time of no community. Case in point, "the Amiga" I own several, they're 15 years old, both of it's par ents are lond dead, it's been a curse to all that have bought it, and the last a ttempt at resurection has been churning out back-bitting and recrimination on a corpoate level for a while now. Then it's longest serving magazine was wound up, it looked like curtains... Then last year some crazy idiot stared up another magazine, and it's just had it 's first birthday, it's slim and expensive compared to other magazines, but it c omes with a CDROM, and adverts for things you can still buy... Amiga users, like us, and Mac owners, have community, imagine trying to sell a P C magazine for people who still had '386's :) Mac users aren't bad, they're simply different, as is thier experience of comput ing, (only one mouse button :) try to remember that before flaming them...;> later jb

Attached Link: http://www.amiga.com/products/one/news.shtml