You know, I was sitting here loading up Poser 5 and looking at the screen for like the gazillionth time and just really started to wonder (again) about plug-ins. I say that because that "FFVrml.arp" plug-in is always sitting there for a few seconds before the splash shift. Anyone know of any other (read: better) plug-ins for Poser? Do they actually exist? And if they do, where do you get them? Which ones are good? And what is the real purpose of those plug-ins anyway? Are they actually useful to Poser? Which ones are just (virtually) non-used, and is there a better version of it anywhere (a REAL Flash exporter would be nice)?

Those "plug-ins" are actually the import and export extensions for the program being loaded. THey are a mix of licensed and created library files that have been recompiled for Poser's internal use. The one you specifically noted is the VRML library -- which allows poser to handle WRL files. There are no alternative libraries that I am am aware of out there, as to make them you would need to have the source code and linkages -- stuff controlled by CL, lol Unfortunately, the exe will always call for those files, and when they aren't there, it gets mighty grumpy and sits there pouting or simply takes it's toys and goes away. Their purpose really isn't all tat difficult to ascertain, either -- simply hunt them up in your Poser installation and look at the file names -- you can pretty much tell what they govern. As for Flash, it is a real flash exporter. It's just not as fully featured and potent as we'd like it to be :)

You don't necessarily need access to source code to write import/export plugins. A lot can be done using Python, and you can link Python scripts to C/C++ code. I have done that several times, writing exporters for DirectX (this one got lost in a hard drive crash, unfortuantely), Yafray, RenderMan and Shockwave3D.

I think I read many many years ago- that CL charges 10k for the developers kit- thats why there aren't any.

I completely removed the VRML plugin (after backing it up of course) from both Poser4 and P5 and both load much faster with no loss in preformance. I can't export Vicky3 into VRML of course.. but I just don't see that as a bad thing :) Just fyi :)

I made a test and removed the 3dmf,Text,LW now it loads much faster! Are those plugins useful? What the detailer text or 3dmf does? pitklad