Dear fellow Poser lovers, I am about to go insane here because all the time I hear that poser prompts you to create a bum file when you check on the materials part to have it loaded, and I tried and tried and tried and tried and.... no luck, it doesn't prompt me at all. I am running Poser Pro, by the way, in case it is necessary to say it. Thanks in advance before losing my mind if I ever had one, Ravenhair.

bum files are not used by pro pack or by poser 4. Save your hair -- you have a newer version that doesn't have that issue.

Attached Link: http://arcana.daz3d.com/index.php?id=1005

MAT files are a hack, so if you're using them to apply a non-converted .bum, Poser won't ask you if you want to convert. What I do on the occasions when I go to apply a MAT that is seaching for a .bum file is find the .jpg version of the bump, convert it in Photoshop, and save as a .bum in the directory Poser is searching, then choose it. Preferably, though, you want to try to avoid P4 MAT poses that call on .bum files. A .bum is huge and takes up a lot of space (it's basically just a .bmp that's had the file extension changed). More information on converting .bum files, etc: http://arcana.daz3d.com/index.php?id=1005 :-) bonni

Thank you! So, you mean, they are large large files? Oh, that's whay they say at DAZ when sending textures to don't include the bump file coz they will take care of it. I have photoshop open right now, and there is no option to save it with a .bum extension, what should I do? save it as a bmp in instead? Thank you, Ravenhair.

Save it as a .bmp then rename it so the extension is .bum instead. :-) And yeah, they're huge files because they're uncompressed. Glad to be of help. Bump maps have driven me a little crazy from time to time, so I'm happy to help other people understand them or at least deal with them. ;-) bonni

You do NOT want to convert the jpg bump maps to BUM. You want to change the reference so that it looks for JPG instead of BUM. You could do that in a text editor, or you can buy CorrectReference Pro, and it will fix the problem for you automatically. DAZ will not "take care of" changing jpg bump maps. If someone has Poser 4, they need to manually change the bump maps themselves.

Message edited on: 10/15/2004 07:39

Changing the reference to look for a .jpg is fine if you have the foresight to do that. But if you're in the middle of a project and trying to apply a MAT pose and it starts spinning its wheels looking for that .bum, being able to just convert it and apply it (without crashing Poser and/or messing up your project) is a real blessing. I do agree that the best option is to just make the MAT pose point to the .jpg. bonni

Oh oh... I got it now... so, as long as it is a grayscale then... right? I guess... Thanks a lot! Ravenhair.

Grayscale bumps for Poser Pro Pack and Poser 5, yes. :-) P4 uses the converted ones, with the strange channel embossing. PPP and P5 can also use them, but P5 doesn't have any means of converting. Clear as mud? ;-) bonni

Oh, ok... I don't have poser 5 installed anyways, this computer is a real dyno, so, imagine how long it took to have an image rendered when I had Poser 5, ended up with my good ol friend Poser Pro. Thanks for the help! Ravenhair.

When you have a bum file, make a copy of it in another folder, then change the extension to bmp. Now open in PS, PSP or whatever you use. You will see that the file has some bizarre hues, hues that remind you of coloured displacement maps for use in Photoshop.

Growing number of Poser artists are making two folders for MAT poses now; one for P4 (that uses .bum files) , and another for PP/P5 (that references jpeg bump maps). It adds to the clutter but at least then it's already done...