The $149.00 upgrade from Vue Pro, does that include the individual new modules or are they separate. If they are separate will they work in Vue 5. Also, will it import P5 materials? Hope everyone is being very good for Santa (or very bad in a good way) cheerio lululee

The upgrade to Vue Infinite will contain the modules. Modules are meant to bring to Vue 5 parts of Vue Pro / Vue Infinitie. P5 materials are still not supported but since Vue 5 and above are now based on a system of graphs / nodes to create materials, there is hope that p5 material can be supported in the future (pure hope and speculation on my part).

Thanks agiel, I am looking forward to the upgrade. cheerio lululee

Wait....P5 materials not supported? You mean if I use Mover to take a character created in Poser5 that has material nodes with settings and attachments to texture maps and bump maps, that these elements will not make it into VuePro4 or VuePro5? What are you left with, just the mesh? Do morph settings come over? I don't understand what good moving a Poser model into Vue is if you can't bring texture maps and bump maps and clothing, etc., in with it. Does Vue support texturing and bump mapping itsef? ::::: Opera :::::

Poser 5 procedural materials are not supported, everything else is, including dynamic clothing and hair. UV mapped textures are improted correctly, along with bump, transparency and reflection, although some adjustemnts are sometimes necessary once the materials are in Vue.

ok, that's good. agiel, exactly what are considered procedural materials (i am a relative newbie to the terms in the Poser material room. Thanks. ::::: Opera :::::

Procedural materials are materials that are NOT based on bitmap images applied to the surface of an object but instead mathematical functions describing the distribution of each effect of the surface (color, bump, reflection, etc).

So, in the settings below, the bit-mapped image files (e.g. 'karl2) attached to certain of the nodes will be in place in VUE, but the settings on the dials will not? Is that about the size of it?

For instance, there is an image file associated with the bump map, and that file will come into VUE, but the intensity setting will not?

That's about it - as long as there is an image associated with the texture, it will be imported into Vue. there will be differences when the image is mixed with procedural values but that's not something that cannot be recreated iwith Vue's own procedural system.

Thanks. I will make some import tests to see what happens in Vue with my Poser characters. ::::: Opera :::::

agiel said: "UV mapped textures are improted correctly, along with bump, transparency and reflection, although >>> some adjustemnts are sometimes necessary <<< once the materials are in Vue." (My emphasis) This is an understatement. In my experience, all bumps and most reflections have to be retextured in Vue - also, any refractive transparency has to be redone in Vue. If e-on had improved their handling of Poser materials in Vue 5 I would order it like a shot. That's a trick missed.

I am also speaking from experience :)

I am not expecting Vue to completely convert materials from Poser, as both softs have very different material and rendering systems.

What I am looking at is how Vue saves me time when importing Poser objects compared to the same operation in other software and in that context, Vue is doing a very decent job

To be more clear regarding my 'understatement' :

• Bump values are always very low compared to Poser. Depending on the lighting in your scene, bumps have to be adjusted anyway or they will look unrealistic.

• Reflections are always set to 100%.

• Refractive transparency in Poser is part of Poser 5 procedureal materials, which are not supported at all in Vue (only UV bitmaps are supported).

In general, I spend about an hour or two touching up materials in a scene anyway, regardless how they were imported from Poser.

In some cases, I simply replace materials such as metals, rocks or glass with their Vue equivalent - I get better results that way.

I have an animation to produce and in fact have been able to acquire VuePro4 at a good price. It is sitting on my desk in a box. I've intended to use it mostly as a render farm. I have small need for vegitation generation, etc. However, there is one big fly-over exterior, and I look forward to using VUE for that. VUE's ability to work with DEM data contributes. So, with the more precise information here (good news/bad news) I will have to do a reality check. I don't mind tinkering with imported poser scenes if I can't get where I need to go. Not expecting miracle. Most of the movie is two-shots on small interior sets, mostly dialogue, like a stage-play. I will animate in Poser because of Mimic and because I am already experienced in Poser animation. In the next 10 days or so I'll install VUE and begin testing the move-over of characters, props and animations. Even given the limitations about procedurals, I may be fine. Then it will be cow time. ::::: Opera :::::

In some cases, I simply replace materials such as metals, rocks or glass with their Vue equivalent - I get better results that way.

Yep. That's the only way that I've found to do it.

Me too. The point really is, that some people think you can load a pz3 file and go, without having to rejig the materials, and this is not the case. As agiel says, you can easily spend an hour touching up the materials on an imported Poser scene - which is comparable to the time you would spend retexturing in some other renderer that didn't support pz3 format.