The PMD file contains morph data (I guess it stands for Poser Morph Data?).

Let's use a CR2 as an example, and let's say that you have a character that has 25000 vertices (reference points that make up polygons). Let's also say that you create a full body morph that changes the position of half of those vertices, or 12500 of them. The changes in their positions are saved as morph data.

Some characters have all of this morph data included in their CR2 files, which makes them bigger. To work around that huge file size, DAZ characters use injection morphs that "infuse" the morphs into the characters, allowing you to use only what you want to use.

What the PMD file does is take all of that morph data and keep it separate from the character or the project file. It also compresses the morph data so that it takes up less space.

Now, after having explained that, the answer to whether or not you need it is ... yes, and no.

There is a setting in the Misc. tab of the General Preferences dialog to "Use external binary morph targets." If this option is checked, you save a PMD external morph data file every time you save a character to the library, or save a project or anything else that could contain morph data. If it creates a PMD file, you generally need it there to retain your morphs in the project or character.

If you leave that option UNCHECKED, things behave the way they used to ... morphs will be saved within the project or character file, so you won't get a PMD file, and therefore you won't need them.

The advantages of a PMD file are that they take up less space than if they were in their "uncompressed" state. It also allows you to distribute custom morphs without having to distribute the associated geometry, sort of like DAZ's INJ/REM method.

The disadvantage is that the PMD files aren't editable (they are in a compressed format), and they only work in Poser 6. So if you are developing characters that are supposed to be compatible with earlier versions of Poser, you'll probably want to keep the "Use external binary morph targets" option not checked.

Message edited on: 04/05/2005 22:37