A couple of very disapointing things. 1. I loaded a Pz3 animation of 'Victoria' into 3ds Max 2.5. Actually it was 'Syyd's' Sisina. I used one of 'The house of Moves' BVH files. It all seemed to import well enough except 'Victoria's' head and body are now one object. How am I supposed to use texture maps as the maps for her head and body are seperate? 2. I loaded in 'Nikki' one of Syyd's P4 woman characters. Max crashes out as soon as I try to play the animation. Does this import function actually work? This is one of the main reasons I got the Pro Pack. Any help appreciated. Colm....

Colm, Check out PFO's Poser Forum. One of the guys there is discussing a similar problem. From what I can tell, custom textures are the problem. If you rename the textures to the same name as the stock textures, it's apparently supposed to work. I can't test this since my PP isn't in yet. Anyway, check out the discussion. I think I have the solution correct, but he may have more info on it. Hope that helps. Greywolf

Sounds like there are too many limitations. Everyoneseems to be having problems.

fron the way things sound it would be better if pp went back to reading files the way poser does

Thanks for your help guy's. I went over the stuff at the PFO. I just imported Victoria via .pz3 into Max and I am still getting the same result. No textues are auto loaded and Victoria is one complete mesh. Which as you can see leaves no option to use the seperate textures for the head, body and trans for the lashes. Renaming the custom textures of standard P4 figures to the original names may help to a degree, but I can't get any textures to load automatically and because of the figues body being grouped into one mesh, how are we supposed to use trans maps for lashes or clothes. I even use trans maps and reflection maps on the eyes. I can't see how this can be done. I also loaded a figure with Kozaburo's ponytail and that got joined to the body, leaving me no options at all. No offence to anyone at CL, but don't you guy's test this stuff? Pissed off and disappointed Colm...

This is what happens when you RUSH a product to market. What can we expect considering CL churned this out in just ONE year. Oh, that's right. They also added code to check if other copies of Poser are running on the network. That had to take some time.

If you use the eyedropper tool from the material editor on Vicki do you get a multi-material or just a standard material? I don't have the Pro Pack yet but I usually export from Poser as single meshes, use the eyedropper and apply materials and maps to the different material I.D.s. If the Pro Pack is condensing all the materials into one then you're boned...

Yes Alias we're boned... Pic (1) This is the standard P4 woman... No morphs and original texture map imported into Max via the Pro pack plugin for max. Pic (2) In the next pic is the same figure and map with hair. The hair is now part of the P4 womans geometries. One good note was that these two efforts didn't crash Max and they animated pretty well. But who wants to use the original textures and unmorphed figures? Colm...

i think the problem would be resolved if pp read the files the same way have you seen my post in the poser forum and poser tech i think this may be the tip of the iceberg? if you havent take a look and tell me what you thinl ;)

To texture the hair you should be able to do it with a material by element modifier or using edit mesh and selecting by element.This should work on the eyes as well or anything that isn't welded together, which means it won't help for Vicki's head. That's quite an oversight that they wouldn't preserve the material groups.I'd imagine that would be on their "to patch" list.

Attached Link: http://www.angrymob.net

Colm, 2 work around ideas. 1) export/import a second file with hair only 2)parent a primitive (sphere/cube to the head.) Export it separately, parent hair object to primitive in Max. I ran into the single mesh problem with Maxpose as well. I wanted to use Shag Hair "wig", without having to create Matireal ID's for the scalp on every new imported figure. I could never figure how to attach a prop/wig to a vertex or a single poly. If you figure that out let us know. I tried asked many Max user forums with no luck Regards, Pack

I have not actually tried loading any characters into PPP or used the setup room yet but you may well be right Travis. It is something I want to get into. My main reason for getting PPP was to use max's renderer for animation. I was very tempted to get 'Maximum Pose' after trying the demo a while back. It looks like I should have done. Untill CL fix all this. I guess we will have to be patient. I can understand bugs, but there is far too much wrong with this upgrade. I just doesn't seem to do a lot of what it has been hyped up to do...(yet)...

Alias... The whole figure, hair, eyes and all are welded together... Pack, i tried work around (1) to the point of adding another PZ3 into the Max scene... It bombed out. I will try just adding the hair though. It should be possible to do something like (2). It just occured to me that if i export the hair as a wavefront object from frame one in Poser it should import right onto the head in frame one in Max. I could (after texturing) just group it with the main figure and it should stay on the head during the animation. As far as attaching a prop or wig to a vertex or poly, i suppose you could weld it on somehow. WOW never thought of that one... Thanks for the input..

The parts may be in one mesh but they aren't really welded in a continuos mesh.The seperate parts can still be selected in sub-object mode. oops... I just realized you were using Max2.5, I guess you can't do sub-object selections by elements.This will work with 3.0 and above. To attach an object to a face or vertex you need an attachment controller.(http://www.gfxcentral.com/bobo/ipas/) There is a free script for 2.5 that will import Poser animation sequences and turn them into morph animations in Max.I'll try and find it if you're interested.

Colm It may be your version of Max. I will be testing it in 3 and 4 soon. I will also test it in Lightwave. We may have other problems from what I understand some CR2 files make not work. Ron

Ron, I have heard horror stories about trying to use it with Max4.. System lockups etc... As far as I know the same probs as above exist in max3 and 3.1...

alias... Thanks... I have Max 3.1 too. i will re_install it in the morning and check the sub object mode...

Attached Link: http://www.curiouslabs.com

We're working on the Max4 plug now. You should get a message that the plugin is obsolete when trying the current versions under Max4. I haven't seen any system lock up yet due to an obsolete plugin but I suppose it's possible. We'll really try to get this out fast. I believe is a workaround for Vicky's textures. I'm going to try find out and if so, get it from one of our QA guys and post it as soon as I can. We hope to have this fixed in the first updater which will hopefully be done the same time as the Max4 plug. We're really watching the threads so if you have a problem ask about it. You can also send mail to me if you think you have a bug. steve@curiouslabs.com. I can't guarantee I'll respond in a timely manner but I will pass it on to QA and Tech Support... ******************* Steve Yatson Poser Product Manager http://www.curiouslabs.com *******************

Thanks Steve... It's good to know that you are there watching the threads and that you guy's are working on the solutions. Colm...

Ok... I got it... I reinstalled Max 3.1. When you render in 3.1 it tells you what textures are missing and unlike 2.5 it gives you the option of adding the path of the textures. I haven't tried adding the path yet in 2.5. Also I haven't tried animation in 3.1 as of yet. But I imagine it will work as Steve Shanks has done this. Also I don't know if it will take into account reflection maps and ambient colors yet. It seems to load transparency maps OK... Pic: Syyds 'Gabriel' texture and character... Anyway the future looks good... Colm...

Attached Link: http://www.curiouslabs.com

The Vicky in Max Skinny In Max 2.5 you need to add a path to your Vicky texture maps folde, so Max knows where they are located. This is if they are in an added folder that is not installed by Poser. The Poser plugin assigns all the paths to the default Poser texture map locations on install. This is normal Max 2.5 behavior. To add the paths in Max 2.5, select File Menu/Configure Paths and then select Bitmaps. After that, click Add button and browse to the directory where your texture maps for Vicky are located. You will do this for any additional folders that are not default. Max 3 lets you know on render if it can't find texture maps and allows you to browse to it and add it to the paths right at that time. Max 2.5 does not do this. Vicky has a texture for her head (SkinHead (Standard)) and a texture for her body (SkinBody(Standard))in the Material editor in Max. Vicky has a lot of materials, so you will scroll down in the Max Material Editor to see the rest of her materials. Skin body will be there when you scroll down. You still have control over the 2 texture maps. Max Materials for a Vicky with Hair are different than for Vicky without hair (or any other model for that matter). The hair object adds another material group to the Poser scene. Example: If I open a Poser scene in Max containing Vicky with no hair prop and save that MAX Material to the material library, then open up a Poser scene that has Vicky WITH hair and apply the material just saved from the model with no hair, and render, I notice that "HEY VICKY HAS LIPS ON HER HIPS AND EYES ON HER BOOBS" (or whatever). This is because there are now more material groups in the Poser scene (from the hair object) than in the saved material. You can fix this by adding a material group for the hair to the material and assigning the hair object's polygons to this material. This is pretty involved and the Max manuels should cover this in the materials section. This is why we took great lengths in making sure that you could create a Poser scene without having to do major material work on the figures before rendering. If you dig into the materials and Max's power you can create some trippy looks. Hmmm.... How about adding noise to a bump channel to get goose bumps or lizard scales on this skin. ************************** Joe Grover Lead Quality Assurance Engineer Curious Labs Inc. **************************

Joe... You 'ARE' da Man... It all seems pretty obvious stuff now that it is explained this way. If you haven't already I would suggest posting this in a fresh thread to the significant forums. I.e 'Poser', 'Max' 'Tech' etc.... BTW... I am still having crashes in Max 3.1 when animating using clothes figures and props, but ok with just figure and hair. This happens when I go to render. It all seems fine with non anim scenes... Thanks again Joe... Colm...

Well you're da man too. Together were the men! LOL That will be a great post to the groups. I'm starting a new thread in the ProPack forum. Feel free to pass this information on.

Attached Link: http://www.curiouslabs.com

Well you're da man too. Together were the men! LOL That will be a great post to the groups. I'm starting a new thread in the ProPack forum. Feel free to pass this information on.