I'm rather new to Poser, having just purchased Poser 6 (having wistfully/wishfully wended my way through galleries for almost two years now). I've been going through the manual and everything, looking at freebies and items for sale and all. I have some questions about some stuff I'm confused about. 1) What's the difference between high resolution texture maps and low resolution texture maps? 2) What's a resolution texture map? Or texture map for that matter. 3) What's the difference between dynamic clothing, conforming clothing, and morphing clothing? 4) Should an self-professed Old Bat of 56 years of age even be TRYING to do anything like she's seen in the galleries? Thanks.

1. The resolution of a texture map has to do with how many pixels it's composed of. The higher the resolution the more pixels. What this means basically is that high resolution texture maps can be made more detailed (and consequently more realistic). But the cost is that the higher the resolution, the larger the file size and the more RAM it takes up rendering it. To see the difference, look at the P3 textures that come with Poser, as examples of low-resolution textures, then look at some of the newer high resolution textures and you'll see the difference. In each case, zoom in and you'll see that the hi-res one will let you zoom in a lot closer before it gets all blurry. 2. Texture maps are the graphic files that put colors, details, designs, etc on figures. To get an idea, look in Poser's runtime/textures directory. In all the folders are the various textures used for the models that come with Poser. Dynamic Clothing is clothjing props that require the use of P5 and P6 cloth room. They simulate the drape of real cloth and are better for animations. But they require much more ram, and it takes a bit more effore to learn to use them correctly. 3. Conforming clothing are clothing that conforms to the figure. It is in the form of a cr2 file, accessed thru Poser's Figures library. To conform it, you select the clothing item, then in the figure menu at the top, select "conform". When the "conform to" dialog box appears, select the figure you want it to conform to. It will then pose with the figure when you pose the figure. (non-conforming clothes do not do that and have to be posed separately. But you're not likely to run into any non-conforming,as conforming clothes were introduced with Poser 4 and have become the norm. There is a third type of clothing, by the way: clothing props. Usually things like ties, hats, jewelry, belts, etc. These have to be parented to the character. 4. You're never too old to start learning this stuff.

Well, I can answer 2 of those: 3) - dynamic clothing is applied in the pose room and then you need to go to the material room in order to set up an animation to give the clothing a "fluid" look. You can render the whole animation, or just the last frame for a still image. - conforming clothes are applied in the pose room and conformed the the figure's body there as well. Sometimes conforming clothing has body parts associated with it so that you can adjust the dials in order to get the clothes to fit the figure better in various places (IE: chest, or wider hips than the skirt). Sometimes the conformiing clothing doesn't have those (morphs), and unless you put the figure's morphs into the clothing (using "the Tailor"), fitting the clothing is very limited. - Morphing clothing are conforming clothing with morph dials that are associated to the figure's body (IE: chest, shoulder, right buttock). Much easier to get the clothing to fit around a larger boosom, or thicker thighs if trying to fit slim pants. 4) Absolutely!!! You are never too old to learn anything. Just know that unless you have someone who knows poser really well sitting behind you telling you what to do, there is a huge learning curve accompanied by loads of frustration along the way. The important thing to remember is that you are not the first "newbie" to use poser, and there is no such thing as a dumb question. I'm 43 and have had poser for just over a year now I guess. I didn't get my first render finished until October or November. I uninstalled Poser and then reinstalled it again. I kept thinking that I wasn't going to let this program beat me! I've been unwell and not feeling all that creative so I don't do much with what I do render, other than give the finished renders to graphic groups for their use. I did manage to do one image for my gallery, but that was a rare event when I had a creative spark in me...few and far between lately. So don't give up. If you get frustrated, take a break and come back to it. You'll get there. I'm just at a point where I'm trying to do more than "dress up dolly" and I even made a fan texture for myself!!!! I was thrilled to no end by that :) If you need some good links for tutorials, post back and let us know, and I'll pass along some that I've collected along the way.

Actually, to set up the dynamic simulation you use the cloth room. Tha Material room is for setting up textures, shaders, etc.

Attached Link: http://www.poseruniverse.com/Tutorials/P6_101_1.html

Oops, thanks for pointing that out. Yep! Cloth room :)

Why would dynamic clothing take a lot more RAM than would conforming clothing? It would seem like it would be the other way around, because conforming clothes has all the morphs built in and with dynamic clothing the shape comes from the program modifying the mesh. CR2 files for clothing tend to be larger than PP2 files, so where is the extra RAM expended on the dynamic clothing?

Dynamic cloth takes more RAM because of the way it is applied. Although smaller in file size, it has to be applied by setting up and running a simulation in the cloth room. The simulation is what requires all the RAM, not the cloth itself.

Only answering #4: You shouldnt be TRYING to do anything like the galleries ... you should be TO DO it ... and ask to us all you need :)

chuckles Thanks everyone! Your answers and offers are much appreciated. I ~suppose~ that now I should load Poser 6 onto my PC and, like the bear who went over the mountain, see what I can see. group hug