I've almost finished a photographic studio. It has 17 unique lights parented to figures. The same lights are in the library as normal presets, and I've made MATs to switch them on/off. These MATs list every light in the pack, and of course, if some of the lights aren't in the scene, they just won't be affected. I have similar MATs to switch shadows on/off, change the light warmth, etc. Can anyone think of a reason NOT to do this? I haven't had any problems in any version of poser, but purely out of paranoia, I thought I'd check just in case. mac

It pays to be paranoid!

In Poser 4 (I haven't tested with other versions), if you use a pz2 that refers to none existant lights, the none existant lights will show up in the Hierachy Editor, nowhere else, not in the Lights dropdown menu, or the Light Controles, just in the Hierachy Editor (if 'Show Lights' is enabled). Each time you apply the pz2 two instances of the "phantom lights" will be added in the Hierachy Editor, or at least that's my experience.

'Show Lights' is disabled by default in the Hierachy Editor, and as long as the phantom lights are not selected I have not noticed any bad effects, though I supose there is some memory usage. If Show Lights is enabled in the Hierachy Editor, and one of the phantom lights is selected it can sometimes cause Poser to hang. I have not noticed any bad effects if a light is later added to the document that has the same internal name as one of the phantom lights, in fact this improves the situation as further applications of the pz2 will not create phantoms for this light. Upon saving a pz3 the phantoms will be stripped out.

As I said to Bloodsong in an earlier thread "Poser is possessed by devils!", and an exorcism performed by a competant priest may be of some help.

Message edited on: 06/07/2005 13:32

Wow! That's interesting, les. I never noticed that before. I very seldom enable 'show lights' in the editor, even though I use it all the time for everything else. I tried it and no matter what I did, I couldn't get poser (P4) to hang. Not that I doubt you. I was just trying to break it. I did end up with about 50 million lights. LOL. Well, thanks for the info. I'll put a note in the help file about it. With poser, it definitely pays to be paranoid. mac

Mac, perhaps I am wrong about the hanging, it did happen to me a couple of times, but then Poser has a habit of hanging or crashing on my system no matter what I am doing, so perhaps it was just coinsidence. After saying that the phantom lights only show in the HE, I double checked, and found that they also show up in the 'Chose Parent' box.

I suppose they would show up in the choose parent box. It must be closely linked to the Hier editor. The hanging's not a problem. I'll include a note not to touch them. If people do it after that, it's their own fault. mac

Just a thought of the top of my head, but I wonder if it would be better to load all the lights at once, but have most of them turned off, under the ground, and pointing up, so as not to create a clutter in the Light Controles? That way you avoid the phantoms.

It's possible, les, but there are 15 different lights, so it would be really confusing for people. Boy, I hate poser at times. This stuff is SO easy in daz studio. mac