(Sorry if I'm beating a dead horse in here with all my long questions, but...) Since Poser 6 seems to have so many problems for me with rendering anything over two figures (with 2 GB of RAM!!!), what I've started doing is basically using DAZ Studio as my final renderer. While DS can directly import Poser content, the problem is that I have lots figures that have magnets and clothing items that are not compatible with DZ when brought in as a PZ3 or character file (for example, the Universal Deformer Magnets by Wyrmmaster). To work around this, I started turning the finished figures into OBJs, reimporting them back into Poser, scaled them properly, put the transparency information back in manually, then saving OBJ as a Prop. DS (or Poser) can then bring the prop in and render no problem. The "prop" figures also seem to have the nice side effect of not hogging as many system resources in Poser or DS so I can add more to a scene. While I have been please with the result of this technique, it is a lot of manual work - I'm really just looking for better some way of doing it, or finding a utility, or script that can automate this process better between Poser and DS. I've also been playing around with VUE 5 (a demo) because it can also directly import Poser content (and doesn't seem to have some of the compatiblity problems DS has), but I really don't want to spend $250 and have to take the time to learn how to use it properly just to render. I noticed in the DAZ shop there is a utility call "Turbo Import" for Bryce - this seems like the kind of thing I'm looking for. Does anyone know if it works from Poser to DS, or if there is something similar for P6 to DS? I would greatly appreciate any help.

Hi, bluecity, I'm moving this post to the DAZ|Studio forum, to see if anyone here can help you better ;) MorriganShadow Poser/DAZ|Studio Moderator

As of this moment, there really isn't an easier way :(. However, we were given a sneak peek with the "oops" release just before this one that they are, in fact, working on a magnet system, which will be great. They work smooth, and, IMHO, a bit easier to use than the Poser magnets. So far, I don't know of any utilities/scripts for quick and easy export from P5/6 to D|S, and that's most likely because D|S is still in beta, and no one wants to build something that won't work in later versions. I hope that helps, and if, not, feel free to let me know or throw fruit, LOL. MS

The Turbo Import plugin facilitates the transfer of content into Bryce 5 from DAZ|Studio. I don't think it'll be particularly helpful with your situation. As far as I know, Vue does import Poser's magnets.

Attached Link: http://user.txcyber.com/~sgalls/

Another free option would be to use PoseRay, which reads .pz3 files (as well as several other formats) and can convert them for use in PovRay, a free and very good raytrace render engine (with GI and HDRI simulation). I haven't used it myself, but I have seen some exceptional images produced with it. Of course there is always the option of getting another comercial application that imports .pz3 files. I use Carrara Studio 4Pro, and Transposer2, which is a very easy to use combination, with a very low learning curve if all you want to do is use it as a render engine (no native support for P6 yet, but there are some simple work arounds if you have P5, it supports import of everything including animation, dynamic hair, dynamic cloth). Carrara has GI and HDRI support, and makes getting beautiful renders from Poser files very easy. With CS 4Pro and Transposer2 you can set up a render farm with up to 5 nodes, which really improves render times. As Little Dragon mentioned, Vue Esprit 5 is another great alternative render engine. It supports the import of static images and dynamic hair/cloth. If you need Poser animation support, you can get Mover 5 which will import full animation from Poser. I haven't used Vue Esprit 5, but it is on my wish list. For a cost effective solution (free), PoseRay looks like a very good option until support for magnets and dynamic hair/cloth get included in Daz Studio. Plus PoseRay is supposed to have support for Daz Studio (possibly through .obj import/export?). In fact, now that I've looked into it, I think I'll give it a go.

Thanks for the tips guys. I think I'll kick around PoseRay a little. Hopefully "complete" version of DAZ studio will be out soon. The price is certainly right... ;-)

I've also been using POVray, as an alternative renderer to D|S.
It reads the OBJ/MTL files intended for Bryce. PoseRAY also lets you do subdivision!

D|S -> PoseRAY -> POVray

I also got some sort of special edition VUE 3 MOVER LE from the front of a magazine which works very well.

Message edited on: 06/10/2005 11:13