Question: Which is better for character texturing? Obviously the MAT pose files have the entire body texture in one file, but can't the MTL files be edited to include all body textures as well? If so, wouldn't it make more sense to create MTL files for textures? Just woondering because I have been playing with applying the skin shader node, and I'm duplicating a lot of files for one texture... (I've setup a V3 Texture as a MTL after changing settings from the MAT Pose files.) So is there an inherant quality that is better from one to the other? I see that the Poser 5 characters have thier textures in the MTL format, but the question remains. Is this a better way of doing it?

Poser 4 & 5 can only use mat files to apply to all zones at once. Poser 6 has MC6 or material collections that apply to all zones. Personaly I prefer MC6 files, i find the material room a better place to apply materials and it keeps my runtimes cleaner, but if your going to sell your product you will most likely have to use mat files or listen to P4&5 useres whine about not being able to afford new computers, or new programs and P4or5 does everything they need (as long as they can get you to submit to thier will). To the best of my knoledge there is not a diffrence in speed between MC6 files and MAT pose files. though MC6 files may yet have some undiscoverd potential.

MC6 is a great way of applying textures. When I apply an 'old fashioned' MAT pose, I end up having to go into the material room anyway to adjust settings or move nodes around. Material Collections saves LOTS of time. However, as Tyger_Purr pointed out, there's still a lot of people who haven't upgraded to P6 yet, so obviously MAT pose files are still needed for them.

Material collections need only 2 minor changes to be made into mat poses, BTW...

Hi, Thanks for the replies. Guess I should have pointed out that I am still working from Poser 5 also... I was just curious if there were any benifits to doing it one way over the other, because I already have all the files within a MAT pose, and that library just keeps growing. Now that I am playing around with skin shader and whatnot, I'm looking at this setup and saying... "Wait, isn't this more or less the exact same thing, just done differently?" Obviosly the MTL files can offer more variety, as far as node setup... but then again, the MTL, once created, could be saved into a MAT Pose... Just seamed redundant to have these configurations in two places. Does anyone know, can the MTL file be edited to include all body or head groups in one shot?

Gareee, How about the other way around? Are there only two minor changes needed to make a MAT pose file into a Material collection? And will that work in P5?

i dont belive material collections work in p5 and to the best of my knoledge mtl files with multipe material zones will not apply in p5. there are only 2 changes necessary to make a MAT pose work as a material collection. 1. change the extension to mc6 2. move it to your material library. its a backward compatibility CL built into P6. as for changing MC6 files to MAT pose files, im not fimiliar with that.

I think that's correct. To convert a material collection into a mat file, you: Edit the mc6 and changing the version from 6 to 5, and the "mtlCollection" line to "figure". Change the extension, and move it into a pose folder. This is quoted from a post over at RDNA.

MAT poses are better than Poser 5's material files, for reasons stated above. Poser 6's material collections are better than MAT poses. MAT poses are a hack I discovered with Poser 3. They were never fully implemented in Poser until Poser 6, but they did an excellent job once they did. Now if only they'll fulfill the ultimate Poser power user wish: Allow the creation of a new library type (named by user), which would then prompt for a new file extension to associate with this library. Then the user would choose which types of data could be saved in this new file type (choosing from anything that is available in the PZ3 format).

Okay, Does anyone know how they got the full body and head textures into one file for the P5 Characters... as a MTL (poser 5) file? This is what I am trying ot figure out how to do, I just sort of think it makes more sense for textures to be under "Materials" than to be under "Poses". Might just be me, but I'm like that.

Does anyone know how they got the full body and head textures into one file for the P5 Characters... as a MTL (poser 5) file? Who are "they"? I've never seen it done. I have seen the body texture in a mtl file, but you could only apply it to one material zone at a time.

I don't think it can be done in P5. That's why CL added the new material collections in P6. Honestly, I don't see what the issue is with using mat files in p5. While it might not make "sense" to you, 99% of all poser products that have additional materials use mat poses. And almost all of them use a "mat pose" folder in the pose folders to highlight that fact.

Tyger, "Who are "they"? I've never seen it done. I have seen the body texture in a mtl file, but you could only apply it to one material zone at a time." I do not know who "They" are, I assume the writers creaters of the Don, Judy, Penny, and Will Characters. Path: Material Room -> Materials -> ImageMap In this folder is a complete set of materials for these characters. They are one click to apply the entire body collection of materials to these characters. They are NOT seperated out into Arm, Forarm, Neck, etc. Although Head, Eye, and Body do have seperate Nodes. This is what I was asking about, if anyone knows how "They" did this, if it is repeatable by the layman (not requireing yet another piece of software,) is this what was added to P6 that everyone is mentioning (mc6 files). Garee, It is not an issue as per say, I am simply curious to finding a better way to organize my system. I am starting to get duplicate texture folders, and it is driving me a little nuts. This is just my genetic build. I start to look for ways to cut the overhead when I see, 2, 3 or 4 completely different ways of doing exactly the same thing. I was simply asking if anyone had a preferance based on usability, customization ability, and whatnot. I know that 99% of the merchants use MAT pose files, I have close to 34 Gig of MAT Pose files... But as someone mentioned, it is a hack methodology... I was simply asking, or trying to assertain if the MTL route was/is a better way to go.

Oh, I understand, but imagine trying to redo all 36 gig of your runtime to use a different method. After a year or so of work, you might actually complete it... LOL!! And yes, this ability was added to P6.. you can save a material collection for any character, and it saves the selected ones out as one file. I haven't tried it yet, but it might also work with props and hair as well.

Path: Material Room -> Materials -> ImageMap >In this folder is a complete set of materials for these characters. these are regular mat files, they are only applying to one material zone. The P5 people only have one SkinBody zone, they dont have the hip and neck and upper arms and such that the DAZ people do.