Hi all, This might have been addressed before, but since I am new to Poser (just bought Poser 6) and am adding content I'd like to know what the difference is in P4 or PP content. I am adding for instance ArtemisX and then I see boots in both a P4 and a PP version. Which one should I use and which one can go (i.e. which one is the best to use). At first sight I'd say the PP, if only for the reason that the P4 content is searching for .bum files that are unavailable. BTW I know P4 stand for Poser 4 and PP for Poser Pack, but because I haven't worked with Poser back then I don't know what exactly was the difference between those too. Could someone elaborate on this ? Kind regards /~nne

Yes, use the PP. The difference is the bump maps. P4 uses the weird "bum" format, PP and above use regular JPGs (or other standard image formats).

But you may have to adjust even the PP materials. If you look in the material room, the bump map is often disconnected, or connected to the wrong node, unless the PP item/MAT was made with P5/P6 in mind.

Thanks for the quick reply. I already suspected something could be wrong with bumpmapping. I still have much to learn ;)

Actually, it's: P4 = Poser 4 PP = Pro Pack Thank ya, thank ya very much. ;)

In fact if you have Poser 5 or Poser 6 keeping P4 files can be dangerous because they can cause the program to crash. Probably because it is looking for the .bum files it can't find. When I install something I immediately delete all the P4 content so I don't accidentally click on something and crash the program.

I have propack, p5 and p6. I always install to and empty dir and deal with anything listed as p4. Some older stuffage doesn't have the bum for propack, so you change the .bum to .jpg and it works fine. Marque

Ok, but it you rename the .bum to .jpg .. then what remains the difference between P4 and PP ?

The difference is that a .bum is a .bmp format using a normal direction map for bump mapping while a .jpg is a greyscale height map for bump mapping. :) Besides the applications themselves, there isn't much difference between P4 and PP content. P4 uses RSR thumbnails only, while PP can use image formats, IIRC, but that has no real effect on the content.

There is lots of difference btwn p4 and propack. Propack is more powerful in a lot of ways, one thing that comes to mind is the python. Marque

ok So when I have to choose which to drop .. P4 will be it .. I was assuming that .. but needed to know for sure. Thanks all !

Marque: Right, but we're talking content, not the apps themselves. And I think that PP,5,6 convert BUM maps for use in Poser, but don't actually create the converted file. There are ways to convert BUM maps to height maps, but it involves integration. Anthony Appleyard has a Windows app called PPP which does the job.

I will look into that.

I open P4 files in P6 all the time and it never caused a crash...even when files are missing...

Odd, everytime I've opened an older file that still uses .bum the program throws a hissy, and though it may not crash it is a pain waiting for it to figure out that I don't want it to keep looking. You must not have gotten a file that uses .bum in the cr2. 8^) Marque

I've found Poser 6 is a lot more stable when it comes to missing textures. P5 will often crash, P6 will just be really slow.

Some people don't have trouble with P5, either, but it's always been horrible with missing textures for me.

My PPP is also called IMAGEDIT. It is in the freestuff. It is not the same as Poser Pro Pack.