along with Poser 6. Would it convert a p6 file into a p5 file by merely loading it up in p5? For reasons concerning Vue. I just got a new computer and I don't want to install p5 on it if I don't have to. It's like inviting a bum into your brand new house.

Saving a poser 6 file into a library in poser 5 should convert it to a p5 file, just opening it wouldn`t work.

I still have P5 installed with P6 because of P6's problems initially. I have made a file in P6 and opened it in P5 but it always gives an error message but then opens it anyway. My own view is that you will only get a problem if you have the new P6 compression thingy's switched on, mine are off by default in my preferences to avoid those issues. thefixer, poser coord.

And don't forget to switch off the pbm thing too. Otherwise your P6 figures won't have any morphs available.

Hi zodo. I, too, have just got a new PC, and have ordered P6 (it should arrive in a few days). My new PC has 2 HD drives, so I copied (among other things) the whole of P5 onto the 2nd drive (not the C: drive). To my surprise it ran perfectly from there, just by clicking on it. So now, if I ever want to, I can get rid of P5 just by deleting it off my 2nd drive; otherwise it can just sit there, not interfering with the C: drive.. Cheers, Diolma

If it's a PZ3 why not simply try editing it (with wordpad os similar) to "appear" like Poser 5 - with that I mean simply opening it in the text editor and changing the "Version = 6" to "version = 5" Works in Poser at least, I always edit my freebie-files to show 4.01 instead of 6...

Vue 5 Infinite imports Poser 6 files fine, as long as you don't use external binary morphs and as long as you don't use dynamic cloth (P6 SR1). I keep P5 around for dynamic cloth. P6 scenes open fine in P5, just a message about the version number and that's it. Running the cloth simulation, then saving the scene makes it Vue compatible.

My P6 arrived!! Just FYI, there seems to be a problem with .obj files from P6 being imported into Vue5i. I haven't even attempted to track down the cause yet, but I exported a posed version of V3 from P6, tried to load it in V5I and it complained about the .obj. So I loaded the P6.pz3 file into P5, exported the .obj from there, loaded it into V5I and it worked (apart from some niggles about some texture locations, easily solved). Incidently, isn't it nice to have an app (v5i) tell you IMMEDIATELY that it can't find a texture, allow you to hunt for it, then ask if you want that to apply to all? Not only that, v5i also checked the same folder for the head tex...(so didn't bother me with trivial questions..):-)) Only had to locate the hair tex (My P5 is on a separate drive, as I mentioned above..) Cheers, Diolma

@diolma: why don't you just save your dressed/posed/textured V3 as a scene (be sure to turn off external morph targets in the preferences!), V5i imports a P6 PZ3 just fine. Just tell V5i that the Poser 6 exe is your Poser app (and then it will still import Poser 4/5 PZ3s without any problem). I assume you've linked your P5 runtimes to P6. And in that case, when you save a PZ3 from P6, Poser is smart enough to convert the relative file references to absolute, so V5i doesn't have to search for textures anymore. Fix up any material glitches in V5i (reflection maps are usually the worst), and save your imported object as .VOB. It'll destroy the link to Poser, but a VOB is much less resource consuming than a linked .PZ3.

Many thanks Steven. I'll do that! Just one question: If I want to import more than 1 figure (or whatever) from Poser to Vue, are there any "newbie" pitfalls to avoid? I realise I have to delete any props etc. that I may have used to get the figure's pose looking right (eg. cylinders for tree-trunks to lean against), but what about the ground plane? Does that get ignored? Cheers, Diolma

Anything that is set as invisible in Poser is ignored. By default, the ground plane won't be imported. Deleting those extra props can also be done in Vue, as long as they're not parented to a figure. Getting good foot poses on a Vue terrain is almost impossible. I usually use a DNA Microcosm terrain in Poser to give my character(s) something to stand on, then I can get the foot poses exactly as they should be. Another tip: if you're going to do multi-figure scenes, don't import everything at once. Vue then easily craps out on memory. Instead, save your Poser multifigure scene as "All", then delete everything except one character and its clothing, resave the scene as "[character name]", reload "All", repeat the process for all your characters. It's also pretty useful to save your ground figure/prop as a separate pz3. ockham has a python script in 'rosity freestuff that can delete multiple figures at once. Very useful! Then import one of your pz3s, check "Collapse identical materials". Usually you'll want to import a single frame (unless you want to import an animation, or you want to import dynamic hair), usually it's the first frame (unless you have a dynamic cloth animation). Don't forget to UNcheck "Resize and center objects on import" in your Vue preferences! If you don't, every imported object will be scaled to the same height - a child lying on the ground will be exactly as high as a man standing straight (probably not what you want). Fixing up the materials: for skin I set the highlight color to white, highlight global intensity to 20%, and I leave the rest at default values. I connect the bump function to the texture map at strenght 0.02. Materials that use a reflection node in Poser end up as extremely shiny materials in Vue. If the material is supposed to be metallic, I replace it by one of the Vue metal shaders - that'll get rid of a texture/reflection map and saves memory. If it's not and the texture maps are necessary to make the material look good, try setting the "Color reflected light (metallic)" slider on the last tab of the material editor to a high value, 80 to 100%. Materials that effectively only consist of a bump map (for instance, the leather textures by Baron Vlad Harkonnen) can quite easily be replaced by a Vue procedural material that produces a similar output. Saves memory. If you've saved an edited figure as .VOB, you can even use it in an Ecosystem - you can create whole crowds in an instance! A strange effect of Ecosystems is that the size of the objects is halved. You can fix that by setting the Overall scale on the second tab to 2.000 Vue trees are very small compared to imported Poser figures, while other plants seem to be more or less the right size. Scale up trees by a factor of 4 to 7 to make them look realistic. Use native Vue plants, rocks and terrains wherever possible. They're much lighter on resources than objects. In general, Vue is much better than Poser at handling large polygon counts, while Poser usually is better at handling multiple (large) texture maps. A word of warning about closeups: Vue does NOT have a micropolygon rendering option (Smooth Polygons in Poser). If you render a closeup of a Millenium 3 figure, you'll see the polygon edges, no matter how high you set the quality. Render large images to disk. Rendering to screen tends to get you "Out of memory" errors. Vue will attempt to save your scene to a rescue file, sometimes it works. So (like in Poser) save before you render!

Many thanks Steven! I've saved this thread to HD, will read and absorb your reply properly tomorrow (after I've recovered from tonight's excess beer). I'm just starting to get to grips with P6 and Vue; it's going to take me a long while to get anything useful from either of them (but then, I'm only a hobbyist - so I have no deadlines..) Cheers, and thanks again, Diolma (aka John)