Howdy.... first off, please forgive me if this question seems a bit basic, but I'm still on a learning curve with all this stuff (a newbie of sorts).  I recently modeled a prop in LightWave..... set it up for use in Poser..... morphed it................ extracted the embedded OBJ............. applied all the desired morphs to it............. mapped it.............. texturized it............ packaged it.......... and submitted it to R'osity for testing.  Please keep in mind that this is the FIRST time I've ever submitted anything for marketing. 

I just received word back that I had two files that had "absolute paths" and I needed to address them and make them relative. 

Now, like I said, forgive me if my questions sound a bit basic, but like I said, I am new to all this..... while I have an idea of what an "absolute path" is, I have absolutely no idea of how I may have created these two files with "absolute paths" nor how to actually fix them.  I'm drawing a TOTAL blank as to how to go about this.

Unfortunately, I only found out about the Merchants Utility "AFTER" I submitted my package to R'osity for testing.  I just used the Merchants Utility now and have located the exact files that contain those errors/warnings.  Now, my question is, how exactly do I go about making those paths "relative" as I've never dealt with anything like this before and am totally in the dark about how to even begin trying to fix this. 

Also, since this package is submitted with the restrictions of "PC ONLY", do I need to concern myself with any "MAC incompatibility" error/warning messages that The Merchant Utility finds? 

Thanks in advance ......

Pandorian.

Absolute Paths 101 :)

An absolute path looks like:-

C:Program FilesCurious LabsPoser 6RuntimelibrariesCharacterYour FolderYour Figure.cr2

The relative path would be:-

:RuntimelibrariesCharacterYour FolderYour Figure.cr2

To make it PC & Mac compatible just change all the "" to ":"

:Runtime:libraries:Character:Your Folder:Your Figure.cr2

All of this is best done using a search and replace in a text editor like Wordpad.

Hope that helps :)

The errors/warnings are probably related to the absolute PC paths.  Poser allows both Windows and MacOS file specifiers (N:xx and Nx).

The reason that absolute paths were stored in the file was probably because the referenced files were not in Poser's Runtime somewhere (so Poser saves the entire path rather than a relative one).  To fix this, you must make sure that the files are within the Poser Runtime  If they are (during construction of the product for instance), then you need to edit the problem paths so as to be something like (examples):

:Runtime:textures:MyTextures:mytexturemap.jpg

or

:Runtime:Geometries:MyObjects:myobject.obj

or

:Runtime:libraries:character:MyCharacter:whatever.extension

For distributed Poser content, things like:

F:MyPoserProductsProduct1RuntimeTexturesMyTexturesmytexturemap.jpg

aren't going to work on anyone else's system since it is an absolute and unique path.

There are probably ways to fix this without text editing your Poser files (CR2 or PP2), but I can't think of any off the top of my head.  Does the Merchants Utility have some form of path reference correction option?

Robert

Quote - For distributed Poser content, things like:

F:MyPoserProductsProduct1RuntimeTexturesMyTexturesmytexturemap.jpg

aren't going to work on anyone else's system since it is an absolute and unique path.

Is this quite correct though Robert? For example, a prop on my system has the following path in the .pp2 file:

textureMap "C:Documents and SettingsDAVIDMy DocumentsPoserTempfolderzeusweproundshield.jpg"

But when Poser loads the prop, it finds the correct texture in the directory where it really is located. It seems as if Poser searches in the specified directory, and if it fails to find it, searches the current Runtime until it does. So it's certainly advantageous to use relative paths, because the amount of searching Poser has to do is reduced, but absolute paths won't necessarily stop the object working correctly.

yeah, it does go a-searching for files, though i am not sure whether it searches the entire runtime, or restricts itself to the appropriate subdirectory (such as textures) and then asks if it can't find it there (i think that's what it does, but my memory is feeble).  in any case poser is quite slow enough without allowing it to hunt for misplaced files at all, and i am glad rosity requires merchants now to use relative paths.

one can correct this without hand-editing by using hogwarden's utility CorrectReference, which is available in the freestuff here.  or one can shell out for his CRProII, which can do this and much more (my favourite poser utility for imposing some order on the slovenly filestructure :).

Guys..... thank you all so much for all your help/assistance.  It definitely sheds some light for me on something which was totally new to me.  I think I have it going now.  Though I'm still left wondering if I need to be concerned about the "Mac Incompatibility" messages that come up while I run the Merchant Utility since I am packaging this as "FOR PC ONLY". 

Also, in answer to your question kuroyume0161, I'm still quite new to Merchant Utilities myself, but I don't see an option there for correcting the path references.

Thanks again....

-Pandorian

Also, since this package is submitted with the restrictions of "PC ONLY", do I need to concern myself with any "MAC incompatibility" error/warning messages that The Merchant Utility finds?

No, you don't, if it's specified as PC Only in the Product Requirements field at upload.

Quote - > Quote - For distributed Poser content, things like:

F:MyPoserProductsProduct1RuntimeTexturesMyTexturesmytexturemap.jpg

aren't going to work on anyone else's system since it is an absolute and unique path.

Is this quite correct though Robert? For example, a prop on my system has the following path in the .pp2 file:

textureMap "C:Documents and SettingsDAVIDMy DocumentsPoserTempfolderzeusweproundshield.jpg"

But when Poser loads the prop, it finds the correct texture in the directory where it really is located. It seems as if Poser searches in the specified directory, and if it fails to find it, searches the current Runtime until it does. So it's certainly advantageous to use relative paths, because the amount of searching Poser has to do is reduced, but absolute paths won't necessarily stop the object working correctly.

Oh, you can use absolute paths for your own stuff and, if you're lucky, the files are in the same absolute path on your system as specified on the creators, it will work.  But other than that, the likelyhood of failure is highly probable.  Note that I used the example as, say, a product work folder and not one attached to Poser.  Yes, Poser will search through the available Runtimes - only if they are available to it.  Any old Runtime anywhere on the system will not work. I'm guilty of almost forgetting this myself on occasion when setting up distributed Poser content. ;)

Not certain if Poser 5/6 create absolute paths when using alternative Runtimes (those added to Poser), so this could also be a reason for the problem.  Then, as you note, the search feature will kick in and cause an interminable wait.

Robert

As a merchant, I can tell you that you are far better off using references like this
:Runtime:textures:MyTextures:mytexturemap.jpg
than using the Windoze convention of slashes in the file names. It will prevent all sorts of problems as far as providing support for your customers. I think it may even be a requirement, from memory.
And no, the merchant utility doesn't have any tools to change the path names. You'll have to use a decent text editor with search and replace, as has been mentioned. Once you do get a grip on how Poser's mental file system works, it does become easier, believe me.

P.S. Mac people do buy Poser products, so it's considered good form to take note of the Mac compatibility issues. :)

Everyone, thank  you again for your assistance, it is greatly appreciated.

-Pandorian