I have a file created in P6 which consists of A P3 figure and a P4 figure and a few props. This opens perfectly in P4, P5 and P6, but if I try to open it from P7 Poser just crashes immediately and disappears from the screen. Very annoying.

Well maybe P7 is not compatible with that old stuff...
You cant fit a T ford Engine in Porsche can you ..

Odd though because Poser has always been incredibly backwards compatible.

I had a slight problem today, I was trying to add one of Ajax' Poiser 5 shaders (a grass shader) to the ground plane and it ust wouldn't attach. Nothing happened.

Then I loaded the P5 cube (I believe they're the same but since I was in my Poser 5 Runtime), applied the grass to THAT - which went just fine - resaved the material to Poser 7, and now I could apply it to the ground plane.

Since I've had other hiccups that couldn't be reproduced, I'm not sure if this was a bug or a fluke.

Chris, ya know, I just love these little sayings you come up with, Class mate!!

It seems it's P3 figures that cause the problem. With some, Poser 7 just crashes completely; with others it just comes up with a blank window, but seems to know that the figure is there.

I would certainly have expected it to be backwards compatible with a basic figure. Something in the pz3 must be incompatible. If I could find out what it is I could probably edit it, but how on earth do you go about finding out where the problem is?

Did you try importing the .pz3 into an empty scene instead of just opening it?
Maybe Poser 7 won't crash... could be a possible workaround.

Martin

I wonder if I can get a P2 figure to import into P7?

Make sure your runtimes are linked BEFORE opening an old file in P7

I've tried importing as well as opening. Same result.

What do you mean by linking runtimes? I've copied all the P4, P5 and P6 geometries i(and a few others) nto the P7 geometry folder. I don't think I need to do anything with the rest of the runtime folders unless I want this figure to appear in the list of figures. Or do I? i don't get the problem with DAZ figures.

Whatever the cause or solution, I'm disappointed that Poser crashes completely rather than giving an error message and then dying gracefully.

If I've still got a P2 figure I'll try one of them too.

That's your problem.

You NEVER copy runtimes into other runtimes.  It breaks poser.

You need to link your runtimes.

Steps...Move the runtimes back out.

Uninstall Poser 7

Reinstall Poser 7

Open poser 7,

Open the libraries

Click on the folder icon with an arrow pointing up until you can't any more

Click on the + at the bottom of the library

Add folders with runtimes in them.

Repeat until all your runtimes are added

Then open all file

MODS:  Can we get a sticky on this?  This is the #1 poser mistake since v5 came out.

Quote - You NEVER copy runtimes into other runtimes.  It breaks poser.

?

I can't say that I've copied entire runtimes into other runtimes at one go.  But I have copied items from my runtimes over into other runtime structures -- in the interest of organizing my libraries.  I have also moved all of the geometry files/texture files/reflection maps, etc. into the main Poser directory.

It all worked out with no problems.  I haven't noticed any glitches -- and I have HUGE runtimes.....they needed organizing.  Badly.

No, it's the whole copy full runtime base 1 into full runtime base 2

Copying by item carefully, being sure not to copy over important files has never been a problem for me either.  But the full dump method always seems to break poser.

Especially the geometries...those are linked based on where they were to begin with...not where he put them now.

That will cause all kinds of problems.

OK, I'll experiment with these suggestions, though I can't say I'm convinced yet.

In my experience if Poser can't fing a geometry (obj) file it gives you an error message and asks where the file can be found.

The actual pz3 file that's causing the problem contains lines such as:

        figureResFile RuntimeGeometriesnewFemaleNudeHifemaleNudeHiP3.obj

This isn't an absolute reference but is relative from wherever Poser happens to be located. If it worked from Poser 6 it should also work in Poser 7 as long as the obj file is in the  RuntimeGeometriesnewFemaleNudeHi directory of Poser 7, which it is.

Libraries (which ar treated differently from geometries and textures), are a different matter and Tirjasdyn is probably right in that respect. Since I'm not trying to load the figure from a library that shouldn't cause a problem though.

You'd think so...but did you you check to make sure newFemaleNudeHifemaleNudeHiP3.obj wasn't already there and you overwrote it?

Cause that could be 4 different figures from 4 different versions..

I'd have to check to be sure but that's my point.

I've only ever copied a runtime over like that after a HD crash from my back ups. After re-installing poser I delete the runtime and replace it with the back up, now I know that works, I've had to do it twice with F****d up HD's

Quote - I've only ever copied a runtime over like that after a HD crash from my back ups. After re-installing poser I delete the runtime and replace it with the back up, now I know that works, I've had to do it twice with F****d up HD's

Still that different from copying the poser 6 base runtime over the poser 7 base runtime.

I used to have the problem with textures that wouldn't apply, but showed up when the material was copied.  It usually turned out I'd overlooked one of the checkboxes toward the bottom, which could be fixed by copying the material.  It depends on whether you're copying nodes or the root material whether tht root gets turned back on.

Oh yes I agree with you!
I do only use the 1 runtime with sub folders and I don't want to get into the single or multiple runtime discussion again because we all have our preferred way of working, but when I went from P5 to P6 I did copy a lot of the stuff over but NOT a complete dump of the P5 runtime on top of the P6!
I agree that's not a good idea!