I was just testing some of our models in Vue, I just realized something, if you don't have Poser or UV mapper, the object file comes into Vue without the ability to change the materials. You have to apply materials in Poser save and import a Poser file into Vue then you have those materials. I don't like that at all......the Barn that we offered as a freebie must have driven everybody nuts. Not everyone has a red barn, and not everybody has Poser or has UV mapper or the knowledge of UV, they just want pretty pictures and the ability to use 3D models. We will have to change this on our models. We do appologize for this inconvience. Hopefully you will bear with us and we will make the models available in 3 formats, 3ds, and poseable object for Poser, and a regular obj with the ability to change materials,(for those without the knowledge or the software of UV or Poser). It will take a little while to do this but we will correct it as soon as possible. Sharen SAM'S3D

Hmmm.. not really. I think it's all laid out pretty well, in that in the world browser all the parts are clearly labelled. I have some Max and 3DS models that have hundreds of parts and simply numbers or thoroughly unintelligible symbols for part names. I wouldn't worry about it too much, but as you probably realize, you could make the conversion by using Poser and/or 3D Exploration and saving as .obj along with a .mtl file. If the .mtl file is in the same folder as the .obj, Vue will load it with the proper textures, and/or colors. So will Bryce and most other programs, for that matter. The 3Ds format has a similar thing working within it, but not within a .mtl file. 3D Exploration will do that, as well. Besides, we Vue-ers are used to having to do that. I have a 3DS ship model with 300 parts as well as a 3DS helicopter with over 400 parts, and I'm STILL trying to get it all textured. I work on them every now and then. Good models are worth it. :)

And here's your English saddle. Not from Poser, but simply the .obj loaded from the geometries folder, and I applied the texture you included, in Vue. The big important thing is (at least in Vue 3), note that I changed the Y scale from 1.00 to -1.00 and "object space" is selected. sorry 'bout the picture quality, but that's "preview", and highly compressed. But, again, you can do the same thing and have Vue load it automatically, by including a .mtl file with the .obj, as long as the texture, in this case, is in the same folder. Some people prefer editing the .mtl file, since it's just a text file, to point to a directory, so having textures and .obj's in the same folder isn't necessary. Those without Poser can still use your models, trust me. :) They just can't "pose" them.

heyas; if it has groups in the obj, you dont need materials -- not for vue. in fact, having both in vue makes a mess, because it creates the materials as sub-groups of the groups (when a group has more than one material). for example, you MIGHT start out in poser with, say a nice figure with one big skin material over most of it, and some fingernails and eyebrows and lips here and there. then when you get it into vue, you end up with the materials scattered throughout the groups. you get stuff like head:skin, head:eyebrows, head:lips.... and then you get into junk like hand (with only skin on), pinky 1, pinky 2, and pinky3:skin pinky3:fingernails.... and then trying to apply ONE skin texture to all the skin bits lying around.... argh! :) when making an obj for vue, i usually either make one group for each material (and no materials), or one group with all the materials. if that is the way the barn appears in vue (with no tweaking of the obj), its fine. the materials for each part are all there. what's the problem? :)

Okay the problem that I see is, when the model is first made, we start labeling things like, (the barn) Trim, Siding, hinges etc. You can see how it comes out in Mike's example, each item like the front door, has it's own separate item (Trim, hinge etc.). What a pain to have to add material to an item that has been broken into 20 pieces instead of 5, when you know most people will make all the trim for example the same color. Shouldn't it be more compact so it doesn't take years to put material on it? Mike and I tested another model just a little while ago, we took it directly from AutoCad as a .3ds and imported it directly into Vue as a .3ds and all the layers match exactly which is nice. You see Poser and Byrce don't do that. We make lots of conversions for those 2 software packages so people can pose them or even place them in Byrce, but with Vue it translate perfect. Not as much work as for the other software, so it won't take long at all to fix this. But do you understand what I mean about inconvience and for those people who don't have Poser or Bryce. Sharen:)

Like if you don't have Poser and are not going to Pose it at all and want the model, you get it, now you want to add material from Vue, oh my God, it will take them so long to add it to each individual piece. We want the models to be an ease not a nightmare, we want them to load easy for all the applications and have the people be able to choose from which model they want, more complicated and intricate or just for goodness sakes put the model in and put some materials on it a volla pretty picture. I guess we just don't want people to say holly cow, look at all the work I have to do, that is our job, to make it easier for others so they can work on their picture not have to deal soley on the model. Sharen

Hehehe Sharen...I think most of us folks here are used to it :). I used to spend hours sometimes on one model getting the textures right, and since I'm somewhat of a perfectionist, I really never minded it much. Having used Poser with Vue for a long time I'm really quite used to having to tweak a model's textures :). Actually, I truly like the fact that all the parts are separate so that more intricate and realistic texturing can be done. Sometimes I don't use the Poser texture map in a model...I use Vue materials. Laurie

I love how all the parts are right there and clearly labeled. Sharen, that alone makes texturing a dream, not a nightmare! I usually change all the textures of models once I get them into Vue anyway; it just makes the final image feel more like my work, that I did something with everything. I just recently used a downloaded tallship model (image in the gallery now), and it came with no textures at all. The parts were all present and clear, though, so texturing it within Vue was no problem at all! :)

I get my animal models for Vue at www.vistainternetproducts.com where Lynes Creations has some that are already preposed and mapped correctly and don't need Poser. I just import them off the CD and they come in completely mapped no muss no fuss. I got the Impala and Gazelles from her and one of them got like 50 of these Vue ready poses! I have Poser but never really liked it so this kind of model is great of a lazy guy like me! They also work just fine in Bryce. A friend of mine just got Vue 4 so I was curious if they would import directly from the CD like they do in Vue 3.1. They worked just fine. So there are models out there, you just have to keep looking. In Vue 3.1 I have never been able to get a bump map to work. So I leave them out and the models usually import fine after that. The models look pretty good without the bump maps. I guess its rendering engine is better then most. Has anyone been able to get bump maps to import and work in Vue 4?

heyas; well, if you make it set up for poser, then by default, it wont be set up the way you want it for vue. vue will always break down the groups by materials, unless the user steps in, between steps. but if you want, you can release a poser obj and a vue obj... or the 3ds, as you like. with 3dexploration, it should be fairly simple to convert your objs to 3ds's.

For Poser bump maps, make a copy of the map and change the extension from BUM to BMP. Vue will be able to read them then. Be sure to turn the Bump channel's "Gain" setting way down, like .1 or .2, or else the bumps will be too strong. Daniel Wilmes VueMaster program will convert Poser maps for Vue in a single click, or so I've heard. I haven't tried it personally. :)

er...that was in response to Zack's question, not a suggestion for Sharen! :)

hi ya Sharen and Mike, The work you guys put into those nice things of yours is truly wonderful of you. In Vue, we can pull those parts that need to be the same material into a layer and then add the material to the lot. So not too much more work is needed and sometimes that is a help anyhows because you can pick the materials individually as well. (I worried with the mapping/grouping as well for a while till I got the hang of it. Husband and I both use ACAD)

Thanks Varian I'll give it a try. I'll give a look at Daniel's Vue Master too. Zack

Sharen, Mike? nooooo.... it's all right really 8 ) they're great models and as doly said.. a lot of us are used to spending a lot of time retexturing.. heh heh heh.. I usually cheat.. renaming the originals and replacing them with the new ones 8 ) Thank you for everything you've done 8 ) Cheers