I'm having an odd problem in SkinVue if I have both M4 and V4 in the same scene.  Depending on what order I add the SkinVue modifier to the characters, the first one always gets the texture correctly, but the second character seems to get the texture of the first, rather than keeping its own base.  Since M4 and V4's textures aren't quite the same, it means seams are shown, and the face textures don't line up.

For example, in this image, I gave M4 the modifier first, and look at what has happened to poor Vicky.  Lip texture on her chin, seams all over the place, and slightly hairy arms.  If I'd turned it around and given Vicky the modifier first, then the same problem would have happened to Mike, with lip texture just under his nose, etc.

This has happened both in SkinVue 6.3 under Vue 6 Infinite as well as with SkinVue 7.2 in Vue 7 Complete.

Any ideas how to eliminate this problem?

My first thought would be: import the characters separately and save them as .VOB objects.

Hmm, that's odd.  I just tried a tried a test with a an M4 and V4 in the scene and it worked fine.  Are you sure that the names of the characters are different?  If you imported the scene as a single scene with two characters and then selected "Group Figures as single meshes", then in all likelihood, Vue assigned the same names to the characters (e.g. Body).  The name of each character you apply SkinVue to has to be unique, otherwise, it will load materials based on what's in memory versus loading materials from disk.  So here is a suggested workflow depending on if you import a scene containing multiple characters or import several scene files each with a single character:

Importing a single Poser file containing multiple characters:

1. Import the scene file
2. In the world browser, select the character (body) and rename it (e.g. V4).  Note: if you are using M4 with genitals, it will have two objects both named "body" - group the Character and Genitals objects together.
3. Select the first character, fire up SkinVue and swap
4. Select the second character, fire up SkinVue and swap

Importing Multiple Characters each in their own Poser file:

1. Import character 1
2. Fire up SkinVue and swap
3. Import character 2
4. Fire up SkinVue and swap

I had imported with the "Group Figures as single meshes" option and it automatically named the two characters and 3 clothing objects as "body".  But I had changed the names for each figure specifically to Michael, Vicky, Shirt, Pants and Shortsbefore applying skinvue, with the results shown. 

I'll try splitting them off into separate files and pull them up separately to see what happens.  Thanks.

Quote - I had imported with the "Group Figures as single meshes" option and it automatically named the two characters and 3 clothing objects as "body".  But I had changed the names for each figure specifically to Michael, Vicky, Shirt, Pants and Shortsbefore applying skinvue, with the results shown. 

I'll try splitting them off into separate files and pull them up separately to see what happens.  Thanks.

Make sure when get ready ready to swap you re-select the individual target object you want to swap materials for.  So for example start with your Re-named Michael character first, select it, then swap.  Then select your Vicky character and then swap.  If you select the global group containing the entire set of sub-figures, you'll get the result of a shared set of materials as shown in your result.  In some cases, this may be desireable ifyou want to apply a common set materials across a group of characters (provided they share the same UV mapping and material types).  In your case, you need to swap each character individually.

Importing the two characters from separate scenes took care of the issue.  Thank you.

It still seems strange to me that I had this issue with them in the same scene, though.  I'm going to continue experimenting more with a single scene file to see if I can figure out what I am doing wrong.  About the only thing I can think of that I haven't tried is the point where you say "select the 2nd character, fire up SkinVue...".  I hadn't tried closing out of the SkinVue window after swapping the first character and then firing it up a 2nd time after selecting the 2nd character.  What I did was:

Fire up SkinVue
Select Mike, click the select button, and then swap
Select Vicky, click the select button, and then swap
Close the SkinVue window.

With importing the characters from separate scenes, I did close down SkinVue in between.  So perhaps that is the key?

I've got a some more information on what is happening when I use a single scene file.  I'm still not exactly sure "why" it's doing what it's doing, but here's the process I'm using.  If it helps, this is also running on a 64-bit Windows Vista installation, with wxPython 2.8 installed.  I get the same results whether or not I select the option to use the Poser materials on import.

1.  Import the scene file, selecting "Group Figures as single meshes"
2.  Rename each 'body' object as noted in prior post

If I look in the material editor, I start out with 84 materials, with separate materials for Mike and Vicky, but each figure has the same material names.  For example:  2_SkinHead, 1_SkinFace, etc. 

3.  Select Mike, Load SkinVue, click Select and then Swap

At this point if I look in the material editor, if I click on Mike I now have 52 materials, with a Michael4_Body_E, Michael4_Limbs_E, etc with M4's maps, But now all the 2_SkinHead, 1_SkinFace, etc maps for Vicky are gone from Mike's materials list.

But if I click on Vicky, it displays 84 materials again (??), with all of the original 2_SkinHead, 1_SkinFace, etc, listed for both Mike and Vicky.

4.  Select Vicky, load SkinVue, click Select and then Swap. 

If I look in the material editor now, I still have 52 materials listed when I click on both Mike and Vicky.

If I select Mike, I have Mike_Body_E, etc, with Mike's maps.

If I select Vicky, I have Vicky_Body_E, etc ... with Mike's maps.

I can at this point go in and manually reload all of Vicky's maps if I must, but this is just strange. 

As an additional test, I tried loading the scene again and then went back and renamed the materials for each object before applying SkinVue so that I had an M2SkinHead_1, V2SkinHead_1, etc.   That appeared to do the trick, but is way too much effort to do on a regular basis.

Right now the best solution when loading two figures that share material names appears to be to load them in from separate poser scene files so they have their own imported materials list.

Quote - I've got a some more information on what is happening when I use a single scene file.  I'm still not exactly sure "why" it's doing what it's doing, but here's the process I'm using.  If it helps, this is also running on a 64-bit Windows Vista installation, with wxPython 2.8 installed.  I get the same results whether or not I select the option to use the Poser materials on import.

1.  Import the scene file, selecting "Group Figures as single meshes"
2.  Rename each 'body' object as noted in prior post

If I look in the material editor, I start out with 84 materials, with separate materials for Mike and Vicky, but each figure has the same material names.  For example:  2_SkinHead, 1_SkinFace, etc. 

A-Okay so far

Quote -
3.  Select Mike, Load SkinVue, click Select and then Swap

At this point if I look in the material editor, if I click on Mike I now have 52 materials, with a Michael4_Body_E, Michael4_Limbs_E, etc with M4's maps, But now all the 2_SkinHead, 1_SkinFace, etc maps for Vicky are gone from Mike's materials list.

This is normal.  The old Poser mats for Mike (e.g. 2_SkinHead) will be exchanged for SkinVue mats (e.g. Michael4_Head_E)

Quote -
But if I click on Vicky, it displays 84 materials again (??), with all of the original 2_SkinHead, 1_SkinFace, etc, listed for both Mike and Vicky.

What do you mean by "for both Mike and Vicky"?  In your step 3 above you indicated that the old Poser materials for Michael 4 were gone -- replaced by SkinVue materials.  The only materials which should be highlighted in the WorldBrowser Material tab for Vicky should be only for Vicky.  There should now only be one 2_SkinHead material for example.

Quote -
4.  Select Vicky, load SkinVue, click Select and then Swap. 

If I look in the material editor now, I still have 52 materials listed when I click on both Mike and Vicky.

If I select Mike, I have Mike_Body_E, etc, with Mike's maps.

If I select Vicky, I have Vicky_Body_E, etc ... with Mike's maps.

This is bizzare.  I just ran exactly the same test with an M4 and V4 character combined in a single Poser file and it worked perfectly - M4 had all of its maps and V4 had all of its maps.  What version of Vue are you using?  I'm on Vue7 Infinite build 39290 with XP64.  I'm wondering if there is something strange about your Poser file that could be causing some type of cross-talk.

Here is an image link showing the steps I took to swap multiple characters in SkinVue:

http://www.skinvue.net/Vue7/SVmultiCharacter.jpg

Quote - What do you mean by "for both Mike and Vicky"?  In your step 3 above you indicated that the old Poser materials for Michael 4 were gone -- replaced by SkinVue materials.  The only materials which should be highlighted in the WorldBrowser Material tab for Vicky should be only for Vicky.  There should now only be one 2_SkinHead material for example.

That's just it.  I seem to have a completely different list of materials for the two objects.  When I click on Mike, there are 52 materials, with his renamed.  But when I click on Vicky, the original list of 84 materials reappears, with the original material names for both Mike and Vicky.  Vue's material list is definitely getting confused somewhere along the line.

Quote -
This is bizzare.  I just ran exactly the same test with an M4 and V4 character combined in a single Poser file and it worked perfectly - M4 had all of its maps and V4 had all of its maps.  What version of Vue are you using?  I'm on Vue7 Infinite build 39290 with XP64.  I'm wondering if there is something strange about your Poser file that could be causing some type of cross-talk.

I'm running Vue7 Complete 7.21-04 Build 39389 at the moment, on Vista 64.  But as I'd noted originally, I got the exact same results in Vue6 Infinite as well.  I've tried a couple of different scenes with M4 and V4 and it doesn't appear to be specific to this scene.

I do have a dual boot setup with the Windows 7 beta.  I guess I could try installing Poser and Vue 7 there to see if it repeats in a different OS config.

Quote -
That's just it.  I seem to have a completely different list of materials for the two objects.  When I click on Mike, there are 52 materials, with his renamed.  But when I click on Vicky, the original list of 84 materials reappears, with the original material names for both Mike and Vicky.  Vue's material list is definitely getting confused somewhere along the line.

Must be something with the poser file you have.  Can you create a zip file of the Poser scene by using the the Poser utitlity "Collect Scene Inventory" by selecting in Poser Scripts -->Utility-->Collect Scene Inventory.  This will gather all of the objects and maps and put them in a single folder.  Then, just zip the folder and stick the zip file on a server somewhere and e-mail the the link to me at dburdick@SkinVue.net.  I will take a look at this - can;t get to it until Sunday since I'll be traveling.

Quote - I'm running Vue7 Complete 7.21-04 Build 39389 at the moment, on Vista 64.  But as I'd noted originally, I got the exact same results in Vue6 Infinite as well.  I've tried a couple of different scenes with M4 and V4 and it doesn't appear to be specific to this scene.

I do have a dual boot setup with the Windows 7 beta.  I guess I could try installing Poser and Vue 7 there to see if it repeats in a different OS config.

Don't bother, it's not OS related - it must be something with your Poser file and what Vue is doing with the file.

I am curious to see the outcome of this too as I am doing multiple character imports inside Vue 7 Infinite from Poser Pro. So far nothing seemed to show up with 2 of them but haven't tested beyond that. Will be glad to see what turns up as the cause inside the Poser file and hopefully it can be fixed.

There seems to be a several issues with Poser and Vue still and also just the poser file format in general. Maybe someday Poser will get their file formats cleaned up some.

Thanks for keeping us informed dburdick.

Quote - Must be something with the poser file you have.  Can you create a zip file of the Poser scene by using the the Poser utitlity "Collect Scene Inventory" by selecting in Poser Scripts -->Utility-->Collect Scene Inventory.  This will gather all of the objects and maps and put them in a single folder.  Then, just zip the folder and stick the zip file on a server somewhere and e-mail the the link to me at dburdick@SkinVue.net.  I will take a look at this - can;t get to it until Sunday since I'll be traveling.

Thanks.  I'll see if I can come up with a place to put the file and send you the info once it's available.

Just to confirm it was not just the M4 and V4 figures, I tried the same test with M2 and V1, which again share material names.  Same result.  If the material names are the same, it seems that whichever figure is listed first in the materials display is the one who's textures get used for both figures after the swap.

I have the zip file generated and am looking for a place to put it.  I'll send you a separate email when I have that.

I've sent the test scene, but I've got an interesting new result. 

Apparently the texture crosstalk is only occurring if I select the option to allow re-posing inside Vue when I import the Poser scene.  I have been leaving that option selected the whole time and didn't think to try to disable it until now.  I don't see anything in the SkinVue user guide indicating that this option should not be selected, so I'm assuming that this is not normal.  But it's definite progress.  If I uncheck the reposing option, the SkinVue modifier works just fine on both characters in the same scene.  I've revalidated this with 4 separate scenes now with the same results each time.

allow re-posing = texture crosstalk
disallow re-posing = all's well

Quote - I've sent the test scene, but I've got an interesting new result. 

Apparently the texture crosstalk is only occurring if I select the option to allow re-posing inside Vue when I import the Poser scene.  I have been leaving that option selected the whole time and didn't think to try to disable it until now.  I don't see anything in the SkinVue user guide indicating that this option should not be selected, so I'm assuming that this is not normal.  But it's definite progress.  If I uncheck the reposing option, the SkinVue modifier works just fine on both characters in the same scene.  I've revalidated this with 4 separate scenes now with the same results each time.

allow re-posing = texture crosstalk
disallow re-posing = all's well

OK, that's interesting because since I haven't seen this yet, but with only two characters (not 3 or more). However, I NEVER had the option check for re-posing inside Vue. I always did my setup inside Poser Pro and imported the "pz3" into Vue. Don't know if that will benefit you but just thought I would mention that since it may help in further diagnosis.

Quote - I've sent the test scene, but I've got an interesting new result. 

Apparently the texture crosstalk is only occurring if I select the option to allow re-posing inside Vue when I import the Poser scene.  I have been leaving that option selected the whole time and didn't think to try to disable it until now.  I don't see anything in the SkinVue user guide indicating that this option should not be selected, so I'm assuming that this is not normal.  But it's definite progress.  If I uncheck the reposing option, the SkinVue modifier works just fine on both characters in the same scene.  I've revalidated this with 4 separate scenes now with the same results each time.

allow re-posing = texture crosstalk
disallow re-posing = all's well

Well that covers it then.  I never have used the re-poser in Vue - way too slow versus just using Poser and re-importing.  I understand now why SkinVue can't distinguish mulitple characters with the re-poser turned on.  It's because the materials in Vue are virtual when using the re-poser and are not tied to a given object physically as they are when importing without the re-poser turned on.  I'll check into this further, but I don't think there is a workaround for this since there is no physical tie between Vue Material objects and Poser when using the re-poser.