It has been a long time and I've forgotten, does Poser have the ability to render displacement maps?

I know it didn't have node set-up like P 5.

Yes - called BUM files - had to be converted from JPGs inside of Poser 4.

No shader nodes possible.  In other words, a Bump map file.

Okay, but bum files or bump maps are not the same as displacement maps.

So I guess it doesn't and I won't need the second texture option on a set I'm doing for P in the Pose folder.

The material room files will be for P 5 and up.

thank you for the reply, it helped jog my memory. :)

I think displacement came in pOser 6 and up, Poser 4 only had bump.

Yup, the BUM files really aren't the problem.  Most P4 setups will take JPG
files for the bump, but the bump looks awful compared to the newer versions,
and won't do displacement at all.

Methinks there comes a time where the Poser community has to accept that just like the American TV system, it's time for a change and backward compatability goes away.

Yes, I've got a lot of older stuff... but I've been noticing that the newer versions/updates/modern alternatives sure do render better. I'm contemplating the unthinkabile: cleaning out my runtimes of things that look "plastic" or "unnatural" these days under Poser 8 and Pro 2010!!!!!

It won't bother me if the vendors do the same.

My $.02

I imagine that within the next ten years Poser 5 and 6 will be, either free, or so low cost all Poser 4 folks will abandon their old standby. :)

But right now there are still a lot of people using only Poser 4 so I try to make my sets compatible.

My version is 7 and I'll wait till they actually fix a few more things (And till I gather some cash as well) before I upgrade again.

I look at some of my first images from P4 and just shake my head.
Gosh how awful they look now but when I first started doing 3d art, they looked great.  Lol.
Thing sure change.

Poser 4 never did displacement. Only bump.

Laurie

You never shy from making every thread a sales pitch, do ya?

At any rate, you might want to think about abandoing P4 support BlueEcho. Easier on you...lol. It's always nice, but it's more work for probably the very smallest percentage of your buyers.

Laurie

Not to be mean, but the incessant product pitches get old. They have nothing whatever to do with the op's original question.

sigh

Laurie

"You never shy from making every thread a sales pitch, do ya?"

I'm not trying to sell this figure, nor am I even offering him as a Freebies, because I've no idea as to who owns the rights to him, or whether he can now be considered to be Public Domain.  I'm just saying that the older figures's MAT zones can be easily updated to work with modern shaders, and that they don't HAVE to look plastic.
dph

*"Not to be mean, but the incessant product pitches get old. They have nothing whatever to do with the op's original question."

Which particular product am I accused of pitching here?
dph

I don't think the op was asking if Poser 4 mats looked plastic. I think she was just asking if Poser 4 could use displacement maps??!

Laurie

Well, I apologize, but ya seem to throw your remaps in nearly every thread. I guess I'm just tired...

Laurie

Quote - Well, I apologize, but ya seem to throw your remaps in nearly every thread. I guess I'm just tired...

Laurie

Well, you DO have a sweet smile, so I forgive you!
dph

It's okay, I like Dave's remaps too. :)

I'm tired tonight too, did a lot of cleaning today.
now I'm gonna go rest up.

Poser 4: fake bump (jpg converted to bum) maps, Poser 4 Pro Pack: real bump, Poser 5: displacement

Poser 5 was free for a while.  it might still be.  anyone still on Poser 4 has made a choice to stay at that version for various reasons.  i don't think merchants are obligated to accomodate software about a decade old or older.  there are merchants in the marketplace now who were only in second grade when it came out.  or younger.

"there are merchants in the marketplace now who were only in second grade when it came out.  or younger."

When I was in the second grade, JFK was president, and Nikita Khrushchev was still banging his shoe!  -And Alan Sheppard had just proved that a Mercury Redstone doesn't have to blow up. 
Oh, yes, my desktop compute would have occupied the whole floor of a large building, and cost something like the entire US annual budget!  Boy have things changed since then!
dph
PS: And while P4 materials are outdated, the P4 figures can still be very useful if properly updated.

Unfortunately for P4, anyone who still uses that version will definitely be rendering their images incorrectly due to lack of gamma correction.  It makes no sense to render linearly and then examine you creation on a gamma corrected monitor, only to go back into the application and add more lights to your scene.  Given time, the only versions that will be practical will be PoserPro and PoserPro 2010.

actually, even they could get around it, but it would mean a lot of work.  they could linearize their colors and textures externally, then correct their renders externally.

and both of those only use GC, not the more correct sRGB approximation, so even they need tweaking to obtain correct results.

The problem with the newer versions of poser is that they use firefly and that doesn`t work properly.

Attached Link: http://www.morphography.uk.vu/bumpmaps.html

Does the name of bagginsbill mean nothing to you?! Look up some of his posts, and then tell me that Firefly doesn't work properly - if you dare. :P

 By the way, BluEcho - if you still want to make P4 bump maps - be aware that there's a bug in the conversion process. See the link for details.

I still have P4 installed. It's quick and easy to use for simple things like setting up a prop - and not everyone wants super-realism anyway. I believe there's a thread somewhere with the same old same old realism vs. artistic licence argument raging back and forth.