Hi, I guess I haven't been paying enough attention around here, but where did this new(?) MAT pose/texture thing come from, and better yet, how are they made? Can they be created with Poser 4, or is this another one of those PPP things? Thanks much. :) -Mike

look around, there are some tuts available around here.its really simple ,this files are simple textfiles you can edit with any editor.

They are an incredible inovation! You can set them up to set a particular figure's texture, bump and/or transparency maps, material group colors, morphs - in whatever combination you need. Once set up, you can organize them in library subfolders and apply them with a double-click. A good reset pose can set it all back to a neutral state. No more plodding through every material in the material editor once you've set up a MAT, or remembering where all the texture files for a character are. You can mix and match files located all over the place. It's a snap to try out various textures on a character, etc. More venders are providing them with their products. I can't guess how much time my initial investment in learning and organizing my MAT libraries has saved me. I just copied the MATs that came with Vicky2 and experimented with changes. It's basically a very small piece of the .cr2 text. (Have I raved enough to get you to try them?)

Colm made a great tutorial for creating MAT poses, check out the tutorials section :)

Oh I can already see the immense benefit and time saved by using them! I guess I have to search around for tutorials. ;)

Thanks Eowyn-- I guess we were posting ta the same time. :)

Oh...oh....I know this one.....good tutorial from www.Poserarcana.com regarding this, very detailed. You will like it. Sharen:)

Cool, thank you Sharen!

One thing I sometimes wonder about when falling asleep at night... From my software experience, using undocumented features of software... Since these MAT files are not mentioned in the manual, is there any guarantee that they will still work with the next version of Poser?????

You can bet all hell will break loose at CL if they don't! Especially with all the for-sale products that people are buying that are using them. I think even DAZ is in on it now too, and I'm sure that CL is aware of it. Even if CL didn't listen to us about the new MAT thing, you can bet they'll listen to DAZ! Besides, Poser 5 is a myth..... will there even BE a Poaer 5?

Mike, if you are old friend Mike J. from Florida, you have CR2Edit. You can create MAT/MAP/MOR files with a few clicks, no need to try to load a 20MB Vicki2 file into a text editor. Here's the tutorial page: http://www.zenwareonline.com/cr2edit/tutorials/tutorials.html If you don't have version 5, let me know and I'll fix you up with it. cheers, Dan http://www.zenwareonline.com/cr2edit/cr2edit.html Sorry Win only for software http://www.zenwareonline.com for ZenPaint, ZenTile, ZenGrid and VueMaster

Hey dan! Yeah, that's me-- I've been meaning to email you about the CR2Edit 5, in reply to the email you sent, but I felt guilty, considering I've gotten so wrapped up in my job here (with the success of Vue 4 and all the new forum-ites it's brought), that I haven't yet replied. But I didn't know CR2Edit could do MAT files. So sure, if you can hook me up, please do-- you know my email address. Thank you, Dan. :) -Mike The loudmouth from Florida PS...uhh... what's "MAP" and "MOR"? Man, I'm soooo uninformed, lol!

-Mike The loudmouth from Florida OMG...there are 2 of us?

Well, maybe...thing is, Dan's seen just how loud I can be...... Doh!

"MAP and MOR". Sounds like some sort of redneck rest stop...... ;)

MikeJ is correct, DAZ uses MAT files with the new Victoria 2.0 textures. There are different MAT files for different skin tones, eye color, lip color and face with/without makeup. Very handy, you can apply several MAT files to the model in order to combine all theses variations of the texture. This is definately a feature that is here to stay, saves a lot of work.