Hi
I posted this notion a few days ago in a thread, but I thought if I re-posted it in a thread of it's own it may might garner more attention.
Somewhere in the course of reading one of the mega-marathon discussion threads that accompanied the release of the excellent free version of Apollo Max in a forum that has since closed I came away with an idea that seems worth following up.
Not sure if it's possible, but I'd love to see a tutorial (or a series of inexpensive products) on how to remap a texture for one character, such as M3, onto a template for another character, such as M4 (or MilKids, Dork, ApolloMAX, or even the MilDragon).  Then all you'd need to do is to load the remapped template, frame it properly in the camera view, apply an M3 texture, and render it at a high resolution, then use the render as a texture for the M4 (or whichever).  Seems like it would be a nifty way to convert textures for less-supported meshes without waiting for UTC support for non-DAZ characters.
Does what I'm describing make any sense?  Or is it nonsense?

Oh, to clarify, this isn't something I have the skill-set or the time to pursue myself, but I hope some-one will take up the gauntlet and run with it.
;-])

M4 has already be remapped by myself for M3 skin texture MAT posability.
dph

DPH that's not what he's talking about.

You're talking about changing the UV layout on the figure to match some other figure's UV so the textures can be used without conversion.

He's talking about converting a texture to conform to a different UV layout, without changing the UV layout of the target figure. Change the layout of the pixels instead.

See the UTC:

http://www.daz3d.com/i/3d-models/-/universal-texture-convert?item=1212&_m=d

I use Texture Converter. Apparently I've got an older version. I do not know if the new version auto creates bump maps or not. My version does not do that and I have to manually make them after conversion. Also my version does not convert M4 genital maps. I am not sure the new version does this either as the creator had stated that they did not believe genital map conversion to be necessary because the only use for genital maps was for pornographic purposes. (So much for those who us do simple nudes!)

Yes, but as far as M4 is concerned, my remap makes the whole idea of a UTC superfluous.  And it also comes with a  'whatsit' that's M3 mat posable.
dph

DPH, I appreciate the hard work I've seen you go to on remapping figures. A long time ago (in a galaxy far far away), I assisted another Poser artist to convert V2 maps for use on Posette. So I know how much hard work is involved. But the one advantage that Texture Converter does have is that I can take maps that were originally for V3 or V4 and convert them for use with M4 (I have tons of those laying around in my Poser libraries). I just need a good FREE photoshop layer of pubic hair for the M4 map to make those converted maps look spiff.

Quote - V3 or V4 and convert them for use with M4 (I have tons of those laying around in my Poser libraries)

Why would you want to convert V4 textures to M4?  They have the same mapping anyway.  As for V3 to M4, my remap already takes care of that, and his whatsit at the same time.
dph

Not exactly the same mapping between V4 and M4. There are very few free texture sets for M4. I have to depend on free items and what I convert right now because I was a bad girl and have to stay away from my credit cards for a while. Plus, I had purchased Merchant Resource bases to make and sell V3 and V4 character sets, but I do not have Merchant Resources for M4. So I have worked on conversions of the Merchant Resources that I do own in order to come up with a base set for M4 that I like.

In case you didn't know, certain figures (Apollo) are NEVER going to get support in the texture converter available at Daz no matter how much WE want it.

Kemp Sparky did a freebie remap of M4 to use V4 textures.  However, it is encoded against the original version of M4, so if you still have that installer (you just need it to get the key file), it can be gotten here:

http://www.sharecg.com/v/29590/poser/M4-V4-Remap

Quote - Does what I'm describing make any sense?  Or is it nonsense?

I may well have misunderstood. Once you've repositioned* the texture for one figure to fit another's mapping, why would you need to render it? Why not just apply it?

I do remember seeing a suggestion by _dodger somewhere that involved morphing a plane which carried the texture for one figure so that it fit the mapping of another, IIRC. Then you would have to render the morphed plane to get your repositioned texture. I don't think anything came of that, though. It sounds easy until you think about what's involved. For all I know, that's how UTC works at a conceptual level.

*I'm using that term instead of writing remapped, as you did, because I hope it causes less confusion. Most people take remapping to mean altering the UV mapping of a mesh so it will fit the texture, as BB and others said.

Looking at their site, they apparently use V4's UVs as their basis for conversion.  From their FAQ...

Q: Will we ever see 3rd Party plugins (non 3D Universe plugins) being developed? **

***A: We've made it real easy to create plugins for TC2. In fact, all you have to do is remap the Victoria 4 OBJ file to match your intended figure. We will gladly help you by generating the actual plugin files, and are even looking into creating an online plugin compiler.

LOL

so it's any figure you want so long as it's V4?

Could you somehow take an M3 mesh and "unwrap" it in a modeler so it could be placed piece by piece over an M4 template. Rendering this mesh orthogonally with the texture in the ambient channel would then possibly create an M4 texture. It is no easier I am sure then remapping the M4 the way David remaps his figures but maybe more do-able for people for whom modeling is a strong point.

Anyway, I find orthognal mapping is often "good enough" for full body or background figures. Could you render M3 in a frontal and then a back orthognal view posed properly and then match M4 to the pose and scale to use Group Tool perspective UV to skin that onto M4? Results would be way way crude but maybe good enough for background figures.

Just thinking...

Long ago there was an Photoshop action that converted Posette textures to Victoria 2 entirely in Photoshop. Be cool if anyone ever made a V3 to V4 or V4 to M4 Photoshop action. Certainly it is beyaond my ability.

Anton once indicated he could do texture conversions in Poser with some sort of sliced geometry or something but then he never revealed his method. Wish he had.

Is there a simple way for non-modelers to shrink wrap one figure to the geometry of another? Once saw a post by someone who actually achieved that in the Cloth Room... person was gonna let me in on the method but had too much real world stuff going on to make a tutorial.

Those are the methods/ideas that come to my mind from 10 years around here.

All this is kosher in my opinion for personal use  if you own both the target and source mesh though I am sure some people are touchy about such stuff. Sure wish Wardrobe Wizard just did a check for installed .obj files rather than having the head hands and feet locked!

momodot; "Anton once indicated he could do texture conversions in Poser with some sort of sliced geometry or something but then he never revealed his method. Wish he had."
Actually he did describe it briefly in one of the marathon mega-threads accompanying the free release of ApolloMAX - it was the simple remap-one-template-onto-another-template method that I described in my first post in this thread.  I believe it was also implied that there would be at least one such template (M3-to-Apollo?) in the 4th distribution pak for AMax that was never released.

I am confused. (which is pretty normal )

There are two options:

1.  remap A to use B map , and therefore textures.

1. Modify the texture for B to fit the uv map of A .

remap A is a matter of using a modeller or uv mapping utility and moving all the uv coordinates to the new positions which is simply very tedious because theres lots of them.

Modify the texture will depend on just how far out they are , but might be attempted in photoshop with some cutting, pasting and scaling , and maybe liquify to move stuff around.

There is a texture conversion utility but it needs its own template for the conversion process.

 What about a remapped V3 to use V4 textures. There are many photo-realistic textures for V4 now-and few if any for V3

I think remapped figures are the way to go. My experience with DPHoadley's remapped figures has convinced me of that. If you remap the object, you only need to do that once, and after that any of the"target" textures will work. If you adjust the texture, you have to do that for every texture set you want to use. Thus remapping will be much more efficient.

I have lots of V4 and M4 textures and I would buy, without a moment's hesitation, remapped figures for Posette, Dork, Victoria 3 Reduced Resolution, Mike 3 Reduced resolution and any G2 figures to use these. They would be extremely valuable to me. DPHoadley's remaps mostly, or perhaps exclusively, target V3 and M3 textures. I think that remaps to generation 4 textures would be welcome for a lot of people who have bought the extures but sometimes need a more efficient model.

I think remapped figures are the way to go. My experience with DPHoadley's remapped figures has convinced me of that. If you remap the object, you only need to do that once, and after that any of the"target" textures will work. If you adjust the texture, you have to do that for every texture set you want to use. Thus remapping will be much more efficient.

I have lots of V4 and M4 textures and I would buy, without a moment's hesitation, remapped figures for Posette, Dork, Victoria 3 Reduced Resolution, Mike 3 Reduced resolution and any G2 figures to use these. They would be extremely valuable to me. DPHoadley's remaps mostly, or perhaps exclusively, target V3 and M3 textures. I think that remaps to generation 4 textures would be welcome for a lot of people who have bought the textures but sometimes need a more efficient model.