Quote - By the way, have you seen this ht BB?

I saw it recently. I don't have it but I watched the videos - it looks very handy.

Quote - I haven't tried VSS yet, but I vaguelly remember (I could be wrong), you once saying that you have to have nodes in VSS with certain names to do group actions on them, and now this software allows you to make batch changes to nodes names and all sorts of other things.  I wonder if the two would integrate together to make speedy workflow?

The names in VSS are so that it knows which maps are for what purpose. They're not hard to set them up - you connect a bunch of image maps to things and then you click a button to automatically name them. if I ever were to make the Pro version with a real GUI it would be pretty much automatic because, as in that program, you'd be editing in VSS instead of in Poser. This naming business only happens once. You don't have to do it on the figure - just on the template you're creating.

There are some fundamental differences in philosophy between the two. In VSS you explicitly create templates and synchronize them with target material zones. In Semidieu's product, you simply select several that have the same shader and as you edit they stay synchronized. Both techniques accomplish the same, as long as everything is identical.

But!

Unlike VSS, semidieu did not make the concept of a template shader - a shader without any specific maps in it. In his examples, he shows the synchronized editing of the skin shader for the torso only. He's carefully avoiding the fact that you'll have to make all those edits again and again. Once for all the face zones, once for all the limb zones, once for all the torso zones, etc. It doesn't separate shader from texture set like VSS does. When you edit with VSS, you don't care about the fact that the textures aren't the same.

In his product, if you were to load a new skin shader into all the skin zones, you'd have to go back and edit the textures again. I think. Having never used his product, I may be making mistaken assumptions. But in VSS, you don't. Loading a shader is separate from specifying which textures go into those shaders.

Similarly, the plan for my Pro version also includes the reverse - you can load new textures without trashing the shaders. But we're all waiting for me to do it instead of talking about it. LOL.

Well my main job is ending and I have no work that I know of next month. The only reason I didn't finish VSS is because I have always spent my time on my consulting work because it pays a lot more than I think Poser plugins would pay. At least, that's always been my assumption. But if I have ZERO income (as it's looking right now) in January, then there will be no reason for me to put off finishing VSS.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)