I've updated the zip on our website to include the fixed .pyc - however,  because I'm working in Win7 which has so many vagaries, I'm not sure I did it correctly or if the zip file is going to unzip for everyone. Would someone be willing to download and attempt to unzip it, and let me know?

Cheers...

ETA: have I mentioned recently that I despise Windows? I do. Not going to make a secret of it. :blink:

It does unzip, but it takes some digging to get to the python script.  I have corrected it, but not sure how to get it to you.

OK, try the link below.  Should work.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/28226898/Pose2LuxPro_0.5.4.zip

RV--just d'l'd as requested & you've got pose2lux.pyc buried deep in a "Users" folder instead of in the main folder. it unzipped fine for me. crosspostedi'm too slow

Thanks, everyone, and thank you, JCleaver. The fixed file is now up on the site.

No problem.  I am going to remove the file now from my dropbox now that the site has it.  I hope this doesn't cause anyone any issues. 

Hello

The bug that was found by inquire is quite strange. I did a lot of testings today ofter reading postst about it and there are following observations:

• on OSX 10.6.7 it happens with ALL versions of pose2lux which were published

• it does not happen on OSX 10.5 system

• on OSX 10.5 after calling pose2lux there is another window called Console, which doesn't pop up on OSX 10.6 system (this behaviour was noticed and reported long ago). It shows up only once on 1st run p2l, and not on consequenced runs in same poser session.

Small conclusion - since I did a lot of testings to p2l and didn't noticed this bug earlier (which doesn't proof anything), and the only thing that lately changed was some updates to OSX 10.6 - i start suspect that this problem is in how the python is interpreted on mac. Or there is some wrong assumption in code since begining which just revealed now, after specific patch to OSX. If I be able to find machine with OSX 10.6 without latest updates then I'll test p2l on it and report back.

cheers

cubek

Quite more investigations at my side, but no easy solution.

Poser on Mac seems to use TCL and TK frameworks/libraries for running python compiled code. On OSX 10.5 there is version 8.4.7 while OSX 10.6 uses 8.5 and 8.4.19 for backward compatibility.

During my tests I replaced whole 10.6's TCL/TK frameworks with these from 10.5 and pose2lux start to act just as under 10.5 (with some menu glitches, but without corrupting Poser). Other method that I used was just replace under 10.6 folders for 8.4 TCL/TK framework/library which is bit safer.

If someone is interested to play with these files, they are located in /System/Library/Frameworks/Tcl.framework/ and /System/Library/Frameworks/Tk.framework/ To make changes in these folders you have to have root privileges.

cubek

I've started using Pose2Lux just recently with PPro2010 (winvista 64bit) and no crashes with the latest build and Luxrender RC3

But today something strange happened (nt sure if someone has experiencec it before, but I haven't read all 27 pages :lol:)

I created a testscene with Transpond's Forest Mysteria and 2 characters (L3 and V4). No errors during conversion or loading the .lxs file in Luxrender, but..... the clothing wasn't conformed in Luxrender anymore?!?!

saved/reloaded the scene in Poser and converted once more, same problem.

Deleted V4 from the scene, and no problem in Lux....

made a testscene with only L3/V4, and also no problem, See attached image. What may cause this?

Also noticed that the auto assign materials function didn't use the (basic) skin materials on L3. Is this intentional or not yet implemented?  (It did work on V4....)

Just had a similar problem with K4 (only 1 character) and the Infinity Cove 2 set.... clothing / hair didn't stay conformed..

It may have something to do with the used scenery??? Both the Forest Mysteria and the Infinity Cove 2 sets are 'characters' not props (although that may not explain why the Forest Mysteria test did render with only the L3 character...

We had this same problem in a very early alpha release of Pose2Lux. While some might not mind the automatic undressing, I was keen to have clothes on my figure...lol. It looks as though it's reared it's head again...hehe.

As for the basic skin and your L3 character, I'm going to assume that L3 is Laura? If it's not, it could be that L3's skin material zones were not included into P2L's code. We included as many figures as possible, but it's also possible some got missed ;). If it's not working, I'm not entirely sure why as Laura's zones are all the same as V3's and I know she was included.

Laurie

We did have issues with conforming clothing a long time ago, early on in the project, but those issues were resolved (we thought, anyway!).

Does this problem only occur when using Forest Mysteria, or has it happened when you are not using that product?

I've just had a quick look in the RDNA store, and I can only see Forest Mysteria 2 for sale. Is that the one you're using? I'm not averse to buying a copy for troubleshooting purposes but it may not be of any help if it's a different version to yours.

As for the auto assign issue, I cannot reproduce the problem. I assume L3 refers to Laura from DAZ? If so, the assignment of skin is working ok with my version of the figure.

Included in the Pose2Lux distribution is a script called 'materials.py'. If you add your L3 to an otherwise empty scene, select the figure and run the script it will produce some output which will help me fix the problem. Perhaps you could do so and copy/paste the output here?

Well, I'v just done some more small tests and it seems it is related to the (changing of) render dimensions.

The scene was setup with a render dimension of 500x800, but I used the override resolution option (for 1200x1920 dimension) and it failed. I saved/reloaded the scene and changed the render-resoultion in Poser, converted again, and failed again...

Changed the resolution in poser to 600x960, converted again, and -- no problems ---

L3 is indeed Laura, and yes, I used the Forest Mysteria 2 set (and the infinity cove 2 set)

Further testing from me will have to wait a little... different time-zone, it's about 3.00 AM here, time for me to hit the sack... but I will try-out your suggestions....and post the result....

And thank you both for your quick reactions!

Good news 1st. Auto assigning skin to Laura works! Most have done something wrong in the 1st tests..... sorry for the false alarm.

As for the conforming problem, well, look at the attached image.

The 1st render is PPro2010. The 2nd is the result in Lux after export; dress and hair not conformed. I guess I got a little brainwave after that, as it did remind me of similar problems in Vue 8 when importing conformed items from Poser8 or PPro2010!. So for the 3rd render I unchecked the 'include scales when conforming' option in PPro2010 on the dress (not the hair, there the button still was checked), export to lux, and voila, the clothing (and hair) are still conformed. Just like with Vue 8, a real hit and miss situation, sometimes it works, sometimes it don't.

So I got back to my Forest Mysteria scene, with the V4 and Laura character, but even after unchecking the 'scaling' button, it still wouldn't work in Lux.

The only way I could get this scene to work was to reload the scene in Poser 7 (and thus loosing the auto scaling opttion), manually adjust the clothing on the heavily scaled V4-character (sigh!) and export from Poser7 to Lux; finally got it working.

Again very much like the situation with Vue 8 and Poser8/PPro2010.

E-on 'solved' this problem in Vue 9 by giving the user the choice of enabling 1 of 3 different poser-SDK's, depending on the poser version used, and a simple trial and error method. (if it works, fine, if not, try the next..... :lol: )

If you need more info, or some specific testing, please let me know. Mind you, I'm not an expert (as you probably have already guessed), but I'll do my best....

Attached Link: Pose2Lux Pro 0.6.0

This version is brought to you courtesy of some more ODF wizardry! Pose2Lux can now export the necessary additional geometry to give planar meshes a user-definable thickness. The added geometry has its normals 'flipped' so that the resultant mesh has a proper 'inside'. While this code is experimental, early tests suggest that it is working nicely :-)

CHANGES:

Added function to create additional geometry, as explained above
Micodisplacement levels range increased to 20 (from 5)

To use the new geometry functionality, use the new 'MAKE2SIDED' and 'THICKNESS' attributes in the element of your material definitions, e.g.:

Thickness units are PNUs 

Thanks.  Is there a way to have a checkbox for the material and have it automatically added per material, or is this something that will come later with the material editor?

Actually, it shouldn't be too hard to just add a 2-sided glass material.  Now to learn how to do so!

Quote - Thanks.  Is there a way to have a checkbox for the material and have it automatically added per material, or is this something that will come later with the material editor?

I thought of doing a checkbox, and still might. It's quite a bit of extra coding but I'll do it if people really want it. The reason I chose not to is because I thought it'd be easier to apply via a material. Take, for example, the V4 eyesurface material - if you wanted that to be double-sided then you'd need to check it for each V4 you load, in each scene you make. If you make an eyesurface material which is double-sided and which you then add to your Pose2Lux DAZ gen 4 material template, you never have to remember again - it's automatically applied every time.

That was the cunning plan, anyway :-)

And a good plan, at that.  That makes sense.  Although I can see the benefit to a checkbox option for one off items, I wouldn't put it as a high priority.  For me, most of my renders are of architecture, so it would be somewhat simple, (I hope), to just add a 2-sided glass material for windows. 

I had not thought about eyesurface materials.  Shows how much I render people.

Quote - And a good plan, at that.  That makes sense.  Although I can see the benefit to a checkbox option for one off items, I wouldn't put it as a high priority. 

I forgot to menton: it's not just a checkbox - you'd also have to set the thickness for each material too (and remember what the right value was every time!). Another reason it's easier to do via a material preset.

I'm sure the material wizards here will post a few 'double-sided materials'  soon enough :-)

Squeals like an oversugared schoolgirl while downloading  I see many hours of xml in my near future.... No more eye props to get my double sided eye surface... and and....

Okay, Snarly and ODF I thinks I loves you both right now!

Thank you. thank you, thank you!

I've got a quick question that is most likely answered earlier.  Is there any way to use overlay maps?  For example, there is a V4 Age injector that uses overlays in the texture portion that adds age spots and the like to a V4.  One could also use tattoos, etc. 

If not, is there any plan on adding that capability?  I hate to bring up the other plugin for Daz, but it now does support this.  I am thinking it may be a while yet, as it may be a part of the material editor you have planned. 

Yes, in principle it does. It would mean writing a custom material in XML, but it's quite possible.

I'm working all weekend, but next week I'll produce an example material that others can use as a template (unless someone else works it out first!)

Oh now that is something to try to bend my mind to this weekend.  Once all the darned errands and chores are done that is.

The only thing I'm bending my mind to this weekend is Blender and LuxBlend weeps uncontrollably ;o)

Laurie

For me, it's back to the drawing board with Kids4 and poser... Sigh Why couldn't I have been a computer geek? :b_tonguewink:

I am not happy with DS 4, and after my experience watching its development cycle, I want to break my dependence on DS 3 for use with Lux.  To that end, last night I started playing with Pose2Lux, and I have a question:

Does Lux treat materials the same, regardless of the 3D app bridge used?

The simple answer is yes: a Luxrender scene, including its materials, is defined in one or more textfiles and as far as Luxrender is concerned it is irrelevant how thosetextfiles were created or what exporter was used.

Of course, one exporter may make better choices of materials than another when converting between (for example) Poser/DAZ materials and Lux materials.

Pose2Lux isn't especially clever at making wise conversion choices but its attempts are generally passable and will anyhow improve in future updates. Rather, its strength lies in the facility with which you can assign your own material conversions choices via its user interface. For advanced users, there is also the possibility of creating your own materials and adding them to the built-in library of materials from which you can make your choices.

I hope you enjoy using Pose2Lux. I have recently begun work on a comprehensive user manual but it won't be available for a few weeks. In the meantime you can always get help by posting here or at www.Pose2Lux.com, or by PMing me here or even catch me on IM (snarly1961@yahoo.co.uk).

There's only 1 set of material types for Lux: http://www.luxrender.net/wiki/LuxRender_Materials

If you're coming from Reality, it abstracts things a bit to try and simplify it. But it's still exporting to those^

EDIT: Snarly beat me

Yes, Pose2Lux doesn't make any new materials other than what Luxrender itself can use. What Pose2Lux does differently is that you can write your own materials based on Luxrenders shaders and set them up in an xml file to use in the Pose2Lux exporter. If you write them, you have control over the amounts of reflection, gloss, translucency, etc. Only a few of us write our own mats: it's not something you learn overnight...lol. It's easy enough to set a material up in xml, but you have to understand Luxrender material parameters first. The materials included with the exporter work fine with most things, so if you substitute your Poser material for one of the materials in the exporter things should look nice when you render in Luxrender :). Pose2Lux doesn't do as much for you as Reality does, but in the end there is probably more control over the output than what Reality has. You just have to do more of the work yourself ;).

Laurie

And some of us are still making it all up as we go along hoping we are close to something right, or realizing we need yet another addition to the P2L code to make our .xml ugliness work.

The basics can be picked up in a few days easily.  The more complex material combinations, well, they can induce bouts of swearing, cursing and the contemplation of computer homicide.

Quote - ...The more complex material combinations, well, they can induce bouts of swearing, cursing and the contemplation of computer homicide.

Not to mention hair loss ;).

Laurie

:b_funny: yes that's true!

As with any software, when you first learn it there is one step that is usually skipped.  It really shouldn't be skipped.

That step is:

Shave all of your hair off.  Thast way you won't ruin it for the future.  By the time it grows back, you will have a pretty good handle on the program and won't be needing to pull it as much.

Quote - Shave all of your hair off.  Thast way you won't ruin it for the future.  By the time it grows back, you will have a pretty good handle on the program and won't be needing to pull it as much.

This is especially true if your hair is of the dynamic variety.

With no hair you will render much faster.

Quote - > Quote - ...The more complex material combinations, well, they can induce bouts of swearing, cursing and the contemplation of computer homicide.

Not to mention hair loss ;).

Laurie

Still trying to regrow what I lost over the whole skin thing....

Bleh double posted on me

This is working beautifully here.  Thank you so much for the development of this, previously it was a long work around with exporting them into Blender, recomposing the scene, and making sure all the lights worked.  Now, its a few clicks simpler, and runs like a champ. =)

And far better than paying 80 (80?!:scared: ) dollars for Reality. 

Hi there!

I just wanted to thank all involved in development of P2L... well done! Thrilled to be able to integrate my Poser scenes!

Love it! :o)=)

Thank you for these kind posts. It's nice to know that P2L is out there and being used!

Of course, Pose2Lux is the result of the endeavours of many people, so I hope they won't mind if I say thank you on behalf of all of them.

I'm currently working on a new user guide for Pose2Lux so if there are any areas that you think need special attention do let me know :-)

Snarlygribbly,

When you write the users guide, could you perhaps write it for a total beginner?  I have been following this thread and have bookmarked both the Pose2Lux and LuxRender download pages.  BUT, I have not downloaded anything yet because I am totally intimidated by the changes that need to be made for materials.  Silly I know.  Please forgive me.

** **

Quote - Snarlygribbly,

When you write the users guide, could you perhaps write it for a total beginner?  I have been following this thread and have bookmarked both the Pose2Lux and LuxRender download pages.  BUT, I have not downloaded anything yet because I am totally intimidated by the changes that need to be made for materials.  Silly I know.  Please forgive me.

** **

 

 

If I might say, materials are quite easy.  There is a basic assortment of materials off-the-bat, all you have to do is apply them.

Glossy works for somewhat shiny things, matte is good for not-shiny things (things that don't reflect much specular), glass and architectural glass are great for reflective or, well, glass objects.

There's also auto assign, if you are feeling extremely lazy.  Just do a once through to make sure everything assigned okay (I've had it do a couple random things, like make dresses glossy when they should be matte), but it's not so scary. =)

And the ambient materials can be taken care of in the P2L script (GUI) in Poser.  If there is something you don't want glowing, just go to the emitter panel, find the not-supposed to be glowing object, and move it to the right.  Then, click and say Set Ambient to ZERO in scene.  It'll also change it in Poser, so be warned. =P

Quote -  Then, click and say Set Ambient to ZERO in scene.  It'll also change it in Poser, so be warned. =P

And just to clarify: this last step is optional. Moving the emitters to the 'Rejected' list is sufficient to stop them behaving as emitters in the exported scene. When you use the 'Save All' menu option the status of each emitter (i.e. whether it's in the 'keep' list or the 'Rejected' list) is saved too, so you may prefer to do that rather than changing values in the Poser scene itself. 'Tis up to you!

Thanks guys, now I am really scared. lol

Has anyone saved any Poser light sets that they use for exported scenes to Lux? I seriously would like to see the light sets for study.

I can't speak for others, but for indoor scenes I use emitters made from Poser primitives or parts of the scene geometry. As such there are no actual  Poser light sets to share.

Similarly, for outdoor scenes I use the the Lux sun/sky options, or a skydome. Again, they don't translate into a Poser light set.

However, I believe BB's free light studio for P8 has been used to good effect in Pose2Lux, so that might be your best starting point.

Ah, well. I've been using point lights scaled to 500% just before export. But I've not been sure of the distances of the lights to the subject for good soft shadows. I think that I've had my lights too close to the subject of my image because some of the shadows are far too blurred and indistinct. The current render I have going looks like the distance of my forefront point light is probably about right but I'm getting a lot of noise that isn't resolving much.

The only thing I'm have a bit of an issue with is the relationship between the emitter size/ material/ gain... basically my smaller emitters are rendering really bright, but aren't giving off as much light as they should seem to...? For example, I've been using vikike176's lantern from FA6- Ancient Dawn and using the small lights as emitters. They're "double layered" (smaller sphere inside a larger sphere) and both layers have ambient values. I've tweaked the ambient values for both layers in Poser, and emitter values and materials in P2L, but without a good compromise.

I've read through this thread, but didn't quite gather anything that fixes my "problem" (of course it's probably staring me in the face...!). I've been playing with all the different controls- gain, gamma, render types, ambient value in Poser, emitter values in P2L, but can't seem to get it looking right.

Any clarification on emitter values would be greatly appreciated- either here, or in the user's manual...

Thanks muchly!! :biggrin:

Custom dialed character with Thorne/Sarsa's 'Mesektet' texture, and Hongyu's Cowgirl4 jacket. I used the "RhiLau" skin material setting on the character, "Latex/Bright Red" on the jacket. 2 mesh-lights, 1 small square to emulate a spotlight, a large square for a 'softbox'.
 
I'm still having troubles with conforming clothes in PPro2010 and Pose2Lux/Luxrender, it's really a hit and (mostly) miss situation... It seems the culprit is the 'include scales when conforming' option in PPro2010.

This render was setup in PPro2010, but instead of using the above mentioned option, I used D3D's 'Copy Scaling' python script. No problems with conforming after export as can be seen :lol:

Looks nice but still has that "Poser" look... Really like the jacket look tho...

Not enough specularity on the skin. Not enough SSS on skin and especially the eyes. Use the features of lux, otherwise we can already do better in Firefly.

I guess you both hit the nail on the spot... still new at using luxrender, so I guess it will take me 'quite a few' more tries before I call a lux-render no longer a test-render.