Hi everyone , 

I have been creating some textures for some content and I want to ask how do you create MAT files for the new textures.

I have never created a MAT file before so its something completely new to me normally I use the material Lab to change textures but I want to release them on here.

Any help on this would be really appreciated.

There are different types of MAT file. For mt5 (single) 'MATerial', or mc6 'MATerial Collection', in the Poser Material Room, save either a single material, or a material collection, respectively. To make a 'MAT Pose' (pz2) file in P6 or above, save an mc6 (MATerial Collection), then open it in a text editor, replace the string "mtlCollection"  near the top of the file, with the string "figure". Save the file to a Pose folder with a ".pz2" file extension.

That's also easy to do, just look for lines like...

"c:Program Filesposerruntimetexturesfoldernameofthingyname of the #cool! dress material.jpg"
...and change that to read...
":Runtime:Textures:foldernameofthingy:dressmaterial.jpg"

That change is needed because not everyone installs poser content to the same drive or folder. Plus some versions of poser, especially on the mac, and daz studio don't like spaces or non-standard characters in the filename of the texture map.  

he other thing to note is folder packaging. All zip files need to have the following structure as per the image.

Thanks everyone it for that its currently clothing textures that I am working on so I need to create mat files for them.

I completely dont understand any of the above it is competely above my head 

I really need some one to explain this step by step in a later than P6. expert village is afwul they give video's that are like 1min that explain nothing and are written in P6.

I completely dont understand any of the above it is competely above my head

Don't worry, once you done it once or twice it'll be easy enough.

Also try searching the forums and store here for MAT pose Editing software.

Plus have a hunt around the tutorials section as well. Think Dr Geep might have some.

I will do that but I am working off Clothing templates that come with the contentand there is only 1 file.

Looked through the store for mat builders & the tutorials pages everything is poser 6 for creating Mat files so I think i am going to just give up on releasing my designs and I will continue to add everything manually in the material lab. 

this is unless someone can guide me to a tutorial that is based 2010 or poser 8 even smith micro's tutorials are poser 6.0

Please don't give up over such a small thing.

In fact it makes no difference if the software is for P6 as the MAT poses it creates will work in P8 and PP2010.

Indeed the version number inside a MAT pose file should be set to 5 or 6 anyway, because if a P6 or P7 user (and theres loads of  them around) will get a version number error if the MAT pose is set to 8.

Theres another option here as well, if you ask in the forums here someone might be willing to convert your MC files to MAT for you. It's a pretty friendly place where loads of people will help each other.

If you have Poser 8 or above then use:-

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/matwriter-panel/82532

Very easy to use!!!

All the best.

LROG

Don't give up until you've at least looked through vincebagna's tutorial.   It's clearly explained step by step and you'll see it's really not a big deal after all.

http://www.vincebagna.com/index.php/en/tutorials/mat-poses-files

turn off use compressed files under general options.

create a material collection in the materials library. this will give you an mc6 file and a thumbnail png. 

copy the mc6 file and thumbnail to your pose library, using a meaningful folder name for your product.

rename the mc6 file to a pz2 file extension.

edit the new pz2 file with wordpad (for windows)

change the line that read mtlcollection , and change it to figute.

thats it , you now have a working mat pose file.

This is the start of an mc6 file

{

version
    {
    number 6
    }
mtlCollection <<<<<<<<< change this
    {
    material 2_SkinHead
        {
        KdColor 0.843137 0.980392 0.980392 1
        KaColor 0.0784314 0 0 1

and this is a mat pose file

{
version
    {
    number 4.01
    }
figure  <<<<<<<<<< to this
    {
    
        {
        KdColor 0.976471 0.976471 0.976471 1
        KaColor 0 0 0 0
        KsColor 0 0 0 1

Thanks that link seems to be a better tutorial than the others.

Since I posted this I have picked up Texture converter 2.04 which says it can not only convert V3 textures to v4 but also create single MAT files.

I will try it out and see what happens.

Well my Txt looks nothing like ethier of the above this is what mat pose writer is creating and the texture is not appearing ethier when i load it.

{

version
{
number 4.01
}

actor BODY:1
{
channels
{
propagatingScale scale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
propagatingScaleX xScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
propagatingScaleY yScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
propagatingScaleZ zScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
rotateY yrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateX xrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateZ zrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
translateX xtran
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
translateY ytran
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
translateZ ztran
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
}
}
actor hip:1
{
channels
{
scale scale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleX xScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleY yScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleZ zScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
rotateY yrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateZ zrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateX xrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
translateX xtran
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
translateY ytran
{
keys
{
k 0 -2.98022992951e-008
}
}
translateZ ztran
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
}
}
actor abdomen:1
{
channels
{
scale scale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleX xScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleY yScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleZ zScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
rotateY yrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateZ zrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateX xrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
}
}
actor chest:1
{
channels
{
scale scale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleX xScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleY yScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleZ zScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
rotateY yrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateZ zrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateX xrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
}
}
actor neck:1
{
channels
{
scale scale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleX xScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleY yScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleZ zScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
rotateY yrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateZ zrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateX xrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
}
}
actor rCollar:1
{
channels
{
scale scale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleX xScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleY yScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleZ zScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
rotateX xrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateY yrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateZ zrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
}
}
actor rShldr:1
{
channels
{
scale scale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleX xScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleY yScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleZ zScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
rotateX xrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateY yrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateZ zrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
}
}
actor lCollar:1
{
channels
{
scale scale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleX xScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleY yScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleZ zScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
rotateX xrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateY yrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateZ zrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
}
}
actor lShldr:1
{
channels
{
scale scale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleX xScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleY yScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleZ zScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
rotateX xrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateY yrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateZ zrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
}
}
actor rThigh:1
{
channels
{
scale scale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleX xScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleY yScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleZ zScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
rotateY yrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateZ zrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateX xrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
}
}
actor lThigh:1
{
channels
{
scale scale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleX xScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleY yScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
scaleZ zScale
{
keys
{
k 0 1.0
}
}
rotateY yrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateZ zrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
rotateX xrot
{
keys
{
k 0 0.0
}
}
}
}

figure
{
}
}

Cracked it Picked up the wrong program whoops ! that's 11 USD for pose writer ( I will learn how to use that though so it wont be money lost) and 9$ for the Mat Writer that's 

£9 for the Pose writer and £7 for the Mat Writer (that's quite a bit of money) and on CC :-(

Lesson LEARNED !!

I got MatWriter Panel, and am having a problem writing DS mats.  Has anyone else had a "Parse Error" in the log and do you know what caused/solved it?

Thanks guys,
Barry

Attached Link: Create MAT poses from Material Room – easily!

This is basically what Mark said above, but more of a walk through and tip to speed it up :-)

Quote - MAtWriter caused problems for me, I just create my MATs and save them to the MAterial folder then convert.

I am in contact with Joe, the coder of MatWriter, trying to solve my problems, and he's being an absolute gem!  Seems most of my problems were because of my work in progress runtime.   Once I organised things into my My Library runtime (for Daz Studio 4) everything worked and conversion was quite quick.

He is very helpful.  I just found it faster and less errors after trying 3 different MATwriting programs to do them as my tut shows.  That's ne though, everyone has their own workflow :-)

I don't have a workflow, I have a workexplosion, it's very similar but a lot less organised!

As others have said, it's dead easy to create a Material Collection then convert it to a MAT pose.  Nowadays, I don't bother converting.  MAT poses were a hack, never an officially supported feature.  They fill up the Pose library and have limitations in use.  Far better to use the Material Collection.