I'm a little confused about this.

If an original binary (PMD) morph is created for V4, can the files be distributed?

As long as the PMD contains only your own original work, i.e. no traces of third party morphs, then yes. It's deltas only and can't be used to recreate the object's geometry, which is the fundamental requirement for morph distribution.

However I'm unclear how you would prevent other morphs being written into the PMD, and hopefully someone else will know. Set them all to zero before saving, at least.  

Thank you EnglishBob. That's what I needed to know.

Hm. Load your own morphs onto a blank V4? That one doesn't contain morphs, does it? (except basic expressions like blink ect, and since they're present in ALL V4s... the end user vill have them anyway)

Not sure if there's a Developer's Version of V4. It's been too long since I made something for her :(

PMD's can be edited in a text editor or you could use Dimension 3D's Binrary Morph Editor to remove any unwanted morphs.

I seem to remember someone made blank V4 and M4 CR2s available, but that was on the old DAZ forum, so best of luck finding those... 

PMDs are a binary format and can't be edited with a text editor, but a dedicated editor such as Dimension3D's would do the job.

Quote - However I'm unclear how you would prevent other morphs being written into the PMD, and hopefully someone else will know. Set them all to zero before saving, at least.

All the morphs in the figure will end up in the pmd, irrespective of whether they are set to zero or not.

A solution, as TrekkieGrrrl pointed out, is to load your morphs into a blank (morph stripped) version of the figure, then create the pmd from that figure.

You can create a morph stripped version of any figure using 'Morph Manager 4' (MM4). * Save a copy of the target figure to the library from within Poser (to resolve any 'readScript'). Make sure that 'Use File Compression' is turned off in General Preferences, before saving the figure.

• Start MM4, and load any pz2 file into one MM4 window (this forces MM4 to display more options).
• Load the  copy of the target cr2 into the same MM4 window.
• Click the 'More Options' button.
• Select 'Delete all morph targets from file'.
• Save the modified cr2 back to disk with a new name, eg "V4-Stripped.cr2".

Or, as EnglishBob pointed out, there were blank versions of V4 and M4 posted on the old DAZ forum, but I don't have a link. Many figures come with development versions, and I assume it os OK to use these to create your pmd files from, but you should check the EULA to be sure. Or there is the D3D Binary Morph Editor as another option, but starting with a blank cr2 is probably the safest way.

As to what copyright law allows you to include, it is generally believed that that the morph must be entirely your own work, and not derivative of any copyrighted morphs. You can't remix other peoples morphs and call that an "original morph".

P.S.
I have never used MM4 on a weight mapped figure, but see no obvious reason why it would not work on such figures.

The blank CR2s were by DavidGB - there's nothing in the readme about redistribution, but I've PMed him at the new DAZ forum to ask for either permission or a link.

Failing that, it should be possible to make new ones, given time.

I'd be wary of using Morph Manager since it's so out of date, and I know it can break PMD morphs. Caveat emptor.  

For what I'm doing, D3D's Morphing Clothes does all the heavy lifting.
Just transfer the desired morph or morphs from a saved cr2 using the base V4.2 for the clothing.
In the transfer dialog, select Create binary morph injection and remove, set the path and filename you want in your pose directory. It'll make both Inj and Rem pz2's with a copy of the thumbnail for the file used for the clothing.
I always move the pmd file to a directory under Libraries and edit the pz2 from c:pathtopmd to :Runtime:pathtopmd

It's easy and fast. Ralf's new update also only places the morphs in the affected body parts, which is great, I used to have to use PMDEdit to remove the useless morph names.

Got hundreds of these, and I just didn't know for sure if they could be distributed.
Thanks

"The cr2 contains no morphs, morph channels or channel grouping, and has none of the (usually hidden) JSM magnets. Unlike the regular V4.2 cr2 it also contains no readScript lines to load any morphs, no IK information, no materials at all, and is already zeroed to use with clothes that have been modelled to fit V4.2 when she is zeroed."

http://forumarchive.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=184223&view=next

_you can create and load morph targets onto this .cr2 and then create .pmd INJ's that contain none of the DAZ proprietary morph data, thus safe for distribution. There is also a link for a M4 version.

ummm, ok. for some reason the link above to the thread is not working as attached, here's the link to the direct download for the V4Blank_

http://www.acol56.ukgateway.net/V4BLANK.zip

edit_ now it's working, go figure. ah well, screw the internet... I'm going to go play some Dead Island now. hope the link is useful to someone. :)

Quote - I'd be wary of using Morph Manager since it's so out of date, and I know it can break PMD morphs. Caveat emptor.

Bob, the point of using Morph Manager in this particular situation is to create a blank cr2 with no morphs. If there are no morphs in the cr2, then they can't be broken, as they don't exist. My process does not remove any valueParm (FBM) channels in the BODY, but for the purpose of creating a pmd, this should not matter. The custom morphs should be added after the blank has been created. If someone wanted they could delete the valueParm channels in MM4 as well, but as I said it does not seem necessary for the current purpose. The custom morphs can be developed and tested in the standard version of the figure so that their interaction with JCM can be checked, then transferred to the blank cr2, which is only used for the purpose of creating the pmd file. As primorge has provided a link for the V4BLANK, in this case it would be easier for bevans84 to use that than to make his own. But it's handy to know you can create your own blank for any figure if needed.

Regarding D3D's Morphing Clothes, when used to transfer morphs from a character to clothing, as the base geometries will be different, it does not, and can't actually transfer the morph deltas, it creates new morph deltas that result in a similar shape to the original morphs. I suppose it could be argued that such morphs are in a sense derivative. I don't know the legal ins and outs of distributing such morphs, but get the sense that no one has been objecting so far, but I'm not really knowledgeable on that subject, and could be wrong.

In this case, Les, the base geometries are the same, aren't they? V 4.2 is being used as both the figure cr2 and the clothing cr2.

The reason I asked is that it almost seems too easy.

As far as I knew you don't redistribute thee PMD files.. You have to get them into pz2 form if making a body or head morph and or in some cases expressions. Or fc2 files for expressions or injecting special morphs like teeth or ears..

Been a long time since I made them but the fang morphs I created were done by making them into a fc2 file.

There was a great mini tute on a forum forget where now but not sure they exist since Daz bought them so to speak and closed the site.