So as we all know V4 gets the lions share of content. Lionesses?  I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has gone to make a render and found the runtimes held 4 outfits for Mike and 300 for vicky.

So I've decided that I'm going to finally install a pile of my hoarded m4 content and actually get this runtime into a workable shape.

My goals:

1  Sort and install a pile of stuff

2  Find or make male characters I actually want to render. I like artistic and slim, not burly and hairy. So theres scant pickings for premade characters.

3  Weed out the characters (content) I'm never ever going to use (gridiron outfit? no way!)

4  Put together a useable wardrobe of outfits for mike, starting with content I have and filling in with converted or new made items

5  Retexture any items that need help

6  Actually make some art for a change

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I'm starting with a thankfully fairly organised runtime consising mainly of Michael 4 items from DAZ, some freebies, my own work and the few items I've bought here. The runtime is about 30 gigs - a little big. I hope to weed out some of this.

I have a pile of 539 downloaded items for m4 - mainly freebies Many of these are installed already but its a higgeledy piggeledy mess and its hard to find things

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For people just starting out here is a basic Michael 4 runtime setup

Michael 4 base figure from DAZ -  An obvious choice

Michael 4 Morphs ++ - these are the basic head and body morphs that 90% of all dialed characters use

Michael 4 Elite - M4 elite adds a handful of new morphs for Mike, mostly in the big and beefy range. The m4 Elite skins, which are separate, are worth  it for quality (this includes Sol and Lee)

Hiro 4 - Hiro is the anime morph set. The head is well .. manga boy. But the bodyshapes are separate and are great for younger and slimmer characters

The Freak 4 - This is the set for really big bulky guys, barbarians, wredtlers, and the Hulk.  There is an issue in some versions of poser with the scaling on Freak 4 but its a fast fix.

Michael 4 Enhanced - The first vendor made item. Michael4 enhanced is a large and odd set for Mike. It contains not only a pile of head and body morphs, but also a full set of female shapes for mike - just in case you needed a strong female character.

M4E also includes the extremely useful V4-mapped-m4 and the v4-grouped m4. These versions are made so they can use V4's skin textures and v4's morphs without any more work on your part. just click and go.  (V4 Vittorio has the same things going the other way)

Morphus - the next vendor item. Anyone familiar with Capsces sets will know whats in here. Loads and loads of morphs, plus one click dialers for a variety of looks and shapes. Many of the presets verge on the toony, but the morphs themselves are rock solid.  This set also includes female shaping.

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Okay thats the basic Mike and his Morphs list.

What Must Have morphs do you guys think should be in everyones Mike 4 Runtime? (not characters, just morphs, characters is its own topic)

LM

Not exactly a morph but a useful product, Vascularity for Poser by Zev0 will give your texture map displacement veins at varying intensities.  Adds a little bit more realism to the renders.

'Michael 4 Muscle Morphs' - my favorite is the wiry body type.

'SKINsource M4' - A merchant resource skin creation system for Michael 4 & Hiro 4

Creature Morphs and Ethnic Faces (or whatever it's called) are an absolute must for me. Make M4 much more useful.

Colorcurvature's M4/K4 mixer... will give you a range of Kids through adults from Mike.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/cols-m4k4-mixer/98820

It also fits M4 clothing to the resulting characters in one click.

It does require one small workaround for use with Poser 10/PP2014... You have to invert the state of the checkboxes in the "Conforming" section of the properties box. Other than that, it is dynamite! A MUST HAVE.

Quote - Not exactly a morph but a useful product, Vascularity for Poser by Zev0 will give your texture map displacement veins at varying intensities.  Adds a little bit more realism to the renders.

In my opinion this product is not a "You have to have it " product at all ,  it is very easy to create your own veins and have the freedom to undo them, modify them etc. I recently upload a tutorial here:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2881027

(do not sell fish, better show me how to fish)

Colorcurvature's M4/K4 mixer (all Colorcurvature product are amazing) and M4 muscle morphs I think are worth having them in the runtimes

Morph sets:

At Renderosity:

!SimpleDetails!M4
Perfect Booty M4 - Automatic Fix
i13 Fountain of YOUTH for M4
i13 OVERHAUL M4 Edition
i13 real BELLY M4
i13 SQUISH glute morphs for M

At DAZ:

Michael4XprssnMagic

At RuntimeDNA:

M4 Ultra Morphs And Face Randomizer
M4 Ultra Morphs And Face Randomizer MERCHANT RESOURCE KIT (If you want to make figures for sale)

At Renderotica:

Henrika's M4 Wounds Pack
Henrika's M4 Fixes 1 (More leg & hip fixes)
Crom 131's Dr Soles M4 Manly Foot Morphs Vol.2 (Vol 1 is for V4/A4)

Well the unpacking and reorganising continues ...

I have unpacked all the m4 morphs I have on hand.  14 of them got shooed off to the 'Character' folder to get sorted later - if it includes Morphs + mats, its a character.

Now I need to load and test all of these, which should be an interesting chore. A great many seem to be head-only-dial-spinners. Not technically morphs, since they have no unique geometry. Chances are I'm going to delete a lot of the spinners, I know, I'm picky.

I also have 47 obj morph to load in and save as pmd for later - looks like a lot of actor/character morphs as well as some random other things like elephant, hawk and Klingons. Again not all of these will be kept

In the list of geometry based morphs I have various vampire fangs, elf ears, loads of aliens, and so forth.  What I do not have are joint fix morphs So that goes on my Buy or Make List.

Vascularity - I actually have the vascularity MR set, by Zev? I think.  But its map based, so I wasn't thinking of it in terms of morphs. I suppose since it does chaneg the perception of the gemetry it should be at least mentioned. In theory some muscle definition maps could be painted as well, thats somehting to think about.

Muscle Morphs - Like I said I don't much like beefcake so I tend to ignore the Muscle Morphs. I also strongly object to the less than simple way DAZ coded these morphs, which makes clothing support for them a nightmare.  But it is a very nice detail morph set for those who do like the muscles. Remember - most of the FBM use Morphs++ morphs. So both need to be loaded

M4 k4 Mixer -  I've never seen the need for this. With my 'Shape of M4' I can make m4 any height I want, and then its a simple matter of adjusting the head ratio for the age. I suppose some users might like the one method more than the other.

Creature Morphs -  Gosh I forgot those in my first list!  If you do any renders with aliens, monsters or anthro characters you need these. The Creature Creator sets include a set of conforming hoofed legs and pawed legs and horns with corresponding horn-socket morphs for the head. very handy. The morphs have some great animal heads including some oddballs like snake and turtle.

Freak Creature Expansion - Some very nice head morphs for large scary characters suitable for fantasy and sci fi renders. Some great detailing on these.

Distinctive Features -  Adds a bunch of facial detail morphs plus a load of head presets using them. For more real world options for nose, mouth, etc. nice finisher to mix in with other morph sets

Squish Morphs - I've never bothered to get any of these. I make what I need either with magnets or with the most excellent morph brush. For people who arent willing to dig in and make them on the fly, probably a basic set of squish morphs for sitting at least would be useful

Buy Or Make

Joint Correction Morphs

Head Size Dials

Freak 4 Fix pz2

Aging morphs ? (seem to have some but none for hands)

Check what animal morphs I have and fill in the list - dont seem to have a horse

Arm Length Dials

Now I'm off to test a zillion morphs. wheeeeee

LM

Technically not a morph set but presets requiring Morphs ++ and Elite Ethnic Faces is The Man in the Mirror by Virtual World.  http://www.daz3d.com/the-man-in-the-mirror

Well I've looked at all the morphs I have on hand.  I havent tackled the OBJ ones yet, I'll do them all in a bunch when I'm ready to start the building section of the mad odessey

The next step is reviewing all the Characters / skins I have on hand and ditching the ones I will never ever use.

Right now I have 38 folders in the  'maybe keep' and 53 in the 'checkme'.  So its going to take a little while to dig through all this.

Ones I know I'm going to keep:

The Elite series from DAZ - Sol, Lee, Stratton and Rob.  Good detail, decent shaders.

Max, Jayden and Derek from Liquidrust

Nathen - because redheads are hot :)

Since I finally herded all the character sets into one folder, converting all the pz2 mats to mc6, I've found some things I didnt know I had. Like the Hiro4 base skins .. those actually look pretty good.

I know I'm keeping the special purpose skins - all of Rawarts animals, the DarkLord drow set, and Ghost of Macbeths most excellent Orc and Goblin Hordes.

I'm doing fast loads and looking at the previews for the first passs .. the second pass will take rendering and that will take a while longer.

I also expect a few may need tweaking to spiff up to current standards.

Spiffing Tools

ezskin2 by SnarlyGribbly & Co - this is a FREE python script. Once you have it set up you simply select your figure, run the script and hey presto, it adds SSS, better shaders and all sorts of things.  Definately worth it, and works on several hundred figures.

Vascularity Maps - takes a little node wrangling, but you can add these to exsiting skins live in poser and add that little bit of realism. You can also go edit the actual imagemaps and do it that way, but thats a destructive edit, which I prefer avoiding

Eyebrow/eyelash trans - might need to swap in some fresh transmaps for skins which are a little lacking in that area

Genitals - m4 has snap on parts.  Not all texture makers include those, so you should find a merchant resource kit that includes them and be prepared to adjust colours in pshop to match your skin, just in case you need to show the tackle.

Spiffing tools to add to Buy or Make

Goth man nailpolish

Goth Man makeup overlays

Tribal Man makeup overlays

Aging overlays

Buy Or Make
Bend Correction Morphs
Head Size Dials
Freak 4 Fix pz2
hand and foot details
Arm Length Dials
finger lentgh dials
Neck Length
horse head
deer head

LM

there's a steep m4 sale on right now at daz.  you can see it from the scrolling banner.

Characters Needed

Its no surprise that of 68 character sets 41 are caucasian. Creatures are fairly well respresented but I should pick up Rawarts feline skins/morphs.  Ethnic skins have only five, one asian and five mid tone african. I need to find a very dark skin, I seem to remember a v4 male character I may convert over.

I am lacking  suitable merman skin, although Ranaka may do in a pinch.

Clothing Needed

I'm still reviewing clothing.  First review set is Basics.

This includes Basicwear from DAZ of course - mainly modern undies. Could do with more textures for the tank and tshirt.

M4 Bodysuit. This is a ncie versatile item. Loads of material zones means you can convert it to various tight clothing items in a pinch. Its tight fitting, so should go under most other items without much work, and has a thickness morph as well as open morphs. The built in seams are sort of silly, but there are morephs to remove them.

Hooded cloak - this is a refit of the classic hooded cloak and will take all the existing texture.

Valient - this is a fantasy based set but replaces the old Tunic set. It has a nice long tunic with options to shorten skirt and arms. Pants, and boots with crisscross straps. The additional belts, surcoats and whatnot are handy, but the tunic is the item that will get the most use. I've found a few texture for this, but since every culture has tunics I figure on making a few more for variety.

I seem to have no loincloths at all for mike.  This is a sad thing. So it looks like those go into the Buy or Make list.

Buy Or Make
Bend Correction Morphs
Head Size Dials
Freak 4 Fix pz2
hand and foot details
Arm Length Dials
finger lentgh dials
Neck Length
horse head
deer head

Dark African skin

Merman skin

Tunic textures for Valient

M4 Basic wear Tees and Tanks textures

Loin cloths - short, long, egyptian wrap, tarzan flap

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And since I'm sure you are all very tired of my nattering on .. I have my first render from my cleaned up M4 runtime

Image Credits

Tower - one of Tomalins towers from DAZ. (theres several) very nice architectural model

M4 with Giacaomo morph and skin. Skin has been run through ezskin 2 to add SSS and so forth. The tattoos are a skin option.

M4 Bodysuit with a shader from the Torn Nets collection. Yes very indecent but I dont think he cares.

Jai hair by Aprylysh

Pose is from a free set "Vaguely m4" http://www.sharecg.com/v/49586/gallery/11/Poser/Vaguely-M4

Poser 2014 lighting, slightly adjusted.

And then the whole mess was composed and tweaked in photoshop.

I defintely need to deal with the bend issues, this pose wasnt too bad after I adjusted the hands, but on a flat surface I would have needed some serious morphs to fix the wrist bends.

LM

I thought I'd ask this here, since the focus is on M4. 

I just bought Freak 4 and Hiro 4 during the M4 sale at DAZ, and am having problems getting them to function.

So I decided to do a complete M4 reinstall.

I use Win 7 64-bit, and have had issues with M4 and V4 for a while now off and on. Seems that when I upgraded to PP2012 the method of getting them to install correctly was creating a dummy file in the top level of the runtime under my documents. M4 installed fine using this method. Then installing his morphs failed and gave me an error stating that the morphs have to be installed to the same directory as poser's exe in order for them to function properly. So apparently it was not recognizing this dummy file as the proper exe. I deleted that file and replaced it with a new one that the installer did recognize, and the morphs installed. But they won't load. I can load M4 but when injecting the morphs it only creates the empty morph sets. The Morphs++ drop-down just gives me a list of more empty drop-down categories. 

So can someone explain to me what I've done wrong? I'd like to get these figures functioning correctly in PP2012/PP2014. I have a saved copy of M4 in a different runtime with all his morphs++ morphs saved into the CR2 but I'd rather not have to rely on this, and the freak and hiro morphs won't load into that one either, so it doesn't do me any good in that regard. 

ETA: Yes I ran the M4 innitialize script after each component was installed. 

Are there certain files that need to be installed in the main Poser Pro runtime under program files? I figure this is where the problem is.

~Shane

x-posted with you basic. yes I did. :(

~Shane

Try copying the !Daz folder into Poser's main runtime. That fixed it for me when I upgraded to Poser 10. Running 64-bit Win 7 and so far Mike (and Vicky) work just fine.

Attached Link: ShareCG - Create Poser Mats

/edit- noticed you already posted regarding DF. Searched the thread for Surreality initially.

There is also Aged for V4/M4 available at Daz. The morphs work fine in Poser, but you'll have to apply the maps manually, or use something like Create Poser Mats from DS (will still work in 4.6), as it only comes with Daz Studio presets.

Thanks Byrdie, that seems to have mostly worked for the freak. Haven't gotten Hiro working yet tho.

The scaling in Freak's arms seems to be broken. It doesn't scale the arms up the way it does the rest of his limbs, so I have to manually scale each one up to 115%. Is this common or is it something likely wrong on my end still? And the default texture remains M4 so I have to load the Freak skin from the pose library. No freak skins in the materials library where they're supposed to be.  

Apologies for the slight thread derailment - I just thought it could be useful for others that might have problems getting M4 or other Gen4 figures working in newer versions of Poser, since this is an issue that's popped up several times since P9 and win7+. So answers to these questions might be useful in an M4 runtime thread.

~Shane

The Freak 4 problems are well known, but easy to fix.

http://forum.runtimedna.com/showthread.php?72599-Solution-for-the-Freak4-scaling-problem

Thanks for the link Moriador. Got any links for Hiro too? lol. Still can't figure out why he's not working. 

~Shane

Quote - Clothing NeededI seem to have no loincloths at all for mike.  This is a sad thing. So it looks like those go into the Buy or Make list.

I don not have these, so I do no know if the lengths can be adjusted.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/search.php?adv_search=&criteria=loincloth&dept=268275&type=B

These are in the Free Stuff.  Note:  THe second is for M2, but you should be able to convert it.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/?item_id=56968

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/?item_id=33313

wow .. and here I thought I was talking to myself

on the morph install issues - make sure you have run the initialisition ( the.bat file) ANY time you install ERC morphs.  This unpacks the data files into the places that the cr2 looks for.

Also - NEVER save over your base m4 figure. The michael 4 base as shipped from DAZ contains a whole pile of programming calls that load up the data from the !DAZ folder to create the channels and the morphs every time Mike is loaded. If you save over your m4 base, you lsoe all this and your m4 will never be updated.

To use these morphs load your m4, and then inject the morphs from the pose folder. Materials will be in the materials folder or the pose folder, often both.

One of the things I did while sorting characters was to convert all the pz2 format character injectors into mc6. This means all my characters are finally in one folder, and no more hopping around betwen Poses and Materials looking for things. The INJ poses still work just fine as poser just follows the directions in the file and doens't much care whats on the tin.

( to convert a pz2 to mc6 you must change the suffix of the file from yourfile.pz2 to yourfile.mc6, and edit one line inside the file from 'figure' to 'mtlcollection', its right at the top. And of course switch things the other way to convert to pz2)

I'm sure most people following this thread know all that already - but its good to have it written out someplace for the very lost and new :)

Vaskania - I actually haven't gone raiding v4's folders yet. But yes, I do intend to copy over Equinox and Zere abnd ummmm darn. that other one for v4 male. Jinn

I'll also be stealing some clothing from david, hiro and m3 when I get aorund to it. And possibly Genesis now that I have DS working again.

On Freak 4 issues - one of the things in my Buy or Make list is a fix pz2 to fix mikes arms as a one click solution. This has always been an issue when making clothing fit freak 4 in DS, so most vendors have it fixed in clothing already. I'll definately put that one up as a freebie once I've made it.

Gremalkyn -  oh thank you. still will need the classic tarzan animal skin buttflap but those look very handy. I do like that celtic one. Interesting design.

No new renders today I'm afraid .. I've been busily working getting some things done.  I have a pile of things to send in here at Rendo including a 4 piece M4 Italian Rennaisance set.

While I'm at it .. I've started adding freebie links to a pinterest board. I know, but its the easiest way to keep a pile of links together.

http://www.pinterest.com/lyrramadril/poser-ds-freebies/

LM