Studio to Poser Conversions

A short while ago I began a thread over on the DAZ Poser forum to post about my attempts to convert Studio products to a native Poser format – it seemed like a good idea for there to be a thread that Poser users could post to about products that can be converted as well as those that couldn’t, if just to serve as a buying guide for others.

I thought that, as various forums have rules about posting to competing stores, perhaps I should start another one here for products at Renderosity. I only have a couple of Genesis products from this store so far but have quite a few in the wish list and I would invite others to post their own successes and failures as well. If you are interested in products from the DAZ store, check the thread there.

Throughout, I shall be using Netherworks’ File Optimiser script, which is part of his Creator’s Tool Box, found in this store and others. Although he cautions against purchasing for this purpose alone, as not all content converts or converts perfectly, I think it does a good enough job on enough products that it was worth the investment. Saying that, a good file optimiser script is always worth having anyway, as it can fix all kinds of problems and set up compression formats for your runtime which can save a remarkable about of space (though as a percentage, not as much as they used to, as the bulk of file sizes in modern products is from texture files).

I largely follow the method recommended by Netherworks in his pdf guide but with some differences – one to save having multiple pmd files and one to accommodate a product called Fit Control. Fit Control (looking through the DAZ store, there are some similar products out there but this is the one I have) adds a group of hidden morphs in the Genesis bases which it transfers to clothing using a script run from the contents tab in Studio. These morphs are intended to counter the effects of the shrink wrapping effect from the algorithmic auto follow feature in studio that accommodates shapes not supported by the clothing product.

One thing that I won’t be talking about much here is the subject of materials – if you’ve seen my gallery, you know I have no interest in photorealism and a lot of texture detail is actually unwelcome when it comes to preparing images for painting over.

I’ll start by summarising how I went about making the Genesis and Genesis 2 figures Poser native, then, probably at the weekend, I’ll get the ball rolling by converting and posting about the two Genesis 2 products I have from this store.

Notes on Making Genesis in a Native Poser Figure

One big difference between the way Genesis works and how we’re used to Poser figures working, is in the UV maps. Different full body morphs will often have there own custom UV map associated with them to limit texture stretching, which is a nice feature.

In theory, it might have been possible to implement in Poser by using geometry switching dials to reference different object files with their own UV maps. However, my understanding is that this only works in Poser’s Traditional skinning, while subdivision, essential these days and particularly for Genesis, requires Poser Unimesh. So that’s out. Pity.

Before you start up Studio, if you are using the Fit Control product, uninstall it now. Reinstall after you have your Genesis figure set up in Poser, as you will need it back for preparing clothing items but you don’t wanted it in the exported cr2’s you’re about to create.

In order to get the multiple UV mapped characters, load Genesis in Studio, set the UV option you want in the Surfaces tab, and then export a cr2. I’ve built a library of quite a few of these thanks to recent sales, so I needed to do 20.

Using using the File Optimiser, you will need to optimise these to make them run happily in Poser without Studio running. As part of this process, you will be asked to copy a corresponding obj file for each cr2 (I had a folder prepared for all of these and gave them handy to remember names, such as Genesis_StephanieUVs.obj).

Having 20 obj files isn’t a problem, nor is having 20 cr2 files either – the problem is that we now have 20 pmd files, each packed with about 150mb of morph data, which is a lot of bloat. Delete all but one of the cr2 files and all but one of the pmd files. Name the remaining pmd Genesis.pmd and the cr2, Genesis.cr2 and open it in a text editor.

The cr2 files reference their associated obj and pmd files twice each. So, first find and change the pmd to read Genesis.pmd.

The next step is to open the cr2 in Poser and do a little bit of work on it there – the sort of work you don’t want to be repeating 20 times for each UV set.

First, change the Skinning to Poser Unimesh and set the figure’s subdivision to at least 1 for rendering (I usually have it at 1 for preview as well but I don’t often work with more than a couple of figures at a time).

I also like to edit the dials into groups and an order that makes sense to me, so I can quickly find stuff. The arrangement of morphs is a little unfamiliar to us Poser users, as all the dials are to be found in the body, largely under two main groups – Actor (for all the shaping morphs) and Pose Control (which can include some utility morphs as well – such as bend corrections, etc).

Open the cr2 again in your text editor. Find the obj file references and change the name to the first obj in your Geometries folder and re-save the cr2 with an appropriate name, then change the reference to the next obj, save again, and rinse and repeat until you’ve got yourself as many cr2 files as you have obj files with unique UV maps, all referencing the same pmd file of morphs.

Genesis 2 works in just the same way.

I know that Genesis 3 can be imported now but I’ve not had a chance to try this and my purchasing has been focussed on the first to Genesis bases due the sales.

Notes on Making Genesis Clothing Native in Poser

There’s not much point in going to the trouble of making a Genesis base figure Poser native unless you are going to do the same – and with reasonable results – for clothing and hair. So far, I’m finding that this can be done easily enough but with not always with prefect results.

Again, I really just follow the method suggested for Netherwork’s File Optimiser but with an added stage to introduce Fit Control morphs – if you don’t have that product, then you can skip that stage.

Clothing Morphs

In Poser and pre-Genesis Studio, we have always relied on content creators supporting various body morphs in their clothing products (I’ll call these supported morphs). These days, there appears to be much more reliance on Studio’s auto following feature, which algorithmically morphs clothing to fit the figure’s body shape. This is pretty good these days but it does have some limitations – such as the shrink wrap effect, which is why I use the Fit Control morphs (looking through the store, there are other similar products that look like they do the same thing).

Supported morphs work very well with the converted products I’ve tried but morphs created by the auto follow feature can generate some poke-through in a Poser native format, some of which can be dealt with using the Fit Control morphs, while others will need Poser’s morph brush to tidy up.

Make sure you’ve reinstalled the Fit Control product after you’ve finished converting the Genesis base.

Stage One: Fire up Studio and load your Genesis figure, conform a clothing item you want to convert, then run the Fit Control script to add those morphs to the clothing. Save this as a new clothing item and create a Poser Companion File. (In theory, it should be – and is – possible to add morphs within Studio and then export that CR2 but they don’t seem to work terribly well in Poser, so we need to add them there.)

Stage Two: Keeping Studio running, open Poser and load your Genesis figure using it Poser Companion File, then conform the clothing item you are converting. With Genesis selected, dial up all the morphs you want to add (don’t dial up already supported morphs). This will result in a monstrous mutant, but don’t worry about it. Now use the DSON script to transfer the active morphs. This is oddly important: do not save the clothing as a CR2 while still conformed – I’ve tried it and weird stuff happens, including, sometimes, the generation of an object file with no UVs. If this is the only item you are converting, then delete Genesis to leave the clothing, or, if you have more to do, you’ll have to use Figure>Conform to>none – now you can save it out as a CR2.

Stage Three: Run Netherwork’s File Optimiser on the new CR2 and then load it into Poser. Change the skinning method to Unimesh and make sure that you set subdivision to 1 for rendering and set up the materials (you may have Poser Companion Files to do that or you may have to do it yourself in the material room) before re-saving.

May the great CG god bless you!!!

I convert Genesis 2 figures, clothes, and hair to Poser native routinely so I almost never have to invoke DSON. I do considerably less work because I worry less about bloat with modern horsepower and storage. One should note that per Netherworks’ instructions, if you load a DSON garment onto a DSON figure in Poser, it picks up the morphs. Then you save a copy and use file optimizer to make it native. I keep a fairly morph-light version of G2F for converting DSON accessories. If you export a non-DSON enabled product from DS as a cr2, the above advice is certainly one way to go. If you have the pro version of Poser, though, just copy the morphs you need from your native figure. Of course, I do that for converted DSON clothing, too, so it only has the morphs I need.

I am a Poser user of FBX exports from DS. But I can swim in either river...

Is there a path for the conversion of Genesis clothing into dynamic .obj files with textures?

::::: Opera :::::

The method I've used creates and object file - you could always save out the clothing into a prop, which would preserve your material settings, and then try to use that as dynamic item (I'm sure you could also just export and obj from Studio, though you would then have to assign the materials to it). I've not really tried it myself but I know others have used clothing figures as dynamic cloth, they they weren't made for the purpose, so you might need to do some work on the mesh first.

To clarify, I know how to do this with Poser models, such as a dress for V4. You just export to .obj, then import .obj. The textures "stick."*

I am just wondering if the process is the same for a dress (etc) designed for V8/Genesis. Can I just purchase that model and will the same sequence work. Philebus, seems like you are saying yes, right?

*Sometimes this works, other times the model falls apart or never "likes" the cloth room, despite any attempted welding.

If you load a texture in DS and export as obj, the texture also sticks. I haven’t tried using an obj as a dynamic garment, but I agree that the quality of the obj’s varies by vendor. I would stay away from G8 clothes from Rainbow Light, for example, which don’t do well even in the fitting room. Also note that G8 uses an A pose instead of a T pose.

By the way, I see that in the current $3.50 clearance sale, there is a ton of clothing for G3 and G8. All the latest DAZ sales have made it possible to buy even the latest stuff for less than twice that. It makes one wonder just how great the demand really is for these things.

I just downloaded several G3 and G8 dresses from Freebies. There's no .obj file in the zips.

I just downloaded several G3 and G8 dresses from Freebies. There's no .obj file in the zips.

Install them into Daz studio first and export them using the built in poser scale preset . be sure to check the "collect maps" option.

You will get the object file ,a .MTL file and a folder called maps with all of the textures (assuming they are image based and not procedural IRay materials that will be useless in poser IIRC.)

On the matter of Dynamics, There may be separate polygon groupings that may need to be unified in a modeling program before simulating in the poser cloth room.

Not sure about the "fitting room" as I have only used it once.

I , long ago, liberated myself from the Daz content hamster wheel, by learning to model my own custom genesis 1,2,3 clothing for easy rigging in the three click transfer utility in Daz studio.