Ever since the original Poser Pro (7), we have enjoyed its use of relative paths AND 'repairing' of pz2's that refer to incorrect paths and have to search for files. I just learned this morning that PP 11.2 does not even search for missing *.pmd files. Is this something that can be fixed?

What are your general preferences settings for Library search and do you have use external binary morph targets. I am not clever enough to know if these are related to your problem but I suspect those that are clever enough may need to know this, particularly the first question.

Library search is shallow, Save Files compression is off, use external binary morph targets is off. These are the same settings I have used for years. Why would Poser behave differently now?

Second attempt at posting this so it appears twice I apologise.

I have no idea why the search function should change but clearly selecting shallow will miss some files that would not be missed if set to deep, at a cost of a longer search time of course. Default for the setting is deep, which I have always used and I do not use External Binary Morphs as in earlier days there was a problem with files being corrupted. This was fixed some time ago but on the basis of once bitten twice shy, I have not used it since. That being the case my search has very few .pmd files to find.

ok I'll try setting Search to Deep. I can (and did do) change the path manually and it worked fine. I used to make a noise about vendors putting their named folders in Libraries, totally prodding my OCD reflex. Then some nice person suddenly began using a new very sensibly named folder in Libraries.... 'Morphs'. And moving ALL those "vanity" folders into that one soothed my OCD issue. And Poser Pro would automatically change the path IF it initiated the search for missing files. It did not initiate a search at all. It just did not complete the character morph. I adjusted it manually then saved the .pz2 file and all is well.
More news later.

McGrandpa posted at 5:29PM Mon, 17 February 2020 - #4380772

ok I'll try setting Search to Deep. I can (and did do) change the path manually and it worked fine. I used to make a noise about vendors putting their named folders in Libraries, totally prodding my OCD reflex. Then some nice person suddenly began using a new very sensibly named folder in Libraries.... 'Morphs'. And moving ALL those "vanity" folders into that one soothed my OCD issue. And Poser Pro would automatically change the path IF it initiated the search for missing files. It did not initiate a search at all. It just did not complete the character morph. I adjusted it manually then saved the .pz2 file and all is well.
More news later.

It will be interesting to see what the outcome is. I see in another thread that Renderosity are going to play with the way the library search works. I know that is from the other side if you like where you are looking for a particular prop or figure but it is still playing with the library. It will be interesting if that has any impact.

Um, not the same search function, is it? The Library is a module that Poser runs. This 'search' would be initiated by the main Poser program, I think. Library Search is manually initiated by us, and that is already opening up the web browser and going to Renderosity looking for stuff in PP 11.2 yeah I am thinking there are two different search functions. The problem I am having is that where .PMD files are being used, Poser isn't even opening ANY search function to find a missing or relocated one.
It definitely does want to find missing textures and morph delta's, but not .PMD files. And, PMD is a Poser native file type. SO I did set General Preferences>Library tab>File Search: to Deep. Tried it deliberately with a different PMD in a different Runtime, same thing. It doesn't even ask for missing files at all. It simply "falls through" ite execution of the PZ2 file and applies it. Nothing happens. Except the NAME of the dial now appears in the Settings tab for that Figure. But it is empty. I can correct the path manually and the PMD is then loaded and the dial now functions. But the Poser automatic search for the missing file isn't even called.

Am I correct in thinking that PMD's are used by Poser in LOADING Figures, even when we do not tick the box "Use external binary morph targets" under General Preferences>Misc.>Save Files? And is that something Poser looks for in the same location as the Figure, so if it exists, its loaded with the called Figure, even if a call for a PMD isn't made in the PZ2 calling the Figure?

As you say two different functions but it is a pointer that Renderosity might look in the area of the Poser search. It certainly needs to from what you have discovered and it really makes no sense. I do get the missing file error box when loading some scenes even with the search set to deep, usually it is an error on my part but there have been occasions when a vendor has missed a file from a product.

As I said when I started out that I doubted I was clever enough to sort this out but I thought I would try the basics and I was also hoping it would keep the thread live and attract someone more skillful than me. Sadly that has not been the case. It certainly seems that something in Poser has been changed so perhaps the next option is to submit a support ticket.

and just for the record: The desktop rig sitting on this desk-let, just beside my right elbow IS: A generic PC-AT medium tower case, Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3L (rev. 1.0) LG775 motherboard, Intel Core Duo Quadcore Q9550 CPU, 8 GB DDR2 PC-800 RAM, BFG 8800GTX OC 768 in PCIe 1.2 slot @ 16x. 6 SATA ports, 12 USB2 ports and pretty much all in use. Original incep date for "George" is July 2008. Just a couple of months before Hurricane IKE blew through Houston. I am pleased with the longevity of this build. I have seen many mice, keyboards, Hard Drives and Power Supply Units go through this machine. But the "Basic 3" are the originals. Mobo, CPU, RAM. Three video cards have been used, I keep cleaning and reusing them. ALL spinner HD's have been replaced with SATA SSD drives. The BluRay rewriter drive is SATA also. I also use a USB SATA drive dock and keep a SSD drive in it most of the time.
Keep on KEEPING ON! I have bought, used and replaced SO MANY spinner Hard Drives through my years of computering. I grew sick of throwing money into a thing that lasts about as long as wet cell car batteries. The general life expectancy of both tend to be 2 years. My first SSD is now 5 years old and at 98% Life. This gives me a smile.

McGrandpa posted at 10:04AM Tue, 18 February 2020 - #4380865

Am I correct in thinking that PMD's are used by Poser in LOADING Figures, even when we do not tick the box "Use external binary morph targets" under General Preferences>Misc.>Save Files? And is that something Poser looks for in the same location as the Figure, so if it exists, its loaded with the called Figure, even if a call for a PMD isn't made in the PZ2 calling the Figure?

My belief is that .PMD files are only created when you perform a save and the "Use external binary morph targets" is checked. I have just done a scan of my runtimes looking for .PMD and the scan found 29, that is over 350Gig of runtimes. These appear in a number of places, some in the character Library but also in the prop and in the materials library and all are clearly there due to the vendor. Searching my save library of scenes, clothing and base base figures no .PMD are found so clearly I am not generating any such files when I save and that also covers the autosave folders in used in 11.2.

Scanning my whole system the total number of .PMDs rises to 299 the different being that the system search includes the default Poser runtime on my C drive and the scan of my runtime drive, drive M does not.

Once again I totally accept that the problems with .PMD files when introduced with Poser 6 were rectified between Poser 8/2010 and Poser 9/2012. Their use does reduce the hard drive space needed for storage and also gives a faster load but I am set in my ways and lost some scenes in the past that I had worked on for a long time. For that reason alone I now unselect the option on all new installs of Poser

Morning Hornet3D - Poser Pro 11.2 still does initiate a file search for missing ones. But not for .PMD files, which I find right odd. I was one of the first to buy the original Poser Pro and loved it for one reason in particular. Render in Background. Get a render going and keep working on a scene in the Pose room. There were other changes to the core program that were much needed. Poser used Relative Paths exclusively at that point (with Poser PRO, not Poser 7). Poser Pro would correct the paths in calling files (P*2 files) and save them. Seriously, that was SO great! Suddenly there was no issue over location of vendors morph delta folders. Just drag all of em into LibrariesMorphs and do a search for missing files ONCE and done forever! Oh that was nice.
It is clear that Poser still reads and follows Absolute File Paths, but writes only Relative File Paths. It would be a horror show if Poser attempted to correct ALL file paths in its loaded Runtimes. I bought PP 11 in 2016 and it would probably still be correcting paths in ALL my Runtimes if it were to do that. Not to mention replacing all "moving parts" Hard Drives with "No Moving Parts" Hard Drives. I've lost two 1 TB spinner drives that were used for content, one way or another. Thats sorta painful. All that stuff, installed and usable instantly by Poser and other programs. Poof, gone. Oh I obeyed the First Three Rules, so I have reinstalled all that stuff, and then some more through the last 2 years since that last one died. But it takes time to DO that. And I am still doing that! And I am still burning 25 gig BluRay writable disks with the new content too. That said, at least I have it.

Right, Poser content vendors still do create .PMD's, and with this new content bundle that we got with the Bondware PP 11.2 it is full of Figures with morphs in .PMD files. I uncheck it too, and leave it unchecked. I don't want it to write PMD files. I can't stop vendors from writing them. We can always load a Figure (even clothing contains morphs and uses PMD's!), dress it, then save it out, OR just load in then save out to different file name any item and it will have the morphs embedded in the file, not in the PMD (the external binary morph target). So how do I report this to the devs OR do they even want to hear about it?

Try https://www.posersoftware.com/ and then click the support tab and create a ticket from there, at least that is what I would do. As to whether they want to hear about it I really do not know, they do have a lot on their plate at the moment and I guess it depends on their plans for Poser. At least they should respond to the ticket with information as to whether they are aware, if it is fixed or in consideration for a fix.

Ok, did that. We'll see if they even bother with it. For years, a certain individual tried to make me do stupid things saying they were necessary steps in the troubleshooting of the problems presented. At that point i stopped trying to communicate with anyone in Support or Development. This is the first attempt since that point years ago.

McGrandpa posted at 12:01PM Tue, 18 February 2020 - #4380875

Ok, did that. We'll see if they even bother with it. For years, a certain individual tried to make me do stupid things saying they were necessary steps in the troubleshooting of the problems presented. At that point i stopped trying to communicate with anyone in Support or Development. This is the first attempt since that point years ago.

I can relate to that, recently I had the misfortune to buy an Hive Outdoor Camera which is a disaster. Dealing with Hive Tech Support was a major problem. On every contact their first claim was that my Internet was the problem, as I download a lot of 3D content my broadband is fast. Then the camera would not accept the broadband password so they stated it must be incorrect, problem with that was I had tried a number of times and it was the same password as used on over a dozen devices. When he suggested I should keep changing password on the camera until one worked , meaning I would then have to update all the other devices I said no (assuming of course that it worked).

Finally he told me I had to update the software but the reason I was calling was I could not connect to the Internet which was the only way I was going to update it. The long term outcome was they escalated they problem three times then closed it as per company policy which I assumed meant if they had no idea of how to fix it they closed the ticket. So tech support is not a place I like contacting either.

Well well well, the same guy is still their tech support, and still trying to make me jump through hoops. He tried telling me I had missing files or required items like the Body Kit and even that i needed LaFemme 1.1 pro. I have all that, and bought into LaFemme well before Bondware bought Poser. Anyway, the workaround is just change the path manually in the pz2.

Hey Hornet! A new twist on the theme. I noticed a dial in the Settings Tab that I hadn't seen earlier. So I started over from scratch, to see if I may have slipped up. Ok so it seems I DID slip up, there isn't a "bug" after all.
With the Use External binary morph targets ticked and UNticked, the results are the same. Double clicking on the pz2 does load the morph, though it does not always turn the dial on loading. It does this even with an incorrect path, so Poser 11.2 is actually finding and loading the .pmd file. It isn't correcting the path name in the pz2 loading it though. But if it loads the file every time, no fussing about it, nothing is wrong. And THAT is what I saw when I got in from my hospital visit this morning.
PP 11.2 is running now, LaFemme Pro 1.1 is loaded, and so are three different character sets. Unfortunately, the poser devs and vendors don't always put the dial in the expected location in the Settings Tab. So I went through the whole thing for Head and then Body and found all three character dials in both head and body. Things are a little trickier with Poser authors results than DAZ solidly laid out required formats, but the dials do exist and do function. Ta daaaa! No worries after all!

And yes I did relay all the info to John at Renderosity Support...that used to be just Poser Support. Or something.

Really glad you managed to get it sorted. So it looks as though there was a change made in that it is not longer correcting the path but at least it does not stop anything working. Nice to know information though as someone will no doubt fall across it again at some point.

Now, IF the MORPHS folder many vendors use for their morph deltas has become a 'canon' legitimate folder, then poser could be looking in there for the pmd files as well as the one in the pz2 file path if its different. But, John says his efforts have Poser throwing up the search box. Maybe he don't have a Morphs folder.