In another thread that I didn't want to derail, it was stated that Poser can't do unimesh. And I think that I've seen that before in other threads. Under the figures>Skinning it lists unimesh as an option. I'm assuming that is something different than the unimesh everyone is talking about. Skinning is something I don't know anything about. What is the difference between the two?

This seems like an interesting topic.  Please someone elaborate.  IIRC, DAZ sold content for the Generation 4 figures in 2 flavors, regular and unimesh.

Found this at DAZ.  It might clarify the definition.

Thanks for the link @hborre as it's been years since I used DS regularly, so haven't looked at their wiki in years.  Besides, back in the early days of V4/M4, I wouldn't have seen much mentioned about it on the forums, so wouldn't have gotten into Unimesh.

Now with Poser getting into it specifically, it's become an interesting topic, to say the least.

Unimesh is just that, a single mesh. Poser does not currently support a single mesh, each joint becoming a separate piece. The skinning method, is like putting a single sheet and shrink wrapping it around the figure so that it acts, surface wise, as a single mesh.

Renderosity is working on true unimesh for Poser 12. I understand it is quite the challenge to recode.

Unimesh is just that, a single mesh. Poser does not currently support a single mesh, each joint becoming a separate piece. The skinning method, is like putting a single sheet and shrink wrapping it around the figure so that it acts, surface wise, as a single mesh.

Renderosity is working on true unimesh for Poser 12. I understand it is quite the challenge to recode.

Sunfire posted at 12:36 PM Sat, 5 March 2022 - #4435468

Unimesh is just that, a single mesh. Poser does not currently support a single mesh, each joint becoming a separate piece. The skinning method, is like putting a single sheet and shrink wrapping it around the figure so that it acts, surface wise, as a single mesh.

Renderosity is working on true unimesh for Poser 12. I understand it is quite the challenge to recode.

So what is the Unimesh listed under skinning in the figure menu?

JoePublic posted at 3:42 PM Sat, 5 March 2022 - #4435474

Sunfire posted at 12:36 PM Sat, 5 March 2022 - #4435468

Unimesh is just that, a single mesh. Poser does not currently support a single mesh, each joint becoming a separate piece. The skinning method, is like putting a single sheet and shrink wrapping it around the figure so that it acts, surface wise, as a single mesh.

Renderosity is working on true unimesh for Poser 12. I understand it is quite the challenge to recode.

What will be the benefit of having Unimesh rigging?

RedPhantom posted at 3:59 PM Sat, 5 March 2022 - #4435477

So what is the Unimesh listed under skinning in the figure menu?

But only in scene, not via export. Mostly pertains to subdivision at this point.

The old daz usage of unimesh simply meant all the figures were created from the same mesh so they shared UVs and morphs across figures... at least that's my recollection of the past usage of the term in Poser parlance.

The newer reference to uni mesh seems to refer to rigging and joints and morphs.  A figure is a whole group ... Body parts are no longer separated ... Not sure how to explain it ... Jump in and clarify whoever can.

Could Poser's take on Unimesh theoretically make it easier to 'rig' figures ?

Question carefully phrased, as I do not want Poser team to chase a mirage...

But, perhaps, it might resolve some 'porting' issues if, like 'Make Human', the Unimesh engine can take a rigid mesh, eg OBJ or FBX, and auto-wrangle it unto rigged...

Also, if you go that route, please build in support for 'Aliens & Monsters' that lack humanoid-ish joints & symmetry, per 'Stunt-guy in a rubber suit'...

yes, I believe the devs have said that making Poser fully unimesh would make importing/exporting/rigging much easier for the end users.

Unimesh would make things different. You cannot say in general things would be easier or less easy. 

For an Unimesh figure Indeed all geometry would be one mesh. Currently in Poser a figure is a collection of independent object meshes. The meshes are linked to a bone. The meshes are deformed when the figure is posed. Where two object meshes meet there is a 'weld' and corresponding vertices from both sides are merged in a location that is the average of both positions.  

When a figure is a composition of different object meshes, it is easy to make them show or hide individually, change them individually (replace body part with prop). In the original Poser definition of bend weights, via zones and falloff angles, the degree of participation in the bending was determined by the xyz coordinates of the vertices so as long as the vertices at the 'interface' with other body parts one could swap out geometries at will, irrespective of the vertex count or mesh topology away from the boundaries. Therefore the solution gives optimal ease of grafting. 

Disadvantages of independent objcts deformed-to-look-like-one-surface become apparent when you want to add vertex related information like morphs and mapped bending weights because you have to define them for each individual object mesh. Also difficult is operations and processes that work over a range of polygons/facets, such as sub-surface scatter, subdivision, weight/morph painting. The affected area may extend across two or more objects.

For each of these operations, that have become standard practice now, masks and wrappers were developed to make them feasible on the old core system but they all came with limitations and at a price in terms of performance. 

I therefore expect a truly Unimesh Poser would see a performance boost but a limitation in 'graftability'. 

Thank you for clarification, ghostship2 and FVerbaas: Much appreciated.

FWIW, provided you can make a body-part invisible and parent 'graft' to it, should work okay...