What does this do? The node is missing from Poser and I'm trying to recreate a blender shader but I don't know what, or even if there's a work around. Does anyone know?

There is a VectorMath node in Poser 13 as well as P12 but without seeing what you are referring to, it is hard to judge what it is.

I totally missed it. Thanks.

This is how it was being used. This is to control some glossiness in a shader

Dot Product: something that I ignore. Thanks for asking. I've this:

in this thread https://blender.stackexchange.com/questions/47523/what-is-dot-product

Yeah, I'd seen that and my brain sternly reminded me I taught preschool math and preschoolers don't need to know that.

RedPhantom posted at 1:38 PM Thu, 29 June 2023 - #4468904

Yeah, I'd seen that and my brain sternly reminded me I taught preschool math and preschoolers don't need to know that.

Most of the time dot product is used as a conditional vector switch. Think of rain or snow hitting the ground. How do you tell where it hits the ground, where it doesn't, or where it goes afterwards? Well you do it based on the angle it came from and the angle of the surface it landed on, using the dot product of the vectors. Rain falling strait down would come from a vector of 0,0,-1, (assuming z is vertical, +z would be falling up). Any angles would obviously modify x and y. So basically all the dot product does is convert a vector input (x,y,z), into a scalar output (from 0 to 1), so you use it to determine if and when something else happens because of that.  In the shader above, it is determining the angle of the incoming light versus the angle of the normals on the object to determine an output. Which is how specular, reflections, etc actually work internally..... That is the simple explanation. You can do far more with it thou.... 

The Dot Product followed by the Arccosine in your example computes the angle between two vectors. Both vectors have to be of unit lengths, which I assume the render engine will guarantee in this particular case.

Had someone told me back when I started using Poser I'd have to be a rocket scientist to understand it all I would have run away and never looked back. I'm glad no one told me.

There is a lot of math in 3D... But thankfully it is an option to learn that, versus a requirement. 

I had a go at recreating the relevant part of the Blender shader in Poser 13 and plugged the result into an emission node for visualization. The emission strength is 0 where we look head on at the surface and goes up to 1 where we look along the edge. This is before the falloff parameter is applied, so the value would be exactly 0.5 where we look from a 45-degree angle.

(The objects depicted are a sphere, a torus and a cylinder, in case that wasn't obvious.)

In this situation, it looks a bit like the edge blend node from firefly.

In Poser you will run into odd problems with dot product because we don't have the Blender color ramp or the map range node to do things quickly and easily. Many of the blender cycles shaders you will find for dot product will have a color ramp or map range node in them. Using a math node for the separation in examples like I explained earlier will usually give an on off toggle without it, but with a color ramp or map range node you can setup a transition between multiple textures far easier. odf's example above is defaulting to zero (black) with a slight transition falloff area, and that is one way of doing it without the other nodes. But to adjust that falloff quickly becomes tedious without the other Blender nodes and a decent live preview.. I did put a ticket in for adding the map range node since it does not require any custom ui to do so. But as it stands all we have at the moment is a very well thought out Superfly freebie color ramp replacement by Richard60 and the old Firefly one. Richard60 also has a value output node that is a massive time saver in setting these shaders up, and knowing the actual values of the outputs. That freebie should be in any ones toolset that wants to play around with vector to scalar conversion math. So if you don't have that you may want to grab that. It is far better if you know what the output actually is, versus guessing what you think it should be and not getting it to work out as planned..

[...] But as it stands all we have at the moment is a very well thought out Superfly freebie color ramp replacement by Richard60 and the old Firefly one. Richard60 also has a value output node that is a massive time saver in setting these shaders up, and knowing the actual values of the outputs. That freebie should be in any ones toolset that wants to play around with vector to scalar conversion math. So if you don't have that you may want to grab that. It is far better if you know what the output actually is, versus guessing what you think it should be and not getting it to work out as planned..

In Poser you will run into odd problems with dot product ...

I had to read this twice, but now I understand there is nothing wrong with the dot product node itself, but rather the absence, in Poser, of nodes that easily translate the output scalar into the color shades needed.

Going along with what Shvrdavid says about needing a Map Ramp here is a picture of what ODF's setup above looks like with No Map Ramps, 1 and 2 Map Ramps.  This is something I have been working on for a slightly different project but was easy enough to convert for this use.

The left set goes from 0 to 100%.  The second set goes from 30% to 100%.  The third set uses 2 Map Ramps and goes from 30% to 50% in the range of 0 to 87 and from 50% to 100% in the range of 87 to 100.  Notice the outline in the ball and torus.  Just have a few bugs to work out and it will be posted to the Freebies section.

Cool

Having the Map Range node would be a huge help. But at the same time, doing it the long way provides far more options. You could have far more ramps, etc. But it is a long way doing it otherwise..... Looks like you most of the way there Richard.

Uploaded the Freebie now waiting for approval.  Above is Render with 3 Maps on the right.  I have the Map Range on the Torus going from 1-.45 then .45-.7 finally .7-1, which why it has that big spot in the middle.  Below will be the node setup.

Just to show the TO range can go from large to small.

Nice. I guess we need to figure out how to do the default interpolation of the Cycles node now. Well done.

And to make it easier to set and see how those Map Range Nodes work below is the next Freebie once I get it finished.

The Scope Ranges Node sends out a test/control signal that you inject into the shader and then it measures the signal coming off the shader.  Much like an Oscilloscope you find on electronic test benches  

Signal Scope for Poser P12/P13 (renderosity.com)

Here is the link to the Signal Scope and Signal Generator.  I had to break them apart as Poser will complain about a feedback loop when the compound nodes are first loaded and you hook them up as shown above.  I think people will find the scope very handy when doing work in the material room.

I had a dot product once. Interesting eight hours afterward.

I had a dot product once. Interesting eight hours afterward.

rolf. I'm glad I hadn't just taken a sip of my coffee

So, if I understand what I read through a now pounding headache, would you use this to reproduce the highly reflective safety stripes on clothing?