Hi! Perhaps someone can answer a few questions for me relating to Poser bump maps. In the past I've avoided then, in part because bump maps appear to give a "dirty" look to many renders. However, perhaps I've also avoided them because I don't fully understand them - certainly not a very good reason. Anyway, the issue of bump maps was raised yesterday when I went to use DAZ's new high resolution textures with Stephanie. I believe it was the bump map that bogged my renders to a stand still. Since I generally don't need 4000 x 4000 pixel texture maps at 300 pixels per inch, I ran my Stephanie textures through Photoshop and reduced them to 2000 x 2000 at 150 pixels per inch. This also allowed me to make a few anatomical modifications for more realistic renders. However, both the original and my size and anatomically modified bump maps are giving me problems. So 1. I've often heard that to create a pseudo-bump map for Poser, one first takes a texture map and reduces it to a gray scale image. Next, one inverts the image and saves this negative image as a JPG, TIF, or whatever. Finally, upon loading the image file into Poser 4, the software converts the bump map into a BUM (actually a bmp?) file. Alright, if this is so, then why isn't DAZ's Stephanie bump map a negative image. Sure it has a strangely dirty appears, with dark skin blemishes light. However, features such as Stephanie's lips and nipples are dark, just as in the original texture map. So, what gives? 2. How does one reduce the size of Stephanie's final BUM file, without sacrificing too much detail? In my case, I reduced the bump map first to 2000 x 2000 pixels at 150 pixels per inch and then 1500 x 1500 pixels at 100 pixels per inch. These gray scale images made for relatively small jpeg files, but converted to huge bump files - something like 12 MB! No wonder Poser bogged down. So what do I do to get reasonable size bump maps that show texture in the lips, nipples, and so on? 3. Finally, I might be mistaken, but it seemed as if DAZ's MAT files loaded Stephanie's bump maps (in jpeg format), without converting them to BUM files - at least I can't find in BUM files afterward. Yet, when edited the MAT files to load my modified texture and bump maps (all as JPG files), Poser asked for the converted bump maps. I then had to skip past the bump maps and deal with them manually afterward. What's the story? Even after all this hassle, I think DAZ's Stephanie is going to turn out to be a great Poser character. Even with the lame bump maps I ended up playing with last night, I got some great test renders. I can't wait to see what all you creative folks do with her in the way of morphs, textures, props, and poses. Thanks for all of your help. Take care.

Oh, did I mention that I was up until 3:30 in the morning struggling with this issue? So please forgive my typos... Thanks again!

Attached Link: http://poseworks.8m.com/tu-tmskguide.html

There's a basic Tutorial at this site. http://poseworks.8m.com/tu-tmskguide.html An interesting thread at this one.... http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=577862 Another here..... http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=529871 And here.... http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=525546 A particularly good one here... http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=454108 Hope these help, ... and get some sleep! *G*

Hi : the effect you report looks like Poser uses the 2000x 2000 map at 150 dpi as a 4000x 4000 at 72 dpi - did you use a jpg ? I do not jnow how pcs decompress the file, but on a mac you can have this effect. The second thing is that you cant simply invert the texture, because all black dots will become white (raised), this inverts the structure completely and the bump map becomes useless. Why not simply use a black and white version of the texture ? I also find that using a pure grayscale picture is better than a greyscale picture saved as rgb color picture in jpg. Karl

Grammer oh no, the very person I dont want to hear from considering my condition at the time that I posted this message! But seriously, thanks for your suggestions Karl (aka Grammer). I understand you with regard to the light and dark tones in the bump map (question 1). However, I dont follow you with regard to the resolution (question 2). My bump map was actually made from the grayscale bump map that DAZ provides as a .jpg. In the PC version of Poser 4.03, the program converts this into the map that is actually used. I (or at least Photoshop) suspect that the map is actually a .bmp file, although Poser labels it .bum. This takes the map from a few hundred kilobyte .jpg file to a whopping 12 MB .bum file! And, what is the deal with the MAT files? Thanks Leather-Guy for the research and Grammer for putting up with mine! Take care.

If you're getting dirty splotches, like she's been rolling in the fireplace, you're probably using the ProPack textures, rather than the P4 ones. I made this mistake with Vicki 2, when I first got her. ProPack uses a different bumpmap format (jpg, I believe). See that you're using the correct texture sets. Stephanie's come with two icons in the MAT files, one for P4 and one for ProPack (PP). If you're not using ProPack, make sure you're using the P4 version. That should cure it. Melanie

What Melanie said for the dirty skin look.

As for why bum files are so big, they are an uncompressed file format similar to bmp. When you load them, that 12mb file will take about 12mb of active memory. With a compressed file format like jpg, the file many only take up 200k on your hard drive, but when loaded it may also need 12mb of memory for your computer to use it. In other words, think of jpg file compression as "disc storage compression method". That disc storage size isn't a direct reflection of how much memory the image will use when its uncompressed and loaded into active memory by your computer.

Making the images physically smaller is really the only way to make them use less memory. A 4000x4000 image needs a boatload of memory. A 2000x2000 needs much much less, but may still be too much for your particular computer system to handle when combined with the other textures needed for the scene.

As for inverting bumps, when making them myself using the texture as the tool I do sometimes get better results by doing the grayscale and invert method and sometimes I don't. I don't know why that is, but it only takes a minute to try both and I go with whatever looks best. Sometimes I reapply the full color texture "as is" to let Poser make a bump map from it and it works OK too. shrug

The dpi (or ppi) of an image is relevant only for print or print-oriented software, such as Illustrator or Quark; Poser doesn't care except for the output value when rendering. Unless you are using its adjustment as a way of changing the pixel count you can ignore the ppi setting for texture and bump maps.