Have you ever cursed the way poser displays transparent hair, clothing and prop objects in the preview mode? If you have then here's a simple cure for that dotty annoyance.

And I want to point out that even you can do this, you have to edit the Poser script file, but it is only one command so even if you have never programmed before you should manage this, and even if you get it wrong it will turn out right!

The poser script (cr2, pz3, pp2 hr2 etc...) command you have to change is: displayMode, it selects which preview render mode the object should use when displayed in poser, normally it is set to USEPARENT which will use whatever mode you chose in poser. If you use any of the other display modes then that object will permanently used that mode regardless of which mode you select. So to get rid of the transparent 'dots' you simply have to set displayMode to a preview render that does not use transparent mapping.

So this is what to do:

1. Start a text editing program.
   (I use TextPad, free from http://www.textpad.com/)

2. Load the file you want to fix (like KyokoHair_MK2.hr2).

3. Search for "displayMode"
   (If you want to do a manual search then its above the material settings at the end of the script, so go to the end and then move upwards till the beginning of the material settings.)

4. Change the script:

Here's a cut and paste from KyokoHair_MK2.hr2
-->
displayOrigin 0
displayMode USEPARENT
customMaterial 32
material Preview
{
<--

The script says

displayMode USEPARENT

change to

displayMode WIREFRAME
(this is the default mode, so if you get it wrong then the object will be shown as a wireframe, so you can basically type in anything you want)

or

displayMode CARTOONNOLINE
(PS: its Cartoon-No-Line, don't forget the NO part)

1. Save the file.
   (if this is the first time you edit a Poser script then make a copy of the original file before saving, or check if you still have the original Zip)

The file is now permanently fixed, you never have to fix it again.

Here are the displayMode commands I hacked out of posers exe file last night.
(Hint! Do a cut and paste and save this info)

USEPARENT
CARTOONNOLINE
FLATLINED
SMOOTHLINED
SHADEDOUTLINE
SCETCHSHADED
FLATSHADED
TEXTURESHADED
SHADED
HIDLINE
SILHOUETTE
EDGESONLY
WIREFRAME

You can also use this trick to mix display modes when doing cartoon renders or other preview work, use TEXTURESHADED to get full preview mapping which allows you to use reflection maps on objects when doing cartoon work.

Staale

(CARTOONNOLINE)

Staale

Very nice, Staele, this will make it a lot easier to control the hair! Thanks!

huh? am i missing something big here? why don't you use the command from the menue display -> element style -> whatever mode?

Thans, Staale! That wireframe variation is cool. Gonna use this, for sure. :] FishNose

Wow! This is very helpful information for me. Thanks Staale! --- Kozaburo

In case anyone thinks there still aren't things to discover in good old Poser 4! Thanks, Staale, this is great.

Yes,you are absolutely right, aleks. :) But Staale's idea enable to set the wireflame display mode when load a transmappled object to the Poser scene. So,I think I can release from a pile of complaint mails by beginner user that says "I've loaded your hair but I can't see anything on the head.What should i do?". :-) :-) :-) --- Kozaburo

Well aleks, i like cr2 editing :) The truth is that i / we 'finished' reading the manual a year before the first transparent hair was released and all the 'unusable' stuff have been forgotten, i didn't even remember that poser had that option before you pointed it out, i don't think i have used that part of the menu sins the first weeks of getting P4. So if you are making a trans mapped object then your version is better, i tested it and it saves the setting, but if you want to fix the old files then cr2 editing is actually faster (if you know what you are doing and have a good tool) and you don't mess up the thumbnail image sins you don't have to resave from poser. Make a copy of the thumb (filename.rsr or filename.png) before resaving and swap it with the new thumb if you want to fix old files from poser whiteout messing up the thumb.

Thanks Staale, although this is not a new idea, it is indeed appreciated. As you can see from the posts many will not have realised the possibilities and will be grateful that it has been brought to their attention. I have to admit however that aleks method will be simpler to implement.

Kudos to you both :)

hmm, kozaburo, never thought of that :) but now i think i remember several of those questions here in forum... well, as staale discovered, there are enormous possibilities hidden in poser files... ;) i wonder, if poser5 comes out with binary files (as somenone indicated a while ago), will these undocumented features be gone?

I know we're going to fall in love with the cloth features and all when P5 comes out - but some of us are going to miss it terribly (and no doubt loudly) if we can't get into the guts of the files and hack them ourselves. Although I'm sure folks will find new ways to make Poser do things the programmers never thought of!

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?Form.ShowMessage=176434

Staale...thank for bringing up the whole discussion. I never knew either option existed. And aleks...thanks for pointing out the easier way. Lynn Grant Castle Development Group

It should also be possible to make a mat file that changes the display mode back (and forth)...

addendum: this way, you could click on the mat file and then save the hair (no hr2 editing). The mat file would look like: { version { number 4.01 } prop figureHair { displayMode WIREFRAME locked 0 } doc { addActor figureHair } } Copy the text from bracket to bracket, paste in notepad (or whatever) and save as Hair WIREFRAME.pz2 (or .cm2 or .fc2)

[[ but some of us are going to miss it terribly (and no doubt loudly) if we can't get into the guts of the files and hack them ourselves]] Actually, if they change the file formats so they are no longer editable by users, I won't be able to use Poser at all, since for some reason on my machine if Poser can't find a texture EXACTLY (and I do mean EXACTLY, the full path and all leters that are capitals, etc.) as written in the .cr2 or whatever file, Poser crashes. It just locks up and that's it, the task manager lists it as 'not responding' and it has to be deactivated and restarted. The ONLY way I can use anything downloaded is to manually edit the .cr2, .pp2 or whatever and change the location of every texture, bump map, transmap, to exactly where it is on my system. This has been a major paininnabutt! I traded emails with Curious Labs for a month on this, and they finally gave up and could not help me.

[[ but some of us are going to miss it terribly (and no doubt loudly) if we can't get into the guts of the files and hack them ourselves]] Actually, if they change the file formats so they are no longer editable by users, I won't be able to use Poser at all, since for some reason on my machine if Poser can't find a texture EXACTLY (and I do mean EXACTLY, the full path and all leters that are capitals, etc.) as written in the .cr2 or whatever file, Poser crashes. It just locks up and that's it, the task manager lists it as 'not responding' and it has to be deactivated and restarted. The ONLY way I can use anything downloaded is to manually edit the .cr2, .pp2 or whatever and change the location of every texture, bump map, transmap, to exactly where it is on my system. This has been a major paininnabutt! I traded emails with Curious Labs for a month on this, and they finally gave up and could not help me.

BTW, TextPad is awesome, but it isn't freeware. After the evaluation period it's $27 (US funds). Sorry to pick a nit.

Just checked the site and the text is more strict now, i guess that having links from schools to their site got them to restrict the use beyond to old terms. The Java class page i downloaded it from now have a link to Forte CE only, no textpad links there anymore, but we still have the licensed version 4.5 at school where it is used to edit Java programs as it has code colouring and you can connect it to a javacompiler. If you are editing large files professionally then $27 is cheap for that extra speed it has over the standard Windows and MS Office tools. (Has anyone here ever bought MS Office? i always get a free one when i buy a computer, the last time i didn't want it as the old one was good enough for me but they said that they paid MS for each machine they made regardless of it having Office on it or not so i might as well take the program as it would not affect the price of the PC) Staale