Attached Link: http://innuendo.ev.ca

It should be simple in concept, yet highly useful. My motivation for writing this software is to draw attention towards my commercial software packages (honesty is the best policy), but in itself will be completely free for everyone to use.

There may be a Mac (OS X) and Windows (all) version of this utility.

Please post you suggestions for a freeware utility to enhance the Poser experience. All suggestions should be for features that are not included in the upcoming Poser 5 program (why be redundant?).

David John Fielder (Konan)
Proprietor of Innuendo Software
http://innuendo.ev.ca

Since P5 gives one the possibility of having multiple Runtimes, how about an explorer type utility, that installs a file (character or object with all or some of its attending sub-folders)in 1 or more Runtimes with just one click. Don't know if that's in P5 or not...

I have an idea, but it might be a bit difficult to explain & program. here goes : A program that reads the texture settings of a cr2, then examines the folder where the textures are compares them then corrects the cr2 to point to either .jpg or .bum files. Rob

mine would be mostly for poser4, realised that once I'd hit post. Rob

I work at a res of: 16001200 in Poser and Photoshop. I use 1024768 in other apps. I'm getting old and lazy, not to mention forgetful. I wish I had a way of programming the prefered res in Poser so that it would always open at the prefered res. without my having to change it manually. Some games do that. Hey! you asked :) Luck, Q

A MAT file creator for all kinds of human and architectural, etc., figures. :-) -dg

yes, something that makes creation of MAT poses easy and intuitive!

More than mat poses, that makes CONFORMING CLOTHING EASY to create! BTW, David, you are brilliant.

How about an uber material setting app. Something that allows more control over the material settings than poser does. For example, if I want to change the color of all the materials in a character I have to march through each material and do it seperately. An app that allows you to check mark which materials to change then change the color for all of them would be real cool. Maybe the materials are listed in a list control. You could multi select the materials to change then click the color button and select the color for all those materials or select the map button to set the maps for the selected items. Also, Someone's been writing me and asking for a way to copy all morph targets from one cr2 into another in one swoop. I'm real busy and don't have time to do this. A small DOS command line utility or even a drag drop utility would be ideal. The drag drop app would specify a destination cr2 then any cr2 you drag onto the surface is copied into the destination.

Please keep the suggestions coming! The feedback is fast and furious! I love it! ------------------------------------------------- David John Fielder (Konan) Proprietor of Innuendo Software http://innuendo.ev.ca

An extension of what TalmidBen said: Perhaps something that would look at the .obj & figure the best joint setup for the parts, with some help from the user... Basically the conforming clothes are figures themselves, so it's the same thing. Anything that helps with joint setup on custom figs would be appreciated by this weary modeller... :D

Sounds a bit like PBooost in concept? If I had a couple of other expensive apps to draw attention to, maybe I'd have made that free, too. H:)

I like the idea of a 'path correction' utility. Something that will read the texture reference of a .xx2 file, check the path validity, and correct the reference to whatever is exact for the user's system. Not sure how this would affect Poserr 5, but I can tell ya it'd dang sure speed up load times in Poser 4. One wrong reference and everything loads TURTLE slow...

Mine's simple.. an uninstall utility that would install, obj, textures, (main file cr2 pp2 whatever,) so that when you are cleaning out poser you don't have to figure out where to get rid of everything. As long as YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING you'd have no problems keeping the obj's YOU do need

Ah, now I get it. It is a speed issue. I knew that Poser would look for these files itself, so at first I failed to see the relevance. But now I know that it is about speed, it makes more sense. Hey hogwarden, It is not my wish to be redundant in any way. I am not too familiar with PBoost, so if any of these things are "already done", then please let me know. I am looking to do something original here. Is anyone interested in an animation based utility? One that will make animation easier to do? Please post your ideas. ------------------------------------------------- David John Fielder (Konan) Proprietor of Innuendo Software http://innuendo.ev.ca

How about a utility that lets you choose the main subject or subjects in a scene and then instantly sets up LIGHTS for that scene. The utility should automatically aim the lights on that subject that you've chosen. There should be various options for different kinds of lighting (i.e. daytime, night, spooky, rainy, etc.). It should make lighting a no-brainer. And, yes, I know that there are light sets available, but they aren't always aimed correctly for the way a scene has been set up or the specific subject that you want to light.

Well this might be a tall order, I don't know the first thing about programming. But what I'd love is a searchable database of all my Poser stuff, each file would have a card with a thumbnail of the object and fields for where you got it, who made it, what character its for, what type of file it is (prop, room, lighting, texture whatever!) and its location. Plus a description field and a comments field. Then if you're looking for an old man texture/ character for mike you just put those in the search fields and it pulls up a list and you realise what you want is on a CD you lost 6 months ago! Oh and I want it for OSX please. I suppose there are commercial packages that will do this but the only one I've found that does what I want is Portfolio and it keeps crashing! Baz

Oh and Stormrages uninstaller is a great idea! I have to keep my runtime pruned on my weedy 10gig hard drive :o) Baz

I Second Stormrage's idea a program that can uninstall a file and it associated obj's is just what I'm looking for

I'd like something that would pull all the relevant files of a project (including textures, objs, etc) together for archiving. It would probably be similar to an uninstaller but instead of removing things it would make a complete project archive directory that could then be zipped or stuffed (I'm a Mac guy) and put on a CD. I'd ultimately love to be able to put the archive back on the computer in six months and be able to have every project file together in one place regardless of whether or not I've removed the original files/props/textures in the interim. Maybe this would be more like an uninstaller with an "Project Archive" option.

A utility that would help faking area lights. You choose the shape ( sphere, box,... ) and it would create an array of spotlights pointing outside the virtual object and which orientation would depend on the virtual object faces normals... Not sure if it's really clear :)

I like the path correction idea (was considering biting the bullet and writing one myself). Why? Two main reasons. 1) I have pro-pack. A lot of .xx2 files have a .bum reference but the shipped texture was .jpg. Given the huge library of stuff I've built up fixing this in a text editor is a bit of a pain. 2) Mis-spellings, incorrect location references, foreign folder names all make the texture slower to find. Ideally I would see it working as follows: - Scan all .xx2 files in target folder for texture and object references. - Check specified path to see if file exists. - If not there, check for -- file of same name but different extension at specified path -- file of same name and extension in another path -- file of same name with diferent extension in another path - present results to user to allow them to make decisions on which changes to apply to the original .xx2 files This would be a great time saver, and help me tidy up my collection while waiting for P5. -- Mark

I have an utility that allows you view in real time props (pp2), 3ds, obj and dxf meshes, (maybe I expand it including cinema4d and vue meshes) : PropViewer 2 in the free stuff. You can launch it as command line too, passing the mesh file name as parameter, so you can use it if you want, as part of other yours applications. Your software can open the PropViewer window by a function call: exec PropViewer.exe "c:poserMyStuffsome mesh.pp2" And for closing the windows you can call Kernel's kill task. NOTE: Only for Windows, maybe for Linux, but not for Mac.

dunno if it could be done.. but I'd like to see a way of adding morphs to a figure other than click, click, find name, hope you got the right one, etc.. kinda like just drag a thumbnail of the morph onto the figure and thats it....

Hey kawecki, I am unsure as to what you point is. Are you suggesting that I integrate the prop viewer into the utility program(s)? Hey Kaibach, Can you read the info on Poser 5 and see if it has any features like the one you suggest? If not, than a utility would definately be a good idea (especially for the growing Extreme Morph 3D community :) Konan

Hi Konan,

Bobasaur ask for something that I really need :

A little application that would mimic POSER folders hierarchie and include in a single folder all the necessary files for a project (textures, geometries, characters, etc...). So we can save all the contents of a scene, instead of only saving paths.

This is really important for people who need to import POSER scenes in other softwares (Cinema 4D, Vue d'Esprit, Studio MAX, etc...). With all the files spread in POSER's Runtime folder, it's a nightmare to keep track of everything.

Oh, by the way, thanks for proposing this Konan.

:) Eric

Konan If you find the Prop Viewer usefull for something, you can use it.

Konan: Please remember that P5 allows for many different Runtimes. Might complicate things for you. Yes, I agree, Thanks a mil. Q

I like bobasaurs idea, putting obj and textures into one folder would help us Bryce renderers too

I am getting an idea of what this thing should be. Please keep posting so I can get some input and narrow my focus. Konan

something that can read an mtl file then scan the textures folder & copy the textures named in the mtl to the folder the mtl is sitting in. Rob

Now you can scan Poser files for incorrect image file references... they show up in Blue (file exists but path is wrong), Red(can't find the file at all) and Green (all's OK). It's an easy matter to correct these wit PBooost.
As you can see... the DFE also aids creating MAT and MAP poses in a highly intuative way... in fact, everything within the material section of the file can be changed quickly and easily to make basically whatever you want in seconds.
The "actors/Props section is not yet complete (off the bottom of the form), but it will allow total control of
everything else you could wish for within the Poser 3/4 xx2 file.
I've also added a little thing to delete geometry RSR files in a single bound.

How about a utility that randomizes the morphs between 0 and maybe 1.5. Could be to quickly generate different characters or at least provide a starting point. mike

Hi Konan, thank you in advance for whatever program you are going to develope! I too would really like a path correction tool. The first thing that I always do when I download free or purchased stuff is to open the cr2 or pp2 and change the obj path or the textures paths to keep the runtime well organized or fix error or bum references. Something that let you see the obj path and the path for every texture (transmap, bump or texture) used in the cr2 or pp2 and correct and resave it would be great for me.

Good stuff Hoggie, I will not be strating this project until Monday, so there is a lot more time to keep the suggestions coming in. I would also like to get some more suggestions for a program that "does stuff", as opposed to "fixing stuff" as well. An uninstaller seems to be the popular choice so far. Keep'em rolling, Konan

Hi Konan, I'm like Staby. I change all the obj pointers and paths, so a path correction tool would be useful. BUT....my main PITA now is MAT files. A program that allows you to change the MAT paths for texs and all maps, along with the obj pointers and stuff would be great. mac

There are some great ideas here. As strange as it is to believe, not everyone will be jumping to 5. I almost gave into an impulse and preordered it, but had a problem so was able to fight the urge and didn't have to watch my visa scream. With the urge past, I've decided to wait untill I actually can afford it. I doubt I'm alone. My biggest beef with p4 is the library mess. I'd love to find things. Even with all p5's bells and whistles it was the file system I was looking forward to most. Something for 4 would get a lot of use I think. And free is a real bonus.

Regarding textures in Runtime/textures it is my understanding that it doesn't matter where a texture is in there, Poser will find it. It seems to load up a complete list of paths and filenames in Runtime/textures when you open Poser. I've looked at some mat files that have texture paths that even refer to a different partition than mine, and Poser doesn't bat an eyelash but loads up the texture just fine. But that only depends on the filename being correct, of course, ie. .jpg vs .bum. But as long as you have a texture with the same name as in the Poser file in Runtime/Textures Poser will find it. Dont' worry about the exact path...it seems to be ignored unless the texture isn't there at all.

Attached Link: http://www.db70.com/bp/

Staby & Maclean... PBooost does the Textures from v1.3, and obj references are coming. Spit... Yes, Poser finds the files with incorrect paths by searching for them in the textures folders. But in the process it locks the runtime folder entirely under NTFS. Try loading a file you know has incorrect paths and then rename a folder within your libraries with explorer. Won't work!! The runtime folders are locked by windows because Poser hasn't freed them. This is caused by a simple programming error... forgetting to free the search object after use.

Personally, I've been doing quite a bit of CR2 editing. Notepad and WordPad are my programs of choice, but it's rather hard to navigate large files (Michael and Vic2 come to mind), especially if you're copying and pasting large chunks. I have both CR2Edit and CR2Builder, and I find both rather confusing: CR2Edit seems powerful but I can't get my arms around the cryptic button layout, and CR2Builder doesn't quite work right for me (plus the author is Japanese, I believe, and the documentation is hard to follow. Both are good programs I'm sure, but if we're wishing.... I'd like a CR2 edit capability along the lines of Morph Manager's GUI. I like the way everything is compiled by bodyparts, where you click the '+' sign to expand the body parts to see the inner details of the settings. It would be nice to be able to see all the sections of the CR2: for example, expand the 'BODY' section to see the FBMs. Expand the material section to see (and edit) the materials. Perhaps have a left and right side (like morph manager) where I can cut and paste cr2 information from the left to the right, etc or vice-versa. BTW, if there's already something out there along these lines (other than CR2Edit and Builder) please tell me where I can get it!!! :)

bomdropr, John Stallings has a program called "CR2 Editor" that does this. I think its in freestuff somewhere. :)

Hogwarden...at what point does Poser lock the folder? I thought it was when you open Poser and it creates a list of all the texture paths...not just when it gets confused. So whether there's an incorrect path or not, you can't rename/delete folders with Explorer while Poser is running. Not that I do that, mind. I do all my organizing with Poser closed. Of course, since I use NTFS, I can't use PBoost either.

I could use a program that would examine a pz3 and copy every file used to a destination folder. every obj, cr2 ect .......and every texture

heyas; brycetech was working on a program that checks and bundles a package together (obj, cr2, textures, etc). dunno what is up with him and that at this stage, though. the one thing i wanted, that i mentioned in the poser tech area, is a cr2 checker. one that will parse through a cr2 (after i have edited it) and point out any inconsistancies in it. some things (and it doesn't have to fix these, some of them can be deliberate and you want to leave them in)--- the figure res file can be found on the path specified by the cr2. the hierarchy order is the same in all the different sections (actor section, channels section, figure addchild and weld sections). perhaps even a standard hierarchy order checker (ie: the legs belong after the arms, not before them, etc etc). screwed up joint parameters, where a body part's jp's don't match up to its affectors in its parent. also, extra/missing/out of order jps. like the twist listed first instead of last, or having two twists and one joint, or three joints and no twist.... etc. extra welds, missing welds. missing addchild statements. stuff in ik chains that doesn't exist, or is out of order, etc. ik chains without link weights for each entry. materials that are in the cr2, but don't exist in the obj. (and/or vice versa.) stuff like that.

This is probably too simple, but whatever you create, how about an additional feature that runs through all the Poser files in your Library folders, and automatically changes the version numbers so Poser 4.03 users won't get that bloody "newer version number than expected" message. Come to think of it, that'd make a nice feature for P3dO Explorer. I'm already using it to convert PNGs to RSRs for Poser 4.03; that'd save me another step in the process.

I'll second Blooodsong's request! Regards- Lemurtek

Kaibach's idea sounds great. I'm no programmer, but it should be a snap to turn an obj morph target into a pose file to inject the morph, user would still have to spawn a morph target to put it in, but the horse work is making the pose file in the first place.

Other ideas:
1). In Poser4 way to delete all the all the lights at once would be great. 2) This might involve a hack, but keyboard arrow key control of parameter dials, it would give much greater control than curser dragging, especially on laggy machines. 3). The Holy Grail, a way to edit all the variables in a cr2 or pp2 in Poser4 memory e.g. an extension of the current cut/paste facility that only allows the values behind parameter dials to be edited.