I have been having a heck of a time making material poses for smart props for Vicky and Steph in P4. They seem to get confused a lot, especially when there are multiple props in the same scene. Is this a known issue? Are mat poses just not done for smart props? Is there a work-around?

heyas; mat poses only work on figures. they CAN work on props, if the props are parented to figures, but not on props by themselves. if you have multiple instances of one prop in a scene... i have no idea how it would handle that. what is becoming confused? (besides me, here ;) ) when you go to apply a mat pose for your prop, do you select the prop itself before you apply it, or do you just select the figure that the prop is attached to, or do you not select anything in particular? that might have something to do with it. also, if you try to apply a mat pose to a figure (or prop) that does not have the materials that are in the mat pose, poser will actually tack the materials onto the material list of the object. which doesn't do anything, but is hella annoying. don't know if that has anything to do with your problem.

The problem:

I created mat pose files for smart props, parented to figures, for 2 identical props. The prop files are different, one for Vick, one for Steph.

Now, it should be working at this point, and it does... sometimes. I don't know what the pattern for failure is yet, but it seems to have something to do with what order the props were attached and/or identical props have been added. I finally gave up.

My solution:

I created a separate prop file for each material setting. Same number of files or less, and just a little less convenient (need to delete the prop to change it.) Thanks.

When Poser loads a prop into the document in the normal way (i.e. not a smart prop, and not loaded from a cr2) it adds an underscore and number to the props name. The number is incremented for each new instance of the prop that is loaded. prop square_1 prop square_2 prop square_3 prop square_4 Thus it seems that the name of the prop depends on the order it was loaded. I'm not quite sure how numbering is handled in the case of Smart Props, but I suspect this numbering issue might be involved in your problem.

Certainly seems like. Thanks.

In the case of smart props, the object receives an underscore just the same (unless one is already added in the pp2 name directive), but the internal name used has a :# added where # is the number of the heirarchical level down the object is, from what I can tell. Actally, it's not the proper heirarchical level. For instance, on the thing I'm working on, I made a smart prop wand which becomes ElfMageWand_1:3 though it shows up as ElfMageWand_1 in the list and by name. I hacked an lt2 file into it to provide a smart-light spotlight that loads with the prop automatically parented to it. (it worked). On the MAT file thing, why not just make multiple prop files? If the props point at geometry (that is, an external OBJ rather than internal geometry), the filsize difference is negligible.

Oh, nevermind, that's what you did. I missed that. Sorry.

:-)

dodger - "smart props" ... "internal name used has a :# added where # is the number of the heirarchical level" From what I've seen, that ":#" on a prop is the same as on a body part - it is the number of the figure to which the prop is attached. Regarding pose files: I have a smart props file that attaches several props to the selected figure. I have poses that modify those props. They work fine, even if that identical smart props file is added to two identical figures (e.g., two Posettes). Whichever Posette I have selected, the pose file affects the prop on that posette. To get this to work: delete ALL the ":#" from the pose file. - - - - - Regardless of technique, watch out for that Poser bug where when the second figure is first loaded, any operations (dial changes, pose loads) may affect the FIRST figure, even though the figure selector below the window shows the SECOND figure. Work-around is to select the first figure, then re-select the second figure. Now Poser really knows it is working with second figure.

Hmm, the only thing is that I can't see how that works for any number other than the _# coded into the mat pose. As poser adds props, it appends a _ to the end of the prop's internal and given name -- so how does poser know whatprop to use?

heyas; you have to grab the prop (or figure) that you want to apply the mat pose to. so when you grab sword #40, it applies the mat to sword #40, and when you grab sword #8, it applies it to sword #8.... i think. the same as applying a mat pose to a particular figure in a scene. you grab figure 1 and apply this mat pose, grab figure 2 and apply that mat pose...