Okay, so I'm a newbie, fine. I still need to know how to create MAT poses for my models. I have searched the tutorials on this site, but every single link was broken. PLZ help. Thnx.

To create a MAT file simply: (1) Set up your character with the appropriate items and poses. (2) Save your character as a .CR2 file (3) Use a text editor such as notepad to change the file extension from myfile.cr2 to myfile.pz2. (Make sure to save it as "any file type" and not as a .txt file or you will need to delete this extra extension once you've saved the new .pz2 file.) (3) Place this file in the appropriate folder in your Pose directory et voila, you've made your first MAT file. That's it. I hope this helps.

Search for Scourge or MatPoseEdit here in freestuff. Nifty program makes it easy.

I've done it a couple of times. What I've done is take another MAT file for the same object and edit it to point to another texture that I've created. But that would only work on something that someone else has already MATed, like a Vicki or Mike body texture, or pre-existing clothing item. If it's an original model, I couldn't help there. I'm too technically challenged. :) Melanie

The free utility Mat Pose Edit, available here in the Renderosity free stuff, is probably the easiest way to make a MAT Pose file. Morph Manager4, another free utility, can also be used to do it, and it's another one of those must have things. Sorry lordbyron but your suggested method does not work to create a MAT pose file, sure it will include the MAT information, but it includes every thing else as well, which just won't do. To create a MAT Pose by hand, with a text editor: 1. Load an empty Pose Template into a text editor. 2. Set up your character in poser with the materials you want. Save it to a pallet. Open the corresponding cr2, in a new text editor window. 3. With your text editors search function search for "canonType", this will take you near to the top of the materials section of the cr2. 4. Now look for the first instance of a line starting with the word "material", for Posette it will read "material skin" and for Victoria it will read "material SkinHead". Copy every thing from and including this first material line, down to but NOT including the line that starts with "displayMode" (this will usually read "displayMode USEPARENT"). 5. Paste this copied text into the empty pose template between the lines that read "#---Start MAT Section---", and "#---End MAT Section---". 6. I you intend to distribute your MAT Pose file, you should now edit any absolute paths in the file and change them to relative paths. Search for "Map", and replace any paths of the form "C:Poser 4RuntimetexturesMyTexture.jpg", with the form "MyTexture.jpg". 7.Save the file to a pose pallet with a pz2 file extension. This is just the bare bones of how to do it, if you have props attached to the cr2 things get more complicated. Below is a pose template suitable for making MAT Poses, you can paste it into a text editor and save it with a pz2 extension. { version { number } figure { #---Start MAT Section--- #---End MAT Section--- } }

Correction "MyTexture.jpg", in step #6, should have read ":MyTexture.jpg" (note the colon ":").

Mat Pose Edit will also handle setting textures for attatched props as well as create MOR pose files. There may be some advanced tricks you can do by editing the cr2 but for basics, why not do it the easy way. There is also a MAT pose program in the marketplace but I'd try the free one first and see if it meets your needs.

Yes, Poser 5 can read Poser 4 files. Oh, wait, wrong thread. Oh, goody, someone asked how to make MAT poses this week! For a minute, I thought we would have to go a whole week without someone asking this. I was sure people were actually looking at previous messages for their answer, but, no- here's the question again this week. My faith in humanity has been restored. But, yes, you are the first person in the entire history of this forum that has asked this question. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We never would have cracked this issue if it weren't for you. Now, for the 10,000,000,000 time, here is the answer: leave MAT poses to the professionals. If you 1) have to ask what they are and 2) don't bother looking to see if someone else has ever asked this question, then you don't deserve to be taught how to make them.

Hmm, someone's a little testy today...

JohnRender, you are out of line here. People come here to learn about how to do things. Next time just offer a link to where they can read about it or don't reply at all. Also people, we are not to advertise products for sale in this forum.

Amen on both points Spike.

Attached Link: Product_Showcase_Forum

That nay be true, We are not saying that your program it not the best way to make a mat file, we are saying that we do not allow advertising of "commercial related" items in this forum. "Plenty of other people give plugs for the other, free program and no one says anything about that." The key here is "Free" If you want to tell members about your commercial product, please do it in the Product Showcase Forum.

Nay = may

Spike- But if the question is asked in the Poser Forum, what should a merchant do- tell the person to look in the Product Showcase Forum for the answer? If you're giving them a link to a thread in the other Forum, how is that different from giving them a link directly to the product? Both point to a description of the product. Maybe I'm simplifying things, but it seems like the solution to the poster's issue is: 1) edit a cr2 file 2) edit an existing MAT pose file 3) create a new MAT pose file by-hand 4) Search for Scourge or MatPoseEdit here in freestuff. Nifty program makes it easy. 5) use a for-sale program, but since it's "for sale", we can't name it, give a link, or tell you where to find it because that would be advertising. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is what it seems like. --John

Hoagland.. that's why Product showcase was born. The Poserforum was long ago decided not to be riddled with ads like yours. So the Product showcase was born. This has been the rule for a while now. The solution to the posters issue is all of them You aren't supposed to advertise here, and this is a standing rule all along.

I try to mention any free or commercial solutions I'm aware of. I didn't name the commercial one because I can't keep all the similar names straight. I actually had to take a quick peek at the desktop icon to be sure I named the free one correctly (goofed on the spaces though). If some merchants choose not to honor the no ads policy here, it gives them an unfair advantage over those who do, especially when instead of a simple mention, you get a full fledged feature listing.

why are there dependancies for office applications for a graphic application utility? seems like a bad programming practice to me. ( and I have been programming for 20 years so I do know something about programming )

Jaqui, I believe he's using an Access mdb file for his database of figure types templates. I assume he's using dao to connect to it from his code though he may be using ado, which is IMO preferable. Just a design choice. Mat Pose Edit uses a simple text file. He only provides a couple of templates but you can add your own. Using a DB seems like overkill to me but I don't know what he's storing or more importantly, what kind of operations he may be doing on it besides simply calling up a specific template. Unless it's a very large amount of data (and I think his DB is pretty large) or you have some need to do elaborate searching, sorting, inserting, updating etc. (typical DB operations), I'd maybe look at an simple XML datastore. The MSXML parser is already included with IE 5+.

lmckenzie, that is kind of my point, unless you have a home office and need a db, you aren't going to have access on your system. using the xml, or a comma delimited text file would, in my opinion, be a more reasonable method than making a requirement for an application that very few home users will have. and lets be honest, most people use poser as a hobby, not on a home office, or office, computer with an expensive, comprehensive, database application. when you add in that both lotus and corel are more powerfull that ms office, ms office is not really a good option for use. huh, even star office is better than ms office, though it doesn't have a db app. then if you look at the tone of his message about the os, he isults you for not having whatever version of windows he uses. ( he never does say what update version he wants you to go buy to use his app ) well excuse me, but I will never give m$ a grand for applications. when I don't like the os or office suite they put out. ohh, an option to try it without buying access/ msoffice, but it hasn't even been tested. NOT unless he guarantees in writing it will work, and all expenses refunded.

Jaqui- If you read the description of my program (just above the section you highlighted), you will see that it comes with an Access database of over 250 figures, hair, and prop objects. You select the object from categories instead of having to go to File > Open Figure and hunting for the file. If the program doesn't work, I will gladly try to help you the best that I can. If it still doesn't work, then, yes, I will refund you the money. So, yes, I suppose that is a 100% money back guarantee. And are you a Mac or Unix user? If so, then my program won't work for you anyway, so there's no issue for you. If you are a Windows user (and don't like the OS), then why are you using it? lmckenzie- Yes, you are correct- I am using ADO to connect to an Access database. The information is organized into categories, figures, and materials, so I needed a relational database to handle it (the categories have figures and the figures have materials). I considered using XML, but then I saw all the problems people had with the XML Parser while trying to run Poser 5. Note: If someone considers this "advertising", feel free to say so, but I am answering the questions that people are asking about my product. --John

okay, but why use a commercial database that not everyone will have? why not use one that is freely available instead of part of an expensive office suite? mysql is a relational database and is free. buying the app and then having to buy an office suite that isn't needed for anything else, to use it is not conducive to sales, where downloading a free application as well is not as much of an issue. money is tight for most people, going with the lowest cost for the customer is always going to improve customer approval. the sources for mysql are available so the entire engine could be included in the app and no separate database app required. this then makes no additional requirements for the app other than the os. and I don't think anyone will cause a problem with you answering questions, as at least with this, they are also able to learn about the app in more detail than the ad has.

Jaqui- mysql is a relational database and is free. That's a very good idea. To be honest, I never even thought about this when I was first making the program. --John

I LIKE it when someone, anyone, responds by mentioning possible approaches, including commercial ones. That doesn't strikes me as "advertising". If someone has honestly asked how to do something, why not tell them there is something they can buy that would help? Here is my reasoning: if a forum gets overrun with NEW threads that are thinly veiled advertising, then that would be a community disservice, because it makes it hard to find threads you want. But once a thread has been started on a given topic, anyone reading that thread IS interested in that topic. So, how is mention of commercial solutions WITHIN such a thread, as long as it sticks to the topic of the thread, in any way offensive? Now, if someone were to start making off-topic advertisements within threads, then I say, get out the pitchforks and torches, and unleash the hounds grin NOTE: my perspective may be distorted, as I hope soon to offer items for sale, but I am genuinely interested in understanding the issue here. I don't want to start making posts that offend people!

ToolmakerSteve, the site policy is that Vendors can only advertise thier products in the product showcase forum and the marketplace itself. the idea being, I think, to keep forums like this more focussed on helping people learn about the program, and not commercialising it. ( I'm not a merchant myself, so I'm talking through my hat here ) if, as has happened at the end of this thread, a member asks about a product, it isn't advertising for the merchant to address the concerns raised. or, if a memeber buys a product and gives a link to the product in the marketplace while discussing the things they like, again it isn't concidered advertising by the merchant ( the merchant may not even have posted in the thread ) with free stuff items you can advertise in the forums for it, as there is no gain in it for you. as a matter of fact it often costs you in data transfer ( bandwidth ) to give the item away. John, seems a bit obvious that you hadn't concidered mysql. ~wink~ as it is percieved to be a website db app only. a lot of sites use a mysql backend which contributes to that perception, but it also should show that it is a fairly capable db.

Well, considering the use of mysql for future updates might be a good idea. That way I wouldn't have to force hubby to steal any more software from his secretary. G Kate (who is too cheap to buy an entire office suite just to get one silly little program that she doesn't need for anything else)

Attached Link: http://www.hwaci.com/sw/sqlite/index.html

JHoagland, you might also look at SQLight. It's tiny, only a couple of hundred KB, supports most SQL92 syntax, transactions and triggers etc. There is an ODBC driver for it available at: http://www.ch-werner.de/sqliteodbc/. I played with it this afternoon and had no trouble accessing it using the OLEDB for ODBC provider in VB and doing inserts, adding an index, deleting, finds, etc. If you're using C, you can access it directly. Regarding MDAC, it might be better to just include it in a MSI installer and install if needed. The problem with leaving it to the user is that they have to find it on the MS site and then decide which of the many variants to get, etc. The Jet provided isn't even included after 2.5 Just my opinion. As for XML, I understand your caution though given the comments about Poser 5, I'd be inclined to believe the problems are with Poser rather than MSXML :-)

Actually, I'm using mySQL on my main comic book site... hmm... do I mention the URL here or would that more "advertsing"? Anyway, the problem with including MDAC in an installer is that the version that I include (as part of developing on XP), may not work with Windows 98. I know it may seem difficult to people to download it on their own, but, so far, that's the best way for them to get the correct version for their Windows. Now, if everyone upgraded to Windows 2000 or XP, then we'd be okay. But, there are people who insist on staying with their creaky Windows 98. ~wink~ (And before you ask, no, I do not support Windows 95 or Windows 3.1, regardless of how many people may still be using it.) (Not to mention the fact that MDAC is a 8 to 9M file. So, the zip file on my program would go from a 500k download to a 9 to 10Megs!) As for XML and Poser 5, I think a lot of the problems were due to the fact that CL just decided to use XML without telling anyone. So, everyone with an older browser (which didn't have a proper XML parser) was out-of-luck. I suppose I could use XML, but I would have to make it clear that people would need an updated browser. --John

Acutally, it's 5MB, I just downloaded the 2.7 Refresh yesterday. According to MS, 2.7 is supported on 98 (with Y2K update) thru XP. I'm not stating that as definitive, just their info. I agree even 5MB is adding a lot for a download. Perhaps just include links to whatever versions you think appropriate for each OS. I don't know how your system is set up. On mine, I can still choose to reference MDAC 2.5 or 2.6. I don't have Poser 5 so I don't know which version of MSXML it needs. I'd think they wouldn't require anything above what comes with IE5 btu who knows. Of course, there are always folks who use Netscape or Opera which may not be compatible. At any rate, even though I love ADO, I have to admit it's not necessarily the ideal solution for distributing a smaller application. In some cases, one of the smaller free DBs might be better.