Forum: Poser - OFFICIAL


Subject: DAZ Studio

danfarr opened this issue on Nov 22, 2002 ยท 255 posts


Penguinisto posted Sat, 23 November 2002 at 3:39 PM

This is getting to be one mondo-big list o' plugin requests...

Perhaps some clarifications are in order:

Import is, legally and technically, easier to do than export. I suspect that common formats, like .3ds, .lwo, .obj, .pz3 (and all the other Poser format types) will likely be easy to include. As long as the format is in ASCII format (that is, you can open it with Notepad), making a plugin isn't too awful tough to do, so long as you understand what format the engine demands natively. formats that are in binary (.max, ferinstance) or encrypted (not sure of any CG examples off the top of my head) requires a license of some sort.

Export is another bucket of fish entirely. You can export to open formats without a second thought, like .3ds and .obj, no sweat. Exporting to ASCII-formatted files like .pz3 should have no real problems in the legal department, so long as you can prove in court that you didn't copy any patented algorithms or processes required to do this. (since .pz3 files are in ASCII, there are literally an infinite number of ways to use your own export process and get the same results w/o violating a patent.)

Exporting to a binary, or worse, an encrypted format will prolly require a license (encrypted exports will certainly require one, thanks to the DMCA.)

Otherwise, I should caution everyone that, and I repeat:

Do Not Build Unrealistic Expectations Yet

/P