Just my 2 cents on this. Don't use the "ground plane" at all. I've always found that it doesn't corectly render shadows. This may have been fixed in the most recent version, but I still keep away from the "ground plane" as a rule anyway. Remember, this is just MY opinion. I use one of the many cubes and planes in the props section to make a quick plane. You can better apply textures and they cast/receive shadows far better than the "ground plane". I also create my own floors and such. A very easy thing to do and you have exactly what you want and do not have to rely on the quirkyness of the "ground plane". James

Thanks picnic, kiru. If you mean, what did I use to create the site? Then I used LiveMotion, GoLive and of course PhotoShop. LOL sounds like an ad for Adobe (they all are Adobe products). But I realy do swear by Adobe for high quality programs. I actually own these programs. PhotoShop, (I'm on a Mac and it was the single most important purchase I made even though the hefty price tag) is still the number one 2D program to have if your own a Mac. Paint Shop Pro (PSP) I guess would be the one to have if your on a PC and can't afford the $600.00 plus price for PhotoShop. I recently bought a PC but I have PhotoShop for that too. LiveMotion is new for me. But it seems (so far) to be a good program, similar to Flash (exports to Flash also) but with more drawing tools. I still have to figure out how to do animation with it. GoLive, though it's drawback of writting sloppy code at times, is still a great and easy (with many complicated features too) program to quickly do WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) HTML pages. Hope that answered the inquiry. James

Sorry, I was looking at the "sit" Mac file not the "exe" PC. Yes indeed the exe is March, and the sit is Jan. Hmmm, again it would be nice to be informed what is what and if we should download. I really should start looking more closely now since I just bought a PC. The best of both worlds. G4 Cube and a Pentium III PC, well almost the best, I couldn't afford a Pentium 4. I have already sent an e-mail to DAZ and I hope to hear from them Monday. James

I'm just assuming that since the date on the file is january that it is from january. When updating to a server the date would change if the file was updated. But my rule of thumb is, if you're not sure if you have the latest, if you can download it again do so. And yes I agree, DAZ are you listening!, there must be a better way to tell us and inform us of what file is what. Maybe a separate HTML page, not just a directory of all updated files. With clear cut instructions and dates for all files. James PS I'll send an e-mail to DAZ and see if I can't stir things up a bit. But no one will be there until tomorrow, monday.

ookami, Read the post a little more carefully. ;-) I will be doing the texs and morphs for the P4 male ALSO. Though Michael will morph better, the Poser Dork will still be a nice model. I've always thought that a good tex can do wonders for any model. Me do a robe!?! No way, much to hard a task for me. I'll stick to textures and non-organic props. ;-) Though I am going to one day attempt to do a true geisha wig. James

Ravenfeeder, I believe Melanie is talking about Bryce, not Poser. There is nothing out there in the vast space of import/export readers/writers except Bryce that reads/writes .obp. Nothing, nohow, nowhere. At least nothing accessable to the public. Thanks for the tips. This is common knowledge to most of us, but to those who don't know this, thanks for posting. It always helps to have these little tips and tricks re-posted so that everyone gets to know them and benefit from them. The "MacConverter" in the free section here does the work for you in creating a Mac friendly pp3, pz2, cr2, fc2, hr2, hd2, etc file (it will combine any and all .rsr files to their corresponding mate and makes them Mac-Poser ready) No need to dabble in ResEdit. Most people don't want to get that deep into the root of their computer anyway. MacConverter does all this for you. So yes, Mac users have always been able to use 90% of all the Free Stuff here. Back to Bryce. Bryce 4 imports/exports most of all the same file formats as Poser 4, so in turn they are very compatible with each other. TIP: Bryce does NOT export any of it's primitives to other formats other than .obp. Spheres, boxes, cones, etc (all the shapes in the Create menu with the EXCEPTION of the "terrains - both flat and lattice). It's .obp or nothing with them. James

Hmm, I thought I had created a reply. Seems to have got lost in the black hole that is the internet. hmmm Anyway, the message read: LOL 3ddave44, I wanted to use Michael, but as we know, there is no "period" clothing for Michael. So I guess I will have to use the P4 male and throw a tunic and some boots on him. This was just a test for the Castle anyway. ;-) This is not the URL where I got the Castle, but it seems to be the exact same one. It is not broken down to as many groups as I would have liked but still it has groups for the walls, the towers, roofs, doors, chains, the causeway, flags, and silly enough the murder holes. http://members.fortunecity.com/psmall/models_buildings1.html James

Well I certianlly wish that some how I could turn this off. I was working on a very complicated House model over 500 parts and to re-select little tiny parts that took me awhile just to select is anoying when I just need to rotate my viewpoint to get a closer look and find out that I now have the camera selected. :( But as I said, if you're careful you can aviod selecting the camera or lights. So I guess I just have to get the hang of how quickly or slowly I select the controls. Now am I crazy or was this not happening in Poser 4 without Pro Pack. As I remember, you could select parts of the prop/figure but never did it select a camera or light when you chose to rotate a camera or position a light. Don't get me wrong, it's nice that cameras and lights are now geometry, but shouldn't they only be selectable when you want them? Not while you're trying to work on another prop/figure. Oh well James

Thanks Marque! As I suspected. Not too much detail at all. Bummer. I guess it's time to break out the modeling programs. Organics ...shudder.... I'll have to give it a try. James

Thanks very much Marque. Tis is a least better quality than the ones I've seen, but still looks like something very lo-res, and not the hi-quality I was looking for. Maybe with a re-map and better textures....it seems that all the owls around are just massing models with a texture put on to try to cover up that they are only VRML quality. Does it even have a beak? Could you post a top and side view? It wuld be aprecieated. But I guess it looks like I'll have to try to build one on my own. James

I agree with JKeller. The top image looks like there's a fog or haze layer applied. And the bottom looks crisper. Depending on what look you're going for will determine which one is the better render. Also try rendering sections the scene at 300 dpi and larger pixel with and height so you can see more detail and how the blur is trully affecting the image. The images above are small and hard to really tell that a blur has been applied, it looks more like an atmospheric filter than a blur. James

Glad to help soulsong. Even in this little way. I Didn't know that smallspace. You learn something new everyday :) Maybe now he might answer my e-mails? I'm still looking for a high res Owl. Yes I know about The owls on on of the other sites listed here, but they're just not the quality I am looking for. DD has one ob their Animal CD, but I need to see it and determine if it is the quality I need. So I also was hoping that finally DD would have a image preview page of their products. Maybe he might read this and do so. I can always hope. James

As always ... Thanks!!! The great just keeps getting better. James