Solved it! Posting the solution here in case it helpd anyone else as I was on the point of despair. Didn't want to have to use scripts to collect content in a subdirectory before import (but tried that anyway and it didn;t work). Tried editing the library prefs xml file to bring my main library to the front. No dice.

Here's what did work (although this may not be a full solution if you switch between libraries... Most of my scenes are built over one, it just isn't the default one)

Found in the file  Poser UI Pref Map.xml a couple of paths under a BfileSearch node called LastPath_Image and LastPath_Geom and noticed that these were pointing to relative paths within the installation. Manually edited them to point to my main ilnraries absolute path instead. Saved the file, opened Vue and tried the import...

Cue lots of grinding gears but this time no request for path information and got to the import options dialog without further problems.

Ok, thanks, that's worth bearing in mind. Using the Open GL in software mode is kind of OK in an emergency but not that nice to work with longer term when you've been used to using the graphics card acceleration. It's noticibly less reponsive and less accurate. I did try a work around of importing my scene in software open GL, making the posing changes there then changing back to hardware acceleration and reopening the scene (have tried this in conjunction with your suggestion about memory capacity above). In fact Vue appeared to tolerate this for a while, but I think the fundamental problem is the combination of using Poser "emebedded" functions and the hardware acceleration and sooner or later it crashes with these two together (and seems markedly less responsive too).

It's very hard to work with posing in Vue using the software open GL because there is too little detail to see what you're doing. In fact I only went down this route at all because of some inaccuracies in the import which I thought I might be able to correct in Vue but the flakiness of the display and the relatively clunky posing interface in Vue has convinced me to steer clear of this work flow in future! I'm going to stick to simple static imports where Vue and Poser operate more independently as generally speaking (apart from the one geometry problem that lured me into this problem) that does seem to behave nicely.

Switched to software Open GL and I can imoprt properly, so clearly this is some kind of graphics driver problem and not one resolved by the latest driver.

Possibly this is a graphics driver issue but I am now on the latest Gforce one (295.73) and I still have the problem. If there is some way I can work around the problem I'd still be pleased to take any suggestions...

Just confirming that I took the upgrade and I still have the problem :-(

Just to add some more information to this thread although I'm afraid I don't have a solution. I have seen exactly this problem on my machine when I import Poser 2012 into Vue 10, but only if I am asking Vue for Poser support (either to render with the shader tree or to allowing posing inside Vue). I have Vista 64 bit with 12 GB of memory. I'm using the latest patch for Vue and the latest SDK for poser (August 2011) and a GForce GTX 295 graphics card. My driver version was 285.62 and I get this problem in Vue 9 and Vue 10. I don't believe it is anything specific to the version of Vue. 

I posted another thread first before I saw this one when I thought the problem might be due to the importing options and there are more details on that thread...

I'll try the new driver but after Mari-Anne's second post I won't hold out too much hope of a fix :-(

Will post again when I know the results in case it is of interest...

Just looked four posts down the forum and I see I am not alone with graphics driver problems. Must remember to read the forum first before rushing off to post!

I know this is an old thread but in case anyone finds it in a search, the same thing happens in Poser 8 with Sr 3 on a Vista 64 bit machine for me (and I've seen it reported on another thread at DAZ for someone with Poser 8 and Sr 2 and Vista 64 bit). In my case I don't have outlook running.

I've got the latest patch for Poser 8 (8.0.3.11793) and I keep my OS up to date as well. Unfortunately I haven't used Poser for a while so I've taken lots of upgrades to things (e.g. Java, Flash etc...) that all might be the triggering the problem. It's a frustrating issue. Will post here again if I find a solution that works for me (can't help but feel that whatever else Poser might be clashing with, at bottom this is Poser's fault)

Great, thanks!

Hmmmm... I'm getting there now I think, but I'm not quite there yet! Thanks archdruid and aprilgem. I've spotted that there is a tick box against the JPEG on my save dialog box with "thumbnail" in it, so I reckon archdruids theory about PS saving a thumbnail with the thumbnail :-) is the right one. The only problem is that I can't uncheck it! The check box is enabled but greyed out and no comnination of the other options I seem to have control over affect it. It's a standard JPEG I want to save not a JPEG 2000. There is a SaveForWeb in CS2 aprilgem, and that does seem to work as an option for producing smaller files. So that is the way I'll do it from now on, I think, but I'm still curious about why I'm being forced into saving a thumbnail in the standard dialog box.

Thanks! I'm now up to SR4 and officially registered with my product code....

Well, I've committed myself to ordering a new machine now and have gone down the route of a single powerful box rather than a render farm (mainly because of other applications I'll want to run apart from Vue and for space considerations). The new box will be powered by dual core 3.2 GHz Xeon processor(s) so hopefully that will help Vue. I like the notion of a Hermit Crab upgrade but I've yet to decide whether I can utilise my old lap top in any secondary capacity. It'll be way underpowered compared with the new rig. Thanks for all the advice and an interesting discussion. My new box should arrive in the next couple of weeks and then I'll do as wabe suggests and download the Vue demo, just about in time for my birthday :-) Very much looking forward to playing with Vue...

Thanks for all the advice folks - it's a fascinating discussion. I hadn't considered the option of putting together a cheap render farm. Interesting idea. I guess at the end of the day I'd prefer my solution in a more powerful single box because this will also benefit the applications I might want to run that won't be "farmable" e.g. post processing apps (Photoshop) or even games. Although fast rendering is my main motive for buying a new machine, it isn't the only one. But what this does make me think is that it could be worth hanging on to my old machine and keeping it for possible use in a farm... Then again, if there is a disparity between the performance of the controlling machine and the subordinate farmed machine is the software that controls the farming smart enough to parcel out the work in proportion? (or does every machine on a farm get an even slice of work and you have to wait for the slowest?)

Here's a tip to get a background planet which looks as if there's an atmosphere in front of it. I couldn't get this to look right when I was starting with Bryce. All my planets looked like they were IN the atmosphere instead of beyond it. So if your foreground planet is supposed to have an atmosphere, click on the material editor of the planet in the sky, then click on the downward pointing arrow next to the "Material Options" in the top right of the screen and select "Additive". You should now have a realistic renedered planet which looks as if is is "behind" the sky. (You may need to do this to your atmosphere sphere and your underlying sphere)

You can see the effect of using "Additive" on an image like this one.

Message edited on: 04/24/2005 04:39

Having just read through ALL this thread (phew!) I've got one more suggestion to add... First off, I'd like to say that personally I don't mind skimming the thumbnails and if I miss an image, the world won't come to an end. The abilities to mark favourite artists and to go to artists galleries are a great help. However, I have fast bandwidth access and I can understand that I might feel differently about this if I was limited to modem speeds. I DO think we need some metrics from the admins to add a bit of light to the heat in this discussion. I suspect that the problem with flooding the galleries is caused by numbers of artsist rather than multiple posts from "offending" artists. But suppose I'm wrong? For those who'd like to limit the number of uploads how about this suggestion... Why not have a filter to let members selectively stop images by other member names? I'm not suggesting I'd use such a filter myself but if you really don't like your bandwidth being gobbled up by someone's thumbnails whom you categorise as an abuser, then block 'em. This can't be criticised as a form of central censorship, only self censorship. If on the other hand, it's the number of artists that are the problem this won't help - but then that would undermine a lot of the arguments that have been made previously :-) P.S. I also like the idea of a "voted" gallery but only if the other galleries continue as they are now.