Well, so much for that - tried extracting the downloads, and 5 (!) of them are corrupt, including the installer itself. So now I'm trying to go back in and download them again, and I can't even log into their site.

I have to say, as software publishers and supposed experts, Smith Micro sure don't impress me, and when I go into store support, my login for the store doesn't apply? WTF?

This isn't the first time SM have sold Poser - how can they be so unprepared for it?

Sorry, TrekkieGrrl, I just had to download mine ;). Only took 2.25 hours, though - not bad for the amount of stuff, I guess.

Quote - But torrents unfortunately have  bad reputation.. sigh (well not totally unwarranted either)

True, but that's like saying, "We won't distribute this electronically because the Internet is what makes piracy possible." Torrents are a brilliant use of the technology - pirates just happen to use them. Kind of like how real-world pirates use ships - yet we still go on cruises and send vast amounts of imports across the oceans *in ships. :D

Sadly, your rationale is probably completely accurate.

Makes one think it would be the best option to put something like this out as a torrent, and then everyone who downloads it can also help facilitate its distribution :). E-mail us the serial number for our product and a torrent address, and ta-da!

Quote - If PP2010 stability is any indication and from what I hear on the RDNA forums, I don't think stability is going to be much of an issue. Unless those ambassadors are keeping secrets from us... :biggrin:

PP2010 is stable? When did that happen? I've had nothing but problems with it - crashes constantly, esp. when trying to use the morphing tool; renders never come close to the lighting in the previews (they did in earlier versions, so I've come to expect a minimum amount of similarity); floating library blows up constantly and the preview screen locks when moving back from the library, and it takes 5-10 seconds minimum for ANY control to gain focus when moving from another control. Frankly, it's the worst-performing version of Poser I've had since v.1. Still, I already bought PP2012, hoping for improvements, and D|S 4 completely flummoxes me, so Poser is the only game in town for me. 

If you're looking for different skin tones, and then using Photoshop to make specific characters, why not just use Photoshop on the basic M3 textures and use layers to create the skin tones you want first, then flatten and modify to create specific characters? As long as you're not redistributing, you can do anything you want to textures - I made my Andorian texture by layering the right shade of blue over the standard SP3 textures and then changing the blend mode and transparency to get exactly what I wanted. It works like a charm.

Ahhh, the old "negative space" approach - I like it! Actually, I could save all the OTHER lights as a set, delete them, save the internal lights, then add the others right back in. Good idea! Why didn't I think of that? :blink:

Ironic that this is exactly the topic I came here to start! But in my case, I've got a starship model with lights parented to its physical lights, so that they actually cast light and shadows realistically (warp nacelles, running lights, etc.). All are parented so they snap into the proper locations, and each is named according to its function. The problem is that they show up in the hierarchy editor just fine, but when I try to save them as a light set, they are not on the list - only the external lights show up in the dialog. Any experienced suggestions for how I can save this light set so the model can self-illuminate?

TIA!

Change the "V_Scale" setting from "1" to "-1", presuming that when you say flipping vertically you mean "upside down" and not "on a vertical axis," in which case you make the change to the "U_Scale" setting.

^^

Even then, it may not appear - I had the same problem yesterday and had to shut down Poser and restart it just to get the "+" back. Frankly, the Library is a piece of feyu in PP2010; sometimes, the simplest methods don't work, it's an ergonomic nightmare, and it takes too freakin' long to load. There are some good and notable concepts behind it, but in practice, it just plain sucks - esp. since it is so completely non-integrated with the program interface. SmithMicro has really screwed up Poser, I must say - lots more capabilities, and lots more headaches, and the two aren't even vaguely related, unfortunately.

Quote - People who do pornography have no human rights.

**
"Books can be indecent books, though recent books are bolder,
'cos filth, I'm glad to say, is in the mind of the beholder.
When correctly viewed, EVERYTHING is lewd!
I could tell you things about Peter Pan, and the Wizard of Oz? THERE's a dirty old man!**"

Tom Lehrer - "Smut"

I'm not sure why these people should lose their "human rights" when they're doing something that is legal in most countries of the world; I'd much rather see Michael Bay and all the moviemakers who glorify violence and killing in films, and creators of violent videogames, lose their rights than someone who depicts a natural human activity that, when done right, has no losers. ;)

That's one of the reasons I've set up the materials in the way I have - it makes it easier to select "ConsoleINsets" and "Screen Trim" as groups to smooth, while leaving everything else alone. Of course, I just need a modeler or UV mapper that creates smoothing groups ;-).

Thanks! Yeah, that really does bloat the poly count, doesn't it? ;-)

BTW, I discovered I didn't have those inset curves (shown in pjz99's shots above) tripled, so those are also split in the latest version - but those corners aren't where I'm getting the smoothing issues.

Frankly, I have more problems of more varieties with PP2010 than I think I've had with any previous version, all based around simple stuff that they 'fixed' at least 3 versions ago; that's what's so frustrating. Phong or Reyes shading - these issues weren't issues in 6 and 7 (at least not for me), and now I'm not sure what approach to take to make the model work in this more 'advanced' version, where apparently even turning smoothing off doesn't really turn it off at all.

BTW, can you show those 3 examples above in wireframe?

What troubles me the most is the smoothing artifacts I continue to get on the flat uper floor surfaces; those polys are all split, from each other and from the gray vertical surfaces, but I keep seeing smoothing artifacts along the edges between some of the polys, and where they meet the corner of the gray facets. Yeah, it's driving me a little nuts ;-).