Thanks for your reply. I've been there, done that. But I tried it again just to make sure. It doesn't work. Only one piece smartprops (to the neck), the rest load parented to the universe even though they all have the smartparent line in the pp2.  In theory it should work, but for some reason it doesn't. Poser ignores the smartparent in all but one.

By the way, there's no colon. It's just smartparent lforearm, not smartparent: lforearm. But it still stops smartpropping after one piece.

I even tried adding :1 after each body part (smartparent lforearm:1) because I have seen it that way in some individual smartprop pp2 files. Makes no differrence. 

By "junk" I assume you mean the dozens and dozens of deformation morphs embedded in V4. I wouldn't mind them so much if they were completely out of view, never in the way. They're supposed to be hidden but they pop up sometimes, flooding the parameter panel with dials that cannot be used manually, they just sit there cluttering up the place.

And if you ever need to scroll through the Parenting hierarchy, for example, there they are: endless lists of deformations or magnets that make it difficult to find the actual body parts. Of course Poser allows no way to hide them in these windows like you can in the main Hierarchy Editor. All those deformations, together with the ultra-skinny scroll bars in Poser 8, make getting through those lists a major PITA.

Whatever they are accomplishing, is there a better, simpler way to accomplish it? How does M4 do it? Is he more limited than V4, in either a good or bad way? Or did some magnet-happy person just go wild when designing V4, instead of using other methods?

The free basic V4 is not very useful, by design. Morphs++ is one of the "must-have" purchased add-ons that are the reasons Vicky is free. It's the same principle behind the sale of a piece of clothing for what seems like a very good price, and right next to it in the marketplace is a texture set that sometimes costs more than the clothing. The idea is to hook you with the free/cheap item so you have to buy more related stuff to really enjoy it. Basic marketing.

If you just use base V4 and nothing else, the only thing you can do is change her hair and makeup. I hope you're not using the low-res texture that came with free Vicky!

I like pouty, full lips more than thin lips. But I agree it may have been done to death. Like body shapes that look like Dolly Parton in zero gravity.

I think the point is that we shouldn't have to buy fixes to correct DAZ design errors, and that DAZ should fix those errors themselves in the next release. It is incredible that they have not done so in previous releases, especially since this particular mistake (the armpits) is so easy to fix. Most of the design goofs in Vicky, in fact, are easy fixes for those with the necessary expertise.

I don't particularly enjoy working with magnets, either, but I don't see the point in taking magnets away from everybody.

I don't use the Face, Hair, or Cloth Rooms at all, and the Setup Room only when I need to turn a group of props into a figure and then back to a single prop. (Any other method produces odd results when any of the props are morphed). But I don't want those rooms to go away. I just ignore them.

I use magnets when I can't get what I want with the Morphing Tool (some meshes don't play well at all with that tool). But I wish there was a way to get to the same end without using magnets. Somebody will say, "Easy, use Zbrush." OK, buy it for me and you got a deal. I've sampled the free and cheap modeling apps, and didn't much care for any of them. I'm comfortable working within Poser, I finally have got the hang of most of the things I want to do... it's just that the methods are too clunky, like magnets, or too limited, like Morphing Tool.

Anyway, a bit OT from what V5 should look like, it's more like what Poser 9 should look like! 

Quote - > Quote - • She is proportioned at 6'2" tall. I don't want to have to use Stephanie to get a more realistic female figure.

That's using the Poser 6+ measuring system. Before that (and to a large extent still, even in content made for more recent versions of Poser) the common systems were 1 Poser unit = 8 feet (96") and 1 Poser unit = 100 inches. DAZ worked to the 1PNU=8' scale, by which V4 is still tall at 5'10" or so but not as extreme as 6'2".

You're saying she was only 5'10" in Poser 5 and earlier? That isn't much comfort! Since I don't use Poser 5, I need Michael to be about 7 feet tall to make Vicky look the right size standing next to him.

I guess it doesn't matter so much if EVERYTHING is scaled for a 6'2" Vicky. But why make the scale so out of whack to begin with? Just fix the damn measuring system if that is the problem.

Quote - I really do not like the V4 default shape at all and this also translates through to the majority of characters I've seen.

This is pretty unanimous, I think. And it may be deliberate. Giving Vicky a nondescript, boxy default shape (and shipping her with a los-res default texture with ugly lo-res purple bikini and butch hair painted on) is actually a very effective way to get users to head right out to the marketplace and buy stuff to make Vicky more appealing.

By the way, I think it's interesting that  many of the vendors who make the sexiest V4 characters are female. Same goes for the "hot" outfits, sometimes referred to by the more jaded among us as slutwear or skimpwear. It shows that the V4 marketplace is not just about men doing stuff to suit their own tastes. (It could be argued that the women are doing stuff to empty men's wallets, but I'd like to think they are also fulfilling their own ideas of what is hot). 

Why are Windows and MS Word so popular? To some extent it is a cycle that feeds on itself: Everybody gets V4 because everybody HAS V4.

I do think V4 and M4 are superior to the figures that SM packages with Poser (which I started out using like everyone else who buys Poser). But I think the gap is less than a few years ago.  I wonder if some of that superiority is simply based on the fact that the universe consists of Vicky clothing and the offerings for SM's characters are much more limited.

I understand that they wanted Alice to be a special and limited-edition item in the 3D world. But offering your flagship product briefly, once a year, doesn't seem to be part of a profitable business model. The domino effect hits their other products, I would guess. The fewer people who are allowed to own Alice, the fewer people who will buy her outfits. I mean, if your deliberate aim is to keep the Alice market small, then you have to live with the consequences of that.

That said, I am very disappointed they are pulling out. Their Alice material, while relatively high priced and almost entirely for faeries and warrior gals, is of extremely high quality.

I've read lesbentley's advice in other threads about removing that number in the CR2 to make it superconfirming. I haven't been able to make that work. Also, I have some superconforming clothing straight from the vendor, examined before loading,  that has the number where les says there should be none. So I think vendors are using different methods of making a piece of clothing superconforming. I have seen some clothing that even has (hidden) SC versions of every morph.

The frustrating thing is, I have yet to see a vendor state up front that re-saving the clothing to the library (as many, many people do, even if only to give it a new name) will kill the superconforming function.  A vital piece of information for the consumer, I would think.

I've never seen a V4 character that didn't have her brows as part of her face texture. (But I went right from Posette to V4 with many years absence in between).   So I don't know the benefits of transmapped brows. I do know the damn eyebrow zone is a PITA the way it keeps reappearing in all its shiny plastic glory. Maybe if I had some trans brows this would not be an issue.

Another, but not very good solution, is to use Vicky's forearm bend dial to remotely control the fix morph in your nightie. That's pretty clunky, though, and not very practical if you're planning on distributing the nightie to others.

Personally I prefer the solution where the nightie is so skimpy that there aren't any arms to worry about! :)  I think that philosophy is partly why 90% of V4 skirts and dresses are minis. Long skirts (and long sleeves) are a pain.

That's quite a workaround, especially for those who might be intimidated by math nodes. Wouldn't it just be easier for Poser to make 50% grey the neutral point? Did the coders think no one would ever want to use displacement to lower the surface?

Quote - Hello,
even if the is the Poser specific forum, I would like to add that it is software dependent.
Black is neutral for Poser, grey (128,128,128) is neutral for Carrara (and most likely DS as well).
Other software may use even different settings. 

I was going to say, 50% gray in Poser is NOT neutral. It raises the surface a fraction of an inch, which is quite noticeable where one displaced body part ends and a non-displaced one begins. It also can cause render poke-throughs in snug clothing even if you don't see it in preview.

So, if black is neutral and white raises the surface in Poser, how does one create a a displacement depression? There is no blacker than black, is there?

I would use displacement for facial ornaments, etc., where expressions will not carry a prop piercing with it. (Because the nose, chin, cheeks are not separate body parts and the piercing is parented only to the main head).

Displacement is quite effective in this situation. Put the facial ornaments on a layer above the facial texture in Photoshop or the equivalent, Save As a jpg (which merges the layers in the copy). Then make displacement map with the ornaments in white. In the Mat Room, make sure Use Displacement is checked on the face material zone, and play around with the dial to get the right amount of "raise" off the surface. A very small amount is usually best. (Again, you have to render to see the effect).