hahahaha...

P4PP makes PZ3 scene files that can be opened by Vue. P5 does not.

I have Vue and Bryce both, but only use Vue. Vue will allow you to do a 7200x7200 (or greater) render at up to 600 dpi with complete control over the aspect ratio and level of anti-aliasing. It also renders to screen or to disk (get the free patch or the disk render might not work). Renders can also be farmed out to other machines on the network. Vue renders very well, especially with volumetric effects. You might want to look at the Vue and Bryce galleries here at r'osity.

"I'd just as soon they held a buck or two back from the satellite death-ray project and gave it to an artist, y'know?" Haha... I agree.

"What defines it then?" According to folks who get paid to figure out which artist's deserve my tax dollars in the form of a US grant, art is defined as a photo of two dudes taking a leak on each other while a naked midget is in the background trying to unclog a toilet with a crucifix.

Poser currently reminds me of the MIDI music revolution of the early 80's. Certain skill barriers were removed between imagination and production. If you could think it, you could create it. And I would submit that people like Vangelis were thinking better than most, in their little rooms full of synthesizers. Today, almost all recorded music incorporates MIDI to some degree. That does not make it somehow "less" than a 100% analog instrumental. We've all seen wonderful musicians who couldn't write a listenable song if their lives depended on it. I'll take a creative imagination over a trained and steady hand, any day. Music is music, no matter how it is generated. As far as I'm concerned, with visual art, if it looks good, it looks good. Period.

"Migal- I eagerly await your lengthy explanation. I will be grateful if you go to the trouble of typing it in again!"

It was probably too lengthy, so I'll try to encapsulate it into the parts I think are worth mentioning.

And btw, what Emily is saying above is also the case. The Tailor doesn't consider transform settings like scaling or trans. It just considers morph targets. Basically, the Tailor is Morph Manager with a nice GUI, but it transfers morphs from characters to clothes, not characters to characters, like Morph Manager.

Many female characters come with a replacement hip obj that has a denser mesh in the groin area, allowing for greater detail. Some also come with a pubic prop embedded in the cr2 (Steph's is part of her original geometry, not a prop, so no problem). These replacement body parts are invisible to the Tailor and as a result, the Tailor makes a thong do a hyper-wedgie -- the cloth goes up through the hip all the way to the abdomen -- or the cloth just sort of conforms half in the hip, half out in space.

You might be able to handle this by including a character database. Of course, you don't want to have to acquire all the possible characters, so the user would need the ability to update the database themselves. Upon reading a cr2 file, you'd need a routine that went something like, "This figure contains a prop, is this prop a replacement for a body part?" If yes, "which body part is it replacing?" If no, "should the clothing conform around the prop, as if it were part of the body?" You could then store that particular character's info in the database so the user didn't have to answer the questions every time.

I've also noticed comments in this thread where people mention getting clothing to conform from one type of character to another (ie: Posette clothes to Vicky). The Tailor cannot do this. The Tailor requires the clothing cr2 and the character's source cr2, and they must match. When a clothing maker sets up conforming clothes, they have to create body part grouping to match the intended figure. For example, Steph and Vicky have l_collar, r_collar and chest, whereas Posette just has a chest. In order for you to accomplish this, you'd have to write a program that automatically made conforming clothing body groups from a source figure. We're talking about replacing the setup room, not transferring morphs.

I fully realize how much extra code adding things like prop support and cross-figure regrouping would mean, and that is probably why codetwister won't do it. It's one of two reasons I won't do it myself.

My other reason might bother you more. I'm not trying to discourage you, but it's something you may want to consider. By and large, 3D clothing makers aren't simpletons. And since you're working on this project, you know it doesn't take a nuclear engineer to manually edit a cr2 file or write your own quickie utility to transfer or mathematically alter cr2 data. Even if you put a header inside the resulting cr2 which says your program made the file, the header is easily removed. What's to stop the thirty of forty clothing makers out there from simply running all their work through your software, thus eliminating the need for the average consumer to purchase it? I mean, sure, you'd capture the 3D clothing-maker market, but unless you're charging a thousand bucks a copy, that market simply isn't big enough. And I don't believe there is any legal recourse for you to stop the clothing-makers from doing just that, whether or not they remove your header. A cr2 file is just text. Anybody can alter one. I suspect this may be one of the reasons codetwister didn't invest more time in the Tailor.

Again, I don't mean to discourage you. I just thought you might want to consider those things. I've written some conversion utilities that are making it easy for me to create very unique characters, but I don't intend to share those proggies, making my work worthless. You may want to write this code, then use it to your extreme advantage by becoming a clothing maker, or partnering with a clothing maker, or having clothing makers send their files to you for postwork alterations -- for a small fee.

Migal

I wrote a lengthy explanation, hit "Preview Post" and watched my comments evaporate into ether instead of being added to the thread. I'm too tired at this time to go over it all again, but I'll try again later.

The Tailor can't handle props (ie: it can't deal with hip geometry replacement that many characters have). It also has a bug where it adds extra lines to the geo section, causing the clothing to fly up when you try to conform (this has been discussed here in the forum). I've also seen it sometimes add its own verbiage to the end of a dial name, instead of using the exact original or asking for a name. But, overall, it's very useful software, especially for the price, and I've found methods to circumvent all of the above. And double-yes on what everybody else is saying about batch processing.

I set the transparency to 100% for both min and max on that extra eyebrow, but don't set it to use any map file.

"Gosh Migal, I am sorry you are having problems, I hope they straighten things out for you soon."

Dan never replied to me, but I know he's aware of it. I think at one point, he just got tired of trying to get his service people to help me and gave up. It is absolutely, bar-none, the most bizarre customer/vendor relationship I've ever heard of. They must be making an awful lot of money to just throw my business in the trash like that. I could post page after page of preposterous e-mail correspondence to prove what I'm saying. It bums me out, too. Because, from a products standpoint, I think they're the bomb. But, from a business perspective, pure comedy. I hope they have somebody better than their web programmers and service folks creating their product to compete with CL, for their sake.

And sorry for ranting on like this. Poor form, no doubt. I guess I'm so toweringly offended by DAZ's treatment of me that I'm not being particularly gracious. I'll endeavor to be more cheerful in the future.

'Club membership is $99 but as always we are going to offer an "act now or forever hold your peace price".'

Gee, Dan. That sounds really neat. Unfortunately, I'm sure I'll miss this date, just like I missed trying to buy the MilDragon for over a month because your web server can only tell me, "Your email address was not found in the database," and Ryan informed me not to open a new account because my old one might be recovered from tape someday. Yes, Dan, it's me. I initially wrote you on 9/20. For almost two months your systems (and employees) have managed to alienate me, as if the two grand I spent with you wasn't real money. Maybe I could buy something from you again if I drive up there and gently place the cash on your desk? Unbelievable.

Awe, shucks. You're welcome. :-)