Sorry about that. We're looking into it. It works fine for me, so it may be a privilege problem. We'll get it working as soon as we can. --Lynn

Right now, the utility I'm writing for Debra will change all diffuse (Kd) colors, all ambient (Ka) colors, or all specular (Ks) colors in a PZ3, PP2, PZ2, or CR2 to a specified value. Tonight I will enhance it so that, as an option, it will only change those colors that are black. This will keep it from messing up any highlight colors you have for hair, and such. I'm trying to keep the interface simple (the default will be to change all black highlights to white), but if y'all can think of other color-related functions that would be useful, now's the time to speak up, while I have the code open. Thanks, Lynn Grant Castle Development Group

Congratulations, Sharen. Very nice work!

This is very nice. And, as much as I like a good semi-nude, I think the modest version is a lot more practical....

Very cool! I tried replicating the idea with just a cylinder and some magnets, and discovered that I don't know how to use magnets. I guess that's my next learning project. Thanks for the info.

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoy it. The CastleDev site has been around for a couple of years, but we did a complete makeover on it a few months back, and we just recently opened the store. We have some really nice products in it, and more on the way.

The setup file at that URL doesn't seem to download right...I get a file called setup.exe.html, which appears to be a page telling me that there is a server error. Any ideas?

MachineClaw... The reference images are Volume 1, Plates 89 and 90, "ENVIRONS D'ESN(CONTRALATO.)" from "The Monuments of Egypt: The Napoleonic Edition". Lynn Grant Castle Development Group

Kelley... Can you be more specific about what you want to do? Do you want to A) use Vue to render an existing VRML scene (.wrl file), or B) use Vue to model things and export them as VRML? For A), Vue does not appear to import VRML files directly. You could use an external convertor, like Polytrans (very expensive), Deep Exploration (less expensive), or Accutrans (much less expensive) to convert the file to a .obj file, or one of the other formats Vue imports. For B), It does not appear that you can export things modeled in Vue to any format other than .vue, and I don't know of any convertors that will convert this to VRML. You can export terrains made with the terrain editor to several formats (OBJ, for instance) that can be converted to VRML. Of course, you could use Vue to make render texture maps, which could then be applied to VRML objects. If you are creating VRML scenes, you might want to look at some of the tools from Parallel Graphics (www.parallelgraphics.com)--I used several of them when we used to do a lot of VRML. Lynn Grant Castle Development Group

Yes...the bangs are inside out. I'll drop janmp a line about fixing it, but meanwhile, if you have UV Mapper, you can fix it yourself. Open the BO_DerekHair.hr2 file in UV Mapper (yes, it can open them). Ignore the message about the UV Coordinates being out of range--that's just because they're tiled in the vertical direction. Pick Select/Select By/Group from the toolbar. Holding down the CTRL key, select these 11 groups: Figure_115, Figure_116, Figure_117, Figure_118, Figure_119, Figure_120, Figure_121, Figure_130, Figure_131, Figure_132, and Figure_133. From the toolbar, pick Tools/Facets/Invert. That will turn the bangs right side out. Now save the model (uncheck "Export normals") as BO_DerekHair.obj. To use it in Poser, import the OBJ file (File/Import/Wavefront OBJ...), and set the "hair" material zone to point to the original hair map. (You can actually paste the OBJ file back into the HR2 file, but it's a little tricky, and too much to go into here.) Once you do this, the bangs show up fine. BTW, if you are using the free UV Mapper Classic, and there isn't a Tools/Facets/Invert option, then you may have to get the UV Mapper Pro version. I think the free version has it, but I'm not sure. Good luck, lynn

The ends of the bangs seem to be blonde, so the color is likely correct. I wonder if the polygons are inverted on the bangs, or double sided. Might be interesting to try rendering it with "Remove backfacing polygons" checked in the render options.

I just got Vue 4, and it seems to import PZ3s just fine. They display kind of funny until you render them...almost like a bunch of points or short lines. This may be how polygonal meshes look in Vue...I'm just learning it, so I'm not sure. The lights and cameras don't seem to come in with the PZ3, but that's fine with me...Vue offers much better lighting options than Poser. lynn

I just downloaded and applied the 4.11 update. The version that came in the box was 4.06. Thanks for the heads-up. lynn

This thread is kind of old, and I don't know if anyone's listening any more...but if you are... As headhunter said, the Z-buffer indicates how deep into the scene each pixel is. This is useful for external depth-of-field programs, like Defocus Dei from MooTools (http://www.mootools.com/plugins/us/defocus/index.htm) Although Vue can do its own depth-of-field processing, Defocus Dei can do some additional things like modifying hue or color saturaton based on depth. There is a convoluted way to generate depth maps (Z-buffers) with Poser, but it is a lot of work. It is nice that Vue easily generates them. lynn

My understanding has always been that degenerate facets are those with less than three verticies (a point or a line, instead of a triangle or a quad). Collinear facets are those where the first three points are in a line. This seems to be how UV Mapper Pro looks at things. I can certainly see how one might lump them all into the degenerate category :-) In any case, the reason they are bad is that most renderers use the first three points to determine the normal vector for the facet. If the first three points don't make a good triangle, it has no way of knowing which way the surface faces, so you get a bad normal and it looks black.