As cage has pointed out, it might be simpler and certainly easier for many situations to simply switch the figure out for another figure - except where the person geneerating the different Uv map doesn't have the relevant rights.

This technique as it stands now, with my limited ability with PoserPython (and within what PoserPython can, itself, do) has these "features":

*Cannot currently select files - trivial I guess, but it would still take coding effort however trivial.

*Doesn't have nice library thumbs to run it. Should also be trivial

*UV file (currently with a .tvs extension) MUST match the currently selected figure/.OBJ file to work in terms of texture vertex counts and texture vertex seams.

*Minimal testing has been done - as I've said earlier, this is an early alpha, a "proof-of-concept" type test. More testing would be needed to make sure it's not screwing up somewhere. I'm a little bit suspicious of some of the code as PosePython is lacking some features I'd like - so at the end of the day my code makes more assumptions than I'd like which is limiting the functionality of the script.

*Design issues - at the moment, since I don't actually "feel" a marketplace for this script, I don't know whether it should prompt the user to locate the file to load or have a script per texture set so it's a one-click solution at the end point. Having the user select a file after running "Load UV" would be easier to maintain, I suspect.

*No animation - this isn't about animating from a Michael2 texture to a David3 texture to a Victoria 5 texture all on a single model - it's just about uv texture vertex switching. Bam - on or off, one way or another (or another or...)

*Slow (IMHO). It'd be better to have something written in native code in Poser itself, IMHO.

*Money. I've a kid to feed - if this would only sell to 5 people, or be used by 15 people as a freebie, then development will have to be minimal!

*All sorts of other stuff, I'm sure. but I forget for now. For example - were this to aim for "paid", what's the cheapest Renderosity allows? Because unless it's going to REALLY help merchants it's not worth a lot IMHO. Too simple. As with my Genesis tut, my Python coding skills just aren't all that impressive I'm afraid - I just throw rocks at it until the damn thing works LOL

At the moment it's basically slower than the same kind of feature in DAZ Studio, but also more limited. As the DS 4 feature has under-the-hood access it's able to swap to a completely different UV layout - different seams, different numbers of texture vertices. Otherwise it's the same kind of concept - switching or swapping UV data rather than animating from one set to another, with all the complciations that would arise from that.

Cheers,

Cliff

Since the screen captures were taken at 5 second intervals, and since I had to get to the "Load UVs" menu a second time to actually run the script, this is a LITTLE slower than real-time, but not much. You can see my clock and CPU Meter displayed in the top right corner.

Cheers,

Cliff

OK, I've got a really REALLY crude prototype working again. Let's see if I can knock up a quick .GIF to discuss what it does... and find out if anyone's still interested

Cheers,

Cliff

LOL if SM wanted it they could code it a lot quicker than I can, I'm sure.

I've managed a little prep work towards getting back to this - creating a test set of texture maps and a basic scene to render in. Will get back to coding when I can (takes more effort than knocking out UV templates does so I need fewer distractions).

 Don't worry - I don't intend to let it drop just because I don't have a lot of time to spend on it right this instant. I'd prefer to crack on with it when I can.

Cheers,

Cliff

Quick apologies - had my morning taken over by a shitstorm elsewhere. But I'll get back to this just as soon as I can afford to :)

Cheers,

Cliff

Quote - It's possible to call a Python script from within a library file, so the process could be made transparent for the user - just apply a MAT pose or material collection as usual, and the appropriate UVs would be applied.

Yup. I've even been considering what the icon design for saving a UV file might look like - but looking over my files it looks like I lost/threw away more than i'd thought. I need to get the basic functionality working before I think about making it easier.

Quote - Antonia has three different UV mappings at the moment. Perhaps a UV switching script would be useful, for the times when you load the wrong one by mistake?

Could be - I didn't realise that any figure (Genesis aside) had multiple UVs out of the gate. However, limitations either of Poser or of my scripting ability might hamper whether any specific pre-existing multiplem UVs would work... but thanks for the heads up, I'll have to see if I can dig up the antonia stuff to test once I get the scripts to a basic working stage again :rolleyes

Quote - There are also free remaps of other figures available, which their makers might be interested in making available in other formats. dphoadley has done several, and Lyne has remapped many of the animals to allow better texturing.

As above, they've probably gone outside what my script hopes to achieve by changing the splits in the UV geometry. Still, it would be nice to be wrong and to be able to do more. I'll achieve as much as I can today - right now I've just installed UV Mapper on my main Win7 64bit PC so I can re-create some nice lined textures so it'll be easily visible that the minor Genesis Uv changes have taken place when I go to load different sets. It's all in the preperation! :)

Cheers,

Cliff

Part of the point about scripts in any program - Poser, MS Word, whatever - is to make life easier by putting repetitive boring procedures under control. I'll honestly see if I can put at least a fresh basic test together today - though it's going to have to be Genesis-based simply because that's the figure I have that has different UVs, for testing with. This would be a low alpha test number version.

I'll have to add some extra data for version control and figure identification. We'll see how it goes.

Cheers,

Cliff

This morning is my kid's last half-day at school - he breaks up for the summer after lunch. I've already looked around for the original script and can't find it but if the phones stay quiet I'll se if I can do something about recreating it and moving towards making something that might be actually useful.

Cheers,

Cliff

PS the attached shows just a Genesis figure swapping UV sets back and forth - the "texture map" that you see changing was produced by UV Mapper Pro 2

Quote - this would be so wonderful for people creating brand new figures. perhaps - as a merchant resource? 

with guidelines so the figure would work well with the script - it wouldn't work if the next poser has subdivision?

I'll muse on it. It doesn't feel like a commercialy viable product at the moment, more like a freebie if I have the time and inclination, I think I'd like to consider whatever responses we get here. I must admit that part of my concern is that if such a thing were ACTUALLY all that desireable - wouldn't we already have it by now? But then I have often felt that way about stuff I've done - "surely if this was worth doing someone else would have done it long ago" syndrome.

If you have any ideas for a figure that would actually benefit from varying UV Layouts without changing the seams or texture vertex order etc. then I'd love to hear them.

I don't see why UV switching would be inherantly incompatible with subdividing - after all, DAZ Studio does exactly that - has low-poly UV swapping and then subdivides the model afterwards.

Cheers,

Cliff

Well obviously you can't change the UVs without changing ANY geometry since that would include the UV data. That has to be changed for switching! But no change of geometry file, no change of X,Y,Z etc.

Quote - a python script that would allow on the fly switching of UVs in poser would be invaluable, and along with the other new features in Poser it could also breathe some life into older figures and meshes. it would have to be redistributable or built right into Poser though - otherwise whats the point? if you require that a customer to download and install a third party UV switching python script in order to switch UVs, you may as well just ask them to download UVMapper and do it.

Well, I may have lost the final/last step in the process but I should be able to recreate it without TOO much hassle, though I'm nowhere near as proficient as the real Python Gurus. I'd also have to think about how to organise it properly were it to be the basis of anything redistributable rather than as a simple technology test - does anyone fancy actually making new UV sets for any characters? Or to put it another way - is it worth me putting in the effort to make something reasonably flexible and robust rather than just to irritatingly prove the point that actually Poser CAN do that? ;) I'm lazy. I don't want to expend effort on something that seems "cool" only to find no-one actually wants to USE it.

Cheers,

Cliff - who hates being told "You can't do that" and often sets about proving that, in fact, he can (within whatever limitations seem acceptable). Just for the heck of it.

Yet another Brit here, from the home counties :)

Quote - If there is one, I'd be interested to know what approach it uses.  There's been discussion of one, on and off, but I don't know that one exists.  The trouble with any Python script to switch UV maps in Poser would be that it would actually have to switch geometry, in one way or another, and each approach for geometry switching in Poser offers its own complications and limitations.  It could be done, but I doubt the result would be as easy to use, fast, or flexible as it would be in any software where a single geometry can be held in memory with multiple UV maps for that geometry.  :unsure:

As I wrote the script being discussed, I can assure you that it doesn't need to change geometry or invalidate morph deltas or anything like that. Poser has had the built-in capability, under the hood, to do UV Map switching for a long time I suspect - it's been able to rewrite the UVs since at least Poser 4 so I suspect it's been possible to change the UVs in Pythin sinc ePoser Pro or Poser 5, but I don't ahve the Python methods reference manuals to hand to check.

I was writing it as part of seeing how we could potentially improve compatability with Genesis because so many different UV sets exist for Genesis, but due to the way DAZ have implimented different Uv Maps I decided that either geometry switching or indeed whole figure switching (loading a figure that used a different .OBJ file with a different UV set, but retaining the current pose) was simply quicker and easier.

If you produce new UV sets with the same splits/cuts as exist in the main figure - just like morphs have to have the same cuts and the same vertex order - then switching UV Sets wouldn't be hard at all.

Cheers,

Cliff

PS I may have lost the later more complete versions of the code, but the basic routine was:

SaveUVs

1. Open save file

2. For selected figure cycle through all the actors.

3.. For all the actors, cycle through the texvertices

4... Write the U and v values out to a file

1. End

Load UVs

1. Open UVset

2. For selected figure, cycle through all the actors

3.. For all the actors, cycle through the texture vertices

4... Read in the U and V values from the file and set them on the actor

1. End

Wow. My Limits script killed the thread? It wasn't THAT bad! ;)

The competition at DAZ has finally announced some winners:

http://www.daz3d.com/forums/viewthread/2195/P90/#51294

and although the mad rush of the first couple of days is long over, I'm still getting a trickle of a couple of sales every few days even at full price. I've also had some (incomplete) stats from DAZ, and it looks like Genesis in Poser is really QUITE popular. Anyone who wanted to send a message - be sure, you've been heard!

Cheers,

Cliff :)

Just a very quick update to the script that changes limits on Genesis to more closely resemble those on V4:

http://www.who3d.com/tuts/LimitsV4.py

should now match or exceed V4 limits all the way to hands and feet.

Cheers,

Cliff

Quote - Fortunately, as one would expect, Poser dynamic works perfectly well. Starting with a V4 or M4 (or V3/M3) morph on frame 1, it's super easy.

I have to say that although changes to the dynamic clothing since P7 (I think) haven't always been my friend, for skirts and dresses and kilts I've always preferred dynamic myself - it just seems to make more sense. Plus, it can look lovely animated :D

Cheers,

Cliff