I think that they simpy cannot reactivate GameDev, since they don't have access to the SM license server. Bondware gave everyone with an active licence a version of the actual version of the software. it's not like they removed some features from it, acutally Poser 11 can do a whole lot more than GameDev. Ok, so you don't like the library. Use the old one. Install Adobe AIR on your computer and execute LSMGUIAIR.exe, when Poser 11 is running. This is the external version of the original library, it does work with Poser 11.

If you still feel screwed, just state which other problems you have. Maybe we can find a fix for that too.

If I had enough Money to share I would go for a Threadripper 2950X, at least 16 GB of RAM and a GTX 1080TI. The GPU will be hard to get new, but newer cards don't work with Poser.

A cheaper way would be the Ryzen 7 (this is what I use) and a GTX 1070TI or some other Card of that series. Newer cards don't work with Superfly, AFAIK.

I would never order a PC without SSD as a boot device. It's way, way faster than a normal HD as a boot device. Applications on a SSD are fine. Get a SSD for booting and a 4TB HD as a data drive. Make backups. I had more problems with hard drives than with solid state disks. Both can break, just use backups. An external disk isn't that expensive.

I'm just guessing here, but I saw in the description that the grass and weeds aren't modeled, they are Alpha planes. So for them to render correctly in Superfly, I guess you need a lot of Transmission Bounces, since every plane Needs one bounce. I would start with 20 and see if it makes a difference.

You should plug it the texture node into the Ambient Color input and set Specular and Diffuse to 0. The Ambient Value controls the brightness.

Sasha-16 is a wonderful figure and this information is really useful. Too sad that most people won't look for it in a "La Femme" thread.

operaguy posted at 11:25AM Mon, 25 March 2019 - #4348784

At texturing.xyz, $140 for the full suite, and that's just the face. You have to purchase small parts of the body one by one. It might take $1000 for a full figure.

Quality is expensive. Images from this site are used by the professionals, so expect pro Prices.

As for "how to generate skin details in ZBrush" that would be sculpting/painting skin like an artist, right? Not from life photos.

You can use the patches BB mentioned as alpha maps in ZBrush. You can use photos for texturing, but not for pores. If it's just pores and not wrinkles you probably can use them in Surbstance Painter too

operaguy posted at 11:20AM Mon, 25 March 2019 - #4348772

Hi BB,

1. when you say "roughness maps" (and that they don't matter much) do you mean displacement maps?
2. if I were in possession of a great diffuse map with little or no reflections, how would I make a bump map, since (and I agree) you don't make it from the diffuse map?

1. A roughness map would affect the roughness value. Makes the shader more or less shiny. Has nothing to do with bump or displacement, but in fact simulates nano-bumps.

2. A single diffuse map does not have the nessesary Information. You would have to make the structures yourself. Not easy.

I usually use Baggin's Bills environment sphere and put an HDRI from HRDI Haven on it to light the scene. I don't know which version of Poser do you use, but in most cases that works better for me that using some (IMHO outdated) IBL light.

If you use Poser 11 and Superfly, IBLs won't work correctly anyway in most cases. And even FireFly's indirect lighting work with the env sphere.

IIRC, a you need a material collection for Poser to ask for the creation of the material.

If you save your material as a single shader, Poser will ask where to put it, no matter where it has been earlier. If you save your materials as a material collection, Poser will create the materials for you. I just checked with the Construct and a material collection from La Femme - the new materials are clearly visible in the material room.

When creating the specular map, you would need to take care only to use the center part of the specular map. Due to the Fresnel effect, the skin becomes very reflective if the angle is to steep.

Then next step would be to create the difference between both of them. You would get a specular map, also you would probably see the pores, since they reflect differently. It's explained in the "digital Emmely" link earlier in this thread. It is crucial that the model does not move between the shots and both shots use the same angle.

I'm sorry, but family and job issues prevented me to put more time in this. I haven't forgotten, I will see when I get to it. Maybe I will post partials here.

They used two photos per camera and changed the polarization between both Images. On one Image, the light from the lamps was polarized differently than the filters on the camera. This way no direct reflection is recorded. Then, they shot a "normal" Image. The difference between the two is the speculation, which they used for the normal map, probably after compensating for Fresnel based reflections.

The results of using Polarisation filters when photographing Skin are pretty drastic. I assume that Levius' latest photosets are made in a similar way, since they don't seem to contain much specularity. Sadly, there does not seem to be a "specular" Version as well, so creating spec maps isn't possible that way.

I would advise you to take a look at XNormal.

This program calculates a normal map from two 3d models. You take one model, put it into Blender (for example), make it high-poly and sculpt the hell out of it. You load both the original and the sculptes model into XNormal (AFAIK they don't need to have the same geometry) and you will get the differences as a normal map.

If you apply this normal map to your (original) model, it will look very much like the sculpted one.

I will see if I manage to get a first version of the script ready tomorrow. I know how to do it, I have a start, but I need to work on it a little bit.