I see, thanks **DarkEdge, was hoping it would be easier (like material grouping in max) as I have a single box shaped into reins and was really hoping to just select the polygons and set the groups some how, I also have a mesh smooth on there so will take some re-building..

anyway I have my answer, thank you again for taking the time to explain it to me :)**

**DarkEdge, the group tool in max doesn't divide a poly, it only adds separate mesh objects together (unless I am missing something, which is not terribly unlikely lol), as I say the only tool I know in max that can divide a mesh and that poser 'sees' in obj file is with the material editor, but that would mean I would have like 40 material settings on the reins..

when I 'group' in poser it doesn't add to the materials, but then I export to obj (to see if I can figure this out) and look at it in max which shows just one mesh with no groups.. does this mean max can't do grouping for poser? ..or that it can but only through materials?**

thanks everyone, I will first try grouping in max and working with that in poser, didn't know this was possible..

I have a few more questions though,

how exactly do I group in max for poser? I can group polys with the material editor but I would like the reins to be all one material.. is it called something different in max?

how do I export PHI information from max? (wrong forum I know sorry, just wanted to keep this in one thread)

thanks again for all your help, will defiantly be trying the Maxpo in future.

Quote - That's weird.  You mention that you exported as OBJ and reimported, and got the same problem.  Try setting your highlight size again, and even change the specular color to black (click on color swatch while holding the Alt key down to get the standard color window).  Save the object to the Props library.  Delete the original object, then load the saved prop.  See if that helps.

Also, in the Materials room does it list your material(s) and a Preview material?  It may be showing the preview material instead of the mapped one in the preview window.  You can tell if that's the problem by assigning a unique color to the Diffuse channel of the preview material.  If that color now shows in preview, then that's the problem.

John

actually the cig packet has been loaded from the props library and I've moved the original obj file so poser couldn't find it if it tried.. however;

Success!  changing the specular value to 0 works a treat, and it doesn't change the render in any way.. Max must have handed poser a specular value it didn't understand so displayed it as 1 but previewed it as something else.. anyway its good now, thanks BeyondVR

yes that is what it looks like, but its already set to texture shaded.. attached pic.  seems like cause the maximum setting for highlight size in poser is 100% when it gets 10000% it creates a bug in the preview window...

**jonthecelt, thanks, I used the scale solution for other animations just thought there might be a better solution really messy having a new prop every time an interaction happens that changes the placement, starting to think it might be better just to leave parenting out of it and move the sword independently, lot more work but cleaner.

hope next poser version has animation re-parenting settings... can only dream lol.

thanks again for clearing this up.**

thanks, works :)

Ok, installed and tried DAZ, did a 15 frame render and the CPUs didn't drop past 85%, stayed near to 100%, just dipping down when each frame was finished... so its definitely something with poser then...?

**pjz99, I see what you mean, though I just read over at content paradise forums that;

'Memory limit buffer defines the size of the safety buffer in Megabytes. If less memory is available, the render terminates. Lowering this value can avoid premature termination, but can also affect stability.'

Does no one have an MSI neo K9N?  I thought it was a popular board.**

My Mobo is an MSI K9N -NVIDIA nForce 550 series, just flashed to the latest bios last night, does anyone else have this board? Can confirm whether it max out your chip?

One thing I've just noticed, the memory is not running in dual channel mode, even though they are matched pairs and in the right slots (just checked)... ran the MS memory test, found no problems, so why isn't the damn thing in dual channel?.. pulling hair out lol

Looking at 'memory limit buffer' setting in poser, was at 64 -put it to 1024, the PF usage is at around 500mb during render <surely this should have increased?

Got a new 500GB drive and another 2gig of ddr2 (another matched pair), clean install of windows pro 64bit, clean install of poser7... I STILL can't get it to max out the CPU..!?!  totally at my wits end here, I've experimented with almost every setting poser has and have had no luck.  I've updated my bios and all mobo and cpu drivers, I've checked every conceivable thing and it SHOULD max out, it just doesn't.  My memory usage(PF) stays around 500-700mb where it has 4gb to play with, my CPU jumps from 4-100% but balances out at 50%.  My PC has lots of 'free resources' when rendering so why doesn't it use them ON rendering?

This is so frustrating, if anyone has suggestions please feel free, this makes no sense to me.

Right I think I understand, it just shows total memory CURRENTLY in use, which makes sense, I'm watching it doing a render right now, every time the CPUs hit 100% (rarely) the page file graph goes up to 1.5GB, then drops back down to 500MB.

So memory can't be the bottleneck then as its never over or touched 2GB... and since I can max it out in Cinebench and not poser... it must be a setting specific to poser, I'll do some more testing and re-install XP when I have the new drive.

Big thanks to everyone for helping, I may not have fix it, but I've learned a lot.

uli_k, I don't think it can include ram memory as my page file tops out at 600mb but I have 2GB of ddr2... I read up on this here:
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/taskman_monitor_perf_fields_overview.mspx?mfr=true
which seems to contradict itself, but it looks like (the numbers) it isn't including 'physical memory' on the page file usage...?

**cspear, thats what i'd hoped for, tell me, how much memory do you have? can't beleve your using 2.5GB page file! using a big 500MB page file is what i thought was slowing mine down lol!
**

**pjz99, I'm going to be buying a hard drive in a few months, will use the new one and put a clean install on there, see if that helps.. too much stuff on this drive to think about doing it now.  Thanks for your help.

Prikshatk, wow, breakthrough, in CPU Benchmark rendering (1 CPU) it acts like it acts with poser, both cores try but its about 50% overall usage... however on on Rendering (x CPU) it maxes out BOTH cores!

So I know my CPU is capable of maxing on renders, its just having a problem with poser...**