Two things that have worked for me when I get a scene "stuck" with the material room crash:

1.  Open the scene, move something in the preview window.  Select a light.  Use the advanced materials properties button on the properties palette to guide you into the material room.  Make your changes and save.

2.  Open a new scene, import your stuck scene.

3.  The problem seems to generate from the GUI.  Save a good UI memory dot.  Make sure the dot is selected before going into the material room.  (haven't had a crash since I've been doing that faithfully.... but it is random, so I don't have high hopes.)

For one fleeting second once I saw an error from Poser before the crash that Poser was unable to read the .pmd file.   Doesn't make any sense since I think the problem with the GUI, but I don't pretend to know much.  :)

Indi.

Quote - I already asked for this, and was told to use Ctrl-Shift-B to toggle the library, which works indeed just fine.

oooOOOOOoooohhh! Very cool, Thanks! It seems lots of things are "togglable"

Quote - No, not this, but I had it leave when I tried to add a Blinn node. Restarted, reloaded the scene and this time it worked just fine, so apparently it's random.

Random.... bummer.

Quote - Do your P7 scenes load in the right dimensions? Mine load in whatever aspect ratio the last preview window was in, even if it's undocked, which is an obvious bug. I expect my scenes to load just like I had saved them.  :-/

Hmm... most of my scenes have non-preview sizes and those DO load in with the right dimensions.  If you've only changed the preview size to change the render size, then yea, I can see how P8 would read that as your new preview size.  Can you undock the preview window?  I guess a work around would be to go back into P7, and change the render dimentions to an exact resolution, even if it is exactly the preview size and save it again before you load it into P8?  (probably already been stated).

Ok, wow, I was away last week, but decided I was going to get Poser 8 at some point, so why not just buy it and see what it can do.  I read about through page 4 of this thread (through Thursday, I think) before buying.   Then I travelled to a place with only dial-up, which to me means NO internet other than emergencies, LOL.  Saturday evening was my first crack at installing and playing with Poser 8.

I should qualify everything I say here by saying that I really am a light user of all 3d apps.  I don't animate.  I am a hobbyist.  If I were grading my renders I'd give them an overall C, and working hard to get an A.  So my first impressions are these.

It's still excellent.  A little crashy for me (see below), but all in all a good improvement and well worth the upgrade price.  I'm using the 8.0.0.10099 (the hotfix version).

At first it wouldn't even start up.  I deemed that to be an emergency, read a thread about downloading the latest version of Microsoft C++, downloaded, installed and it worked like a charm.  Not terribly impressed, but glad it was an easy fix.

1.)  The GUI?  I had no problem with P7's interface, except I wished that the parameters dials would stay put.  So YAY for the interface!!  I love being able to move the palettes around and have them stick.  Something isn't working right with the palettes in the material room, but in the pose room it's really a good improvement.

2.)  The libraries. It took me forever to figure out how to add all my runtimes.  I read the included documentation and it talked about adding runtimes, but never said exactly how.  (It certainly never mentioned the Shaderworks script).  Anyhow I added them all one by one by the "add library" button.  Most of mine are on an external hard drive that isn't always plugged in.  I bought Semidieu's runtime utilities to add all my runtimes when I forgot or couldn't plug in my external in P7 and that doesn't work in P8.   Then I just read and found out about the new script.   I wish Poser had a way of keeping my runtimes in its memory when my external HD isn't attached, but the new script is ok.

3.)  More on the libraries, I don't like the tiny icons much, but found if I select one and it's big, then I can scroll through the rest and that's ok.  Yea, don't like it much.

4.)  And also on the GUI, I wish that any docked libraries could be slid closed and opened with a click like in P7.

5.) The material room GUI seems like it's not quite done.  I've seen people talking about the titles running off the nodes, which I've experienced as well.  However many times, Poser 8 crashes when I enter the material room. Are others experiencing this?  It happens with new scenes and old scenes, but a work around seems to be to reopen the document and select a different figure before switching to the material room.  I will file a bug report on this.

6.) The preview window somehow got docked in the bottom of my screen, and I can't get it to dock anywhere else or remain undocked. I never really found that preview screen useful in P7, but the OpenGL in P8 is much better and now I want to use it, so I hope this will get fixed soon.

7.)  The lighting is very much better.  Not nearly as much blowout and softer falloff is really making my renders seem gorgeous (perhaps a C+?!  ;->)  And faster, so so much faster.  I have dual cores, and often watched in P7 as one core finished its job and not help out the other core.  This does much better.  I'm not sure why, but hair seems to render much prettier, with better highlights.  Very cool!!

8.)  P7 scenes open without a hitch, and render immediately.  Whew, and thanks!

Well, that's my first impression input.  If anyone has any advice that would help any of the minor issues I'm finding, I'd appreciate it.  I'm glad I got it, and see no reason to use P7 anymore :)

Indi.

Bookmarking, and thank everyone for the input to this thread.  It's amazingly helpful.

Indi.

Thanks IsaoShi for the tip on the new shaders.  I'll go find them. :)  I hope they aren't too different, I've come quite attached to the old PR3.  Heh.  Glad you found your spec maps.

Indi.

Regarding spec maps:  VSS looks for spec maps plugged into the specular or alternate specular nodes.  If, in your setup, it is plugged into some other node, it won't find it.  If you open your skin shader after running the synchronize, scroll to the right a bit, and you should see a node called "specular map".  That's where it should be plugged in.

Regarding the dark eyes:  I find VSSPR3 has too much AO in the sclera, or eye parts.  If you open the VSS prop shader itself, look for the "template eyewhite" shader.  AO is set to a max dist of 40.  I tone that down to 1 or 2 usually.  Also, if your light is using AO, that may be adding too much to it as well.  Run synchronize again.

Regarding redness:  I find the VSSPR3 can look too red as well, sometimes.  Othertimes I like it.  It's somewhat realistic, if you look at real videos.  However, if you are looking for something less red, go to the VSSPR3 material called "Template Skin" and scroll to the LEFT and DOWN this time (bottom left of the shader).  You'll see the PM SSS, PM SSS Color, and PM SSS Falloff.  Adjust those to your liking (I've found that adding more white to the red seems to help the most, but I'm not sure that's the correct solution). 

Regarding the "eye ball" problem.  If you look in the VSS prop, under the material "shader rules" you'll see that the node "Rule eyeball" is connected to the "copy template eyewhite" node.  I think that's instructing the syncronize script to use the eye white shader in the eyeball material.  I don't know Mike 2, but if his eyeball is actually his cornea, I think you can just reconnect that "rule eyeball" node to the "copy template cornea" node in your prop.  Then synchronize.  If that's something you want to happen again and again, resave your prop to the library.

@ssafam1, where do those dials come from?  I don't have a prop called what you get, only the VSS_1.  Have I done something wrong? 

Hope this helps.  I'm reading this with interest hoping BB can come by and tell us the real way to tone down the redness in the skin if it's too much for our taste.

Indi.

I tried using the ISF shader on a firelight and got some very strange bright yellow artifacts where one mesh met with another.

I too would be interested in correct GC settings.

They actually look like magnolia leaves :)  And yea, they come from Sentinels of the Forest, so they are meant to be huge and dense. They are gorgeous, just very resource intensive.  I like the Sycamore leaves because they look like Sycamores and are supposed to be enormous.  My neighbor has two very mature Sycamores and I rake up his leaves that come down into my yard.  Not many by count, but the coverage is impressive :)

Indi.

On the subject of gamma correction:

I have Poser 7, not Poser Pro.  I just finished reading and compiling BB's post he made about a year ago about how to change materials to apply gamma correction.   There is some discussion there about the Pro's GC being "better than no GC".

So two questions.  Did anyone ever put together a script for that?  And, is it worth the upgrade to Pro for the checkbox?  I don't have a 64 bit OS (pretty sure), so the 64-bit compatibility is wasted on me.

And then... back to render settings.

:)

Indi.

This looks good, Raven.  Maybe I'm just trying to render too large, LOL.  The shadows look really sharp between the leaves, those are raytraced?

Thanks for posting this.  :)

Indi.

Quote - i noticed that Daz M4 and clothes are very detailed. a lot of mesh.
IMO to much. it doesnt make it more smooth.

...and Neftis hair.  :)

It seems there isn't a magic button in render settings I just missed pressing, so I'll try the tips above and make it work.

Thanks all.

My render quit. (no error message, no degradation of the render, nothing, just a stopped render)  I thought it was 2^n, so I will try 16 next time, but I'm not getting my hopes up.

I'm with Isaoshi though, most of the stuff would be hard to render in layers, but maybe I can at least chop out the leaves, which seem to be the big offenders.

Indi.

Ok, I've set my bucket size to 20 and I'm going to walk away.  Thank you Leezace and Raven, very much.  I'll report back tomorrow :)

Indi.

Quote -  I just got XD3, and bought several licenses and morph packs.  I made a piece of clothing for V4, and I used XD3 to add morphs for V4 and V4 Elite.  Now, I want to make morphs for A4, as well as Alice and PBIV.  Now, do I use my new CR2 as the base, and convert for A4, etc?  If I do, will it just add morph channels for Aiko4, or will it flush out the other V4 morphs?  Also, once I add all the morphs I want to the CR2, how do I arrange them into groups, i.e:

Morphforms++
     FBM
     Elite
     Aiko4
Other++
     Alice
     PBIV
     GNDV4
Adjustments.....

Thanks, -Starkdog

I'm not familiar with the morphing packs available with crossdresser, but I'm pretty sure it will just add the new morphs as "other".

I'm not sure that crossdresser, or for that matter, even morphing clothes can take care of the grouping.  The "groups" and "groupnode" functions of a poser file, .cr2 or .pz2, is something you can do with a text editor after your morphs are transfered and the .cr2 is saved.

Indi.

Hi IS,

Ok, I managed to build the shader just like you said up to the AO/GC part, so I'm not ready to post renders.  I did it with V4 and her simple face map.

It's pretty easy to follow, and from my standpoint, is a great learning experience.  I'm glad BB is here to help us understand it too.

It's fascinating how you build the SSS, sheen, and displacement map right from the color map.

A couple of non-technical things about the tutorial, quite picky actually, but did have me guessing some. 

I liked the way that when I followed the tut, word for word, my nodes were named exactly the same as your nodes, even after copying in the massive stack of fresnel math nodes.  In your shader there is no Blender_3.  Maybe it was deleted?  Your Blender_4 became my Blender_3 and once I got to the point where I was hooking everything up, it started making my eyes spin.

On the page where we're plugging in all the nodes (page 6 perhaps?), you say to plug sheen into the alt spec channel.  I think that was blender_2, but I'm not positive.  Probably could be corrected.

And on the same page, you refer to the displacement map as blender_6 and I'm pretty sure you meant your blender_4, which was my blender_3.  (LOL)  At that point my head was spinning, so I did a quick render and went to bed.  It came out ok, but definitely needed the gamma correction.

So with all that said, let me ask a couple of questions.   I don't have any textures with SSS maps, but I hear they exist.  So I'll let Poser build that one, but if I have sheen (specular?) maps and displacement maps that I like, should I plug those in instead, and blend them in as you have done?  I'll do some comparisons when I get this done.

I'm looking forward to working with GC and AO part, because I'd really like to know how to put that on a texture that I otherwise already like.

Thanks for building this, any chance to learn something new from someone is wonderful.  And thank you BB for taking a look at it too.

Indi.

Edit:  Um... somehow I had only read page 1 before I typed this long post.  I see there may be enormous changes anyway, so I'll be patient, hehe, sorry!