Quote - ...I was going to ask them about it or post on their forum, but I'd feel silly for doing so...

Just to say: NEVER feel silly asking a question when you have the least doubt about the answer. ;)

Yah, I'm a fine one to talk, because I always feel shy asking something I think is 'obvious', or something I think I should already know... But sometimes, your query helps more than just you in the end, because there may be other 'shy' ones out there wondering the same thing.  ; )

And thank you, nruddock, for that helpful linkee. ; )

Your ice is very beautiful! I don't know if this will help you, but perhaps you may want to experiment with some free ice materials. They may have helpful characteristics you can use. : )

In the Downloads section of Cloud Pictures, scroll down until you get to "Ice Material 2". Some Ice cubes in .obj are included, but the download also includes 11 ice materials.

There is a large preview of those ice mats here, but you have to register to see the thread.

Also, there are  26 Snow & Ice Materials at Dreams of Vue d`Esprit. (Only 6 are shown on the page). Go to Downloads, Materials,  Schnee + Eis.  : )

Hope this helps in some way!

Quote - Yes, even a single light can be saved as a vob.

Are you KIDDING??? OH my GOODness! All this time, I never knew that!

I have heaps and heaps of scenes in my computer (not good enough to post, to be honest ) -- and it's too embarrassing to say what I've been doing all along to be able to duplicate a light's settings in another scene.

Thank you, rutra! I feel so retarded! :P

Mazak, thank you SO much for this! 

I have a habit of mousing over links before clicking and looking in the status bar to see where the link leads; so those are times when curiosity definitely saves the cat! (As long as said cat doesn't accidentally click it!) lol

Since I don't like leaving referrer traces (I know, I know, it's an odd thing to care about ) -- I also copy / paste links into a fresh tab instead of clicking links in emails.

Speaking of reinstalling and collections, I was surprised at a little test I did. I wanted to see if there was a way to transfer my entire Vue 6 collections into Vue 7 without copying files or adding the folders in the visual browser.

Well, I replaced the collections xml file from Vue 7 with the one from Vue 6, and my folders appeared in Vue 7's browser exactly as I had set them up in Vue 6. Of course, I had taken precautions beforehand! 

Quote - ...if I had known about this before I might even have given e-on a bit more money and bought Infinite.

Perhaps e-on will allow you to upgrade to Infinite minus the difference you paid.  : )  I know at least one person who was given a similar option. On the site, go to "Contact a Sales Rep." (under "Customer Care").  You never know 'til you try!  ;)

As for the original question, I echo thefixer: "I went for Infinite because I'm a sucker for having all of it..."  :P

DOH! AGAIN, you're too fast! I came back to the thread to put a note saying you took care of it -- and there is your post already! lolol

Stacey, loan me a bit of your energy drink, PLEASE!! hahahaha!

Quote - ...that's in part #10 of my Poser import tutorial ;) ...

Hehehe... that lil' Script nugget is quite a saving grace, innit! Saw that about a year & 1/2 ago at cornucopia...
Saves my sanity AND my computer! lol

http://www.cornucopia3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4920

Quote - Here's a Global Radiosity atmosphere where the defect is even more obvious.

Paloth, I loaded one of Vue 6's GR atmospheres to see how it handled a similar GR atmosphere. (I like the darkened area under your sphere better than mine!) :p

When I first saw your render, I didn't t perceive anything defective; I would expect such a prominent  shadow, as the sun is facing the sphere. But yah, I'm no expert! :p

I like the wonderful light-bounces affecting the back of your sphere, btw.
Mine looks like the dark side of the moon! ;)

Quote - chuckles  i think i did the same thing when i ordered the Poser 7/Vue esprit bundle last year - on a friday night, late.

See?? SEE??? You DO have my syndrome!! LOLOL!
And you were too fast for me; I updated my last post with a cool linkee, but after I changed it, bingo! you had already responded!  ; )

Quote - GRRR.  then had to wait for it to be shipped, which shipping anything to alaska is like sending it to mars.

You're in Alaska! Oh wow, a place I have been wanting to visit for some years now! : )

Gee, melikia! You sound like you have MY syndrome!! lolol 

I almost always end up ordering software on a Friday evening. And it ain't because of payday!
I think in my case, I  place my orders at that time because I can finally do so in peace...

But DOH!! I'm SO impatient!!  

So for me, it's a catch-22:

I wait until I have a measure of peace before ordering software, which is usually after the week is done;

waiting for the order makes me anxious, as sometimes the order won't be updated on weekends;

my peaceful time is then no longer peaceful! 'Cause I can't wait to get da' software! lol
So I might as well have done it on, say, a Tuesday!! 

Edit: You asked for a funny story or joke, but try this on for size! (Really cool time-waster that was posted about at cornucopia3D!)

http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

Hey, yvesab, between Mazak and gillbrooks, you will be able to see previews and a list of Vue 7's trees on  this page of the forum.

(Big thanks to both of them for this).  : )

: )

Quote - Perhaps you should be databasing your content for quick referral.

This may be hard to do in hindsight if the person hasn't done it from the beginning.

I now consider my obsessive nature regarding the need to categorize everything to be a bonus where the ordering of my 3D files is concerned! lol  :p

Quote - I'm the opposite. I'll always remember the clothing item, not the merchant. I don't even pay attention to the merchant's name unless...

Hehehe! I am like you in that I usually recall the product's name, but not always the creator. If a product is absolutely exceptional or unique, I can't help but remember who created it.

If you mean the .pzz or .pz3 file when you say "Poser file", I think I may know why Vue asks you to locate the textures.

I have looked at many of my poser files (created in Poser 6 & 7) in a text editor, and inside all of them, each texture is listed according to the exact path in which it was located when I first created the scene. This obviously includes the drive letter, etc.

So when I transferred my runtimes to a different drive later on, the scene files themselves still had information inside them pointing to the old location of the textures.

To avoid this hassle, I handled it 1 of 2 ways:

1. Before importing the scene into Vue, I made a copy of it (to be safe), opened it in a text editor, and did a "Search and Replace" of all the paths to update the jpgs to their new location. After saving the edited scene, Vue then read those updated texture paths and imported the scene without asking me to locate anything.

(If you don't like editing your scenes in text editors), you can also:

1. Get Poser to export all the textures used in your scene to a single folder, and place the files from that folder in the same directory in which your Vue scene resides.

How do you do this in Poser? Go to the menu, choose --
Scripts, Utility, collectSceneInventory, Copy all to folder

Vue will first look for the textures in their original locations, and when it doesn't find them, it will 'spot' them in their new location (because they are in the same directory as your .vue scene). So Vue will show this message:

"Unable to find file (then it gives the file's original path) --
Use file (mentions the file it found in the copied location) instead?"

Choose "yes to all", and Vue will then automatically use all the other texture files in that same folder.

I prefer method # 1 btw. : )
And I sincerely hope this helps.  ; )

**EDIT: **I need to add that I had to decompress my .pzz files in order to edit them. The .pzz files look like gibberish inside text editors, but the .pz3 files have language I can read!  :p

Thanks for pointing this out m.behr! Carrara 7 indeed has some sweet, new features!

I must say, as a Vue & Poser user, (and a Carrara 6 Pro owner) I personally won't be getting Carrara 7 because everything I need is already covered by Vue, or other software I own. (Photoshop CS4 Extended also has a 3D Paint ability (FINALLY!!) . YUSss!!!

Truth be told, though, it's down to preference and familiarity.
I have seen some GORGEOUS Carrara renders... But I realized my Carrara purchase was a waste because:

1. I'm more comfortable with Vue, and I'm extremely partial to it;
2. I don't have the time to learn yet another 3D app anyway;
3. I haven't come close to tapping the possibilities of the 3D apps I already own. :p

One more thing: I have at least 3 awesome modelling apps that I haven't had the time to learn. :(
So I could not even be able to justify getting Carrara 7 even for its modelling capabilities. I would instead go back to the ones I already own and make sense of all the dollars I spent to acquire them! :p