For the record --- I got BAM3 without realizing its limitations. Then after wasting much time I found this thread, which was very helpful! Thanks. I tried the tailor and it did work for tank top and briefs with muscular 1, and not bad for pants, but needed to turn off calfs. Sweater was a problem and I had to turn off M3 chest so it would not poke through, which was okay, I guess. Didn't try different poses. Let me add that I think the triceps on M3 do look abnormal and for that reason and a few others I would not have bought M# if it was not on sale. For my tastes, this problem is not too hard to deal with, though, simply by reducing that part of the arm using dials.

Ron, I wonder if you (or anyone else) would know of any grid system so that from a top camera view one could know just where an object is located in numerical terms?

maclean: Hmm. No MAT files on this Mike. So I don't think the lamps got in that way. ockham: I have all the setting for the lamps black, but they show up as white wire in my night scene. So I experimented and next recolored them, and they still look white. So I am not sure how to think about this interpretation for what they "are."

For the record, something else is going on too. Maybe that screwed up the quality settings. Now after a couple of improved renders as above, I find that every couple of renders all my menus across the top, render, display, etc. pull down off (unbold) and unresponsive. When this happens lines indicating the directions of light also are in the document window. Then it looks like it is going to render, but does not. Then I check the menu at the top and the items are embossed, off, unbold, rather than dark and responsive to clicking. So I may have to reinstall anyway. If there are any suggestions, please let me know.

I think that did it! Somehow the quality level was set at 25. I have never had the problem before in hundreds of renders, and so I don't even think about it. I must have changed it accidentally without noticing. Oddly, the brightness on my monitor also got dim around the same date. New icons on my desktop. Hmmmmmmmm. Coincidences, junk in, or something internal? Maybe I am getting up and using the computer in my sleep.Anyway after one render at 95 the problem looks fixed. So thanks very much!

All I could find at the sites mentioned above were bikini briefs and boxer-briefs, no classic jocky shorts type briefs. The closest that I found was possibly a costume Hero Mat pac where the trunks could be applied by themselves so far as I can understand http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=12612 Possibly I could retexture them, but I would have to figure that out since I have never yet looked into what a Mat pose is -- I guess a pretty ordinary jpg? Any comments? But even at that, it looks from the ad like the costume trunks would be boxer type briefs, though with short legs. So I am not rushing to get into that sort of project, which would be a new type of challenge and not fit the bill in the end anyway. I would rather try to locate just what I am looking for right now. But thanks for trying to help.

Good suggestions. I will probably experiment with all of them. Thanks! First thing I am trying is firing up photoshop and figuring out what an alpha channel is and how to use it to make cut outs that I can paste into my high res backgrounds. MAYBE I am getting somewhere. But maybe my books or my mind are not very good. I found something called an alpha channel and selected color range and this seems to allow me to make a cut out of the figure and clear the background away. Then I can move it onto my high res background. The problem is that the edges of the cutout figures are rough with traces of colors that the clearing did not eliminate. So I have to figure out now if I have done it right, or if there are efficient and tidy ways to clean up the border of the figure.

Progress report: It seems that the free RR stuff that I got from DAZ is blMilWomloNG.obj which I assmume means no genitals, since the michael and viki RRs have no genitals. Vilters mentioned this NG file above. The other file mentioned by Vilters is blMilWomlo.obj. This is indeed what Motura's cr2 file seems to be looking for, but I can't find it anywhere. Meanwhile, I got back from DAZ the following e-mail "I'm sorry, when I checked on the low res vs reduced res, I was told that they were different, but I misunderstood the differences. Basically the low res and reduced res do use the same mesh." That is all. What does "basically" mean and does that help me with my problem? So I don't know what to think and am still stuck. If low res and RR are actually the same then where did anyone get low res, and does it have genitals or not? Or is DAZ as confused as I am, or what? Got to run. Thought I would keep anyone who is interested in this mystery up to date.

Where did you guys find a low res Viki? And how were you able to use Motura's file when it only had a CR2 in it? I just posted a long description in the forum a few minutes ago of the problem with this that I have been having. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm. And where does one find that file blmilwomlo.obj?????????????? I have the DAZ victoria disc and the Computer Arts mesh. But those are the only ones I know about.

I'm not sure if the biceps are too high or the triceps are too low or both are misshaped. But the net effect is that something about the arms looks lumpy even in this render, which is better than most. In many the lumpyness makes the arms look somewhat bent like the guy is basically deformed. In too many renders the guys overall look to me like they should be rubber men in freak shows. There is something really strange about the traps seem really strange and abnormal. I think that usually the eyes or eyesockets look kind of strange. Etc. So I get back to my original problem, how much of this has to do with my personal tastes that bodies should start out looking anatomically correct, even if one wants to change that later. Or is there a basic problem with the mesh etc.? How difficult would it be for a non-expert like myself to fix him up without having to use magnets and make a lot of morphs? For example, I would want to raise the triceps and flatten them a bit and for most models that I have seen change the shape of the traps, make the eye sockets look more natural, do something or other in the shoulder arm pit area, etc. Could I do all this, such things, simply by playing with the standard dials, or would I have to get into making morphs or buying a lot of extras? From what I have seen so far, he is just not worth much trouble of the second sort. I have to confess that I like to play around with new stuff and see how it works. So I am tempted to dive in and experiment if only out of technical curiosity, but certainly not because I have seen anything yet that blows me away aesthically. In fact, just the opposite, I am trying to figure out what all the fuss is about, because so far the figures that Ihave seen look more deformed than any other recent DAZ figures. Can I be so off base? Do I need to drink more coffee? My life is just too busy right now to start down this path for purely experimental reasons and so I have to try to use sober judgment and not go off on a tangent. M2 and V2 mostly work fine aesthetically as Poser figures go and I still have some experimenting to do with V3. So I guess that the basic question for me right now is how far can one go in making m3 look more anatomically correct just by playing with dials? Are there some good and revealing renders out there that have been accomplished just by playing with dials?

ditto to all. Igot so confused that I had put off getting my downloads until they got their act together, being too busy to waste time fooling around. Now I am wondering if I will ever figure out how to get back in and catch up.

With all due respect, I have so far only seen one or two M3 figures that are not disturbingly unnatural and unaesthetic to my eye. I am holding off on spending the money unless I start seeing more appealing renders and can start to figure out what the trick is. I wonder now if there is a basic problem with the mesh or the available textures? Perhaps it takes some knack to deal with the mesh or available textures? So I guess I agree with Mark so far. pdxjims seems to see a lot of the problems that I do, but still is happy with M3. It is not clear why. Is M3 technically neat to you, or do you like most of the renders that you see aesthetically, or do you see hope in the morphs that you know are in the pipeline? I am trying to figure out if I want to invest the time and money to play with this new figure and will be interested in how this discussion goes. It would help me if some of you who are enthusiastic could point me to some renders that you think are pretty good, and maybe suggest what was done to make M3 look more natural than mostly he seems to.

Thanks so much, Scott!! He might well do. He does look like a puppy. Very cute! Now I will have to figure out how to get hair on him. I imagine that he might look more realistic with the right coat of hair. I have not done anything like making a texture before, but maybe this is a good time to figure out how to do it (or is he a morph of something that already has textures available?). Thanks to everyone else for the suggestions. I saw some interesting stuff, but no puppies.