Not many seem to take advantage of the compressed file format - even with stuff that is only P5/P6 compatible. Even stuff one gets from CP isn't compressed.... Why? - when it would save on download time.... -'specially for those folk without broadband. Is there some higher being making unwritten laws - "thou shalt not compress files for download"

The files are usually packed and compressed into a zip archive for download. And Poser's own compression uses the zip algorithm. So I don't think there would be a significant difference in download sizes. Many of us like to tinker with the files, anyway, and this saves us the trouble of uncompressing them first.

yep most stuff is compressed to zip files

Ah but if they were already compressed - think of the space we would save in our runtimes.......

Within P6 there is a Python script which allows you to compress the files in a defined directory. Try Window:Phyton Scripts:Utility Funcs:Compress Files

Yea - it's neat, I got back 20 gig the other day - that's why I was wondering why more stuff isn't released already compressed - saves a real lot of space....

For the most part the PMD thing doesn't seem to work so that is why a lot of people have turned it off. I am not sure if forcing the PMD thing on people who have it turned off would cause problems but that is part of the issue. I have to look at the compress python script though :) Thanks for that info.

Though compressed files may sound great sometime or another a file will have to be uncompressed in order to use RTE or similar to decode a dl'd file. Just something to think about.

win2k and winxp allow you to compress drives/folders the downside of doing any compression, is longer load/save times besides, a hd is cheap, DVDs are cheap, CDs cheaper and by using a compression for file by file, makes it less able to spread around to other people (since we're talking about downloads) if you accept the load times, you can compress your stuff but preferably something like whats built into windows as copying files out (to sell or freebie) automaticly uncompresses, which you would place into a zip file so others get the uncommpressed files (when unzipped) and they can make their own choice

"and by using a compression for file by file, makes it less able to spread around to other people" I don't see the reasoning behind this statement - the Poser compression isn't new - it has been around since Pro Pack - I think most of the content in PP was in compressed format. You have most likely downloaded compressed files without realizing it as some folk use it. eg: Adorana hair. As for load / save times - I can't see the time difference between a pz3 and pzz in save time.....or loaing Jessie.crz for that matter.

Personally, I don't use compressed files, for one specific reason. Occasionally, compressed files can get corrupted. If this happens then there's absolutely no way to mend them. OTOH, with ASCII files then you've at least got a fighting chance of tracking down the corruption and fixing it with a bit of text editing.. Cheers, Diolma

Poser 4 users can not use "z" files (crz, pzz, hrz, etc). Sure, they could possibly unzip them, but would they know to do this? Or would they simply complain that these are not valid file formats? :) If you're making Poser content, you should think about the trade-off of compressing your files versus supporting Poser 4 users. Is it worth saving 10k if you lose the Poser 4 market? --John