Hello...everyone!

There are two questions I would like clarification on regarding SkinVue.

1. The first is, does SkinVue help save system resources in Vue by modifying the skin textures or converting them to Vue procedural materials as opposed to simply importing Poser figures with the textures they already have on directly through Vue's native import feature ?

2. If I purchase SkinVue, what happens to ALL the character sets I own, like for V4 ? I don't want to be stuck using one set of generic textures and nothing else. I own many custom character sets and would like to be able to still use them in Vue. 

Well thats about it for now. I'd certainly appreciate any feedback anyone wants to make. I know these questions have probably all come up before at some point so sorry for any repetition.

1.  Not really.  There's 3 different conversion options in SkinVue - Enhanced, procedural and one I never use and can't remember the name of.  The Enhanced conversion uses the original texture maps for the figure but adds a whole lot of other nodes and stuff (the function editor for a SkinVue material looks a bit like an explosion in a wool factory - lines everywhere :) )
You can use the "Render with Poser Shader tree" option if you have a lot of RAM - I still think SkinVue looks better though (and does a much better job of SSS and Fresnel than would otherwise be the case)

2.  You can use SkinVue on any texture you want.  It doesn't replace the maps but it enhances them a lot.

Hope that helps

Regards

Frank

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yeah that does, thanks Well I have 4 gig, which you would think would be enough but not always is and I have tried using the "Render with Poser Shader tree" option and yes your right that does seem to make a big difference usually.

I'm going to have to still think about this some more but I appreciate the feedback!

Best regards!

Skin Vue is one of the products I could not live without.  I use it for every Poser people import.  The Procedural convert works great, even for closeups - ad saves tons of resources.  You can add sweat, water, dirt, so your people never look plastic.  The enhanced is awesome with texture maps you dont want to replace, but just make them look great in Vue.  Cel shaded is the other option.

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To add to Frank's response, using only procedurals will indeed save resources, because it will replace the maps with procedural shaders that use very little ram ( but need more computation than textures when render time comes).
The enhanced method uses the maps and adds nodes, as Frank said, but it also can save resources, because it collapses textures, for example for V4, you have many body part textures, SV will create a single one for body, arms,hands, legs & limbs, so it will save some resources this way.
The 3rd option is toon lines, with many cool filters for animé and sketch style renders.

SkinVue works on characters exported as OBJ from Daz Studio. This is great if you don't have Poser. :)

well I must say all this is making me much more interested in purchasing SkinVue because its not practual for me to upgrade to a 64 bit system so anything right now that would help with Poser imports would be greatly welcomed.

SkinVue doesn't work in 64 bit Vue. He's having a problem with wxPython, this has been an issue for a while.

well but if you really HAD a 64 bit system, you think you would even need Skin Vue ? You probably could just import everything using Vue's import using Poser Shader without worrying about running out of memory. haha!!

Quote - well but if you really HAD a 64 bit system, you think you would even need Skin Vue ? You probably could just import everything using Vue's import using Poser Shader without worrying about running out of memory. haha!!

They look different. Poser shader tree has issues with transparency. I'm lazy and don't want to fix everything after importing! :P

well I dunno from what I hear from other people on here...it seems to work pretty well when its set up properly. I'm surprised to hear your having so many problems with it.

> Quote - well I dunno from what I hear from other people on here...it seems to work pretty well when its set up properly. I'm surprised to hear your having so many problems with it.

This is what it does to transparent objects on import. See the three cone helpers for the skirt?

This topic of comparison between Poser shader tree versus SkinVue versus normal Vue material has come up in this forum several times. There's a thread where there are some visual comparisons, which could help to the decision, here:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=3172332&ebot_calc_page#message_3172332

I have Vista64 with 8GB of RAM so memory is not a problem but even so I do not use Poser shader tree. I really do not like how skin looks in the render. I always inject SkinVue in a 32 bit machine and then transport the object to Vista64.

As bruno021 said, SkinVue colapses some of the texture parts, which is perfect for adjusting the material properties. Instead of having to adjust those in 20 different texture parts, you only have to do it in one place.

So far, there are only two things with which I had some problems in SkinVue:
a) Eyes: in SkinVue I was never able to make them look right in extreme close-ups, like if you fill the screen with only the face (normal close-ups, half body, work fairly well). I still prefer native Vue for these extreme close-ups.
b) Extreme light conditions, with lots of ambient light and radiosity, like the environments of InteriorPak: the skin from SkinVue appears with some ugly spots (not radiosity spots, something else).

*This is what it does to transparent objects on import. See the three cone helpers for the skirt?

*Not an issue I've ever seen with Poser imports and I always use the shader tree option due to having a 64 bit system and being unable to use SkinVue!!!

Injustice will be avenged.
Cofiwch Dryweryn.

Quote - *This is what it does to transparent objects on import. See the three cone helpers for the skirt?

*Not an issue I've ever seen with Poser imports and I always use the shader tree option due to having a 64 bit system and being unable to use SkinVue!!!

Maybe just xStream flakiness. It always happens to me with Poser shader import.

I always delete the helper cones after import.  You need to Split the object that has them, then you can select the cones and get rid of them.

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Well how about this then, lets say you were using SkinVue and selected the procedural skin mode, wouldn't that be essentially the same as importing a figure into Vue from Poser without selecting the Shader tree option and then saving it as a Vue object ?

nope because when you import a figure from Poser, it comes with the texture maps whether or not you use the poser shader tree option.  Saving as a VOB (assuming you tick the include textures bit) will keep the maps with the figure.  You'd have to replace the maps yourself (or use the procedural conversion in SkinVue) to make them procedural.

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thats interesting...I didn't realize that. Just out of curosity, how do figures look using Skin Vue with just the procedural textures selected ? Is there a big difference in quality verses using regular texture maps ?

I must admit I've never used procedural textures, I always use either the enhanced maps from SkinVue or (occasionally) just leave the skin as it is.  I'd imagine they look pretty good with the procedural ones - Dave is a bit of a node god in Vue :)

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well tell me frank...what kind of system are you working with ??

I'm running a Core2Duo with 2G of RAM and window XP 32bit

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wow..really ?? Do you have much trouble loading Poser content usually ? Does it seem to slow Vue down alot or cause other problems ? Especially if you load several figures.

I normally cheat if I'm going to be using more than one figure.  I reduce the size of the texture maps quite a bit which helps a lot but yes, Vue does slow down and I get resource warnings as well.  I don't usually get any problems with the import though.  It normally imports pretty easily

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Be aware that the skin will look completely different depending on the lighting conditions. These have identical SkinVue setup, but with different atmospheres loaded.

wow..thats quite a difference. So...which one is which ? I'm assuming..one is using textures another is procedural and I don't know what the third is. Thanks for sharing that!

I'd have said they were all enhanced - the atmosphere has been changed on each one though. 

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"I'm assuming..one is using textures another is procedural and I don't know what the third is."

Each SkinVue set-up is exactly the same. All I did was change the atmosphere and re-render.

You will notice that the wet - oily look of the skin disappeared when the lighting became more ambient - indirect.
What this means is that you will need to tweak the SkinVue settings according to your lighting conditions until you get the effect you want. Which is easy to do.

I use neither Skin Vue or the shader tree. I  manipulate all textures myself in the editor, this can vary alot depending on my lights. Yeah, there can be a lot of editing but I don't mind.

stormchaser- when you say you edit the textures alot, I'm just curious is that to get them to look right inside Vue or to scale them down to use up less resources or both ?

dstephany - If my resources are getting too low I will reduce my textures sizes in Photoshop.
Regarding editing my textures, I mean changing the variables inside Vue's editor. This could be bump, colour correction, highlights, transparencies, reflections etc. Basically I will change what needs changing to suit the lights & atmosphere in my scene. For example on skin textures I find they are too drab on import so I may increase or decrease specular depending on how much sunlight or ambient light is in the scene. Skin hightlighting changes I find are so important. SkinVue does this very quickly, my method takes longer but I don't mind as I'm always making changes as I go along.

I am quite new still to Vue , I work with Vue6 Infinite.
Today I finally bought Skn Vue and so far I am quite happy with it so I am not sure exactley what I am doing lol.

I have used the Poser Shader Tree so far with no problem and great results but I never got a wet look done propperly and Skin Vue has some cool options.

I hope I will figure it all out eventually.

What really confuses me is the  Scenes , what do they do , do I have to select them and if so, do I do it first or can I do it last....

So many questions.

Petra

Sorry about my written English, I am German

TheFixer: I have a 64 bit system and still I use Skin Vue. The Vue license allows you to install Vue on two systems as long as you don't use it at the same time on both. I installed my second copy on a 32 bit system. Conveniently, the Poser license is similar. I set up the character on the 32 bit machine, then use it on the 64 bit one.

I've just migrated to V6I and bought SkinVue.  Love them both.  Here's a useful discovery I'll pass along:  you can edit the SkinVue plugin for your figures so that the textures of props parented to your figure are also converted to Vue materials you have saved in your SkinVvue material library.  So, for example, I've edited the SkinVue script I use for my V2 figures so gold jewelry is automatically converted to a Vue gold material.  cheers...