Greetings to all,

I have an issue with an item I have purchased today and before contacting the author I'd like the community opinion, because maybe it's just plain ignorance on my side.

The item is "An Armor Clad Warrior" by sugatak, and it is for M4. The armor is composed of several pieces: some of them are figures (cr2) and some are props (pp2). To load the armor, you must load each piece in a precise order, set its parent to another previously loaded piece or to M4 himself (not conforming them), then repeat for each piece. Not immediate but the readme is clear enough.

My issue is the following: when I load some props, they appear in the correct position (i.e. sandals are loaded around M4 feet) BUT when I perform the "change object parent" command to parent them to the foot, they suddenly move away on their own. And they have no translation dials so I am unable to pull them back manually where they belong. M4 is zeroed and I have not moved him at all.

Is there something I can do to use them correctly? Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks in advance,

Giorgio
 

 How are you parenting them? With the Parent Obj command in the menu or via the Hierachy editor? If the first, then try the secind and see if that helps. IMO it's much easier to use the Hierachy editor, you just drag things to whatever you want to parent them to. To me, that's more logical.

I don't know if it makes any difference to your problem, but it's worth a try :)

Thanks, Lisbeth, actually I have tried only with the menu command. This evening I'll try with the editor.

Strange how there are no translation dials....

Another (minor) issue I have discovered is that when loading a figure piece (CR2), the preview window is resized and the ground is made invisible. I didn't know that it was possible to make changes to the interface just loading an item (I thought it was possible only with PZ3). But this is simple to solve...

Giorgio

The translation dials are probably just hidden - that would be fine if they positioned themselves perfectly, not so useful in this case. However, you can reveal them by editing the PP2/CR2/whatever file. Look for the appropriate section and change "hidden 1" to "hidden 0". There are some unhide scripts in freestuff, I think - but if you want to do it manually and you're new to this, use a Poser File editor rather than a text editor. It's much harder to make a dreadful mistake that way. ;)

Quote - Another (minor) issue I have discovered is that when loading a figure piece (CR2), the preview window is resized and the ground is made invisible. I didn't know that it was possible to make changes to the interface just loading an item (I thought it was possible only with PZ3). But this is simple to solve...

Back in the "good old days" they used to make specialised CR2s (to load more than one item, for instance) by renaming PZ3 to CR2. When you do that, most or all of the PZ3 features are retained - Poser doesn't care.

Attached Link: Unhide parameters

Not just the "good old days".   It's fairly common for a CR2 to set some of the display variables.   For instance, a building with its own terrain may hide the ground and turn off  "Display: Ground Shadows" because those settings will get in the way of the terrain, and because most users won't read the readme to learn that they need to make those settings.

Also, here's my Unhide Parameters script:
http://ockhamsbungalow.com/Python/UnHideParms.zip

Cool. I hadn't realised that was still a viable thing to do; and the example of setting the ground parameters is one that hadn't occurred to me.

Resizing the display window, though... Makes you wonder what goes on in the Rendo testing elves' department.

Update:

the problems are not solved. Using the Hierarchy Editor, unfortunately, makes no difference: the props still move on their own when I try to parent them.

The UnHideParms script by ockham revealed nothing (I don't know why!) but the UnHide Dials found in freestuff finally displayed the missing translation dials.

The problem is... those dials do not seem to work correctly! The xTran and the zTran dials seem to move the prop along the same axis ("towards" the screen) and the yTran moves the prop "up and down". It seems not possible to move the prop "left and right". Furthermore, dragging it with the mouse does not work.

I am contacting the vendor right now...

Quote - The xTran and the zTran dials seem to move the prop along the same axis...

This is almost certainly a case of gimbal-lock. It sounds to me like this is the reason the translate dials were hidden, to hide the fact that the props suffer from gimbal-lock.

Quote - The armor is composed of several pieces: some of them are figures (cr2) and some are props (pp2). To load the armor, you must load each piece in a precise order, set its parent to another previously loaded piece or to M4 himself (not conforming them), then repeat for each piece.

I can't for the life of me imagine why it needs to be as complicated as it sounds from your description. I don't have the "An Armor Clad Warrior", so perhaps it is unfair of me to comment on something I have never seen, but perhaps this is just a very poorly constructed piece of clothing, that should never have made it on to the market.

My advice would be. Give the vendor a fair chance to resolve the issues, but if he can't, ask for your money back.

Thanks to all for your answers and advices. Now that I am sure it's not my fault, I have contacted the vendor and I am waiting for his answer.

Surely something did go wrong while creating this product... AND while testing it!

Giorgio

Final note on this subject:

I have received a refund for this product, and I have leaved a negative review on its page.

Giorgio
 

No, it was not the final note.... but this one should be.

Renderosity team has contacted the vendor, determined that my complaints were well founded, and worked with him to solve the product issues. I have been notified that now the item has been updated and it works correctly.

I no longer need it and I will not purchase it again (I have found a suitable alternative) but this last post is to testify the  honesty and the dedication of the vendor and of Rendo's testers. Thanks to all the parts involved and to the readers.

Giorgio