I created a skin mat (for personal use) that has a tattoo on it.  I want to save it so that when I load V4, I can click it and it will load all the skin mats, I don't want to go to the Materials room and apply it 'manually' each time.  Is this possible?

Save it as an MC6 file in the material room.  Select V4, switch to the material room, and apply with one click. 

And if you are wondering how to create an MC6, again go into the material room, select Vicky, click on the plus sign at the bottom of the library.  You will open a second window which will ask what body parts to select for the file.  Click ok and you are done.

Before you ask...

Material Collections in the Material Room are the way to go, rather than filling up the Pose Library with MATs.

MAT poses were a hack which Poser's developers never officially supported.  In the early (Poser 4) days, there was a built in restriction which meant Poser couldn't show more than 256 folders in any Library.  Also, Subfolders weren't allowed, which meant the Pose Library filled up rapidly.

Material Collections can be used on Figures and Props; MAT poses can't be used on Props, unless the Prop is parented to a figure.

Therefore, Material Collections = Good  MAT Poses = Bad.

Unless you're working with D|S but we're dealing specifically with Poser here. 

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Not sure what I could be doing wrong then... I am trying to save with the + in the materials room.  I tried it in both the "Pose" folder and the "Materials" folder... and the only way I can add, is if I go back into the materials room.  I can't be in the pose tab of Poser and double click the file like I can for the other Mat files.

I do use both Daz and Poser so it'd be nice to be able to use it in both programs... but first I have to figure out how to save it correctly in Poser.  And I'm fine with it either being in the Pose folder or the Materials folder just as long as I could get it to work!!

a mat pose is not a standard poser file, its a hack, so you cant save a mat pose directly. You can save a material collection in the materials room. 

If you plan on using V4 with your skin often just save to the figures library with a new name.  Load the figure when you need it and the skin will be on it already.

 

once you have an mc6 file , edit it with wordpad(or editor of choice) and change the line that reads mtlcollection to figure $current and save it in your pose library as a pz2 file.  Copy the thumbnail for the mc6 to the pose library too.   

 

(I think thats it)

Exactly.  You have to be in the Material Room to apply a Material Collection.  A minor shortcoming but worth that couple of extra clicks.

Now, you mention you use D|S, too.  Oh well, you'll have to convert them to MAT poses.  Easy enough to do with Wordpad:

Open the MC6 in Wordpad.

Change the version from 6 to 4

Change mtlCollection to figure

Save as .pz2

Move to the Pose Library, along with whatever PNG is associated with it.

 

That's all there is to it.  I can't be bothered to do it because, by and large, it gets to be a pain in the nether regions to edit 50 or 60 of them, even doing a search and replace.  I generally trust people to have enough sense to know how to use them as they are. 

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Crosspost with Mark. :)

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Well all was going well until I went to load the file.  I loaded V4 into my scene, found my mat in the pose folder, doubled clicked and it popped up:

The file being read is not a valid Poser file

Any ideas?  I have version 8 so I changed that to 4, but changed it back and it still didn't work so I don't think that's the problem.  I copied the png over, and that loads in the pose folder.  I edited the file in notepad so I know it's not adding extra spaces or characters or anything weird like that to the code. 

I tested, and it won't load from the Materials folder either!  Grrr!

Well now it's not giving me problems about recognizing the file, but it's still not loading correctly.  Her leg just shifts slightly, returns to normal and nothing changes!

Another update:  I tried again from scratch, and it does work in the Materials Folder BEFORE I try editing any files, after I go edit the mc6 to a pz2 it doesn't work in either the pose foler or the material folder.  I hope I'm explaining that correctly... point being after I edit, it won't load at all from any folder.  :(

sorry, my instructions were wrong, Sam has it right.

The pz2 file should look like this at the start

{
version
    {
    number 4.01
    }
figure
    {
    material    material_name

        {

etc

where material_name is one of the materials of your figure.

if you are using compressed files you cant edit them in this way. It must be an mc6 file to pz2 file type.

Here is how mine starts:

{

version
{
number 8
}
mtlCollection
{
material 4_InnerMouth
{

 

I will edit to:

{

version
{
number 8
}
figure
{
material 4_InnerMouth
{

 

Save as pz2, copy over the png file.  Opened Poser and nothing.  It recognizes the file supposedly, I don't get that 'warning'... but it also doesn't load my pz2/skin mat.

How do I know if they are "compressed files"?  When I look at the file type in the materials folder, it says "mc6" so I'm assuming it's not.  I'm starting to see why Sam just applies his mats in the materials room... sheesh.  I just thought putting it in the pose folder would allow me one-click access, quick and easy.  not so quick, and not so easy. 

In Poser 8 and above you do not have to be in Material Room to apply a Material Collection, you can be in Pose Room. You just select the "Body" of figure first and apply from material folder.

In DS4 you can use MC6 directly also

The figure has to be selected when you apply the mat pose or the mtl collection.  You wont see anything happen unless you have textured preview mode. 

check in the material room to see if the change has applied.  

You did change the .mc6 extension to .pz2 after you copied to the pose folder, right?

You do not have to be in the mat room to apply a mat collection. You do have to be in the mat room to save a mat collection.

The figure does have to be selected if you double click. It does not have to be selected if you drag and drop.

There is a manual. No offense meant, but you should read it.

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OK I think I got it now... not sure what I was doing wrong.  But closed everything down tried it again today and it seems to work.  Thanks for the help!