Here is a chance for the community to contribute to the Poser FAQ page. Even if you know the answer, (In fact provide both question and answer if you like). We would like user input.

Take a look at our Poser FAQ page. See if you find errors or perhaps a better answer let us know in this thread.

Also new questions to expand the FAQ page. We want you all involved in this process. Let's keep this positive and constructive. We have another thread for forum issues. This is strictly for the FAQ updates. Let's have fun with this. :)

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

OMG what a task. It's so full of errors as to be pretty ludicrous. Example:

How do I make Morph Targets?

**A:**Poser uses "Magnets" to do this.

Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

Hahah

Q: Why do some of my body parts come apart after I make it poseable using the Setup room?

**A:**There seems to be a bug with the weld function for the ProPack

Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

Start over. Use the 800-page Poser manual, and reduce each chapter to an intro. Fill in stuff that the manual doesn't cover as tips.

Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

Seems most of this stuff is from Poser 4.

Q: Why is it so hard to pose the figures?

**A:**If you use your mouse to make precise poses. You'll quickly end up getting frustraed . Try using the dials to do your posing. It will be more accurate and easier to control. Check out Schlabbers excellent guide to posing, available in pdf format from the Curious Labs website.

Does this even still happen? I haven't had an out of memory warning in centuries!

Q: Why do I get an "Out of memory" error when opening something from the library pallet?

**A:**This has nothing to do with your computer memory. It means that Poser cannot find the item on your computer.

In most cases this is caused by downloading a new item from the internet. Then installing the .obj file in the wrong folder.

Another cause for this occurs when the large .rsr file, located in the same Geometries folder as the .obj file, gets corrupted. The fix is to simply delete that .rsr file. Which will result in Poser making a new one when you open the figure again.

No - and Poser doesn't even load .rsr files anymore. Like I said - just start over.

Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

Oh - wait - we forgot to tell Boni. We did this a while ago. Back before the site changes, we had a wiki. Many of us wrote stuff in it for hours and hours.

Then, the site software was "upgraded". The wiki was - ready - wait for it - wait for it ... DELETED.

That's right - a big FUCK YOU from renderosity for all the work the community did to make a Poser information resource.

I'm not going to work on this f.a.q. I might continue to make fun of it though - it's oddly pleasing.

Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

Sorry, Boni, I know you're trying to help, but RO had an excellent wiki involving lots of work by knowledgeable people. Renderosity just arbitrarily decided to delete it and dump all their work.

I suspect you won't get a lot of takers on this project after that.

Ach my dear Boni, we applaud each and every initative to improve Poser for everybody but this time?

BB's answer says it all. => DELETED, forgotten to transfer, links messed up, you name it, Rendero managed to break or loose it.

*Sorry, but this time, it's time for Rendero to show they deserve our precious hobby time.

Sorry to say, but it will take some time for Rendero to recover from the current situation.

*As for the old FAQ? All is obsolete. That's a chapter they "can" close. *

Poser 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, P8 and PPro2010, P9 and PP2012, P10 and PP2014 Game Dev
"Do not drive faster then your angel can fly"!

is better for users to ask questions here, even though repetitious.

once BWS perfects search, it will serve as FAQ for those who don't wanna ask us.

I've already tried this Boni. It's like poking a bee's nest.

I've already tried this Boni. It's like poking a bee's nest.

Well, when folks put in a lot of effort and it just gets arbitrarily deleted, that's gets the bees buzzing. It was before my time, but I sure wouldn't touch it with a 10 ft. pole after the experience of others.

Since the contributions appear to have no value to Renderosity, I'm not even sure why they keep asking for it.

Q: Help, the forum isn't working properly!
A: You're kinda new around here, aren't you?

Well this does appear daunting and I'm sure there will be a compromise, but I'm going to do my best with all you have said so far. I will go over this and try to see about retrieving information from other sources as well. It seems foolish to re-iterate what is written in the manual. Hopefully, even with some issues we can create something good for the community.

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

To be honest, maybe they should also take down the one you have as it's obsolete anyway.

Boni, with all due respect and gratitude to you, the whole point of the thread i started earlier was an attempt by us to point out to Renderosity what we wanted from them. They showed they're contempt by not even bothering to acknowledge that they even read the thread. We STILL don't know if they did read it, even though you said you sent them links. Read my first optimistic response to Gliterrati. The Admins helped kill that optimism in me.

I'm being vague here because I have to be ... The issues are a LOT more complicated than they appear on the surface and no one is being ignored. I can't say more, unfortunately. Piece by piece we are doing things ... I'm working to retrieve lost data from many sources that could help in this thread and am keeping contact on the other one. Honest guys, I'm doing my part.

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

I will be back tomorrow morning ... I need to fix dinner ... take heart guys. It'll get better.

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Sorry for the dumb question, but I keep reading about Baggins stuff being deleted, but then I read the other day, can't remember which thread it was, that apparently it hadn't, it was just inaccessible or something. So what is the situation there, has his stuff been deleted or not?

Seriously, I really don't know, so it would be great if someone would clue me in on that. But I will say this, if all that stuff he posted over the years has been deleted, it is absolutely inexcusable, and you can't blame the guy for having something to say about it. I get pissed off if just one of my posts goes amiss, so can you even imagine what it must be like to lose the endless amount of stuff that he's given over the years. I've seen people post a question and he's rewarded them with not one, but a whole stream of posts of free tutoring, and he does it all the time, and he's done so for how many years?

Do the math, that's a lot of work and I'm amazed the guy has kept his cool if it really has been deleted!

One other thing I would like to say is that really, I don't get how things like this can happen, I mean DAZ did the same thing, they released a half-baked forum, they made it live while it was in such a state I thought it must be below Alpha! Why is it so hard to test these things on a seperate server before letting it go live, why do companies do this? I just don't get it, cause all it does is piss-off customers and community members, and make the company look incredibly incompetent, it's just ridiculous!

It's the sort of thing to be expected from a noob who just set up their first forum, but not from a company like DAZ or Renderosity.

Sorry for the dumb question, but I keep reading about Baggins stuff being deleted, but then I read the other day, can't remember which thread it was, that apparently it hadn't, it was just inaccessible or something. So what is the situation there, has his stuff been deleted or not?

It was discussed and defined in numerous posts.
The forum attachments have been re-named to useless files like attachment_124567890.txt, making them useless AND unsearchable.

Cheers, and can what was done be fixed, or was it an undoable action?

Cheers, and can what was done be fixed, or was it an undoable action?

We're still waiting for an answer to that question. Been waiting for many months.

Sorry for the dumb question, but I keep reading about Baggins stuff being deleted, but then I read the other day, can't remember which thread it was, that apparently it hadn't, it was just inaccessible or something. So what is the situation there, has his stuff been deleted or not?

Seriously, I really don't know, so it would be great if someone would clue me in on that. But I will say this, if all that stuff he posted over the years has been deleted, it is absolutely inexcusable, and you can't blame the guy for having something to say about it. I get pissed off if just one of my posts goes amiss, so can you even imagine what it must be like to lose the endless amount of stuff that he's given over the years. I've seen people post a question and he's rewarded them with not one, but a whole stream of posts of free tutoring, and he does it all the time, and he's done so for how many years?

Do the math, that's a lot of work and I'm amazed the guy has kept his cool if it really has been deleted!

One other thing I would like to say is that really, I don't get how things like this can happen, I mean DAZ did the same thing, they released a half-baked forum, they made it live while it was in such a state I thought it must be below Alpha! Why is it so hard to test these things on a seperate server before letting it go live, why do companies do this? I just don't get it, cause all it does is piss-off customers and community members, and make the company look incredibly incompetent, it's just ridiculous!

It's the sort of thing to be expected from a noob who just set up their first forum, but not from a company like DAZ or Renderosity.

What is most inexcusable is doing a major site upgrade without a backup. IF a backup existed, recovering the files would be fairly simple.

The old Wiki wasn't lost, it was deliberately discarded back in 2011...

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2831996

There are bits left here and there on the WayBack machine. The main Wiki page isn't there, but the links to the approximately 15 existing relevant topics are here:

http://web.archive.org/web//http://www.renderosity.com/mod/rrwiki/index.php/

Here's BB and Acadia's Shader thread page, but all of the R'osity links are FUBAR, although the thread numbers are correct...

http://web.archive.org/web/20110808150232/http://www.renderosity.com/mod/rrwiki/index.php/Poser_Shader_Threads

Boagas had copied some of it to his Poser Content Wiki which has since vanished from the live Web, but much is preserved here...

http://web.archive.org/web/20121006011301/http://posercontent.wetpaint.com/

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

I missed the edit deadline; >:(

Many of the RDNA Forum links from the archived Wiki pages above don't work if you click them because the destination page isn't archived, but if one copies and pastes the address, and deletes the part before http://runtimedna..., the thread will load.

To get to the R'osity pages, copy out the thread number and append it to 'http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id='

Any DAZ forum links that don't load are lost, because they ditched their forum archive.

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

Many of the RDNA Forum links from the archived Wiki pages above don't work if you click them because the destination page isn't archived, but if one copies and pastes the address, and deletes the part before http://runtimedna..., the thread will load.

That's another thing that really pisses me off. I'm a professional developer of web-based applications. I know how URLs are parsed and mapped to content. There is absolutely no reason that the link format has ever needed to change. So long as threadId is presented, it can be mapped to whatever content structure you actually have. The fact that the original thread identifiers still work shows that this is purely a syntactical change that has only one function - to prevent existing links from working. I know the developers will say they needed to change the link URL format, but they have nothing behind the original format and it is simplicity itself (literally like 5 minutes work) to write a route and controller that reroutes old-style links to the new controllers.

So not only did all the wiki stuff get deleted, but every bookmark I ever had, and every curated link I saved is now unclickable. There was no justification for this - none. Don't even begin to argue with me - I get paid to build web apps far more complex than this one. Oh - did I mention mine work - yeah they work. What a shock.

Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

So instead of complaining about what happened in the past, how about we use this thread more productively and contribute information to it that you think should be included in a Poser FAQ, as Boni's original post asks for. That's how things can be turned around here to make it a more positive experience, instead of constantly arguing and perpetuating the negativity over things that happened in the past and can't be changed.

We understand that people are frustrated with certain issues regarding the forums, and the complaints are being listened to and looked into. It can't be resolved over night, these things take time to research and work into development plans. Constantly rehashing the same gripes, complaints and arguments in every thread isn't going to resolve anything, it just creates more hostility and causes more people to not want to participate in anything.

So instead of complaining about what happened in the past, how about we use this thread more productively and contribute information to it that you think should be included in a Poser FAQ, as Boni's original post asks for. That's how things can be turned around here to make it a more positive experience, instead of constantly arguing and perpetuating the negativity over things that happened in the past and can't be changed.

We understand that people are frustrated with certain issues regarding the forums, and the complaints are being listened to and looked into. It can't be resolved over night, these things take time to research and work into development plans. Constantly rehashing the same gripes, complaints and arguments in every thread isn't going to resolve anything, it just creates more hostility and causes more people to not want to participate in anything.

Generally there is a process towards reconciliation, things like recognising the issues, being united in finding a solution to the issues, having an agreed on pathway to the solution involving all parties, putting in place bridges and barriers alongside of reassurances to stop the issues from recurring again in the future, people rarely move on just through being told to. Have a little look here, I contacted this moderator 2 years ago regarding updating a forum FAQ and this was how it went and in the end it went nowhere. I wasted hours writing the draft. The FAQ is still woefully incorrect on that forum to this day.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2875453

I have raised the issue in multiple forums only to be ignored...

If someone is willing to set one up at RuntimeDNA and link to it from here, that would be an even better idea.

Why are customers being asked to do the job that the company should be doing? If this was free software I could see it, but when I pay for the product I expect the developers to cough up a comprehensive manual. Sounds like another cheap and sleazy marketing strategy to save a few lousy bucks and pad the wallets of the senior executives.

How, how, how.
Poser comes with a 1000 page and very- very- complete manual.
But over the years, Poser end users and customers have found lots of tips and tricks to make better renders.
You can throw a lot of dirt, but certainly not at the manual.

And a FAQ page should be exactly that : a FAQ page.
And most FAQ's have little to do with Poser anyway.

Poser 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, P8 and PPro2010, P9 and PP2012, P10 and PP2014 Game Dev
"Do not drive faster then your angel can fly"!

So instead of complaining about what happened in the past, how about we use this thread more productively and contribute information to it that you think should be included in a Poser FAQ, as Boni's original post asks for. That's how things can be turned around here to make it a more positive experience, instead of constantly arguing and perpetuating the negativity over things that happened in the past and can't be changed.

We understand that people are frustrated with certain issues regarding the forums, and the complaints are being listened to and looked into. It can't be resolved over night, these things take time to research and work into development plans. Constantly rehashing the same gripes, complaints and arguments in every thread isn't going to resolve anything, it just creates more hostility and causes more people to not want to participate in anything.

I think that people who have done that in the past are frustrated that their work was tossed aside, and are understandably reluctant to invest more time with no assurance that it won't be all swept away in some future update...

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

So instead of complaining about what happened in the past, how about we use this thread more productively and contribute information to it that you think should be included in a Poser FAQ, as Boni's original post asks for. That's how things can be turned around here to make it a more positive experience, instead of constantly arguing and perpetuating the negativity over things that happened in the past and can't be changed.

We understand that people are frustrated with certain issues regarding the forums, and the complaints are being listened to and looked into. It can't be resolved over night, these things take time to research and work into development plans. Constantly rehashing the same gripes, complaints and arguments in every thread isn't going to resolve anything, it just creates more hostility and causes more people to not want to participate in anything.

Because it just happened again, Shane. With THIS gawd awful forum "downgrade" years of your customer's/vendor's work has just been tossed aside. Deleted. Trashed.

And, you think they should do it again?

Dissatisfied customers don't keep repeating the same mistakes.

Continuously screaming quityerbitchin' isn't getting it done, now is it?

A FAQ page is pretty useless to most.
The same questions pop-up each week, or at least each month. FAQ page or no FAQ page.

The only thing worth investing time would have been a Wiki, or a Tips and tricks page. => We had a good Wiki, and it went down the pipe drain.

So Renderosity? Show some respect to your end users.

FIRST repair what has to be repaired. => And if you have no clue? => Restore the site to December 2010.
Prove stability.

Start a new initiative in a year or so. Anything sooner won't work any more.

Poser 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, P8 and PPro2010, P9 and PP2012, P10 and PP2014 Game Dev
"Do not drive faster then your angel can fly"!

Many of the RDNA Forum links from the archived Wiki pages above don't work if you click them because the destination page isn't archived, but if one copies and pastes the address, and deletes the part before http://runtimedna..., the thread will load.

That's another thing that really pisses me off. I'm a professional developer of web-based applications. I know how URLs are parsed and mapped to content. There is absolutely no reason that the link format has ever needed to change. So long as threadId is presented, it can be mapped to whatever content structure you actually have. The fact that the original thread identifiers still work shows that this is purely a syntactical change that has only one function - to prevent existing links from working. I know the developers will say they needed to change the link URL format, but they have nothing behind the original format and it is simplicity itself (literally like 5 minutes work) to write a route and controller that reroutes old-style links to the new controllers.

They changed how individual messages are accessed; they now are accessed as tag on the thread, instead of directly. It likely would have been easy to deal with at the time, but the older posts are now full of dead links. Lest I be branded a malcontent, I've been fixing the links in the Shader page of the Wiki, but the links to individual R'osity posts are going to require manual searching to locate them, which I'm working on...

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

What would be ideal would be another button in the forums. Heck, we've got a gazillion anyway, so what's one more? Especially if it's useful!

Add a button allowing the entire forum thread to be added to a wiki/FAQ.

The only advantage a wiki/FAQ gives anyone is that one can post a link to that entry instead of repeating the same answer to the same question every time a forum user asks it.

Well, you see?
There is a tread now with a very valid question where a lot of end users would/cloud benefit from a complete workflow/tutorial.
It is not something for a FAQ.
But more for a Wiki, or for a Tips and Tricks section.

"How to build for opening/closing clothing."

So? What do I do?

I have 3 completely different workflows, and some variations of those, to do exactly that; Opening-closing, or modifying/morphing clothes depending on the build, and the final result required.
But I am very-very hesitant to respond right now.

A full response is too valuable to put in a simple post. => In a week it will be on page ? ? ?
No Wiki any more
No Tips and Tricks section

And God only knows what or when the webmasters next step will be.

See what's happening?

Poser 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, P8 and PPro2010, P9 and PP2012, P10 and PP2014 Game Dev
"Do not drive faster then your angel can fly"!

So instead of complaining about what happened in the past, how about we use this thread more productively and contribute information to it that you think should be included in a Poser FAQ, as Boni's original post asks for. That's how things can be turned around here to make it a more positive experience, instead of constantly arguing and perpetuating the negativity over things that happened in the past and can't be changed.

We understand that people are frustrated with certain issues regarding the forums, and the complaints are being listened to and looked into. It can't be resolved over night, these things take time to research and work into development plans. Constantly rehashing the same gripes, complaints and arguments in every thread isn't going to resolve anything, it just creates more hostility and causes more people to not want to participate in anything.

So instead of listening to the concerns of the users, at least one moderator decides to ignore the people, and tell them "it can't be resolved overnight." - well for a start, this has been going on way longer than "overnight" unless the days on earth have suddenly elongated and are now measured in months(at least) and what has been done to address the issues? So far, there has been little to no evidence of any improvement in the situation - is it any wonder that people feel they are being ignored?

A moderator showing such lack of compassion / empathy for the concerns of the community populace just enforces the belief that Renderosity is ignoring them, and to be honest shows a level of ignorance that should not be displayed by ANY member of the forum team.

Locked Out

I posted the revived Shader Thread Wiki Page, although the Forum struck again... :(

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro?thread_id=2889859

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

Normally, I would contribute to this type of thing. However, as I have contributed hours and hours of work, BB did, Snarly did, Rhionon did, among others - to the wiki, I wouldn't walk a foot to help Rendo to prepare another resource that would only turn around and be deleted. Nope.

Laurie

Normally, I would contribute to this type of thing. However, as I have contributed hours and hours of work, BB did, Snarly did, Rhionon did, among others - to the wiki, I wouldn't walk a foot to help Rendo to prepare another resource that would only turn around and be deleted. Nope.

Laurie

If there's any solace in it, Laurie, please know that a lot of us found the information in that wiki invaluable. I know I did.

Boni,

this FAQ attempt was made not that long ago, by a previous forum support BasicWiz. We had a team, Vilters was doing modeling related stuff, I was doing materials related stuff, SnarlyGribbly was involved and so on. After a few months, I've not seen any progress from the various members (for probably good personal reasons) while I finished my Materials section - after say three months hard work. After that, about no-one appeared willing to perform a decent detailed review before issuing the stuff. Then BasicWiz could not establish any space for it on the Rendo site (not his fault), and I decided to locate the stuff on my own site.

There it is, and if one feels for copying and pasting it to any other place on the net, please do. Plus a lot on dynamics (hair & cloth). Mainly thanks to a lot of debates with BB and others, some years ago.

In the meantime, it might be far more fruitful to issue just comments on the various pages on my site, and reference it in the Rendo replies on questions. That is hardly done as well. I'm happy to host info from other contributers, but it's never asked for. Various people are often asked "to write that book" about their Poser knowledge. The book is already there, just waiting to be filled. I'm happy to receive, edit and maintain, it does not have the disadvantages of a forum, and the site is called Missing Manuals for a good reason. No strings attached, except that my site is never going to be a wailing wall for any dissatisfaction on anything. One only has to DO something instead of talking about it.

I would enjoy to see the "hot shots" from the Rendo community acting as a really performing constructively collaborating group. One day...

all the best,
aRtBee

- - - - -

Usually I'm wrong. But to be effective and efficient, I don't need to be correct or accurate.

visit www.aRtBeeWeb.nl (works) or Missing Manuals (tutorials & reviews) - both need an update though

Thanks for those links WandW.

For as much as I appreciate Boni's efforts - and I do - at least she's trying to do something, I have to say that a Poser FAQ is a very ungainly way for people to find any real good information. That's what the wiki was for and, well, we've seen what happened there. Rendo couldn't monetize it so it went bye-bye, and it was probably the best idea they've ever had. But in typical Rendo fashion, they've always been really good at shooting themselves in both damn feet. One time too many for me...

Laurie

Ot, but not really considering his contributions to Poser knowledge...

Anyone heard from LesBently?

Ot, but not really considering his contributions to Poser knowledge...

Anyone heard from LesBently?

I sent him a PM a couple of months ago, but it's still unread... :(

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

Hello all!

Here is the thing, we are doing what has been asked by many members. Although many of you do not need the FAQ... other do. In this request we have started to look at the FAQ and update it.

By acting this way many of you are just as bad as those you complain about that are making this forum bad. If you want this forum to be more friendly, I suggest looking at yourselves regarding this post. Instead of bashing the forum, you could have not posted at all or offered sites, knowledge, or simple answers to questions. But you chose to make this thread like all the others. So, if you do not have something you want to add to the FAQ please post on another thread from this post on.

_____________________
.::That which does not kill us makes us stronger::.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Wow, unread. That has ominous implications.

Sorry Kimberly.

She's so pretty.

She is pretty, that's the only reason I've not had a go at her, plus, I value my membership :-P

Kim really? :(

I think the point was we HAVE contributed and it was deemed worthless by Renderosity, not by the forum members. We DID offer contributions...contributions that are now gone. How can we possibly not be bitter about all our work thrown out the window? I mean, look at all the stuff BB and Snarly alone have contributed to this place alone, but the PTB of this place act as tho they were entitled to it and entitled to throw it out. That may well be the case in the end, but then don't come at those of us who have done things for the site and say we're being mean or bitter because we've been bitten one too many times already. Of course we're mad and bitter. How many times should you take a slap to the face and keep coming back for more?

sigh

Laurie

Laurie, I understand what you are saying. But if we want the forum to get better we need to look forward not backwards. Every person, including staff, makes mistakes. By bashing the staff for trying to make things better does not make the forum better.

Kimberly

_____________________
.::That which does not kill us makes us stronger::.
-- Friedrich Nietzsche

Anymore posts not directly related to contributing to the FAQ will be deleted.

Please help make this a productive thread.

Thanks.

I'd like to contribute a couple of links that deal with some obscure facets of Poser in regard to Smoothing and Raytracing. In either thread the topic centers mostly around ways to deal with render artifacts.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2859563#msg4011991

The above thread covers issues with Poser's smoothing and also deals with Raytracing and polygonal self shadowing artifacts. The thread also contains many links added by BagginsBill on the subject of Raytracing, I found this thread to be extremely helpful and resulted in my observations in the following link...

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2864872#msg4049812

The above contains a lot of information about modeling for Poser with smoothing in mind. It covers the gamut of ways to deal with this.

The introduction of Subdivision surfaces in poser may render some of this information moot, but may be of value for those who are using earlier versions of Poser or are just curious.

Thanks Primorge. That's more along the lines of what we're looking for :-)

Looking through the little bit that survived of th eold Wiki, there isn't much there. The Program and Michael and Victoria sections are years out of date. As I noted earlier, I converted the links in the Shader thread. Here is the section on .obj file :

Obj file extension

A file with the .obj file extension is a three-dimensional object containing 3D coordinates, texture maps, and other object information; a standard 3D image format that can be exported and opened by several 3D image editing programs.

Hmmm... it added several extra lines when I pasted; I'm shocked... ;) At least I can now paste into a message more than once, but not more than twice, apparently.

Texture mapping

Texture mapping is a method for adding detail, surface texture, or color to a 3D model.

Definition

A texture map is applied (mapped) to the surface of a shape or polygon. A similar idea is like placing patterned wallpaper onto a blank wall.

Multitexturing is the use of more than one texture at a time on a polygon. For instance, a light map texture may be used to light a surface as an alternative to recalculating that lighting every time the surface is rendered. Another multitexture technique is bump mapping, which allows a texture to directly control the facing direction of a surface for the purposes of its lighting calculations; it can give a very good appearance of a complex surface, such as tree bark or rough concrete, that takes on lighting detail in addition to the usual detailed coloring. Bump mapping has become popular in recent video games as graphics hardware has become powerful enough to accommodate it.

In the commercial realm, textures can be included with a 3D model or sold as standalone texture packs. These texture packs are usually assembled around a specific theme or occasion.

The Antonia page will take some work yet...

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

...and:

Digital content

Digital Content Creation (DCC) is a modern term denoting the creation and modification of digital content, such as 3D modeling, animation, Sound recording and reproduction, graphics, images and video, as part of the production process before presentation in its final medium. This large field encompasses many segments such as 3D graphics, audio editing, compositing, authoring, etc. There are other terms available such as creative media or multimedia production, but they also apply to processes not done digitally, such as drawing paintings by hand or producing in the sense of financing a project. DCC best describes the software used in connection with output produced by the user and the DCC industry as a whole.

3D modeling

Digital Content in regards to 3D modeling refers to the 3D models, textures, animations, poses and other resources that are used in creating 3D models. Since these assets are not physical items, they are known as digital content.

===

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

Hello folks ... I've been working on the FAQ today and just came here to the thread ... I understand your frustrations and the issues you present are valid and I share a lot of your feelings on issues. ... But What I want to do here is move forward. Dust ourselves off ... and work with the purpose of the thread. One comment I want to address. I did not ask for your assistance to ask you to do my work ... it was to involve you as users to be a part of the process and not be left out. I'm sorry it was misunderstood. These last entries are greatly appreciated and will be added. thank you. I can use all the help I can get as can my fellow coordinator.

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Just to let you know ... I have copied all the posts so far on this thread to go over and edit for the FAQ. And I will continue to do so.

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

So instead of complaining about what happened in the past, how about we use this thread more productively and contribute information to it that you think should be included in a Poser FAQ, as Boni's original post asks for. That's how things can be turned around here to make it a more positive experience, instead of constantly arguing and perpetuating the negativity over things that happened in the past and can't be changed.

We understand that people are frustrated with certain issues regarding the forums, and the complaints are being listened to and looked into. It can't be resolved over night, these things take time to research and work into development plans. Constantly rehashing the same gripes, complaints and arguments in every thread isn't going to resolve anything, it just creates more hostility and causes more people to not want to participate in anything.

The top of the FAQ page should state, Subject to change without further notice. Because that is exactly what has happened around here over the years. People were asked to do this before, many spent countless hours doing so, and someone simply decided to delete the whole dam thing.

Are those same people in charge, or has Rendo been sold to someone else since then? Who knows, it is all secret around here and people have been sent links.....

The issues are being looked into... By who? Is it that much of a secret that you think no one else in the world knows how to do a whois check?

The only thing I can come up with is that no one knows. Or are to embarrassed to say. Maybe there is a contract that says you can't if not satisfied.

It is pointless, completely pointless, to do anything if it is just going to be deleted again.

History has a tendency to repeat itself, and the delete button gets a lot of use around here.

If someone in power can step in here and state that things wont just get deleted on a whim, you might get some help.

But as it stands, no one has stepped up to that plate. And no one will, or they already would have to settle this whole debacle.

I have had posts deleted, images deleted from posts because one mod disapproved of it, even after it was in my gallery for years and reviewed there as well.

The only consistency around here, is the inconsistency. That should be my signature here, because it is the truth.

I have been productive lately.

I deleted all my freebies (sorry, there not coming back here sp you can bury them somewhere again), my gallery, etc... That way you (Rendo) do not have to worry about the programmers (that no one can dare mention) doing so for me. It is bound to happen at this rate, everything else is fubar, they will fuck that up sooner or later too. I am going to remove all the images on my server that were linked to in threads as well, no need to host them since that is broken now as well and it appears no one has any backups to fix it. Rendo does not pay for that space, I do. So there is no reason to leave it there.

Feel Free to delete this post, just as other things have been deleted as well.

Because if my (and everyone else's) opinion is not welcome, my (our) help shouldn't be either.

The reason no one wants to participate is probably because of everyone's posts, your right about that Shane.

But asking us not to talk about is not going to make it go away, and it certainly is not going to get it fixed any faster either.

You make it sound like setting up a php server is quantum physics, and it is not.

Some things are easy to explain, other things are not........ <- Store -> <-Freebies->

Hate to tell you this, David, but that post is going to get zapped, two of mine already have been, perfectly civil ones.

Hate to tell you this, David, but that post is going to get zapped, two of mine already have been, perfectly civil ones.

It might very well get deleted, and it would not surprise me if it does. But the point remains that we can no longer attach examples for people to download which makes it very tedious to explain certain things in a FAQ.

Years of valuable tips and tricks that could have been linked to are no longer complete. If it took 10 years to accumulate all of that in the past with attachments, etc, it will take even longer to do so in the forums present state.

Say someone wanted to explain a shader setup that BB already posted in the past. Someone will now have to take the time to start over instead of simply adding a link to the previous tread that went into great detail on it. The same could be said about any thread that is no longer complete due to the changes.

The Wiki that was deleted had tons of examples as well, How long would it take to redo that? Well that depends if anything was backed up. If it was not, it will take years.

The decision to make changes has had serious repercussions on the community, and it was not the users fault. Now we are being asked to redo years of work, with no insight as to when and if we can even put attachments into it, etc. Or even if the delete button will get mashed at some point again in the future.

Some things are easy to explain, other things are not........ <- Store -> <-Freebies->

I may contribute to the FAQ soon™

Software: Daz Studio 4.15, Photoshop CC, Zbrush 2022, Blender 3.3, Silo 2.3, Filter Forge 4. Marvelous Designer 7

Hardware: self built Intel Core i7 8086K, 64GB RAM, RTX 3090 .

"If you spend too much time arguing about software, you're spending too little time creating art!" ~ SomeSmartAss

"A critic is a legless man who teaches running." ~ Channing Pollock

My Gallery My Other Gallery

@David
Just so you know, I don't want them to delete your post, I was just pointing out that the mod has vowed to remove anything that is not what he asked for, and therefore my perfectly civil posts have been removed. Fine, but your post certainly doesn't fit either, so your post should have been removed too. Makes me wonder if Shane realises that being a mod does not protect him from online bullying charges, which is exactly what he's heading for if he keeps this up.

He's supposed to be under the control of a group decision, so why is my stuff being removed while yours stays?

Folks, just to let you know ... I appreciate the civility ... but I believe your posts were deleted primarily because they were off OP and you were told that before it started to happen. We want to keep on topic is all because we don't want this thread to devolve. I hope you can respect that. There IS a lot going on in the background. YOU are heard ... there is a lot that cannot be discussed at this time. no one is being ignored.

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

No problem there, Boni, it's the unfair manner Shane practices. I'm not actually that bothered that my post got deleted, and I certainly have no intention to mess up your thread, but things need to be acted against all members in the same fashion, not the singling out method Shane uses with me.

Beats me how he's a mod and you're a coordinator, because you, Boni, are clearly moderator material while he clearly isn't!
They tell us to start again, so how about making some much needed mod changes around here to help that along?

Boni for mod!

I have discovered that the Antonia Wiki page that was formerly on the R'osity Wiki can be found here, which concludes my recovery of the Wiki remains from the Internet Archive. :)
http://posercontent.wikifoundry.com/page/Antonia+By+ODF

The main page of the Poser Content Wiki is here. There is a lot of information about various Poser figures, although it doesn't seem to have been updated in a while...
http://posercontent.wikifoundry.com/

Oops; forgot to make the links live; fixed... :)

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

I was told to delete your posts by admin Pumeco. Admin can still read deleted posts.

Not good enough though, is it Shane, you know very well that post was utterly polite and was even crossposted. I've tried my best to get along with you, literally broke my back trying to do so, but you're kidding yourself if you cannot see how, when you do things like that to me and not others, it's going to cause friction.

Whatever Shane.

Sorry - pet peeve - don't say "literally" when you clearly mean "figuratively".

Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

Sorry Mr Baggins, Sir :-D

your posts weren't the only ones that got deleted and I'm not the only one that deletes posts in this forum or this thread. But apparently admin now want the flamewars to continue, so have at it.

Shane, does your Forum software let Mods put a user's posts on Moderation? I moderated a model railroad forum where if someone was unsociable we'd delete the offending post and warn them, and if it happened again put the user on moderation for a week, where their posts had to be approved by a Mod before they were visible, a process that took some time and allowed discussions to cool.. That usually made them wise up; I don't recall having to do it to someone twice. The only people we banned were spammers

If the software does have this feature, you should have the Admins enable it for you guys...

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

Yeah, let's have at it Shane!

Do you think I like arguing with you on the forum, ask yourself, why the fuck would I want to argue?
Do you think I like being in an environment where every fucking day feels like I have to walk on eggshells around you so that I don't lose my membership?

You're an adult yourself Shane, so when admin tell you to do something that you know is wrong, have the balls to say no!
Everything is a fucking secret around here, what do you expect?

If you go around doing something and the people you're doing it to haven't a fucking clue who did it, or why, how on earth are we supposed to have a happy forum where we get along? It's never going to happen in that sort of environment, because it's impossible to do so!

This is supposed to be an art community, a place for artists to chill, not a concentration camp!

Boni's right when she says they as in Renderosity do listen. It may not seem like it but they do. They have a lot going in the background that we can't discuss for various reasons but they do want and are trying to make things better. It's just going to take a while for everything to fall in place.

As far as AmbientShade being the only one 'deleting' posts, he is not. The admin, moderators and coordinators including myself have deleted posts. We don't delete posts on a whim. It's discussed among the 'team'.

But I do have to stress, lets try and keep this thread on track.

My Store & My Freebies

The software just deleted a post while I was typing it - but kindly waited until I spent 20 minutes on it. So - yeah sometimes it's not Shane. LOL

By the way - it was no rant or complaint. It was a tutorial on making car-paint-like glitter. Too bad, after it got tossed I wrote the short version and I'm going back to making money. See ya.

Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

The software just deleted a post while I was typing it - but kindly waited until I spent 20 minutes on it. So - yeah sometimes it's not Shane. LOL

By the way - it was no rant or complaint. It was a tutorial on making car-paint-like glitter. Too bad, after it got tossed I wrote the short version and I'm going back to making money. See ya.

Ouch; that's literally about $75 bux worth... :(

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

Baggins Wrote:
" ..."

In case you're wondering, I just attempted three times to quote you because I got a big LOL out your comment :-D
But get this, it's impossible to even paste your comment without getting a HUUUUUUUUUGE font!

Whatever just sucked-up your post, I'm guessing it's the same gremlin at work!

Here's some constructive criticism for admin to consider regards the forum design. I've mentioned this before, but either it fell on deaf ears, or someone in the design department needs to find a job they're actually capable of doing.

It's regarding the most used button on the foum, the Top of Forum button you have at the top of each page, where basically, the designer has it in the exact opposite place to where it should be. The Top of Forum button is what we click when we finish reading the page of a thread, so naturally, that button belongs at the end of each thread page, not the beginning! The way the designer has it right now means that if you've just read, say, a 25 post page, you have to scroll back to the top of the page just to get at the button so that you can return to the Poser forum index.

If the designer knew thier job, it would be where I'm about to point out. So what you do is you put it where it's needed, meaning after the last post on each page, because surprise surprise, that's where you are when you finish reading the last post on each page! Doing it the way I just pointed out, the button is always to hand.

So Renderosity listen do they, ok then, bit of rock solid advice there, free of charge, from someone who knows a thing or two about functional design.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I know all of this is important information ... We are listening to your issues, but may I ask you to stay on Topic? We have some very good ideas going around and I'd like to here your input on the FAQ (Positive please) so we can reconstruct it. I will also see about a backup this time to avoid the loss of data from the wiki.

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

To expand our resources for the FAQ, I have taken a suggestion from WandW and contacted the creator of the Poser Content Wiki so we may link there on our FAQ page and our members can build content on that site as well. This is a small step, but it's a beginning and I wanted you all to know that this is one of my ideas to expand our resources. I want to structure it a bit different that what it is now. But I need to run this by the admins. I want to make this all more enjoyable and interactive for everyone.

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Dear Boni

The ONLY good idea left is to restore the site to december 2010.

Even the FAQ page was more in sync to the app then.

Unfortunately with new formats, OS's, devices etc. your suggestion is impractical, but well intended ... and a note: the top of forum button actually takes you to the main forum page. The small arrows to the bottom right corner of each post takes you to the top of the thread. I can see that that can be confusing and will suggest rephrasing.

Pumeco: surprise ... guess who's a new Moderator? :)

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Here are the old Poser Tutorials that SM took down a few months back on the WayBack machine. Some refer to older versions of Poser, and a few are outdated, but most are still useful...

http://web.archive.org/web/20120709093016/http://poser.smithmicro.com/tutorials.html?

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

Nothing wrong with the arrows, Boni, they're fine.

Personally, I'd call the Top of Forum button, Back to Index, but it's not really the naming of it, it's where they put it. No matter what, you only reach for that button when you've reached the last post, that's why that button should automatically 'tag along' after the last post, so that no matter whether you just wrote the post or read it, the button is there. It's just carelss design the way it is, it's extremely amateurish.

Regards you becoming a mod, good, I'm definitely pleased to hear it, you seem very sincere to me :-)
Maybe it will give you extra powers to keep an eye on Shane as well!

And speaking of Shane ...

Shane, don't think people are so stupid that they don't know you have your hands tied being a mod. I'm aware a mod has to deal with that, but you've singled me out so many times now it's become set in stone - you couldn't even be arsed to delete a harmless post I asked you politely to delete in that thread of yours. Not that it matters, it's not important, but it's the fact that there's not even enough respect from you to do something as simple as that.

When you took a job as mod, you must have known it's going to get you disliked if you don't balance what your job is, with what's right. Put yourself in the shoes of the non-moderating members here, and you'll see that it's the secrecy that is the biggest problem (not including the state of the site itself). Even the simplest thing like leaving a placeholder for a deleted post would stop that, or at least go a long way towards stopping it.

If you delete a post then it should say "Post deleted by AmbientShade", and if Boni does it, "Post deleted by Boni", same with the cooridinators if they have the ability to delete. No moderator should ever have an issue with leaving a placeholder for their actions, because that way, a person isn't going to fly off the handle, and instead, is going to be more inclined to contact the mod and ask about it - because they know who it is. It also means that moderators wouldn't be so trigger-happy at deleting posts in the first place, because other members can see whats going on - the secrecy is gone.

Being able to delete posts and have your actions be anonymous from the members you share this forum with, is always going to cause friction. It creates a kind of "them and us" atmosphere, and that's exactly what you have here right now between the members and the admins/mods etc.

I recall basicwiz used to sitemail me when I would get particularly obnoxious... he would say "is everything ok?" I guess he felt comfortable doing that because he and I had to email back and forth for coordination reasons when I won a Poser forum render challenge. Miss that guy being around here.

How do you refresh a thread page on a mobile device? Gets a little tiresome having to go back to top of forum and re-enter a thread to see new posts...

Sorry for ot.

and a note: the top of forum button actually takes you to the main forum page.

No it doesn't. If I were to hit Top of Forum from this thread, it will take me back to the thread listing in the Poser section. Same goes for that button in every other thread- it only goes one level up to the thread listing of the section the thread is in.

In breadrumb speak, this thread would be Forum > Poser > Poser FAQ: Want to Contribute?
Hitting Top of Forum will take you to Forum > Poser, not Forum.

-----sig-----
Daz, Blender, Affinity, Substance, Unity, Python, C#

How do you refresh a thread page on a mobile device? Gets a little tiresome having to go back to top of forum and re-enter a thread to see new posts...

Depends on the browser. On mobile Chrome, I can hit the round arrow in the 3 dot menu (upper right) to refresh the page.

-----sig-----
Daz, Blender, Affinity, Substance, Unity, Python, C#

Doh! Thanks.

Moderators have zero control over how the website is designed or how it functions. We can ask for features added - and trust me I've asked for many features that would improve the functionality of the forum, improve the overall mood of the forum users, and make moderators jobs easier. Such as the ability to split threads when they derail into other conversations, so that the entire thread doesn't get lost and the side topics can become their own threads - a feature that all the other forums I've been to have had for as long as I can remember - and several other features that everyone would benefit from. I don't know if it will ever happen - I don't get feedback on it.

I can't control how posts are deleted. When I'm told to delete a post I delete that post. How the forum software handles deleted posts is not up to me. It's not currently possible to leave a placeholder for deleted posts. The only way that would be possible now would be to delete the text of the post, and replace it with a notice. That makes it impossible to investigate at a later time if needed, so we don't do it that way. It's been so long now that I don't remember if there ever was a delete notice left in place. If it actually stated whether a post was deleted or not. I don't think it does now but my screen looks a bit different than your screens. I see more stuff than you do, more info. So I really don't remember what the non-moderator, average user screen looks like. Some people tend to think their posts are the only ones getting deleted and that's not true. When a post gets deleted, responses to that post also get deleted. Or at least they're supposed to. We don't catch everything. And no, I'm not going to go against admin when they tell me to delete a post just because I don't think it should be deleted. Sorry if that upsets you. You don't pay me. They do. I don't intentionally single out anybody. If you think you're being singled out then maybe you need to reconsider your behavior in the forum.

I don't always PM people when their posts get deleted, (especially when it's someone I always catch attitude from when I do PM them anyway), but it's been quite a while since I deleted much of anything, or locked or deleted any threads, so I haven't thought much about it lately. And again, just because something gets deleted doesn't mean it was me that did it. There's an entire staff of coords, mods and admin here, and each one of them will at times delete something, especially admin if they feel they need to. Most of the time issues are handled as a team so that we aren't accused of singling anybody out and no personal grudges are being dished out.

Some people here are regarded as trolls by other members and I get PMs about those members regularly - some PMs come from people who don't even participate in the forum but they do read a lot of the threads and are familiar with those members and their behaviors on other sites. It's all information I take into consideration when I'm dealing with a particular member or issue. It doesn't mean I'm going to target that person, but it does help me to get a better sense of what kind of person they are and what to expect when I do have to deal with them.

Every post has an arrow at the bottom right corner that takes you back to the top of the thread. If there were just one arrow at the bottom then you would have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page to get to it. This way it can be reached from each post. It makes more sense that way and is more compatible across multiple browsers and OS's. A floating arrow would not be as universal. The 'Top of Forum' button takes you back to the main index of the Poser forum.

draws breath...

OK... here's a link to a thread that I put up a while back about using Poser lights and ambient lights for indoor scenes using IDL. It got some good traction, has been referenced before, so I'm assuming may be useful...

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2884825

I should also point out that when I went to look for this thread, I entered my user name and the search term 'lighting'. Note the name of the thread "Indoor lighting with IDL and camera settings". I got nothing. No matches AT ALL. Suggestion: assume if someone doesn't put a date range, they don't want it narrowed, they want ALL OF IT.

I feel sorry for Boni and Shane, being kinda stuck between an almost faceless admin and us, but I have a specific section of bookmarks for 3D stuff, and they have almost completely become dead links since the last upgrade.I'm hesitant to contribute to this.

Let me be clear; I don't go to RDNA because I think their forum is WORSE. I hate it. THIS is my first port of call, messed up search functions and flame wars and all. Losing all my links doesn't stop me coming here to look, doesn't stop me posting stuff I find at the time, but as much as I like the idea, I have ZERO trust in the forum to keep the material accessible, and as such won't post anything other than quick links I can rehash.

I can understand a business trying to win back trust from it's user base/customers, and if we have new people in, like Boni, trying to make a difference, there's hope. For the actual business side, repairing a damaged reputation is difficult, takes commitment, and takes transparency. This thread has got a touch heated, and asking for courtesy is fine and appropriate. Courtesy should be given... but trust is earned.

Yeah, me, I had that link! That was a good thread. I wish that the discussion in it had gone further. I come here everyday looking for threads like these on lighting and materials.

"A lonely climber walks a tightrope to where dreams are born and never die!" - Billy Thorpe, song: Edge of Madness, album: East of Eden's Gate

Weapons of choice:

Poser Pro 2012, SR2, Paintshop Pro 8

Shane Wrote:
"And no, I'm not going to go against admin when they tell me to delete a post just because I don't think it should be deleted. Sorry if that upsets you. You don't pay me. They do. I don't intentionally single out anybody. If you think you're being singled out then maybe you need to reconsider your behavior in the forum."

So if you got paid by someone to guard a warehouse and the propreitor said to shoot anyone that enters, you would?

And anyway, how on earth can you expect me (or anyone) to show you any respect if you blatantly disregard even the most polite things people post?

Again, I asked if you'd remove a post for me, it's still there, something that would take you a second to do, something I posted by mistake thinking it would help out a member. If I were the moderator in that situation I'd have happily removed it at the request of the member, so what's the problem there exactly? What are you waiting for? I'll tell you, you're not waiting for anything because you have no intention of removing it for me. It's because it's me that asked if you'd do it, but with anyone else and it would have been removed no problem, just like any decent person would expect. It's not rocket science, the post was a mistake and I asked politely for it to be removed - simple really.

And you're wrong about the Top of Forum button. It needs to be where it's supposed to be, and that means whererever you are when you just finished reading a page and want to go "back to index". That means it needs to be where I said it needs to be, OMG! You can comment on this stuff, but just like those that are responsible for it, you clearly haven't got a clue what you're talking about. There's nothing terribly wrong with having it at the top of each page where they have it, but that should only be secondary, it should primarily be where it is needed, at that means at the bottom of each thread page on the same row as the page selection buttons.

I really don't understand why that is so hard to grasp, and of course it isn't, you only have something to say because it's me that mentioned it.

And the naming, well that's just as nondescript as the rest of the design. I suppose Top of Forum is technically bearable, but if the forum was designed for ease of use and being comfortable to use, it would be called Back to Index, because that's what it does! The forum designers shouldn't have to take a board meeting, sit around the table trying to get the naming right, they simplly have to do what is obvious. The Play button on my gear is called a Play button because that's what it does!

Bloody hell, fancy that!

The Back to Index button should be called Back to Index because that's what it does, it's not rocket science, and neither is knowing where to put it (and after all this crap, I'm starting to coming up with rather more interesting places it could be put). What I pointed out earlier, where I said the button should be, that's just common sense design logic. The fact that the designer doesn't appear to posses that, is kinda worrying. So carry on trying to convince people that your behaviour towards me is standard and acceptable, and carry on trying to tell a competent designer that you know better than he does.

Either way, the only person you're kidding, is yourself and perhaps a few gullible ones that might actually believe you.
And before you do, don't bother making a reply to debate the button thing, I know what I'm talking about - you're wrong and I'm right - I'm that confident.

Ladies and gentlemen, kneel to the new Renderosity forum, yet another example of how Apple's bullshit is destroying our lives. Must cater for the bullshit and to hell with the majority of us who wouldn't touch that crap with a ten foot barge-pole. Many years ago, some dumbfuck at Apple thought it would be wise to have a one-button mouse, the result being that even Windows users sometimes suffer just so that the one-button bullshit is uniform across platforms for the coders. And many years ago, some dumfuck at Apple thought it would be cool to have shitty-looking jellybean computers sat on our desktops and to call them iMacs, the result of which has made every talentless designer stick a glossy jellybean gradient over everything they fucking draw. Sure, it looks as shit as a jellybean iMac does, but things like that have no relevence to sheeple designers that have no talent of their own.

And not too long ago, some dumbfuck at Apple launched the iCrap range, the result of which is that even your quality of life on Renderosity is being effected by it, due to them thinking they need to cater for this bullshit. What you have here is the result of catering to those fucking touch devices. And instead of creating a mobile version of the site that parses the same data as the main site, they've destroyed the main site for everyone else.

When are companies going to learn that in the greater scheme of things, hardly anyone even uses those fucking devices! The millions they sell pale in comparison to the amount of actual computer users out there. You'd think they'd all learn from Microsoft's mistake when the arrogant bastards took away the Start button and thought they could manipulate the desktop users into touchscreen mentality.

THEY FAILED! ... which is why the Windows Start button is back, it's because they realised that the majority of us are not touchscreen tits, and never will be. You need a proper desktop forum, and if you want to cater for the touchscreen brigade, fine, bloody well do it right and parse the text from the site and run it into a special iCrap version of the forum intsead of fucking everything up for the rest of us!

renderosity.com for the sensible people.
icrap.renderosity.com for the rest.

Cheers!

Get a job.

No, don't need one.

What's up, did you decide to join the braindrain just because you don't like hearing facts?
Shame, cause it's people like you that have helped create the slave-race you're a part of.

Everything I wrote in that post is bang-on, so deal with it and don't tell people wiser than you, what to do.
You have to work to make ends meet, I don't, that makes me wiser than you.

Moderators have zero control over how the website is designed or how it functions. We can ask for features added - and trust me I've asked for many features that would improve the functionality of the forum, improve the overall mood of the forum users, and make moderators jobs easier. Such as the ability to split threads when they derail into other conversations, so that the entire thread doesn't get lost and the side topics can become their own threads - a feature that all the other forums I've been to have had for as long as I can remember - and several other features that everyone would benefit from. I don't know if it will ever happen - I don't get feedback on it...

I'm amazed, because the Forum I moderated is at Invision Free, and it had these features. If a Mod edits a post, it goes in the Moderation log. I figured that was a subset of what what the full Invision Power Board package offered feature-wise. Apparently the Admins here don't grant those priviliges to Mods; a pity. Having said this, this thread really should be scrubbed of the off-topic posts, this one included, or locked and the links copied to a post in a new thread...

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

"Get a Job" is what all those gullible dumbasses who thought they'd have a career in iCrap apps is having to do.
Any more snarky comments?

Oh look, he's gone offline now, back to "work" for him I guess :-D

@Rod
No it shouldn't be scrubbed of anything, if things are getting scrubbed all the time then there's little wonder the real sentiments don't get out there and never get sorted. Admin need to know the score, and them changing their mind and allowing the conversation was actually a good move by them, they need to know this stuff, that's probably why they decided to allow it - and that's a good thing.

Not trying to be argumentative, just blatantly honest.

Anyway, gotta log-off myself now, not to work you understand, it's just that I've got a lovely new Oscilloscope that's just begging to be played with.
And as you can imagine, it's infinitely more fun than all this shit :-D

This is an extensive listing by Les Bentley, with examples, of the useful and cool stuff that can be done with .pz2 files...

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2735605

I hope Les is well, I miss him... ;(

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

Please people ... can we move our frustration over to the "what's wrong with the forum" thread? This way we can do our best to update the FAQ. I respect your need to be heard and I hear you. I will make recommendations based on what I've read, but let stay OP, ok?

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

No probs, Boni, but I just want it to be known that I'm not DMD's friend today after what he said.
Telling me to get a job is an insult after all the skill I developed in the art of not needing one!

I might forgive him next week, but I'll have to think about it :-P

Anyway, I just noticed something odd with the forum so I'll post it in the thread you suggested.

By the way, just saw Les' facebook page, he is doing fine. :) And thanks for the link, it is wonderful and is added to my list. :)

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Might I suggest because change is inevitable ... that you cut and paste particularly interesting threads to another program (OneNote or such) so that no matter what you have the information. I've done this with various sites and pages I've enjoyed over the years. Just a thought. This is not aimed at Renderosity posts in particular. There are a lot of forums and sites in flux out there.

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

So glad to hear that Les is well!!! :D

Thanx, Boni!

I've been printing useful threads to pdf; one of the great features of the Forums here is that you can easily print an entire thread. However, it doesn't preserve links and non-image attachments...

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

WandW: to prove even us Mods have a lot to learn. I don't know how to print an entire thread ... could you share that with us?

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Click on the Print button at the top, next to the Unsubscribe button. It generates a printable version, which can be sent to whatever printer you choose.

In Linux I can print directly to a pdf, and I'm pretty sure that you can on OS X as well (it's stupid old UNIX under that pretty desktop!) but for Windows there are several free pdf generators one can download, such as PDF Creator (open-source) or Cute PDF (a free version of a commercial product) that act like a printer; you just choose it from the Printer list, and a file name dialogue opens.

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

Thanks for the Share! Always appreciated.

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

This would be a good candidate: Morphs not working in DAZ Generation 4 characters (Victoria4, Michael4, and Kids 4)

This is usually a result of not "initializing" the figure to create the morph channels for morph packs such as Morphs++. In the past, the initialization was performed automatically by the installer, and it is currently done automatically if DAZ Install Manager is used. However, it must be done manually if the current zip files are manually installed. For Victoria 4:

Initialize the V4 figure by browsing to the 'folder you installed your stuff'/runtime/libraries/!DAZ and Click on both: (in Windows; there are Mac scripts in the same directory)

DzCreateExPFiles-V4.bat
DzCreateExPFiles-V4V3.bat

The procedure is similar for M4 (and his gen) and K4: I would paste in the exact file names, but i can''t seem to paste more than once into a post... :/

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

I had to do it in a text editor... :(
For M4:

-DzCreateExPFiles-M4.bat

-DzCreateExPFiles-M4Gens.bat

For K4:

-DzCreateExPFiles-K4.bat

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

Wonderful. And just to let you know. We are still working on this ... we want it to be something worth everyone's effort and as helpful to all as possible.

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

@Boni
I can't find that thread for the bug reports, but I just wanted to point out that the 'Full Screen' button on YouTube embedding isn't showing up. To view full screen we have to leave the site and view on YouTube. I think it's just an additional paramater that needs adding to the embed code.

Thanks I'll send the info over to admins!

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Here is a chance for the community to contribute to the Poser FAQ page. Even if you know the answer, (In fact provide both question and answer if you like). We would like user input.

Take a look at our Poser FAQ page. See if you find errors or perhaps a better answer let us know in this thread.

Also new questions to expand the FAQ page. We want you all involved in this process. Let's keep this positive and constructive. We have another thread for forum issues. This is strictly for the FAQ updates. Let's have fun with this. :)

Boni

Where is the "Poser FAQ" page?
Yes, yes, I see the tiny little hyperlink which is sort of at the top of this forum page. But, I want to use your post as an example: Not all writing is :technical writing" and, in my experience, artists generally make terrible technical writers. :) That's not a slur against artists, not at all! But, while a veterinarian can double as an ad-hoc physician in a post-apocalyptic world, it's probably not a good idea if there's a physician around. The best, most informative, most easily understood and reproducible Poser FAQs I've ever read are from people who are either steeped in the subject they're writing about or happen to be very familiar with technical writing and well practiced with explaining concepts to the uninitiated. This is not easy stuff to do - It's hard. And, considering that many users of such a FAQ are there because they already possess a limited knowledge set, the difficulty in producing a good FAQ entry increases.

Why point out your post? You didn't embed a link to the Poser FAQ, the subject of your post. Why is this important? That should be obvious. But in case it's not - It's important because you may have lost several potential contributors who didn't already know where the Poser FAQ was. (And, woe unto those who tread upon the Search button, unprepared for certain failure... ) Since you were trying to draw attention to a needed improvement on the website, it should have probably been linked, right? Let's say you're accepting submissions for the FAQ. These submissions will be posted on your employer's website. It will, effectively, have Renderosity's name on it. If you want Renderosity's image to appear professional, then this, too, must appear to be professional. (It's not a general criticism, it's just a very common oversight that doesn't need to be repeated in something like a FAQ.)

You need a design doc. If not generally distributed to contributors, then it needs to be closely followed by whoever is going to manage putting this FAQ together. You need to outline how it will be organized and establish what the conventions will be for inclusions, including pictures, code pastes and links, both onsite and off. Organization must be intuitive and structured well so that someone unfamliar with the areas of knowledge being discussed can associate the topics properly, even if they can't yet grasp what it is that is being discussed. The user will know, for instance, by seeing how the entry or guide is organized, that if someone is discussing Ambient Occlusion, then it is a lighting effect and there is something to do with it in the Material Room and in certain Lighting choices. They might not understand exactly what it is, but they'll know where to go for more information. What does this mean? For one thing, it means a suitable index with an intuitive hierarchy... And, that's going to be difficult, since the amount of information NOT written down in Poser's basic manual is likely more than is actually written down in it... Probably for this exact reason.

It isn't that difficult to come up with a design doc that can have changes made to it, as needed. But, it does take a bit of forethought. Once completed, though, it's invaluable.

I took a look at the current.. FAQ. Sadly, I only came upon the Poserverse relatively recently, with Poser 6... While some basic technical conventions are the same, by necessity for backwards compatibility, just about everything else has changed. Yes, I agree, the Poser FAQ needs to be rewritten. But, since it appears that Smith Micro coughs up a new version of Poser every year or so, what versions are you going to support in your FAQ? I use 2012 and everyone else yammers on about 2014 or whatever Poser version number that happens to be. What will the FAQ do about version control and pointing out the differences? Does it need a separate entry for each version? No, it doesn't. But, it does need to point out the differences between versions, where applicable. What that means is that when you get a FAQ entry from someone working on Poser 23, the "editor" has to know enough about the different versions to be able to notate how this FAQ entry applies (or doesn't) to other versions.

In short, barring extra funds to hire/find someone to oversee that, you'll probably need a review process pipeline unless you, yourself, know enough about version differences to include edits and footnotes with applicable entries. But, taking it all on your shoulders to handle that is probably not going to be easy, considering you have other responsibilities. I suggest you use a process with several stages that include open community review of FAQ entries, so you can make the best of what community of people you have. Let the community do some of the work for you in this regard. Accept entries, correct for simple errors and form, then publish entries in a sticky for review for ten days or so, after which you incorporate them into your beta work for the FAQ.

Sounds like a lot of work, doesn't it? Well... It is a lot of work. That's one reason why I think many bemoan the fate of work that has already been done, but is no longer easily available for reference because of... reasons. OK, fine. Now that we've shed a tear, the thing to do is to remember nothing ever disappears on the Internet. I think that, to start with, a comprehensive effort should be made to find all those old, great, posts and to scour wayback machines and internet archives, hunting for gems of information that would otherwise be lost in the static of the 'net. Take these bits and pieces, throw them in a thread, ask people for help in reconstructing them so you can get others to do some work for you, and then throw them into the submissions pipeline.
Or not... This isn't a simple project if it needs to be done "right." It's going to be a major pain in the butt, no lie. It's like having an engineer explain to a painter how paint works and why. A painter doesn't need to always know that, since they already know how to slap paint on a wall. However, imagine having the same engineer being forced to explain to a novice how paint sticks to a wall and why and, then, also having to explain how to paint, including how to go shop for a brush and how they should hold it... I'm not saying you need to write a new Poser manual, goodness no! BUT, again, in order for a FAQ to be good, it must make the assumption that most of its users will not be very proficient with the subject, yet they will need to understand some very technical things in order to fully grasp the subject after reading the FAQ. (This is why technical writing isn't as easy as it sounds.)

One can opt either to willingly commit to what will be a very ambitious project or, instead, opt to just "produce something" that fulfills the minimum requirements. What is it that you wish to do? Either choice is probably acceptable at this point, since what is up there is practically useless and any improvement would be a step forward. But, Renderosity's name is going to be on it... What impression does Renderosity wish to project?

Lastly, on a different subject: I've been online before there was an "online." There was no internet, back in the day. Instead, it was all dialup BBSs and fun, squelchy, modem tricks, phreaking into long-distance boards and such. But, there's a few maxims learned over the decades that I just don't see here. For one, Moderators should not discuss their moderating actions with users in public, ever. Period. Just don't. For another, when people start to get "nasty" with each other and if the board in question has some sort of moderation, then the conflict should be ended, one way or another. If it is not, the ban-hammer is swung. Period. How forcefully it is swung is up to the Mod and whatever disciplinary practices the board has in place. But, it gets swung, no matter who it is. Failure to do this reduces a forum from a "Moderated" state to an "Unmoderated" state and that can greatly confuse the membership. And, finally, being a Moderator means that one must wear two brains, one for "Moderatin'" and the other for "Participatin'." However, a Moderator can not afford for these two states of mind to be widely diverse - More than anything on a moderated forum, consistency and predictability is key. Members should clearly understand the behavior that is expected and should very clearly understand, and expect, the consequences for failing to exhibit that behavior. Nobody gets a free ride. (This is also a commercial site, which is very different from recreational social sites. The standards must be more strict because of that if this board is defined as "moderated.")

PS - Sorry for the unasked-for advice. But, there are far too many drama-llama's running around, in my opinion, and I would hate to see what could, again, become a useful set of forums only turn into a cliche-fest with constant bickering being the soup de jour. Since I have no personal stake in any of this and, frankly, don't have any relationships to cultivate or any personal emotional investment, here, I figured I may as well say it. After all, if someone takes unintended offense, it's not likely to truly impact anyone, including myself. Honestly, because of the somewhat unpredictable nature of this community, I suppose, for me, the results of my statement could be anything from a perma-ban to accolades... And, because I'm truly unsure about the possible results, that should send a warning to mods and supervisors - Unpredictability is a bad thing in a community. Fix that, with a gloved fist if you must, but fix it, regardless. You really can't afford not to.

(I think that a new Poser FAQ is a worthwhile community goal, providing individual members with the opportunity to shine and increasing the esprit-de-corps and loyalty of longstanding members. But, it can't just be "wished for." It has to be organized and done "right" for it to realize these broader "meta goals.")

I value all the feedback I can get. As you can see (no FAQ update yet) it is a large project and all help and advice is welcome. Thank you.

Boni

"Be Hero to Yourself" -- Peter Tork

Most of Les Bentley’s Compendium of pz2 techniques should be in the FAQ, Boni... :)

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/?thread_id=2735605

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The Wisdom of bagginsbill:

"Oh - the manual says that? I have never read the manual - this must be why."
“I could buy better software, but then I'd have to be an artist and what's the point of that?"
"The [R'osity Forum Search] 'Default' label should actually say 'Don't Find What I'm Looking For'".
bagginsbill's Free Stuff... https://web.archive.org/web/20201010171535/https://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/Home

Referring to WandW post: posted at 11:10PM Wed, 06 May 2015

I have the same V 4.2 initialization problem on Poser Pro 2014/Mac OS X 10.8.5

Using the DzCreateExPFiles command should be the solution, but the Mac version of that command always return the message: "No such file or directory". Apparently it doesn't find what it needs in the Contents/MacOS folder.

Anybody has an idea how to fix that ?

Thanks !

Forum: Poser - OFFICIAL

Subject: Poser FAQ: Want to contribute?

Obj file extension

Texture mapping

Definition

Digital content

3D modeling

The procedure is similar for M4 (and his gen) and K4: I would paste in the exact file names, but i can''t seem to paste more than once into a post... :/