Can a thing have both a texture and a reflection and a bump? What is the idea behind the mechanics of the texture map? Do they all need to be square and full like the standards are or can they be fitted to a UV map? Any info would be helpful. -WTB

The reflection map and bump are possible definately ... Do that all the time ... as for the shape I am not sure.

It's possible to fit a reflection map to a UV map, but depends on why you'd want to. In the main the reflection can be applied to individual parts anyway. I personally tend to use square reflection maps as they're relatively easy to create and means I can load a small file to offer reflection on parts that need it, leaving the heavy uv map to add tex and colour. Any object can have texture, reflection and bump and transparency. You have four individual selectors in the material assignment dialogue all of which work independantly of the others. I have a transmapped dress that uses reflection on two parts and it works relatively well. Reflection maps mainly are used to add "shininess" to things like bike wheels, chrome, cutlery, sword blades, gold/silver props etc. They can also be used for adding "false" reflection to items. For instance the eye's can have a reflection map added that is taken directly from a scenic photograph so that you have "scenery" reflected in the eyes as opposed to just light. It can be difficult getting the combination just right and the level of reflection but it does look very effective when it's done right. The same applies to things like glasses, vehicles or other shiny surfaces that would give some reflection of it's surroundings and saves the bother of having to build a scene in front of a reflecting object. Unfortunately Poser is not the most delicate of applications to play around with this but even with it's foibles it can be bullied into working. :)

The size or shape of the reflection map doesn't matter. From page 253 of the manual: Reflection makes a figure or object direct light back at its source, giving it a mirrorlike appearance. A Reflection map is a 2D texture applied to a virtual sphere that surrounds your studio.The texture is then reflected from the studio and onto your object. -Jeff

And UV mapping is ignored, in fact it is not needed for reflection mapping in Poser.