I was just looking at a thread on this subject from June and wondering if anyone has got any further on how to convert a .bum back to a proper grey scale bitmap for bump mapping in other applications. Renaming the extension and grey-scaling does NOT work as Poser does some funny embossing effect. (Check before and after and you'll see.) Has anyone cracked this, or do we conclude it's impossible?

A little info to help figure it out--the embossing is nearly identical to the emboss filter in PSP. I've not been able to undo it after the image is saved though--Been trying the same thing. If you just want to edit, try using a layer, then emboss the layer and overlay the original (background). I've had reasonable luck leaving the image a grayscale bitmap, just renaming the file "*.bum" manually. I'd like to know if creating your own .bum files works better/worse than letting Poser do it. Any ideas? GrayMare

I haven't tried to 'convert BUM back to JPG' but found that PSP will open many but not all BUM files. As for making 'your own BUM'....sounds like something for me to playwith this weekend (Tues, Wed for me) but I do definatley prefer to set up my own Gray Scales for Poser to make BUMs rather than just converting the actual 'texture' JPG. Lots more control and effects with better definations can be achived.

Attached Link: http://www.soft-rabbit.com/

I already wrote this on a different thread, but I'd best repeat it here - the BUM conversion is some sort of weird emboss effect, and there is no trivial way (like channel operations) to reverse it. I wrote a filter called "GreyBump" for GraphicConverter which performs exactly this (BUM back to greyscale) with some minor loss of quality, but unfortunately it is currently Mac-only. I'm considering possibilities to eventually port the feature to PC, but I can't promise you anything in the *very* near future, I'm afraid...