Is there anyone else out there wishing that some of the utility programs, we've grown to love and cant live without, would support the compression feature of Pro Pack and the soon to be released Poser 5? I for one wish they would. Although decompressing is possible, it's just time consuming and another step to creating characters, clothing, props, etc that I would rather not have to do. Apps that come to mind that would benefit from this are P-Wizard, The Tailor, and Morph Manager. Anyone care to add to the list or comment?

Point taken. Hands up! Glad it's not only me!!!!! Although no-one has ever asked me to make xxZ files supported... I don't have ProPack and the ProPack testers didn't mention it. Howard (PBooost)

I smell an opportunity ;-)

I guess only those of us with limited drive space have taken advantage of the compression features. I've had to conserve space anyway and by any means necessary. I've already invested into the products I mentioned so it would be extra nice if they supported the compression format too.

LOL Kupa... An hopportunity? (Best Dick Van-Dyke Cockney) Is it like zip compression? I heard that Winzip can un-compress them. H:)

I've tried using Winzip, WinRAR has better luck with them. Only drawback is you have to go back and change the extension to cr2 so the programs will see them. Then once you're done you've got to recompress them. Kind of a pain.

I'm just trying to get a handle on which compression system is used for them.

physically change the .crz to .gz, winzip recognizes the .gz extension, then on unzipping save the file as a .cr2... we're including a python batch processor to do this inside P5, but a drag'n-drop decompression utility would be very cool.

Still alot of work. Would be nice if the compression format was supported in other products so all this going thru hoops wouldnt be necessary.

I think it's called zLib compression or gzip, hogwarden.

Yeah... I've found a gzip component for Delphi. I'll be making PBooost .xxZ compatible as soon as I can. Hope more of us utility writers get in the boat! H:)

Attached Link: http://www.innermedia.com

Hogwarden I've been working program a utility for some time that compress and decompress Poser (If I only had more time). But Poser uses a GT(Unix) Compress not PKZip or WinZip(PC) A company call Inner Media, Inc. makes a product for that support. if you have any question I'll try to help if I can. thebert tom@thebert.net

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

Well, I have WinXP and use the file system compression. This works very well (Geomeries/Libraries shrunk from 3.5 to 1.6 GB) and I can still edit my Poser files (OBJ,CR2,...) without decompression. And this works for every application.

gotta love XP...

gotta love XP... I spend days to disable all the little spies, bells, whistles, blue/green skins and talking dogs. Now my XP is kinda like a decent OS. ;)

Oh shit... the talking dogs. Anyone installing XP fresh who is familiar with "The Tellytubbies" had better get a bucket handy. LOL:) I'm going with Kupa and trying out gz de(comp)... see how I get on. Should be easy-peasy to alter my file-load routines, etc. H:)

WinXP has talking dogs? Maybe it won't be so bad after all ....

.gz extension... Will Linux' gzip also open PPP compressed files, then? That would be cool... first Python, now gzip - you're getting closer it *ix nirvana every day, Kupa :p Hmm - what if I then archive the compressed Poser file as a .tar file? Ship my fellow Poser buddies something named "foo.gz.tar"? I oughta try that just for kicks and send it to some *ix friends of mine, explaining how to open it - they'd shit their drawers. (okay - I'll shaddap and go away with the geek humor now.) /P

Attached Link: http://www.gzip.org/

PowerArchiver is freeware, both it and Winzip use it, and this is the same thing Poser (I believe) compresses with, if I'm reading this thread right. Merry Christmas. /P

There's also a command-line Windoze gzip available too under GNU GPL... plug Python into that and make a zillion bucks :) Direct link: http://www.gzip.org/gzip124xN.zip (I'm lazy and busy, and besides, I honestly don't need such a utility, but I figured I'd at least shove the right tools under somebody's nose... ;) ) /P

According to the feature description on the CL website, they are using the GZip library for their compression. In fact I've been linking the DLL into Poser Python scripts to access the compressed files for some time without any problems. It's free, so why use anyhing else? Third party apps shouldn't have any problems integrating it. Bill

Bill - you struck the nail upon the head. Thanks to the GPL, you could actually sell that script in the MP :) Personally, I'll just script it when I need it. (once I get off my ass and finish learning Python, that is) /P

Yeah... GZ comes as a component for Delphi too (for me) as well as libraries for VB, C etc. It's all there on their site.... no restrictions... which is probably why CL used it! LOL! All the Poser utility writers should integreate it into their apps! H:)

Attached Link: http://www.rarsoft.com/

relevent only WINRAR is the best!

Hmmm... with Poser 5 nearly ordered, methinks a Python lesson is in order!! LOL ! H:)

Kupa??? Mr. Mac speaking positively about a Microsoft product? Wow! All that hard work must be getting to you!

Perhaps all the Apple support he's had for "Poser under OSX" has finally taken its toll on his grey matter...