♥ PosetteForever ♥

Poser's grouping tool is neat, but the interface is a tad clunky... <br /> <br /> Tried reading 'Blender for Dummies' again. Got one (1) chapter in, again totally failed to grok the surfeit of hot-keys required for even basic navigation. I haven't seen so many since a certain 'word processor' from PC pre-history... <br /> <br /> Then I remembered that, a year or three ago, I'd downloaded *free* Hexagon from D*z. <br /> <br /> Have found it in my archives. Interface looks more like CAD than Blender. Will install and report...

I think I nabbed that Hexagon as well.

Ditto. Installed it years ago, but never had a closer look <img src="https://www.posetteforever.com/images/smiles/connie_ashamed.gif" alt="" />

Downside of converting files is discovering you can't render them effectively in Poser... <br /> <br /> I converted a *free* MMD PMX 'stage', a modular park scene, to OBJ/MTL. Only half-a-dozen materials, one texture each. Path tiles, lawn, bench seats, lamp standards, lamp glazing. Poser figure in the middle. Dial up lamp glazing ambiance to 'self-glow', render in Superfly. <br /> <br /> <br /> No, sorry, Superfly doesn't want to know. Multi-core CPU or twin GPU cards, progressive, back-ground or whatever, I got either black screen or beige, but blank. Doesn't look as good in Firefly, certainly no super-ambiance. <br /> <br /> After some trial-and-error, I shut Poser down and had dinner. This time around, I'll try to be a little more scientific... <br /> <br /> Plan_B, of course, of course, is to shoe-horn a point-source light into each street-lamp...

After much research, I learned I had to enable 'SCUDA' via Nvidia's control panel for my twin GTX 750 Ti GPU cards. Note NO RegEdit required. Just do via 'global' as only found P7 not PP11... <br /> <br /> Each of my cards has 640 cores. With hardware assist available, I set Superfly's bucket size to 1200, leaving a few for the PC. There's an *acceptable* Windows UI lag... <br /> <br /> NOW Superfly is turbo-charged. Even so, there is a limit to what PC will handle. If scene is just a bit too complex, comes out blank. That aside, I began increasing the super-ambience of the scene's street lights, reducing the Poser lights. Renders needed more and more pixel samples... <br /> <br /> Then, a new failure mode. super-ambience stopped working, everything rendered in greys. Back-tracked a long way before realising problem. <br /> <br /> NOT superfly, but PPro x64 needing more than ~3GB RAM and not loading textures correctly. I cleared out render cache etc and 'normal service resumed'... <br /> <br /> Currently running a 99-pixel night render of scene using only the set's street lights...

I found a work-around for complex scenes that refuse to render in superfly. <br /> <br /> Using 'progressive' and both 640-core GPU cards, I iterated 'buckets' from nominal ~1024 through 512, 256, 128 all the way down until render ran. I've recently had to set 16 buckets, which was s-l-o-w, but worked... <br /> <br /> After, be sure to export your render ASAP, certainly before you adjust view-point, lest PP's clunky garbage collector crash the UI... <br /> <br /> I'm still looking for a friendly 3D editor that won't give me prompt migraines. <br /> <br /> I tried Hexagon, but it promptly choked on a complex OBJ, shut down without warning. Which was not too unexpected, given its age makes it an x32... <br /> <br /> I tried freebie MeshMagic, but it covertly loaded links to rest of NCH office suite, which took a while to pry loose, then trash. <br /> <br /> Also, though I *may* have been using MM wrong, zoom seems to scale the model, not the view. This is *very unfortunate* if you're trying to carve a complex set into convenient modules. After some digging, I did find how to 'dial in' XYZ offsets, allowing better than 'By Eye' placement. Will try again... <br /> <br /> Turbo CAD has had OBJ & 3DS I/O for ever and ever. I've just discovered that TurboCAD Pro 2020 has 'automatic' FBX import / export, whatever that means. There seems no plug-in for my '2016 version, whose UI still confounds me. Sad, really, when I remember how productive I was with the 2003~2010 versions. But, hey, a dire decade out will do that to your 'Minds Eye'... <br /> <br /> I could just about afford the discounted upgrade from '2016 to '2020, although that would be a total waste if I can't make it 'play nice'... <br /> <br /> D'uh...

The free Open 3D Model Viewer I've mentioned previously has unexpected talents. <br /> <br /> I've been using it to study FBX rigging, trying to spot which models, which style of 'trees' are compatible with Poser. Short answer, only the 'trad' type... <br /> <br /> Then, serendipitously, I noticed it claimed to open Blender. <br /> Yeah, right... <br /> But, so far, it has opened every '.blend' I've tried !! <br /> <br /> O3DMV has *some* export options, but only the 'solid' OBJ/MTL & 3DS are *directly* accepted by Poser. Curious, I opened an un-rigged Blender figure I'd found some-when (*), exported it to optional DAE. Autodesk's free FBX toolkit converted this to FBX, which Poser duly imported at 100% default scale. Not a 'first', but rare... <br /> <br /> Un-rigged, of course, of course, and one solid figure rather than a shower of body-parts... <br /> <br /> Well, actually two figures, overlain. <br /> <br /> So, I swivelled them apart, applied their full-body texture and highlight maps, rendered in superfly. <br /> <br /> *) I think was Deemona by Vlthar on DeviantArt <br /> <a class="post-url" href="https://www.deviantart.com/vlthar/art/Deemona-842931010" target="_blank">https://www.deviantart.com/vlthar/art/Deemona-842931010</a> <br /> But he seems to have replaced it by a v1.0...

The free open3D viewer has unsuspected talent. <br /> <br /> I've just noticed it will usually open Terragen's otherwise intractable .TER files. And, yes, export to the 'Usual Suspects' such as OBJ+MTL. <br /> <br /> Snag is a 514 KB TER file goes in, a Poser-choking ~ 35 MB OBJ writes out. I make that x70... <br /> <br /> So, I've begun hunt for way to convert such half-million poly mesh to something more friendly. <br /> <br /> Conversion to a height map would be neat, but non-trivial due to non-uniform mesh. Given even that might need lower poly count, I took a look for budget ways to 'lean down' mesh. <br /> <br /> Yes, there's a free tool built into eg Blender, but I cannot work the UI. <br /> <br /> I found Autodesk's free 'Meshmixer' which also has such a tool. <br /> <br /> <a class="post-url" href="https://www.meshmixer.com/" target="_blank">https://www.meshmixer.com/</a> <br /> <br /> I'll let you know how it fares...

It didn't work. Only seems to apply while you are creating the mesh. Can't high-light or select, then down-poly. <br /> <br /> At least not for me, YMMV. <br /> <br /> Still searching for budget solution... <br /> <br /> Some-what off-topic: <br /> To get 2FA via SMS to my PC's 'Desk with No Bars', per Yahoo, PayPal and, now, my purblind bank's increasingly urgent demands, I've had to buy a hi-end, $$$ wireless router that takes a SIM card, too. First had an intractable firmware bug, went back in disgrace. Configured unto 'Tethered', hung in window that gets a few bars, attached to far, far end of my home network, the second, a rival brand, seems to be working. Well, sorta. Still testing... <br /> <br /> Downside, is I now can't afford $$$ AC3D CAD, the one with OBJ+MTL support, until November at earliest... <br /> {Sulk... }

... might want to give this a try -> <a class="post-url" href="http://www.micromouse.ca/" target="_blank">http://www.micromouse.ca/</a>

Thank you for that link !! <br /> <br /> I was surprised to find it was already bookmarked, but deep in 'check-back' zone. <br /> <br /> Serendipitous spin-off from a Rendo thread: <br /> <br /> Seems PPro_11.3 has a well-hidden 'reduce polygon' facility. One tool simplifies 'characters', other does 'objects'. Seems associated with preparation for FBX export... <br /> <br /> It's in the Poser PDF manual at pp 999~1002. <br /> <br /> Proviso: Even if I can get facility to 'play nice', it still requires me to actually import too-hi-poly model. Of course, if I delete my default start-up's LaF figure, swimsuit, ground plane and sky-dome, that might help...