p5tips

Poser 5 Tips

(There are some similarities of use, but click here for poser 6 specific tips)

Getting started, getting control - having fun!
(All done on a PC, in windows format - win2kpro to be precise)
I have compiled the most important tips and tricks, with how to words and screen captures
as I have started to learn this new version myself. (new to me, I waited this long to get Poser 5
and now poser 6 is about to come out! I plan on waiting until that version has been out a while
and fully tested by others more brave than me!) I cannot than the folks at Planit3d, & RDNA
enough for the help with the problems I encountered with this version of poser. Visit the forums
at those site for more help and ideas! My Poser 5 is the latest with SR4 patches. Be sure to get
those patches when you purchase P5, and BURN THEM TO A CD for safekeeping!!!

(Rule) 1
Install, set your interface preferences, and then save out a copy of your Poser:
exe, rsr and Prefs folder!! This is a good rule for Poser 4 as well! When these
programs crash, you can copy a "clean" version of your installed exe, rsr
and prefs back in, and get back to work!
Where are the Preference Settings?
And you might want to get rid of the poser dork - man that loads: Figure, Delete, first! :)

2
Loaded up your Poser libraries and suddenly you only have WORDS, - no pictures of library content?
Want to make your libraries take as many PICTURES as you want?
Here is how, but first a "word to the wise" - yes Poser 5 can access many runtimes, but it really
prefers to read the objs for a model out of it's primary Runtime...and to find the textures there too, so
why not organize your library folders all in one Runtime, when you can have as many library folders
and sub-folders as you desire?! (learned the hard way in helping my customers and myself handle models)

I was scared to actually edit the user interface, but it was easy!

In your Program Files - Poser
go to the

Runtime:prefs:LibraryPrefs.xml
and double click to open the xml file with notepad.

find the line:
<LibraryPreferences curFolder="0" previewNum="100" >

Change the 100 to a higher number. I put mine on 400, but you can put any number you like. You don't have to go hog wild, remember you can have as many folders and sub folders in poser libraries as you like. It is structured very much like a windows hierarchy of folders! As soon as I changed the number, re-opened Poser 5, all my png pictures came in! :)

Note on png's and rsr's. If your Poser product comes with rsr's don't worry, P5 will create pngs
for itself, on installing the files! BUT for my own few products that I made the Pose files into a
Camera Library file format to save space in Poser 4's limited file system, there is a nifty little free
program to change all the file formats back to pose library format! See this page on my store site:
http://www.vistainternetproducts.com/P5Pose.htm, then hit your browser's BACK button to return here.

Next, a bit more tricky, but if you want to get rid of what is affectionately called "Content Parasite" TAB
or "room" in your poser 5 interface, you can edit some more! But be careful and save a back up copy
of the xml you will be working with! To have a step by step for this go to Planit3d to the Poser 5/6 forum,
(yes you need to be a member, but it's FREE!) and to the "sticky" thread named: CONTENT
PARASITE, scroll down to Slinger's post & find the link to the pdf for download!
Yes, you will see my posts of "resistance to P5" and my changeof heart as you go! LOL!!
I am sorry I cannot give a direct link or a download to the tutorial pdf there.
But it is worth the effort! Why? Because it is the general consensus that your P5 will open faster without
the useless overhead. That tab/room was there for connecting to websites for free and purchased poser
content, that 1)never came about and 2)many folks do not want poser popping onto the net! *shiver*!

Okay, ready to use your Poser Content? You load a figure and suddenly there is no texture on it?
Click here, and hit the back button when you want to return.
http://www.vistainternetproducts.com/p5maphow.htm

4
Okay, now you have brought some more simple mesh, say plants, with single sided mesh
and suddenly your Poser render, no matter the settings, renders the objects with nasty
black areas here and there! You get upset thinking you are doing something wrong or your
poser is broken. Nope... not.... but now that you know how to use the material room to assign
maps, there is a simple work around! I posted the following in the very helpful RDNA forum
where I sought help for using their fantastic grass, flowers and plants purchased there (and
that work perfectly in poser 4) See below for Screen Capture visual instructions.

I found the work around to work perfectly! It is when one sided mesh is used, I believe. It is only on plants with flat single surfaces so to speak.. and it is NOT just the fire fly, or ray trace... I used the plain old poser 4 render, and then fire fly without ray trace, etc.. before I found the work around... it is simply the way that P5 READS and APPLIES the textures... there is a fault in there.. The work around is:

1- Plug the texture into an Alternate Diffuse Node
2- Unplug the texture from default Node
3- set default diffuse Node to a value of 0

and thought it sounds strange, and I am not a programmer, this fix works perfectly - to allow the maps to show up properly no matter what the lighting or render mode is! :) I am a happy camper now.

Note: I have not had black spots on a human figure with SR4. This has only happened in my
experience with simple objects that seem to have single sided mesh.
In the picture simply refer to the WHITE WORDS and see the difference in the menu settings
OR
Refer to the red 1,2,3 instructions.
The blue lines are what you see IN poser 5. My lines are just the red.

Want to know how to get visible shadows when you do not have a ground plane
for them to fall onto? Click here to go to the next page!|
If you have shadows in your Poser render, save the tif image out, your shadows for
your figure will be on your render and have the complete alpha channel selection!
You will be able to copy the figure, and it's shadow out to place on a background!