Poser props in DS and some basic DS How-to

[eclark1894]

Can DS still use Poser format props? What do I need to do to make them DS native?

 

[skylab]

What I've been doing is either building the scene in Poser, and then doing a Poser scene import into DS, then saving as a .duf, or it can be done that way with individual items, or you can try doing a prop import directly in DS, then saving as a .duf scene. As far as actually making the prop itself .duf format...well, that I don't know. Hope this helps Seliah may know some extra trick...she's a dedicated DS user

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Yes, DS can use Poser props! We can't use Poser matierals/shaders, but we can definitely use the props and just apply our own materials to them. I do it all the time.

For making props DS-native, they have to be saved to the library as Figure/Prop assets... and then to distribute them, you'll have to collect the files from the content library as well as the data folder. The /data/ folder in DS is kind of like Poser's geometry and morphs folders combined... it holds morph data, uvs, and geometry files...

 

[eclark1894]

OK, I'm a total idiot when it comes to DS. Could someone tell me how to save a prop to the correct library s tat I can find it again? I'm pretty much a noob so I need details.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Give me a few minutes to get back to the pc, and will do.

 

[eclark1894]

Also if I parent one prop to another in Poser, like a door will that still work in DS?

 

[skylab]

Hey eclark...you're welcome to join in with us in SKYLAB CHAT....I would say after page 33 of the thread we started discussing DS heavily, and there are tons of tips, PDF downloads in there, all kinds of questions are answered....so when you get time, browse through it, and feel free to join in, since it's an anything goes thread in terms of information, tips, and tutorials

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Alright - I'm back at the computer now. Sorry about that; had to kill a headache and get some lunch into me, and my meds.

Now as far as saving props inside of DS. This is going to be a very specific step-by-step, and I will supplement it with pictures for you, in case you need them.

1.) Go to the SCENE tab, and make sure the item you want to save is selected.
It will be yellow when it is selected, like this :

2.) Now go up to the top of your DS window, and click on File --> Save As --> Support Asset --> Figure/Prop Asset :

3.) A windows dialogue will now open. Navigate to the location within your Studio setup that you wish the prop to be saved. This is the part where you're saving the files a user will load (in Poser terms, the role of a .pp2). These files are generally saved under My Library --> Props --> Vendor Name --> Product Name --> Prop.duf

Once you are in the folder that you want to save the item to, type in a name for the file, and click OK.

4.) The save properties dialogue will now open. This is what that will look like :

The fields that need to be dealt with when saving a prop are circled in yellow. Vendor name, product name, and item name are pretty self explanatory, I think. Just think of this as doing a save to a Poser Geometries folder. The name you put in under Vendor name is where the /data/ folder for the prop will be located later. Inside of that folder will be the product name, and inside of that will be your individual geometry/uv definitions/morph files.

The "Asset Directory" is where your product will be installed/created. This is the path to your base Runtime/Content Library setup. To change this, just click on the downward-pointing white triangle to the right side of that field, and you can select a different Runtime/Content Library if you need to.

The Compress Files option should remain UN-checked. If anything needs to be edited by hand in the .DUF file later, having that option selected will make an annoying runaround necessary.

When you have everything set, click the Accept button. Give it a minute to do it's thing.

If you go to your CONTENT tab now, and navigate to where you saved the file, you should find the new icon in the folder. You can right-click anywhere in the content tab to refresh the list of files and folders so that new things will appear :

That takes care of the save process for a figure or prop item. I'll cover the others in the next post or two.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Second part of the prop save... to pack the files up for distribution, you need the following items in your zip :

/data/Vendor Name/Product Name/Product Files
/Props/Vendor Name/Product Name/Product.duf
/Props/Vendor Name/Product Name/Product.duf.png
Runtime/Textures/Vendor Name/Product Name/Textures.jpg's

The above is what my /data/Childe of Fyre/ folder looks like. If I were packing up the G2F Christmas Turtleneck, I would need the "Christmas TNeck G2F" folder in my zip file. Without this data folder, users would not be able to load the turtleneck. Just like with a Poser geometry folder, the file name must match EXACTLY. So if your product's data folder is in Ken/Dawn House/, then you must have /data/Ken/Dawn House/ in your zip file. I do believe that the Studio data folder is case sensitive, just like Poser's geometry folder.

I operate with an external runtime/content library, so where my file path reads !!Studio Content Library!!, yours might possibly read "My Library" or "Content."

Oh, one other little trick... if you want to rename an item inside of your content library, you can do that from inside of the Studio interface. Just select the icon for the item you want to rename, and then right click, and choose Rename. This will then allow you to type a different name, and the program will rename both the .duf file as well as the thumbnail .duf.png file.

 

[skylab]

I'll post Seliah's info as a PDF over in SKYLAB CHAT

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Also if I parent one prop to another in Poser, like a door will that still work in DS?

For parenting props, it's a little tricky in DS. To parent the prop, you just drag and drop the item in the SCENE window. Once parented, yes, the door would open and close the way you're used to in Poser, unless the point of origin is way off center or something for the door prop.

However... you can't save a parented prop the same way you would with Poser. Yes, you can parent it. But the best way I have found for giving the end-user a file that loads with a prop grouping, is to save that as a scene subset.

So, do your drag and drop to parent the door to the wall, then go to the folder in your Content tab where you want the props to be saved. Look down in the lower left corner, down below where the item icons/thumbnails are located. There will be a plus (+) sign. Click that.

In the menu that pops up, click on Scene Subset. That will open up a dialogue window. Type in a name for the subset, and click "OK." Now the save options for the scene subset will appear :

This window will show EVERYTHING that you have loaded at the time. If you only want to save a couple of items from the scene (such as a wall with a parented door), then UN-check everything EXCEPT for the door and the wall it's parented to. Then click "Accept."

A new icon will appear in the folder, showing the scene sub-set. Now, when a user loads that sub-set, it will load both the wall, with the already-parented door.

That's the easiest way to do it for environment props. Just make sure that you've already saved the props to the library as Figure/Prop assets first, otherwise the user will get an error about missing data files when they try to load the sub-set.

Hope this helps.

 

[eclark1894]

It helps a lot, Seliah. Thanks a lot for the detailed explanations. I'll give it a go with some practice props to get used to doing it.

 

[eclark1894]

Hey eclark...you're welcome to join in with us in SKYLAB CHAT....I would say after page 33 of the thread we started discussing DS heavily, and there are tons of tips, PDF downloads in there, all kinds of questions are answered....so when you get time, browse through it, and feel free to join in, since it's an anything goes thread in terms of information, tips, and tutorials

Yeah, I was at work when I posted those questions so a chat was out of the question at the time.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

It helps a lot, Seliah. Thanks a lot for the detailed explanations. I'll give it a go with some practice props to get used to doing it.

I'm glad. If you get stuck just give a shout-out. Good luck with it!

 

[skylab]

Perhaps the thread name is a little misleading...it's not live chat like a chat box, it's just a thread like any other thread...and we mostly discuss work in progress, program tutorials, and occasionally when we're all tired, we just talk about anything

 

[Pendraia]

For parenting props, it's a little tricky in DS. To parent the prop, you just drag and drop the item in the SCENE window. Once parented, yes, the door would open and close the way you're used to in Poser, unless the point of origin is way off center or something for the door prop.

However... you can't save a parented prop the same way you would with Poser. Yes, you can parent it. But the best way I have found for giving the end-user a file that loads with a prop grouping, is to save that as a scene subset.

Hi Seliah, I'm just wondering why you didn't just save as a figure/prop and tick the smart parenting box under parenting data?

I've used this a few times and it seems to work nicely for me.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Pen,

I didn't do that because it never really seems to work for me, and I didn't want to leave Earl pulling his hair out if it misbehaved for him as well.

Every time I've tried to use that, what happens is on loading, the parented props come in supposedly parented, but fail to move with their parent. I end up having to delete, load, and position the prop again.

So for my experience, it just wasn't working, and I didn't want to leave him grinding his gears trying to fight with it in case it failed to work for him...

 

[eclark1894]

Pen,

I didn't do that because it never really seems to work for me, and I didn't want to leave Earl pulling his hair out if it misbehaved for him as well.

Every time I've tried to use that, what happens is on loading, the parented props come in supposedly parented, but fail to move with their parent. I end up having to delete, load, and position the prop again.

So for my experience, it just wasn't working, and I didn't want to leave him grinding his gears trying to fight with it in case it failed to work for him...

Smart move as I don't have much hair left.

Okay next question... How do I import the prop into DS from Poser, preferably from the Poser library.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Okay next question... How do I import the prop into DS from Poser, preferably from the Poser library.

You just load it in.

Poser Formats is what you're looking for... provided you've mapped your Poser Runtime directory, it should appear under that category, and then you just navigate to the folder's location in your Poser runtime and you can load the items in right from there.

If you don't see your Poser runtime directory in there, then you'll need to map the directories, and I'll dig up the post I wrote before for Sky to show you how that's done if you need it.

 

[eclark1894]

Thanks again, Seliah.