For Ds Users : Mc6 To Pz2 Conversion

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

This is for Studio users who want to, or need to make use of Poser format .mc6 MAT files inside of DS.

The .mc6 files CAN be converted over to .pz2 format. While this WILL retain all of the .mc6 information when the converted file is used inside of Poser, it will not apply any of the Poser-specific material room settings to your items inside of DS. Poser material settings (such as Phong, Blinn, etc) do not convert to Studio. All this conversion will do, is enable you to load the item's basic texture maps in one click from inside of DS. If it's an item that you use a LOT, the extra time to make this conversion might be worth it for you to do.

I use this frequently, if there's an item made for Poser that only comes with .mc6 Poser material files, but otherwise would work just fine inside of DS (such as clothing, basic props, etc). Bear in mind, that you should expect to have to make adjustments and customizations to the materials in DS once these converted MATs are loaded, but this WILL at least allow you to load the basic texture maps to your items inside of Studio.

Anyway - if you have an item that only came with .mc6 files, and you want to at least have the one-click method of applying the item's texture maps to the item inside of Studio, this is a quick way to achieve a usable .pz2 MAT file that DS can read and load.

Converting .MC6 files to .PZ2 format

1 - Open your Windows explorer (or equivalent).
2 - Navigate to where the .mc6 files are stored for the item.
3 - Right click on the folder containing the item's .mc6 files, and select COPY from the pop-up menu.
4 - Now, navigate to the Runtime/Libraries/Pose folder inside of the POSER runtime structure.
5 - When you've gotten to the place you want your converted .pz2 MATs to be, right click and choose PASTE from the pop-up menu that appears.

6 - Now, go into this newly copied folder. The files at this point are copied to your Pose folder, so you won't run the risk of botching up the original .mc6 files, and it's this copied version of the files that you are going to be editing.

I like to sort the list of files in this folder by TYPE in Windows explorer when I do this, so that I can look at all of the .mc6 files in one group, and not have to worry about sifting through the thumbnail files. So, go ahead and sort them now. You can change it back to your preferred method of sorting afterwards.

To sort the files in Windows Explorer by TYPE - just RIGHT click anywhere in the empty space of the folder and click SORT BY --> TYPE from the pop-up menu that appears.

7 - RIGHT click on the first .mc6 file - click OPEN WITH from the pop-up menu, and choose WORD PAD. (Note : I would NOT recommend trying to do this with Notepad. You need something a little heavier hitting to handle this part of things, and some of the .mc6 files can crash the default Windows notepad application.)

8 - Now, once you've told your computer to open the .mc6 file inside of Wordpad, go to your Wordpad window that appears when the file opens. This is where the magic happens. You are going to make one teensy, tiny little edit in the text of the .mc6 file.

Right near the top of the file, you should see text that says "mtlcollection." This is what tells Poser that the mat file is a collection of Poser materials to be loaded. This is the line you need to change.

Highlight the "mtlcollection" and ONLY that word - be careful not to goof up the spacing of the rest of the line in the document! Change "mtlcollection" to "figure" instead.

9 - Now, SAVE the .mc6 file (this is why we made a copy of the files to work with, just in case something goes horribly wrong). Yes, you DO want to over-write this file, since it's located in the POSE library, and will not hurt the original .mc6 file.

10 - Now, go back to your Windows Explorer again. Change the file EXTENSION from .mc6, to .pz2. If Windows throws a temper tantrum about you wanting to change the file extension, just tell it to hush up and do as it's being told to do. Repeat this process for each .mc6 file in the copied folder.

One quick note :
If the item you are working with is a PROP file (.pp2) rather than a FIGURE/Character file (.cr2), then you will need to change the "mtlcollection" to read as "actor $current" instead. (Make sure you keep the space between the word "actor" and the dollar sign $.)

Changing it to read as "figure" when the target item is in .pp2 prop format will result in a .pz2 MAT that fails to load anything at all. So, if you've converted your .mc6 to .pz2, but it doesn't seem to be loading the textures, open up the converted MAT file in Wordpad again, and check to make sure that you haven't used the wrong terminology for the item that the MAT files are for.

To convert mc6 MATs for a Figure/Character type of item (.cr2) : "mtlcollection" becomes "figure"
To convert mc6 MATs for a Prop type of item (.pp2) : "mtlcollection" becomes "actor $current"

------------------

Remember that this process will NOT convert Poser MATERIALS to Studio materials. It only makes the MAT file readable by Studio, so you can at least load any base texture maps onto your items inside of DS without having to peek and poke all over the Textures folder to do it by hand. You definitely need to expect that you will have to make changes to your DS material settings when you load any Poser MAT file, and this is no different.

However, with this conversion process, a product whose MAT files ship with only Poser .mc6 MATs, can be loaded inside of DS and at least save you the time of hunting for all the textures, bumps, normals, transmaps, and figuring out which one goes into which channel. So if you have a .cr2 clothing item, but all the textures shipped in .mc6 format, and you want to use those texture maps inside of DS, this conversion will let you do that. You'll lose the more Poser-specific material settings, but using this, DS will at least load the basic texture maps just fine.

I use this method to gain access to that basic functionality on products that shipped with Poser .mc6 only. I also use this method to set up .pz2 MAT files for freebies or other items that I'm about to release to the general public.

When you're ready to use the converted MAT files, just remember that they will be under "Runtime/Libraries/Pose/wherever-you-put-the-folder" in the Poser Format area of your DazStudio menus. I promise it's not as hard as it looks.

It's easy, and after a while of doing it regularly, you won't even need to think much about it while you're doing it. It's not a hard thing to do, it's just tedious at times, depending on how many .mc6 MAT files you're wanting to convert over to .pz2 format.

 

[Lorraine]

Thank you, Seliah, this is going to be really useful.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

You're welcome. This is something I picked up way back around Poser 5. I think it worked for .mt5 (the Poser 5 materials) as well, and it was a huge time saver when making texture MATs for distribution. Once I had switched fully to DS, it became infinitely useful in loading texture maps onto items that had shipped with that .mc6 format.

I know some DS folks stay away from things like Poser conforming cloth items or basic Poser prop items because of the .mc6 formats, but really... if one is willing to do their own materials set up, this is a good way to get the base textures of an item quickly applied before going on to things like AOA SSS or Ubersurface and such. It did not take me long with DS4 to figure out just how much time I was spending hunting for all the maps to load onto items and figuring out which maps went to what material zone and what channel... I resorted back to this little workaround pretty quickly, let me tell you! LOL

 

[Lorraine]

Seliah, do you do it exactly the same way for changing mt5? I have several items I purchased and then found they were mt5 and it would be real nice to be able to use without that hunting around for textures

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

If I'm remembering correctly, it should work. I don't recall exactly if it did or not. The difference between a .mt5 and a .mc6 files are all right in the lettering of the extension.

A .mt5 file, is literally, a "material." Singular. Think of a single DS shader. That's the job the .mt5's do.
A .mc6 file is a "material collection." Plural. Think of an entire MAT POSE for an entire item.

The .mt5's assigned a single material (shader) to whatever surface the user selected, on any object, in Poser.
The .mc6 files assign a collection of materials (shaders) to a specific object or figure. The .mc6 also reads/assigns materials to material zones on an object, prop, or figure.

I'm not entirely sure if this process will work on the .mt5 files. Mostly, it wouldn't really be necessary, because essentially you'd be trying to convert a Poser "shader" to function in DS, which does not work. The two programs have very different setups as far as materials/shaders go. DS shaders do not work in Poser, and Poser materials do not work in DS.

I'll test it real quick, though, and let you know. But chances are, if a product shipped with .mt5 files, those files were designed strictly to assign a single material (shader) to any material zone, on any object, as opposed to the .mc6 which assigns multiple materials/shders to a specific figure/prop, performing the same function as a Poser MAT Pose .pz2 file.

Edit : Just tested it again, as I could not recall (it's been a few years since I've really worked with Poser on the "user" side of things).

The answer is no; it does NOT work. You can change the file extension to .pz2, and DS will "see" that the file is in the library, but it does not apply the texture the way converted .mc6 files do. So I think this workaround is only really good for .mc6 files.

 

[Lorraine]

Thanks so much for testing that for me. What I'll do is hunt up those particular textures and make a DS mat file instead. You have made it so easy to understand something I really was puzzled about.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Nowadays, most Poser products ship with .mc6 MATs, rather than .pz2, so I was hoping that workaround would be useful for folks. When I make MATs for a Poser-native product, I always make them as .mc6 files, first, and then I do the process in the first post to produce .pz2 MATs.

I know Hivewire prefers .mc6 files for distribution of Poser mats, but if it's a product that I know doesn't have DS files, I always make a .pz2 version of the MAT files as well, so that DS folks can make use of the MATs if they want it. There are some cases where this is not realistic - such as the textures I made for Evil Innocence's Village Girl dress - a lot of those textures relied on Poser-specific materials, such as velvet or cloud, etc, and those things just do not translate to DS at all.

But if what I'm making doesn't entail a lot of Poser materials, then yes, I always make a .pz2 version of the MATs for the DS folks to use. It's a little tedious (the Justice texture sets I did took forever to convert the mats - there was SO MANY! lol) - but if it's an item I use a lot, or it's an item that would be otherwise just fine in DS, then yeah, I make the .pz2 MATs as well.

 

[Pendraia]

Thanks for the info...some .mc6 files will load in DS now but you won't get the shader node part just the textures which can also be useful.

 

[Alisa]

I know Hivewire prefers .mc6 files for distribution of Poser mats, but if it's a product that I know doesn't have DS files, I always make a .pz2 version of the MAT files as well, so that DS folks can make use of the MATs if they want it.

I know you create textures for a lot of older products, Seliah. For some of these, pz2 files - for DS3 users - are a nice thing to provide .

I know there are some people still using DS3, but since it's a VERY old version of a free program, I don't think there are that many still using it and not DS 4+

I don't know if people know the history of pz2 mat files. Back in earlier versions of Poser, there were no files to click in order to apply the textures. You had to go into the material room and apply them individually. So the pz2 files were sort of a hack created to do that. In Poser 5, the Poser creators started providing .mt5 files, a one click solution to add a single material to a single material zone of an item. In Poser 6, they came up with the mc6 format (material collection), which go in the material folder (which really makes more sense than having materials in the Pose folder - many new Poser users are confused by pz2 mat files).

The newer versions of Daz Studio (4+) CAN read mc6 files - though earlier ones can not. It won't make any difference if they're converted to .pz2 files in terms of the shader nodes..they won't work in DS unless they're texture based, as Pen says.

The only real reasons to consider having pz2 files instead of/in addition to the mc6 files are:

a) if the product/textures can be used in DS3 and there are no specific DS mats for the product
or
b) if the product is intended to work in Poser 4 or Poser 5, where mc6 files can't be used.

For anything that requires DS 4 or higher, there's no need for pz2s, and we do not include them for that reason.

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

That's an interesting bit of history, Alisa. Thank you. I love stuff like that. I do remember having to load everything in from scratch on Poser 4... and I remember there was a big to-do when P5 introduced the .mt5's. I don't remember a lot surrounding the introduction of the .mc6, but by then I was stuck without a render-capable computer through most of P6 and P7's lifespan. By the time I had cobbled together something that would at least let me produce content freebies, we were on P8, and that's what I was still running up until late last year when I finally was able to afford P10 (and then of course P11 came out not long after I got P10... figures!)

Yes, these days I mostly only really make the .pz2's if I'm distributing something that is for a much older (Generation 3 or older) figure/model that people using DS3 are likely to have.

I mostly nowadays just stick to the .mc6's myself, but the other reason I will make .pz2 conversions is to have everything together in one place so I'm not constantly caught in Click-Nightmare going all over my Poser content section to get the pose from one place, the materials from another, the object from another, and so on...

But as far as distribution of .pz2 MATs, I mainly only use them if I'm texturing a legacy item, as many of the folks who are still actively using those items are also on much older versions of DS. The Halloween contest that Music2U ran over on Daz, I think the one two years back? I had provided one of the entry prizes that everyone who entered would get... one of the DS users there was still on DS3 and could not make use of the .duf pose files. And that was only two years back. So I ended up converting them over to .pz2 format for him and sending him those instead.

Thanks for the info...some .mc6 files will load in DS now but you won't get the shader node part just the textures which can also be useful.

Yep. That's the main reason to use those .mc6 files, at least on my end... even if all it does is load the basic texture maps in, it saves quite a LOT of time running around between all the texture folders to hunt and peck for the right texture that goes on the right material zone.

Poser shaders/materials will never convert to DS, just like DS shaders/materials will never convert to Poser. They are just two entirely different animals. But the .mc6's are extremely helpful in saving time hunting for all the texture files to load.

 

[Alisa]

Yes, these days I mostly only really make the .pz2's if I'm distributing something that is for a much older (Generation 3 or older) figure/model that people using DS3 are likely to have.

Yes, that's definitely nice!

I mostly nowadays just stick to the .mc6's myself, but the other reason I will make .pz2 conversions is to have everything together in one place so I'm not constantly caught in Click-Nightmare going all over my Poser content section to get the pose from one place, the materials from another, the object from another, and so on...

Ah ha, well, let me help with that Starting in, I believe, Poser 9, you can move your files ANYWHERE in the Libraries folders and Poser will read them. They don't have to be in any particular folder (just don't move the geometry or texture files unless you change the path - I know YOU know how to do that, but for others who may be reading and don't know this.

JUST the stuff that appears in the Pose room in Poser is the stuff that can be moved into different areas

What I do for my personal stuff is to keep almost everything in the Figure folder (under Runtime\Libraries\Character\).

So I would have a folder for Baby Luna
Under that are folders for Characters\Material sets only\Morphs\ and so on.

For clothing (which I sort by type of clothing), I have the clothing in a folder with a folder below it for materials. This is the way DAZ Studio does things and when I first started really using DS in version 4.5, I thought that made SO much sense.
My pose folder only has Poses in it.

My hair folder has folders for each hairstyle, with folders inside each for morphs, mats, etc.

My material folder is only for actual materials (typically mt5 files)

Don't really use the prop folder anymore.

I still have stuff I have to drag around in my Runtimes..it's a WIP and I've got so much to install!

 

[Seliah (Childe of Fyre)]

Starting in, I believe, Poser 9, you can move your files ANYWHERE in the Libraries folders and Poser will read them. They don't have to be in any particular folder (just don't move the geometry or texture files unless you change the path -

Ah-hah. Learn something new every day! Would Studio read those files after being moved from one folder to another, though? I really don't render in Poser at all anymore, I only keep it around for content support.

For clothing (which I sort by type of clothing), I have the clothing in a folder with a folder below it for materials. This is the way DAZ Studio does things and when I first started really using DS in version 4.5, I thought that made SO much sense.

Yes, that was one of my first loves to how Studio organized it's content. It does make a lot more sense to do it this way. The auto-following of morphs when conforming clothing to a morphed figure was another thing that I really fell in love with once I moved into Studio and out of Poser.

And the way the lighting works. To this DAY, I still cannot get a light rig that I'm happy with out of Poser lighting no matter what I do, or what tuts I follow. In DS, I can light the scene easily and quickly, and I get more or less what I'm looking for when I do it, too.

I still have stuff I have to drag around in my Runtimes..it's a WIP and I've got so much to install!

Boy, do I know that feeling, considering my content libraries are 14 years old at this point! Yikes, it's still strange to think that I've been at this for THAT long. And I still render with my M3/V3/Laura/Maddie figures at times! LOL

 

[Miss B]

Oh I still render occassionaly with Vicky 3, though not as often as the Gen4 characters. I wasn't really crazy with Mike 3, as I preferred David 3 back then.

 

[Pendraia]

Thanks for all the useful info Alisa...I've bookmarked it for use.

I have a similar set up in DS using categories I don't keep anything in default but organise it Categories/Environments or Categories/Figures/People or Animals. Then in the People folder it's People/Dawn/Characters or Clothing or Poses

Materials of course are all in the respective folders and so much easier to find that way.

My problem is that now that I've started using Poser for content it's so much harder to organise. Favourites is just fiddly and if I start shifting folders around in Windows (which I used to do years ago before categories existed) I muck up my DS categories which I've worked so hard on and I'm just not willing to do as I only really use Poser to create Poser content.

 

[Alisa]

Thanks for all the useful info Alisa...I've bookmarked it for use.

I have a similar set up in DS using categories I don't keep anything in default but organise it Categories/Environments or Categories/Figures/People or Animals. Then in the People folder it's People/Dawn/Characters or Clothing or Poses

Materials of course are all in the respective folders and so much easier to find that way.

My problem is that now that I've started using Poser for content it's so much harder to organise. Favourites is just fiddly and if I start shifting folders around in Windows (which I used to do years ago before categories existed) I muck up my DS categories which I've worked so hard on and I'm just not willing to do as I only really use Poser to create Poser content.

I don't use categories, so that's not an issue. Do you use it for your Poser format stuff as well as the DS format?

Ah-hah. Learn something new every day! Would Studio read those files after being moved from one folder to another, though? I really don't render in Poser at all anymore, I only keep it around for content support.

Yep.

Boy, do I know that feeling, considering my content libraries are 14 years old at this point! Yikes, it's still strange to think that I've been at this for THAT long. And I still render with my M3/V3/Laura/Maddie figures at times! LOL

Yep, they're not as advanced as others, but with good morphs and textures, still fun to use!

 

[Pendraia]

I don't use categories, so that's not an issue. Do you use it for your Poser format stuff as well as the DS format?

Yep in DS, all my poser stuff and all my ds stuff in the one area...makes it so much easier to find stuff. I only use the other sections when installing. I just go to where the new stuff is installed and right-click on the folder and choose create a category from and then choose where I want it to show up. And hey presto it's in my categories section. I also do weird things like saving an instance of the file in more than one place. For example hair would go in my hair section but would also go in my people section in some cases. Like Hivewire and Genesis. My mfd textures go in the files where each of the versions of the dress are. Files don't actually get moved it just creates an instance of it. If you delete the original files they all disappear. So it's not like saving multiple copies of the actual files which would take up a huge amount of space. Took me forever to set up but now it's done I wouldn't go back and as long as I remember to update my user data even reinstalling it's easy to get back by reimporting metadata.

 

[Alisa]

Cool