Utiltiy to convert Poser .mc6 MATs

Tobor

I have a number of texture-only Materials collection files in Poser (.mc6 files) that I'd like to convert to either DUFs to read directly in D|S, or .pz2 files, which D|S can read.

Note that these are only texture files, and have little or no procedural nodes. They're basically MAT pose files that apply a texture. Most are for applying a single texture to the currently selected material zone. The shaders will be converted to Iray anyway, so it doesn't matter if any procedural nodes are lost, as they'll be tossed out anyway. I'm looking for a way to save myself from having to manually load textures.

I know the convesion from mc6 to pz2 files can be done manually, but I'm looking for a point-and-shoot utility to save time. A batch converter would be ideal. I have hundreds of these to go through.

Tobor

Answering myself ... I just found this, which might be enough. I have Notepad++.

http://cyonixgfx.deviantart.com/art/Converting-mc6-Files-to-pz2-194920273

Anyone use this approach? Comments on how well it works?

Eustace Scrubb

For that matter, all DS4 versions can read MC6 just fine.

Tobor

Strange. For me they don't even show in the content pane. That's where I need them to be. (I know it can *import* those files, but I want to use the assets as regular content.)

mjc1016

They need to be in a Poser format assigned location...

 

 

That location is Poser Formats > My Library

fixmypcmike

They should show up under Poser Formats in the content library pane.  Are you sure they're .mc6's and not .mt5's?

Tobor

Ack! That's the problem. Many of these are probably mt5s, and even older. They date back a while.

mjc1016

Yep...mt5s won't show up.

Spit

Tobor said:

Answering myself ... I just found this, which might be enough. I have Notepad++.

http://cyonixgfx.deviantart.com/art/Converting-mc6-Files-to-pz2-194920273

Anyone use this approach? Comments on how well it works?

Nope. Not now.

I'm getting myself confused remembering all I've gone through with mt5's (which I used to be able to convert to pz2's but now what I did before doesn't work) and mc6's which I used to ignore but now work fine on figures but don't work with old tricks on props.

So now I ignore mt5's entirely and deal only with mc6 because Richard and/or Bejaymac told us how to convert the ones applied to props....you must include the name of the prop the mc6 is to be applied to.

I have this in my notes. I believe posted by Bejaymac.....

Open the PP2 file in a text editor

    Near the top you’ll see a line starting with prop

    Highlight the line to copy it but stop before you get to the colon.

    Now open the MC6 in a text editor

    Replace the line mtlCollection with what you just copied from the PP2

    Save the modified MC6.

Of course you can batch this in a text editor to those mc6 files that apply different textures to the SAME prop. So it's not like you can do an entire folder at once depending on how many props are involved.

HTH

Edit: MC6 applied to figures work as is. I'm using Studio 4.8 btw.

 

Tobor

These are for a set of fabric textures that apply to "anything." They're single-application shaders that really can't be tied to a particular surface name or object. Well, at least that's how they worked in Poser. All I really want to do is slot the diffuse and bump maps into their places, set a reasonable bump strength, and apply the Iray shader, and finally adjust for the particulars in that scene.

What I think I'll have to do is write a quickie script to read the mt5/mc6 files, pull out the diffuse and map filenames, and then just create new minimalistic DUFs.

All this is good to know, though. I've never known why certain pz2s and mc6s worked, and others didn't. 

Rodrak

I don't think there's an universal converter for poser mat files. You can get .mt5 to load by editing them - replace "actor $CURRENT" line with "mtlCollection" and change the file extension to .mc6 and it should show up in the poser files but the "support" will be as limited as with real mc6, that is no shader trees, no displacement maps etc. (and that's also the reason why many mc6 will not really work, poser shaders are not compatible). AFAIR studio will refuse to use mc6 files on props too (need to either convert prop to figure first or change that mtlCollection line to "prop /name/").

frank0314

Tobor said:

I have a number of texture-only Materials collection files in Poser (.mc6 files) that I'd like to convert to either DUFs to read directly in D|S, or .pz2 files, which D|S can read.

Note that these are only texture files, and have little or no procedural nodes. They're basically MAT pose files that apply a texture. Most are for applying a single texture to the currently selected material zone. The shaders will be converted to Iray anyway, so it doesn't matter if any procedural nodes are lost, as they'll be tossed out anyway. I'm looking for a way to save myself from having to manually load textures.

I know the convesion from mc6 to pz2 files can be done manually, but I'm looking for a point-and-shoot utility to save time. A batch converter would be ideal. I have hundreds of these to go through.

To change a mc6 into a pz2 is very easy and only requires a tx editor. Open up the mc6, replace the 3rd line that says mtlcollection with "actor (name of obj)" so it will look something like this (actor AC_Test) and save as a pz2 and move that into DS. Once in DS you will to to make a few adjustments to get the proper look but all the necessary stuff will be there. I make all my pz2's this way. This is the process to doing it to a prop. If you are doing it to a figure just replace the mtlcollection to "figure" and save as a pz2

Tobor

Thanks all. I've worked up a .NET program that reads the original file for the diffuse and bump maps, and also picks up the original Poser bump strength, which I correlate to a reasonable value for D|S. I then pump this out to a generic Iray shader file and build a native D|S shader. Some of these file sets have a higher "sheen" (they're mostly of fabrics) so on these I use an alternative boilerplate shader where the Top Coat Weight and a few other settings are altered to give the cloth a more shiny look.

mjc1016

Tobor said:

Thanks all. I've worked up a .NET program that reads the original file for the diffuse and bump maps, and also picks up the original Poser bump strength, which I correlate to a reasonable value for D|S. I then pump this out to a generic Iray shader file and build a native D|S shader. Some of these file sets have a higher "sheen" (they're mostly of fabrics) so on these I use an alternative boilerplate shader where the Top Coat Weight and a few other settings are altered to give the cloth a more shiny look.

Damn...that sounds fantastic.  But I wish it was in something other than .Net...

Tobor

I could also do it as a Word or WordPerfect macro! Certainly easier to maintain.

 

mjc1016

Tobor said:

I could also do it as a Word or WordPerfect macro! Certainly easier to maintain.

 

LibreOffice macro...although I think it can accept many/most Word macros.  It's just even with the various solutions, Linux and .Net never play well together.

But in any case, it is definitely a very worthwhile thing you've put together and if you did offer it, it would be well received.

Spit

frank0314 said:

Tobor said:

I have a number of texture-only Materials collection files in Poser (.mc6 files) that I'd like to convert to either DUFs to read directly in D|S, or .pz2 files, which D|S can read.

Note that these are only texture files, and have little or no procedural nodes. They're basically MAT pose files that apply a texture. Most are for applying a single texture to the currently selected material zone. The shaders will be converted to Iray anyway, so it doesn't matter if any procedural nodes are lost, as they'll be tossed out anyway. I'm looking for a way to save myself from having to manually load textures.

I know the convesion from mc6 to pz2 files can be done manually, but I'm looking for a point-and-shoot utility to save time. A batch converter would be ideal. I have hundreds of these to go through.

To change a mc6 into a pz2 is very easy and only requires a tx editor. Open up the mc6, replace the 3rd line that says mtlcollection with "actor (name of obj)" so it will look something like this (actor AC_Test) and save as a pz2 and move that into DS. Once in DS you will to to make a few adjustments to get the proper look but all the necessary stuff will be there. I make all my pz2's this way. This is the process to doing it to a prop. If you are doing it to a figure just replace the mtlcollection to "figure" and save as a pz2

You do not have to change .mc6 to .pz2 to use. See what I wrote above.

For application to a figure, do nothing. They work 'out of the box' so to speak (nodes aside, of course). And they have for a while.

For application to a prop, though, it's a bit of a pita. You have to change the third line from whatever is there to 'prop' and the specific name (from the pp2) of the prop it is being applied to. Same work as you mention above except wording is different and you can skip changing to a .pz2.

 

 

 

SlimerJSpud

I'm still using DS3, so this topic is of interest to me. I've ignored this problem for a long time, but this post seems to have spurred me to action. I'm working on a script to automate this process. I'm writing it in Tcl. The Tcl interpreter can be downloaded for free. There are no ads, malware or other annoyances with it. I should probably be doing it in Python, but I may leave that for a later date. Tcl will work on Linux, Windows, MAC, etc. So will Python. If I make something that works, I'll post it to ShareCG and leave a link here.

The way I think this will work is that there will be two scripts, one for figures, and one for props. You will have to copy the scripts to a folder full of mc6 files, then run the appropriate script by double clicking it. All of the mc6 files will be scanned, changed, and written out as pz2 files. I haven't bothered with GUIs for my scripts, so that's why you have to run it from the directory with the files in it. I can't make it recursively search and change all mc6 files, because of the prop/figure differences. We'll see how this goes...