Forum Coordinators: RedPhantom
Poser - OFFICIAL F.A.Q (Last Updated: 2024 Mar 28 8:52 am)
Hi
I generally perform such tasks in an external modeler or by editing the OBJ file in a text editor. I'm not entirely certain you can actually delete created materials via the group editor... or at least it's been so long that the process eludes my memory. In any case it's not worth the unintuitive hoop jumping to do so. From my experience the Group Editor is really most useful for quickly creating props from existing groups, which were ideally set up externally... otherwise it's just too clunky for serious grouping and material region creation in anything but the most simplistic of objects.
Try this
File: Export Wavefront OBJ
Select your Object/Prop
Export with this setting
Open the resulting OBJ file in a text editor and search for the material name of the material you want to delete
The material will have a definition usemtl in front of it, in this example the material I want to delete is called topmat
Select the line including both usemtl and material name (topmat)
Delete the selected line. Be careful to not delete the g line... this is a grouping definition, in this case empty but generally named if you've set up named groups. Delete each instance of the usemtl name occurring if necessary... it should now appear like this
Save the file edits and reimport. The undesired material is deleted.
...failed to mention one important caveat. It's advisable that you check the Include Existing Groups in Polygon Groups checkbox during export otherwise you will lose your separate groups, if such exist, and the OBJ will only have 1 group thereafter. Even if you haven't created groups it's probably best to check that box...
Additional addendum ;)
You were a bit vague in your description... if this is a material you've created on a figure rather than static prop the process is a bit more complex. You should clarify if this is the case. The solution I provided above is assuming a static prop. If it's a figure you'll need to point the cr2 at the new edited obj taking care that you didn't modify any of the body part groups. Can't really comment further until that's established and dipping into the realm of figure creation process really.
Hello, thankyou for trying to help me with this, and I apologise if I wasn't clear in what I was trying to do. I have the V4 Bot from DAZ and I wanted to create groups, from which I would create a material, the purpose of this was to apply a glow / ambient light effect. I hope this is making sense. The first time I tried this, I selected the polygons and created a material for them. This ran into trouble when I realised I had selected additional polygons accidentally. I tried to remove these polygons by deleting them in the group editor and reassigning the material with the same name I had used before, but this didn't work. I could see no way to delete the material, so as to start again, in the group editor or Material Room. This is when I asked for help.
I tried the method you described, but when I opened the file, I didn't get anything like you did, please see attached file. I am currently working with the helmet and mask, which are both props.
Maybe I've missed the entire point here but why go to all that trouble? You can create a decal with a matching mask that will switch ambient on in the places you want it.
Coppula eam se non posit acceptera jocularum.
...
Looks like you opened the mtl file and not the obj file...
Open the file with .obj extension
You want a file that appears like this (although various softwares may have comment lines at the beginning of the text body)
...and NOT this, a mtl file, as indicated by your screen capture...
Just trash the mtl file (poser produces an accompanying mtl file when exporting an obj). The mtl file simply carries data that contains the various material settings values, as defined in the material room, for things such as diffuse, specular, etc, and texture map file references. For purposes of what you want to do the mtl file is useless. You want to modify the actual polygon group material region specifications and not their Poser render features/specific settings.
Now that you've clarified your intentions I would be inclined to agree with above forum member's assessments, in particular because it's a figure you're working with. Do you have any experience painting material masks? Image map masks are Grey Scale or B/W image maps which modulate various inputs to Poser Root values. In simplest terms Black is 0 and white is 1, grey shades are values between.
Masks will not "switch on" anything. They will however modify values if present.
You can paint the masks in an image editor using a UV template, or even better in a 3d painting software where you'll have immediate feedback against the particulars of the model UVs...
Here's a simple mask painted in Mudbox on V4 head mesh...
Here's a simple mask/material set up with that mask modifying a rudimentary ambient mat with diffuse texture...
Low quality Firefly result...
Same principle applied to La Femme...
Masks work similarly in Superfly via emission/ambient.
Here's the v4 example layered psd with V4 face uv template, both black and white masks all on transparent layers if you're curious. Zip also contains the flattened png used as the mask in the above example for V4... The masks are fast and dirty but maybe useful with the template.
Link for files
"Masks will not "switch on" anything. They will however modify values if present."
Well, yeah. My poor choice of words, Mister Flippin' Pedantic. ;) Hehehe.
Coppula eam se non posit acceptera jocularum.
I am humbled ;)"Masks will not "switch on" anything. They will however modify values if present."
Well, yeah. My poor choice of words, Mister Flippin' Pedantic. ;) Hehehe.
Thank you everyone for your help with this, I will persevere, and probably swear quite a bit. I have dabbled with maps but not masks. This object doesn't have a UV map, so my limited knowledge means I am trying to create materials within the group editor. For all the yars I have struggled with Poser, I should know what I am doing. I remember a tutorial video, I think it was Chuck Taylor, who said if things don't go as you expected, don't automatically assume it is you who is wrong, it might be the software. I remember this from the tutorial but little else :) :(
When you say there's no UV map, do you mean there's no template provided, or it's not actually been UV mapped? It's highly unusual for a Poser item to not be mapped, even if it's a very primitive one.
You can easily create your own map by getting the free version of UV mapper and loading the item in there. Save out the resulting template file and you're ready to go. If, however, it's not actually been mapped at all, it's a little more complicated - but still quite simple - and there are people here who can help.
In any event, I'd still suggest textures and masks are the way to go, because the approach you have now is like using a nuke to kill a mosquito.
Coppula eam se non posit acceptera jocularum.
If you are referring to Parris' old Bot Armor for V4 from Daz, the UV templates are included with the product. If you purchased it a long time ago the templates were probably a separate support product DL linked at the bottom of the product page. It appears that now the templates are included with the product zip. You can always re-download the product and get the templates. If you'd like to generate your own uv templates for anything that's UV mapped you can do as SamTherapy suggests and download the free UVMapper classic to generate templates...
http://www.uvmapper.com/downloads.html
After you've downloaded UVMapper Classic just take the desired OBJ file and drag and drop it onto UVMapper's icon or open UVMapper and File: Load Model...
Here's the V4 Bot ArmorMask OBJ from Geometries loaded into UVMapper, displaying the UVs for that OBJ...
Next step is File: Save Texture Map. I usually save all of my maps at very large sizes as it's better to scale down than scale up if necessary. I'll save it at 4096 x 4096. It's standard practice to save maps square aspect ratio powers of 2; 1024, 2048, 4096, etc. Windows version saves as bitmap, Macintosh as pdf IIRC.
In an image editor you can copy and paste the template to a new layered file and set the layer properties to multiply to knock out the white and show just the poly edges over any other layer, over a texture for instance.
Addendum...
If you find that the UVs are stacked it will be difficult to create a usable template. You can Select By Material/Group in Uvmapper and use the scaling keys (+/-) to separate and shrink down unwanted shells and tuck them away in a corner of the tile before exporting your template. If you need any further assistance, or run into any snags, post your query here and we may be able to help.
Or... you can delete the unwanted areas, save out the UV map without saving the model. Something I do a lot of the time.
Coppula eam se non posit acceptera jocularum.
When I've consolidated mats with new mats and I want to get rid of the old unused mats, I export the object and import it back in. The unused mats are gone.I've created materials with the grouping tool, but I would like to delete them. Can someone tell me if this is possible, and how. please?
W10,Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8600K CPU @ 3.60GHz, 32.0 GB RAM, 64-bit, video GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 4GB.
Old lady hobbyist.
All visual art or fiction is "playing with dolls."
Free UVMapper provides no functionality for deleting islands. Only rotation or scaling. At least from what I can see that must be a feature of the no longer available UVMapper Pro version. Haven't tried that as I use Blender, 3dCoat, or Wings for UVing.Or... you can delete the unwanted areas, save out the UV map without saving the model. Something I do a lot of the time.
VedaDalsette posted at 8:10 PM Fri, 6 May 2022 - #4438227
undefined posted at 5:44 PM Mon, 18 April 2022 - #2970330Can you explain your process for this more clearly? I just tried your suggestion and it didn't work, maybe I missed a step?When I've consolidated mats with new mats and I want to get rid of the old unused mats, I export the object and import it back in. The unused mats are gone.I've created materials with the grouping tool, but I would like to delete them. Can someone tell me if this is possible, and how. please?
So I imported a chopped head mesh, pre existing mat groups, and created a new group with the grouping tool and assigned a new material... BlahMaterial. Shown here with the other materials color coded...
And I exported with both all options unchecked and with Include Existing Groups and Preserve Existing Material Names and reimported both. In both instances the mat still exists.
I also tried adding all materials to a new group except the new mat, deleted the old mat group, and exported and the new material is still present...
How did you delete the undesired mat zone?
Sure, but this is for an object, not a figure, even though I'm using a figure initially.
The lips and eyebrows are different mats on this old P4 head. I want them to both be the same new mat (which means I'll have no use for the existing lips mat and eyebrows mat), so I create the new group LIPBROW using the grouping tool. I add the lips mat and eyebrows mat to this new group and assign the new mat LIPBROW.
At this point, the lips mat and eyebrows mat co-exist with the LIPBROW mat.
I export the head as a wavefront object using my default export options and save it. I give the new object a unique name.
Then I import it back in.
When I look in the Material Room, the lips and eyebrow mats are gone.
I saved the object and can't find the lips mat or eyebrows mat in the PP2. However, the custom geometry is now in the new PP2, and I'd have to take that out and point to the new object if I wanted to be efficient. It's always something, isn't it?
As you can see, I didn't preserve existing material names when I exported.
W10,Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8600K CPU @ 3.60GHz, 32.0 GB RAM, 64-bit, video GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 4GB.
Old lady hobbyist.
All visual art or fiction is "playing with dolls."
Interesting. I'll give it a test. Thanks for taking the time to demonstrate. I would note that when you export you'll want to uncheck weld body part seams. If any welding occurs it'll change the vertex order and render any pre existing morphs unusable. Not an issue for a prop, more or less perhaps, but something to be aware of in general for exports.
Take care.
Good point, primorge. I must have read somewhere that I should click weld on export (or is it in import?), but I understand your point about the morphs.
W10,Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8600K CPU @ 3.60GHz, 32.0 GB RAM, 64-bit, video GeForce GTX 1050 Ti, 4GB.
Old lady hobbyist.
All visual art or fiction is "playing with dolls."
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I've created materials with the grouping tool, but I would like to delete them. Can someone tell me if this is possible, and how. please?