Texture Convertor 2: How to use it?

WolpiWolpi Posts: 323
edited December 1969 in New Users

Does the convertor work automatically when I add textures of some other type? And why can't I find it in the menu under HELP/ABOUT INSTALLED PLUGINS?

Comments

  • WolpiWolpi Posts: 323
    edited December 2012

    :-S

    Post edited by Wolpi on
  • Sal UKSal UK Posts: 432
    edited December 1969

    Hi wolpi

    Its not a plugin its a seperate program I bought it ages ago though today with Daz Studio 4 and all the morphs you can buy really makes it obsolete as if you bought the Generation 3 morphs I think they would come with the Generation 3 UVs so you should be able to use V3 UV's in the surfaces tab of genesis <-- I could be wrong but thats how I think they work.</p>

    hope this helps in anyway.

    Steve.

  • vwranglervwrangler Posts: 4,889
    edited December 1969

    Sal UK said:
    Hi wolpi

    Its not a plugin its a seperate program I bought it ages ago though today with Daz Studio 4 and all the morphs you can buy really makes it obsolete as if you bought the Generation 3 morphs I think they would come with the Generation 3 UVs so you should be able to use V3 UV's in the surfaces tab of genesis <-- I could be wrong but thats how I think they work.</p>

    hope this helps in anyway.

    Steve.

    Unfortunately, no, that's not quite right. Genesis can't read Generation 3 UVs, and it's my understanding that the material zones are so different that there are currently no plans to add those UVs to Genesis. If you want to use your Gen3 textures, you really will need to use TC2 to convert them to Gen4 textures and UVs, at least at the current time.

    As Sal UK says, Texture Converter 2 sits outside Studio as a completely separate program. You'll find it in the list of programs under the Start button in Windows. You use it by either pointing it to the PZ2/PZ3 file in the Pose directory for the character you want to convert, or by plugging in the files individually.

    You need to have purchased both the filter/set that you wish to convert FROM, as well as the set you want to convert TO -- from Victoria3 to Victoria4, for example, or from David3/Michael3 to Michael4, or whatever you need. (Apologies if you've already done that, but a lot of people purchase only the set they want to convert to, without realizing at the front end that you need to purchase filters for both sides of the process.)

    Note that it can't do entire sets -- If you have a character with regular/diffuse textures, bump textures, displacement textures and specular textures, you'll need to convert each of those sets separately, and they WILL need to be plugged in as individual files. The PZ file method can only see the regular/diffuse texture. You will also need to rename those files, otherwise they will overwrite the set you just created. (You can also get around that by moving the newly created set between file types, but renaming them at the front end prevents a lot of other workflow issues.)

    TC2 can also create .ds or .pz2/3 files as an output file so that you can have one-click files to apply the base textures. That said, especially with 4.5 and with most characters having more than just the diffuse texture, I find it less annoying, if a bit more tedious, to simply go through and apply the textures on my own once I've put them all where I want them.

    Note also that this is not a completely perfect conversion. Depending on the size and quality of the texture, you will see some stretching on the back of the head and in the armpit/chest area. The latter is, so far, most noticeable on male characters that have either photographed or painted armpit hair, which winds up stretching along the chest. It's not, in general, a huge deal.

    Hope this is helpful. Hopefully Richard Haseltine will take a look here and can give you some tips; he was immensely helpful to me when I first got started with TC2.

  • WolpiWolpi Posts: 323
    edited December 2012

    Thank you so much, dear vwrangler and salUK! It's so astonishing to find people here who take their time to help unknown so engaged! I'm German but I think I've understood all you explained. First I have to find out, why NORTON Antivirus doesn't accept TC2 and chucks it out without asking me. It's the same if I turn off the antivirus programm: there's only the option 'Texture Convertor/ Uninstall TC2' in the programs list and 'plugins' + 'uninstall' in the Texture Convertor folder on C:. But I find no possibility to start the programm. (Windows Vista)

    On Boxing Day Christ Child brings me POSER 2012 PRO german. I'm nosey to compare with DAZ 4.5. At least the language will make the advantage ...
    Magic Xmas to both of you! :kiss:

    Post edited by Wolpi on
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