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That's almost exactly what I do, except I strip out the / as well, leaving only the "map_" statement and the filename.
Note that this can still bite you in the anatomy — at the top of every .obj file, there is a statement with the path and filename of the matching .mtl file. If this is hard-coded with an explicit path like the textures were, then the imported .obj will never find the .mtl because it isn't in the "right" place. You'll have to check the .obj file (it's plain text, open it with a text editor just like the .mtl file) and see if the file path is sending D|S off into la-la land every time it looks for the .mtl file. If it imports but the textures don't, you usually get a plain super-shiny grey plastic object. If the .mtl itself can't be found, the colours can get a bit weird.
This is what I consider one of the minor hangups with D|S (and Poser) using the .obj file format; it's ancient, and it seems every modelling program capable of using it has its own slightly different-from-everyone-else's variation, with slightly different ways of formatting the .mtl file. Not all of these variations are properly understood by D|S, and none of them really match the legacy Poser-style formatting of having separate Runtime subfolders for mesh and textures. Fortunately most of these glitches are easily fixed if you know how, but it's a bit of a nuisance.
Yeah, that could be, SK...the obj could be looking for the mtl somewhere else. And it will also be an absolute path in the obj. The obj format is so old that absolute paths were 'standard' and that's what it defaults to.
At this point, Willow, it would probably just be easier to load them in manually in the Surfaces tab and save a material preset.
WillowRaven, after many failures (just like yours) I loaded the .obj directly into DS (File -> Import -> Medieval_Koggen.obj); I didn't throw it into the Geometries folder. I don't remember the format I chose; it could have been Poser because I had to scale the ship down to 18%!
Then I applied the materials from the models' textures folder (put it somewhere on your Computer; I created a special folder for textures I applied manually); again I ignored the Runtime folder.
If you open the Surfaces Editor you see (only) four Material zones:
• 07_Default: First click the little square on the left under Diffuse Color and browse the item's textures folder; apply Fortif_Rudder_txt.jpg. Under Specular Color apply Fortif_Rudder_spec.jpg (colour white), under Bump Strength apply Fortif_Rudder_bump.jpg. I set the Bump Strength to 200, Negative Bump to -011; Positive Bump to 0.15.
• 13_Default: The textures are applied like before; here you need Rope_Mast_WWrk_txt.jpg, etc.
• 14_Default: Apply Objects_txt.jpg etc.
• defaultMat needs the Hull Floor textures.
It's quite simple, but a bit time consuming - the worst part for me was to find out which texture belonged to which material group… There should be far more material groups; I would have liked to change the sail material, but this is not possible. The vendor apologized for the inconveniences; I think it was his first ship. Anyway, it's good and historical correct. But for someone like me who loves historical sailing ships a cog by Faveral would be an instant buy… <broad hint>
Woohoo! My kog has color!
I didn't have to move the obj from the geometries folder or re-word the mtl file, either.
Your instructions went off exactly except for one thing ... the negative bump setting ... I type in -011 but it switched to -9 every time.
I've never played with bump strength or the neg/pos levels. What do they do?
Also, it would be really cool if there was a video tut for this because I know others would like to know and I know I'll forget ... lol. Gonna edit the title of the thread, too, so I can find these instructions again later.
Thanks so much :D
Note that this is a Very Not Good™ idea — the entire system of D|S (and Poser before it) being able to find textures and mesh and morph data is strictly dependent on those files being in the correct subfolder of a content location that D|S knows about. If you just load in textures and imported objects from random waytheheckoutthere folders, and assemble it into a scene, the result is a fragile file that will easily break, and will not work on any other computer in the world except yours.
@ WillowRaven: Sorry, the 011 was a typo; of course it should be 0.11. I dialed the bump strength a bit extreme, because I saw that the default bump strength was too weak. The default positive and negative bump(s) (mostly 0.010 resp. -0.010) very often show little effects, even if you turn up the main Bump Strength to 200. Those positive and negative bump dials are what give the structure more 'depth'. Try to play with them; it's fun!
@ SpottedKitty: You can probably explain why it works on my Mac; no fragility or whatsoever. I can only give advice from my own experience - like everybody here. I use this method you called so wittily a 'Very Not So Good Idea™' time and again, and never noticed any problems. Of course you have to copy the texture folder if you want to use DS on other computers, but this is nothing special - I think you do it with all the stuff you need for DS. DS seems to be more flexible than expected, and maybe more flexible than some of it's users… But maybe my copy of DS is the world famous, secret 'Super DS'. Or maybe you are right concerning other systems, like Windows.
If the textures are in a content diectory then DS will store only the relative path - the location within the content directory. If they are not in a content directory then DS will store the absolute path, from the root. If you want to share the results with others, or if you move to a new machine and change the location of the texturs folder (or just reorganise your current machine), then the saved items with absolute paths will throw errors - the relative path will work if the content directory is moved, as long as the location inside the content directory is constant and DS is told about the new location.
And absolute paths are what got us here in the first place...
You are right, I forgot about the directories, but I thought this was needless to say. DS asks you any time it has 'lost' the path; you update the directory, and everything is ok. I don't know how often the average user changes his/her computers, shares his files with others or how many machines he/she owns. Maybe my modest needs are not typical.
The key thing is, setting it up in a mapped folder isn't any more difficult than dropping it anywhere else and it eliminates a source of potential problems.
Making it a Studio product doesn't require a lot of things placed in a bunch of folders all over the place...just the textures. Then when saved out, the geometry will be saved to the proper location...the textures if loaded from a mapped folder will be saved with relative paths. Then all that needs to be done to make it 'sharable' is to pack up the textures, data folder entry and the 'user facing' prop/figure/materials files.