PoseRay

Import 3D models into POV-Ray and Moray

v3.8.7 - March 13, 2005

Web: user.txcyber.com/~sgalls/

Email: flyerx_2000@yahoo.com

Contents

Introduction

PoseRay is an utility to convert 3D model meshes into POV-Ray scenes and Moray UDO files. PoseRay can also edit the materials and act as a simple transformation tool for the geometry. PoseRay can export the modified model into a new OBJ file for use in other 3D programs. A list of main features is shown below. (Check the history for changes with the latest version)

Geometry:

Materials:

Lights + Camera:

Requirements

Install / Uninstall

Install:

Uninstall:

PoseRay Main Tabs

PoseRay is broken into main tabs. Each tab is used for a different step in the conversion process. The bottom of PoseRay's window shows the status messages and any warnings. Click on it to expand it. The status bar also shows the progress indicator. The image below shows the typical components of PoseRay.

PoseRay screen

Input Tab:

Preview Tab:

This tab has a toolbar and 4 sub-tabs on the left that control options, camera, lights and placeholders.

Toolbar buttons:

Preview Options sub-tab:

Camera sub-tab:

Lights sub-tab:

Placeholders sub-tab:

Materials Tab:

This tab controls the materials properties for the loaded geometry. Each material is divided into surface properties, bump map, blending (or transparency) map and POV-Ray material. All the material settings will be saved to any exported POV or OBJ files. For any of the material properties right-clicking on an entry will allow you to set the same property value on all the materials. Double click a material in the list to edit its name.

The top of the tab has options that apply to all materials:

Pigment & Finish 1

Pigment & Finish 2:

Bump map:

Blending (Transparency) map:

surf 1

Pigment 1 map

 surf 2

Pigment 2 map
blending map

Blending map

Black=pigment 1

White=pigment 2

 blended 1

Transparency 1=0%

Transparency 2=0%
result 2

Transparency 1=0%

Transparency 2=100%

 result 3

Transparency 1=100%

Transparency 2=0%

POV-Ray Texture:

Geometry Tab:

The way transformations are done in PoseRay is by selecting the groups/materials that you want to change and then pressing Update. The best way of using the geometry tab is to change a single item at a time. To set all the values in this tab back to the default click on the Reset values button. Reset camera after update will recenter and rearrange the camera to show all the geometry automatically.

Before updating the geometry select the groups/materials that you want to modify. If you leave any groups or materials unchecked after leaving the geometry tab they will not be exported or shown in the preview.

Faces, Vertices and normals:

UV:

map for uv demo

Map

 undeformed box

Untextured sample box
planar mapping

Planar mapping perpendicular to vertical axis.

Note that the edges of the map stretch along the other faces.

 cylindrical mapping

Cylindrical mapping around vertical axis.

Note that there is no vertical distortion.
spherical mapping

Spherical mapping along vertical axis. Vertical distortion is visible.

 cubic mapping

Cubic mapping

Subdivision:

PoseRay can subdivide a model and smooth its appearance. Subdivision will result in each original face broken into 4 sub-faces and the addition of 3 vertices per face. Not all models are suitable for subdivision and results will vary.

The number of subdivisions control how many times each triangle is broken. For example 3 subdivisions on a 5000 face model will result in 43=64 faces per original triangle. This would result in a total of 64*5000=320000 faces after subdivision. It can be easily seen that the model could get very large with just a few subdivisions. Usually 1 subdivision should be enough for most cases.

There are two subdividing methods:

Below are a few examples of the smooth subdivision options used on the same mesh.

original

Original mesh.

 subdivision with creases kept only

Subdivided 2 times while keeping the creases and edges intact.

Mesh ended up stretched along the edges.
subdivision

Subdivided 2 times ignoring creases and edges.

This setting is more appropriate for an organic-type model.

 subdivision keeping creases only

Subdivided 2 times while keeping creases and modifying edges.

This is the desired effect with sharp edges and smooth surfaces.

Displacement

This deforms the grid by moving each vertex along its normal according to the color of a map at the UV coordinate of the vertex. The model must have texture (UV) coordinates for displacement to work. For the deformation you can choose to move a vertex along the normal at that vertex or just some of its components. If the model does not have UV mapping you can create it in the UV sub tab.

The amount of displacement can be controlled by setting the values at pure black and at pure white. The detail on the deformation will be dependent on how dense the model is. You can use subdivision to increase the resolution of the mesh before it is displaced. See this section for the types of images that PoseRay can use. Usually gray scale images are the best for displacement.

Tip: to get an idea of how much to displace click on the status messages and in the expanded status message box click on geometry stats. This will give you the size of the geometry loaded. Start with small increments.

Typical displacement steps are shown below.

undeformed box

Undeformed box 1 unit side with cubic UV mapping

 undeformed mesh

Mesh of undeformed box

 displacement map

Displacement map.
flat subdivided mesh

To get a better deformation the mesh was flat subdivided twice

 deformed mesh

Mesh deformed with map Black = 0.1 displacement White =no displacement

 deformed box

Shaded box with deformation applied

HDRI Simulation

PoseRay can use a high dynamic range image to simulate environmental illumination by creating a set of lights with the intensity and color of the surroundings. Usually HDR images (or probes) are in radiance format (.hdr) and are Light Probe (angular map) mapped. PoseRay uses Portable Float Maps (.pfm) using Latitude-Longitude mapping. They can easily converted using HDR Shop v1. Some HDR images can be found at www.debevec.org/Probes/.

Probe

Uffizi probe using angular mapping

 Lat-Lon

Uffizi probe using Latitude-Longitude mapping needed by PoseRay and converted by HDR Shop

 HDRI scene

Uffizi probe used in a POV-Ray scene for lighting and background.

HDR probes can contain areas where the color intensity is higher than 100%. These usually indicate sources of illumination.

Steps to convert an HDR probe into usable lights in PoseRay:

  1. Get HDR Shop v1 from www.debevec.org/HDRShop/
  2. If the HDR probe needs remapping and conversion then start HDRShop. Load the image you want to use and if it is not using Latitude-Longitude mapping (see above for example) go to Image|Panorama|Panoramic Transformations... and in the source image format select Light Probe (angular map) and the destination image format select Latitude-Longitude and click OK. A new remapped image will be created. Save it as a Portable Float Map file (.PFM). You can use non-HDR probes with HDR Shop too by loading them into HDR Shop, remapping and saving them to PFM.
  3. In PoseRay's HDRI tab click on load HDR probe... and load the .PFM image just converted. To extract the lights click on <<Extract Lights into scene This will place the new lights into the lights tab. Using the default search criteria will work for most images.
  4. If you want to see the image on the background of the scene click on save & set as Env. map.
  5. If the HDRI probe is very large you can resize it in HDR Shop
  6. If the scene is not aligned with the background the way you want it you can rotate the scene around y in the geometry tab

During the light extraction PoseRay will search the image for areas of illumination that match the search criteria. The available options are

POV-Ray Output Tab:

You can save all the POV files needed to render the scene by clicking on Export files. Optionally you can automatically render them by clicking on Export & Render files or edit them in POV-Ray by clicking on Export & edit files.

File options (default - single scene)

PoseRay creates all the files needed to render the scene in POV-Ray. For example: with an input file filename.OBJ PoseRay would create 4 files.

File options (Batch/animation mode)

For a tutorial/example on loading an animation from Poser (or similar program) see this section. The current camera and lights will be used on the POV-Ray output. There are two ways of rendering multiple files: Using a batch file or using a POV-Ray file with clock/frame keys.

Scene Element options:

no radiosity render sample

No radiosity. Renders quickly but unlighted areas may be too dark. Adding fill lights improves appearance.

 radiosity render

Radiosity. Takes longer but the lighting is better.

 cartoon render

Cartoon with highlights on. PoseRay sets the material properties to simulate cartoon rendering.

Render options

Export options (after pressing save):

Moray Output Tab:

PoseRay creates 3 files for Moray. For a typical 3D model file filename.obj these would be as listed below.

Misc. options:

Export options (after pressing save):

Important notes using Moray, POV-Ray and PoseRay:

OBJ Output Tab:

Poseray can save a Wavefront OBJ file and its materials containing all the modifications done in PoseRay. Saving the scene as an OBJ file from PoseRay will save all the scene information such as lights and camera as well as materials. Reloading the OBJ file will restore the entire scene if desired.

For a input file filename.obj the corresponding output files will be:

Misc. options:

Export options (after pressing save):

Tips &Tutorials

Rendering a 3D model in POV-Ray:

  1. Start PoseRay and on the Input tab click on the desired model (or models) and click on Load Model.
  2. After the model loads you can see the model in the preview tab. Set the camera and lights as desired. You can also modify the materials and geometry.
  3. If there are warnings that maps are missing you can use the search tool in the materials tab to find them.
  4. Once the options have been set the model can be rendered by selecting the POV-Ray Output tab and clicking on the Export & Render files button.

Importing a 3D model into Moray:

  1. Make sure Moray is setup properly to work with POV-Ray This section has more details.
  2. Start PoseRay and on the Input tab click on the desired model and click on Load Model.
  3. After the model loads you can see the model in the preview tab. You can also modify the materials and geometry if needed. Camera and lighting is not used for Moray export.
  4. Go to the Moray export tab and press Export Moray files. Default options should work for most cases
  5. Run Moray and import the UDO file just created. Moray may ask you to add the directory where the file is, just press OK to add the location of the file.

Rendering a Poser scene in POV-Ray:

  1. Create the scene in poser and save it. (PZZ or PZ3 format)
  2. In Poser go to File | Export | Wavefront Object and save the scene as a Wavefront OBJ file. Use the default options.
  3. Start PoseRay and load the OBJ file just created.
  4. After the model loads go to the materials tab and load the materials from the Poser file you created. Once the file is read PoseRay will open a search box. Select the directory from where you want to start searching for the maps used. Typically this will be the /poser/runtime folder. PoseRay will store the directory name for future use and can be recalled by clicking on the directory drop down list.
  5. After loading the materials PoseRay will ask you if you want to load the camera and lights from the Poser file also. Click yes to both.
  6. Go to the preview tab and make sure the camera is the way you want it.
  7. Check that there are no missing or incompatible textures by looking at the warning text on the status tab. Click on the status tab to get more details.
  8. Optional:  If the geometry has normals that make sharp corners look dull you may want to go to the geometry tab and recalculate the normals using a crease angle between 45 to 70 deg.
  9. Go to the POV-Ray export options tab and press Save & Render (defaults should work for most cases).
  10. More POV-Ray export details in this section.
  11. If you want to save the scene as it is in the preview tab go to the OBJ export tab and save the model. The file will keep the camera and lights from the scene.

Rendering a DAZ Studio scene in POV-Ray:

  1. Export the scene from DAZ Studio using File | Export and select Bryce 5 Object.
  2. Start PoseRay and load the OBJ file just created.
  3. PoseRay then will show a map search dialog. Since DAZ Studio exports transparency and bump maps that cannot efficiently be used in POV-Ray then the original images must be used. Here select where DAZ Studio keeps its maps. For DAZ Studio 0.9.12.11 this directory is usually C:\Program Files\DAZ\Studio BETA\content. PoseRay will store the directory name for future use and can be recalled by clicking on the directory drop down list. If the model in the scene was originally for Poser then the directory will be something like c:\Program Files\Curious Labs\poser 4\runtime\textures\ . It all depends on where you installed the Poser model
  4. Check that there are no missing or incompatible textures by looking at the status messages at the bottom.
  5. Optional:  If the geometry has normals that make sharp corners look dull you may want to go to the geometry tab and recalculate the normals using a crease angle of around 45 to 80 deg.
  6. Go to the preview tab and make sure the camera and lights are the way you want it. DAZ Studio lights and camera are still pending until the release of the DAZ Studio SDK.
  7. Go to the POV-Ray export options tab and press Save & Render (defaults should work for most cases).

Using PoseRay to import models into Poser/DAZ Studio (and other auto-smoothing programs):

Poser 4 and DAZ studio automatically smooth the meshes and disregard any normal information. PoseRay can break a model so that sharp edges are kept even after full auto smoothing. This is important if you want to import a model into Poser/DAZ Studio and keep the proper appearance of any sharp edges.

  1. Start PoseRay and load the model that you want to import.
  2. Go to the geometry tab after the model loads.
  3. If the file is DXF, RAW or POV-Ray mesh (POV, INC)then check Weld equal vertices only and press update.
  4. Go to the preview tab and check that the face orientation is right. Check show normals in the preferences tab. If normals are shown pointing out of the surface the geometry is oriented right.
  5. Go to geometry tab and if the normals are not pointing out of the surface then check both Flip normals and Reverse vertex winding only and press update
  6. In the geometry tab select a normal crease angle. Usually 35 to 60 degrees works best. A crease angle of 0 will make the model have flat faces and 180 will make the model appear fully smooth.
  7. To preview the appearance of the smoothed model check smooth only, press update and go to the preview tab. Increase the angle if you want the surface to be smoother.
  8. Once you have settled on a crease angle select split faces and press update.
  9. Change material properties if desired.
  10. Export the modified model as a Wavefront model from the OBJ Output tab
  11. Import the modified model into Poser or DAZ Studio as a Wavefront model. The surface of the model should be smoothed out properly.
  12. Keep in mind that if the model uses any texture maps Poser will not load them if they are not in the poser/runtime/textures folder.
  13. Since splitting faces creates extra vertices the modified model will have a larger file size than the original.

Importing a Poser scene into Moray:

  1. Make sure Moray is setup properly to work with POV-Ray. This section has more details.
  2. Create the scene in poser and save it. (PZZ or PZ3 format)
  3. In Poser go to File | Export | Wavefront Object and save the scene as a Wavefront OBJ file. Use the default options.
  4. Start PoseRay and load the OBJ file just created.
  5. Once the model loads go to the materials tab and load the materials from the Poser file you created. Once the file is read PoseRay will open a search box. Select the directory from where you want to start searching for the paths of each of the maps used. Typically this will be the poser/runtime folder.
  6. Check that there are no missing or incompatible textures by looking at the warning flag on the status tab.
  7. Go to the Moray export tab and press Save. Default options should work for most cases
  8. Run Moray and import the UDO file just created
  9. You can get more Moray details in this section.

Rendering a Poser Animation (Batch processing)

  1. Create the animation in poser and save it. (PZZ or PZ3 format)
  2. In Poser go to File | Export | Wavefront Object and save the animation as a set of OBJ files. This may take a long time for dense meshes and numerous frames.
  3. For this tutorial I will assume that the OBJ files are called walk_0.obj, walk_1.obj, walk_2.obj, ... walk_60.obj with a common material file walk.mtl and a scene file walk.pz3
  4. Start PoseRay and load the first of the OBJ files just created. (walk_0.obj)
  5. Once the model loads go to the materials tab and load the materials from the Poser file you created (walk.pz3). Once the file is read PoseRay will open a search box. Select the directory from where you want to start searching for the paths of each of the maps used. Typically this will be the poser/runtime folder. Check that there are no missing or incompatible textures by looking at the warning flag on the status text. This step will ensure that the materials are properly set and that there are no orphan image maps.
  6. Go to the preview tab and set the camera to what you want. Camera and lights are not animated so this will be fixed during the animation.
  7. Go to the lights subtab and load the lights from the Poser file.
  8. Go to the OBJ Output tab and save the OBJ and MTL files. This will contain the updated material file for the animation. It has the right paths for all the image maps. In this case PoseRay will default to walk_0_mod.obj and walk_0_mod.mtl.
  9. Now from the input tab select ALL of the OBJ files from the animation and click on Batch Process. Do not select the one created in step 8.
  10. For a Poser animation select Use a POV file with clock. For the POV file you can leave it at poseray_batch_render.pov This will be the root name of all images created by POV-Ray for this batch.
  11. Make sure that the input file name prefix is right. Using the files above the prefix should be walk_
  12. If you are using the clock variable during the animation set it. Clock = 0 for the first frame (walk_0.obj) and clock = 1 for the last frame (walk_60.obj)
  13. Initial frame is the first index of the input files. For the files in this tutorial Initial frame = 0 because the first input file is walk_0.obj
  14. Common object name can be left unchanged
  15. For the common input material file select the material file saved in step 8 (walk_0_mod.mtl).
  16. You can leave the default POV-Ray material file as a common file.
  17. Click on Save&Render to create the files. The render files created by POV-Ray will be poseray_batch_render0.ext to poseray_batch_render60.ext
  18. Once POV-Ray is done use your favorite program to put all the rendered frames into a movie. You can use VirtualDub for this purpose.

Changing the materials in POV-Ray:

PoseRay can edit some of the material properties but POV-Ray allows you much more flexibility and power. If you want to use some of the nicer materials available in POV-Ray you can modify the *_mat.inc file created by PoseRay. For example the following is a definition from a typical material include file for a material called SkinBody_1:


#declare SkinBody_1= texture {
                     pigment {color rgb <1,1,1> transmit 0} //color}
                     texture {pigment{p_map4} //image map
                              normal{p_map5} //bump map
                     finish {phong 0 phong_size 30 ambient rgb <0,0,0> reflection{0}}
                     }

If you want to use one of the built in POV-Ray glass textures you can change the definition to look like

#include "glass.inc" //T_Glass1 is in glass.inc
#declare SkinBody_1= texture {T_Glass1} //use T_Glass1 for the SkinBody_1 material

Creating a morph target for Poser using the displacement mapping in PoseRay:

  1. In Poser load the model that you want to apply the morph to.
  2. Make sure that the model has its joints zeroed and that the hip and/or body positions and rotations are zero.
  3. Export the body part that you want to apply the morph to as a Wavefront OBJ file. Leave the options in their default state.
  4. Load the body part into PoseRay and go to the geometry tab and load the displacement map that you want to use. The map will use the UV coordinates so it will use the same template as a texture.
  5. Enter the values and click on update geometry from original geometry button in the geometry tab. Change values and update until you are happy with the results. Remember that Poser models have very small extents so start with a small amount of deformation.
  6. Save the modified geometry into a OBJ file. The filename can be changed in the export options tab of PoseRay. No need to export pov, inc or udo files.
  7. Go back to Poser and select the body part you want to morph. Load the file saved in PoseRay as the morph target and name the morph. Change the dial in Poser to get the morphed geometry.

How do I merge an exported model from PoseRay into an existing POV-Ray scene?

PoseRay can create complete POV-Ray scenes but if you have an existing scene where you want to place a converted mesh then check Only export geometry and material files in the files section of the POV-Ray tab. This option will export POV files with the geometry and the materials only. In your existing POV-Ray scene you can add an include statement at the top of the scene file and call it in the code as shown below. Once the model is loaded as an object{} you can manipulate it inside POV-Ray as any other object. The example below assumes the geometry was saved into poseraymodel_POV_geom.inc and the materials were saved into poseraymodel_POV_mat.inc. Make sure that POV-Ray can find them when it runs so best place to put it is in the same dir as the main scene file. The materials are called from poseraymodel_POV_geom.inc so there is no need to include an additional call for poseraymodel_POV_mat.inc.

//top of pov file with the existing scene
#include "poseraymodel_POV_geom.inc" //file that PoseRay exported
.
.
//POV-Ray commands here.....
.
.
//call the model that is inside poseraymodel_POV_geom.inc. 
//In this example it is called PoseRayModel (Capitalization matters)
object{ PoseRayModel } //modifiers are accepted
.
.
//end of pov file

How to create a height field from an image map

  1. Load the model poseray_plane.obj. It is in the directory where poseray.exe is located. This plane is centered at the origin, 1 unit by 1 unit and has UV coordinates from 0 to 1 along each edge.
  2. Go to geometry tab and flat subdivide the model several times. This will create a high resolution mesh from the plane.
  3. Go to the subdivision subtab and select the image map you want to use. Enter a min and max displacements.
  4. Press update to deform the mesh.
  5. Do a single smooth subdivision using the default settings. This will smooth out sharp edges.
  6. To smooth out the appearance Faces, vertices & Normals subtab and make the crease angle 180 deg and press update.
  7. The plane is smoothed and deformed. Now it can be textured and used in a render. You can save it as a OBJ file and used in other scenes.
  8. This is a very similar procedure to what POV-Ray does internally with the height_field object. The main difference is that with PoseRay you can control how dense the mesh is and that you can save the deformed mesh.

Tips on reducing amount of memory needed by PoseRay.

PoseRay can take quite a large amount of memory for very complex models. It saves triangles, normals, vertices, UV coordinates and materials among others. The use of the OpenGL ® API also requires memory for maps and display lists. The settings that will allow you use less memory are listed below:

Tips on POV-Ray render times

Sometimes POV-Ray parse/render may take a very long time. The following items will lengthen the time to get a rendered image:

You can reduce the map dimensions by enabling the resizing of all the maps when you click on the Save & Render button in PoseRay. There is no point in having a 4000x4000 resolution map if your rendered image will be about 640x480 and the map will cover only a small fraction of that image. High resolution is only good for close-ups.

What types of files can PoseRay handle?

PoseRay will extract polygon meshes from ASCII or binary files. ASCII files can be line terminated by CR, LF or a combination of them. Besides mesh PoseRay will extract the material properties and load any image maps that the model uses if they are present. Although I do not have an extensive list of 3D applications PoseRay has been tested successfully with exported models from 3DExploration , Poser, DAZ Studio, Cinema 4D, AutoCAD, Rhino3D, Wings3D, Anim8or, Xfrog, Blender, Milkshape, MetasequoiaLE, ppModeler, and UVmapper. It is difficult to say from which 3D programs PoseRay will recognize the 3D model files but below is a description of how it handles each format to give you and idea.

Wavefront (OBJ) (ASCII)

Geometry: Only groups identified with the g 'groupname' entry will be recognized. Each group in the OBJ file is preserved in the conversion. If the group is reused many times in the file it will be combined into a single group. PoseRay reads the vertex data in vertices (v), normals (vn) and texture coordinates (vt). Weights in these entries will be ignored. The polygon faces recognized are defined by f or fo statements and can have positive or negative vertex indices. If the a face has more than 3 sides PoseRay will break it up into triangles but the vertices will be left unchanged. The line entities (l) will be also read and if it has more than 2 vertices it will be broken into line segments. The least minimum that a OBJ file must contain so that PoseRay can load it is a vertex list (v statements) and a face list (f or fo statements) or a line list (l statements). Normals and texture coordinates are optional.
Materials: PoseRay reads the material names from the OBJ file. Then it opens the linked material file (.MTL) and reads the material properties. Materials not used will not be loaded. If a material is not listed on the mtl file PoseRay will use a default white material. If there are polygons with no material calls in the OBJ file then PoseRay will assign a generic material to them called 'poseray_material' and it will be set to default white. PoseRay will recognize the following material commands: Ns, Ka, Kd, Ks, d, tr, map_Kd, and map_Bump. If the material file is not present then all materials will have a default white color but will still be separated by name. The specular exponent (Ns) is taken to be glossiness from 0 to 1 if the file was exported from DAZ Studio or if the materials were read from a Poser file. Ns will be assumed to be an exponent for any other OBJ file. If the model was exported from DAZ Studio transparency mapping will not be visible in PoseRay but it will work in POV-Ray.

AutoDesk 3D Studio (3DS)

Geometry: PoseRay will read 3D studio version 3 or later 3DS binary files although it will try to load any 3DS file. Meshes will be read as a set of triangles linked to a set of vertices and uv mapping coordinates. Each mesh entry in the file will be assigned as a group. Normals are automatically calculated for all the meshes. If the file is truncated PoseRay will try to close the mesh properly. Parenting information is not read. The geometry will be rescaled by the master scale in the file.
Materials: PoseRay will read diffuse, bump and transparency map names (including paths). Surface properties include color, ambient, highlight, glossiness, transparency, reflectivity and bump strength. It can read percent or integer values and 24bit or floating values for colors. If no material definitions are found in the file then PoseRay will create a new material and all the polygons will be linked to this new material. Some 3DS files may have unusually high ambient colors.

LightWave 5 and 6+ (LWO)

Geometry: PoseRay will recognize binary LightWave 5 object (LWOB), LightWave 5 Layered object (LWLO) and LightWave 6 object (LWO2) or later files. The faces will be grouped with the surfaces if there are no layers present. If the file is layered then it will group the geometry by layers. If the layers do not have a name PoseRay will name them "Layer_1, Layer_2,...". Layer offsets are kept after loading the file. If the model uses subdividing patches it can be subdivided in the geometry tab. You can check if the model uses subdivision surfaces by looking at the statust text window
Materials: For LightWave 5 files the properties recognized are color, diffuse multiplier, ambient, specular level, reflectivity, transparency, glossiness, color map, bump map, transparency map, projection axis, projection mode, map size, map center and bump amplitude. In case the model is LightWave 6+the same material properties from a LightWave 5 model are also recognized plus map wrapping and map rotation. For LW 6+ files the material is read by blocks and only the first block of each material property will be read. VMAP, VMAD, Planar, cylindrical, spherical and cubic UV mapping are supported. After reading a LWO model you may need to search for the maps using the materials tab.

POV-Ray mesh or mesh2 objects (POV, INC)

Geometry: PoseRay can read triangle meshes defined as mesh{} or mesh2{}. UV and normal information is also read. Each mesh is saved as a group. PoseRay can handle comments and other POV-Ray code. Mesh types can be mixed in the same file. Note: This format replaces the UDO import. Models created by Moray can still be imported through the INC files that Moray saves.
Materials: Because of the complexity of the shading language PoseRay only reads the material entry in the mesh and saves it as a POV-Ray material in the material tab. PoseRay assumes that the materials are defined separately and identifiers are used in the mesh. PoseRay reads the identifiers only. Unspecified materials will default to white.

Virtual Reality Modeling Language - VRML (WRL, GZ)

Geometry: PoseRay has a very limited VRML import function that can read indexed face sets from ASCII VRML 1.0 or 2.0 files. Transformation nodes are recognized and modify the vertices as they are read. Each mesh node is saved as a group. All polygons must be closed with -1. PoseRay can also load gzipped files automatically and they will be indentified by the .gz extension.
Materials: Basic material properties are recognized. Materials saved as DEF statements can also be read. Shape nodes with repeated material nodes will be merge into a common material. Unspecified materials will default to light gray.

AutoDesk Drawing Interchange Format (DXF)

Geometry: PoseRay can recognize ASCII AutoCAD R10 DXF files or later although it will try to read any DXF file. PoseRay can read 3DFACE and polygon mesh entities encapsulated by the POLYLINE entity. Faces with 4 vertices will be broken into 2 triangles. Normals are automatically calculated for both polygon descriptions. Geometry will be separated into layers or blocks where each will be a group.
Materials: DXF files only store the surface color. PoseRay will read the colors by block, by layer or the local color. Materials will be named ACAD_color_# where # is the AutoCAD color used. Default AutoCAD colors from 1 to 255 are recognized. Unspecified/out of range colors will default to white (ACAD color 7).

Raw Triangle file (RAW)

Geometry: PoseRay can read multiple objects in raw format. The file must be in ASCII format and contain a triangle definition per line. A new object will be delimited by having a name at the start of the group of triangles that corresponds to that object. For example a RAW file can be defines as shown below. The x,y,z are the 3D coordinates of the triangles. The RAW file can be space, comma or tab delimited. Blank lines will be ignored.
Wheels
x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 z3 y3 z3
x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 z3 y3 z3
x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 z3 y3 z3
.
.
Doors
x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 z3 y3 z3
x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 z3 y3 z3
x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 z3 y3 z3
.
.
Hood
x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 z3 y3 z3
x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 z3 y3 z3
x1 y1 z1 x2 y2 z2 z3 y3 z3
.
.
Materials: Raw files do not contain material information. All geometry will be linked to a default material. PoseRay can create materials from the groups in the materials tab.

All Formats:

Geometry: If there are polygons without a group name then PoseRay will create a generic group. Any degenerate faces will not be read and any degenerate normals will be set to (1,0,0).

Image Maps:

PoseRay is able to load the following map types:

For formats where vector and raster elements are present the raster part is the only one recognized. If an image has several layers only the bottom layer will be loaded. Any image type not listed above will not be displayed but will be kept in the translation.

Limitations/Known Issues

Help!

Warning Messages:

Troubleshooting:

Read the limitations first.

Most crash problems can be traced to outdated video drivers so make sure that you have the latest video drivers for your hardware.

Version History

v3.8.7 (Build 358)

v3.8.5 (Build 351)

v3.8.4 (Build 349)

v3.8.2 (Build 327)

v3.8.1 (Build 325)

v3.8.0 (Build 321)

v3.0.2 (Build 272)

v3.0.1

v2.6.6

v2.6.5

v2.6.4

v2.6.3

v2.6.1

v2.6.0

v2.0.1

v2.0.0

v1.3.0:

v1.2.4:

v1.2.3:

v1.2.2:

v1.2.1:

v1.2.0:

v1.0:

Acknowledgments

PoseRay uses the following:

Legal information and License

Valid HTML 4.01!