The extremely productive Carrara developer Fenric has posted a large forum post about the future of his Carrara plugins, here are the details about upcoming updates, some new plugins as well and a freebie:
So, what exactly am I planning to do?
Of the four promised new products, you’ve got three: Layer Blend, Enhanced Shaders, and Selection Changer.
The fourth one, which only needs a Mac build and the page made, is the long awaited Poser Shader Doctor. This command will go through the shaders of a figure or prop and correct common import problems:
– removes color multiply if there is a texture map
– fixes weird alpha-channel nonesene
– copies texture to bump if there is no bump
– runs “optimize” to get rid of unused or default channels (black reflection, and so on)
For something like “Streets of the Mediterranean”, this is a lifesaver!
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Oh, and I lied. There’s a FIFTH plugin almost ready: WendyLovesCats’ request for a sequenced object exporter. I saw DCG made an IMPORTER, but there’s still no EXPORTER. So, coming soon: “Sequenced Object Exporter”.
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I also saw Head Wax’s suggestion to be able to change a bunch of shaders all at once (ala the ‘Master Light’ edit menu). I could only make it work for normal multi-channel shaders (not terrain, or layer lists, or such). I don’t have anything like that ready, but it’s a good idea and I’ll put that in the list.
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Of my DAZ products, I plan to split the packages up. I put so many unrelated things in each one because of the way they run their store.
– BVH/PZ2 exporter will remain as is, but is updated. It’s a little better with morphs, now, but the whole name/channel name/internal name screwup in Carrara is still pretty bad.
– Pose Helper will remain as is, but is updated and now has presets for common tasks.
– Pose and Shader Pack 2:
Color Balance, Color Merge, and Color Separator will be split out into their own package.
Toward/Away will be split out into its own package.
Pose Transfer will get it’s own package
Stack Tweener will get some friends added and be in a new package (anyone who bought Pose and Shader 2 from DAZ gets the new functions for free!)
– MDD Format will remain as is, and is significantly updated (thanks Faba!)
– ERC:
ERC Modifier and ERC Tweener will get a new package, and will be joined by ERC Shader. Still a free update for DAZ store customers!
(AddERCModifier, CreateERCChain, and the Property Explorer will all still be part of this package)
I plan to drop AddPinModifier altogether, because it just doesn’t work. If anyone really wants it, I can put it up as a freebie.
AddSliderModifier is going to be a freebie.
DeleteKeyframes, RemoveDuplicateKeyframes, and JitterKeyframes are joined by AddKeyframes from Pose Pack 3 – either ERC or PosePack3 will get you a key for this one.
– Pose Pack 3:
Tree Duplicate gets its own package
Unlock, Restore, Change Rotation, and Set Figure Visibility get a new package
AddKeyframes gets merged into the other keyframe commands from ERC. I will honor EITHER product as good enough to get the key for this.
Once again: if you own a product from the DAZ store, you automatically qualify for free license keys for the new/updated packages as they become ready for release. I will plainly mark which DAZ product qualifies, and I am going to make an automated system for generating keyfiles to make this as painless as possible for you.
Add your comments here: https://carraracafe.com/?page_id=2022/plugins/plugin-plans
Fenrics new store: http://fenric.com/wordpress/store/products/
Fenrics Daz3D store: http://www.daz3d.com/fenric
Screenshot of Pose and Shading Tools 2 in action:
