Content Developer's Guide

ShaderSpider has a number of important features for figure, texture and Python developers to consider.

Python Development

You can interface with ShaderSpider, using its Material Selector window, material copying, MAT pose saving, partial shader saving and other time-saving calls in your script. See the Python Developer's Guide for full documentation.

Making a Figure ShaderSpider-Ready

You can make your characters, hair and clothing figures ShaderSpider-ready through these simple steps:

With your new figure in the scene, hit the "Edit Groups" button to Launch the Group Editor.
Create a new group by hitting CTRL+N or the "NEW GROUP" button.
Choose a name for the group and whether it is a surface group or a mapping group then hit OK. What's the difference?
Add or remove a material from the group by double-clicking its name. Alternatively, you can add lots of materials at once by hitting CTRL+Q and typing keywords, just like Copy to Matching.
Click the SAVE button when you're done setting up groups.
When you go to distribute your character, include the SS6 file located in the same folder as the figure's geometry. ShaderSpider will automatically find it and use your settings.

You may also wish to include a preset for your figure in case a customer accidently overwrites your settings. The default directory for SS6 presets is Runtime:Python:PoseWorks:ShaderSpider:Presets. You can export presets to this folder using the Group Editor. In most cases, you should use the default name (the same as the geometry, except with an SS6 extension) so that ShaderSpider can pick up the file automatically if necessary.

If you are developing for figures that have identical material names, you can use the EXPORT and IMPORT buttons on the Group Editor to move settings from one figure to another. This only works if the figures have exactly the same material names.

Using and Distributing Partial Shaders (FX6 Files)

Partial shaders make a handy addition to any figure or texture package because of their non-destructive nature. It's very easy (and more desirable for end users) to include them instead of MAT poses to make settings adjustments--particularly since Poser 6 SR1 and beyond throw out all shader information whenever a MAT pose is used.

To save an FX6 file for distribution:

With your desired material selected, click the "Save Partial Shader (FX6)" button.
Choose a file name to save under. The default directory for FX6 shaders is Runtime:Python:PoseWorks:ShaderSpider:FX. You should create a subfolder in this directory for all of your presets, but ShaderSpider can load FX6 files from any folder. Just remember to tell your customers where they are.
Select the node input branches to include in the preset and hit OK.

Some things to keep in mind:

It's not wise to include image maps in partial shaders because they are not converted into relative paths when the FX6 is saved.
If there are no nodes branching off of an input that you're including, the input branch will be preserved when the partial shader is loaded. You can use this to great advantage. For example: I have Victoria 3 with no textures applied and a tanned skin color. If I save a partial shader ("Diffuse_Color" only), I can apply my partial shader to a fully mapped V3's "Skin" materials. The maps will be preserved, but V3 will still get her tan. This is a very handy for including skin tone changes.
Any nodes attached to an input (that a partial shader wants to build off of) will be detached.
All detached nodes will be deleted after a partial shader is loaded.
FX6 files are very useful in speeding development. If you want to apply the exact same specularity to all of the skin, save a partial shader of it and then load the partial shader for the "skin" surface group. You can then click Save MAT Pose to generate P4, PP and P5/6 ready MAT poses using your new settings.

Saving MAT Poses

The "Save MAT Pose" wacro will create three MAT poses for you based on the current figure. To do this:

Click the "Save MAT Pose" button with your figure selected.
Choose a save path for the MAT poses. The three files will be saved to this directory using the file name you provide (so "MyPose.pz2" will turn into "MyPose P4.pz2", "MyPose PP.pz2" and "MyPose P5_P6.pz2")
Use the Material Selection window to pick which materials will be included in the MAT pose, and hit OK. Only these materials will be included.

Optimizations and features:

P4 and PP poses do not include shader information.
The P5/6 pose includes full shader tree information.
P4 bump map paths are changed to ".bum".
Map paths are shortened to relative, Mac-formatted paths, whenever possible. ("C:/Poser 6/Runtime/Textures/MyTexture.jpg" becomes ":Runtime:Textures:MyTexture.jpg")
Files located outside of the main Poser Runtime are shortened to ":Runtime:" paths as long as they are somewhere under a folder named "Runtime".
PNG thumbnails are automatically saved for each of the poses
P4's thumbnail will require conversion to RSR format using another utillity.
P4 and PP poses are saved with version number 4.01.
P5/6 poses are saved with version number 5.