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Oh my, H.P. Lovecraft in the style of Dr. Seuss !
(I'd totally forgotten, but I'd actually seen something about it before - I remember looking at this https://www.deviantart.com/drfaustusau/art/The-Evolution-of-HPL-s-TCoC-fbr-Page-One-639531815 )
And Dr Seuss reminds me of a picture I once did...
By the way - I've now got the updated texture map with 41 different books completed. Simply download the attached texture map (a 2048x2048 JPG) and apply it in place of the existing one. (I'm definitely not happy with this UV mapping, so I'll probably be going with one of the alternate mappings mentioned in this post for the next release/iteration)
And here's a render:
Here's a link to the page on theofficial Chaosium site (I remember RuneQuest !) - https://www.chaosium.com/h-p-lovecrafts-the-call-of-cthulhu-for-beginning-readers/
There's alsoa short video "A peek inside The Call of Cthulhu for Beginning Readers"on Chaosium's Youtube channel
Chaosium have also got a "Call Of Cthulhu"colouring book ! There's a short video on Chaosium's Youtube channel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhZNC9Bc8AE
That makes me soooo happy !
New six-bookrows prop freebie coming soon. Here it is using a 'Quick Fit' setting to put it in Seachnasaigh's freebie bookcase...
Most of the dev work has been over on the SM forum since it's being done as a Poser prop again.
The Six-Bookrows Prop is now uploaded at ShareCG - 3DCheapskate's Six-Bookrows Prop
Don't forget to let me know of any problems you have with this, or any suggestions for improvement. I'm now considering doing a DS-native DUF version if I can resolve the DS integer slider problem. I'll be able to do 3Delight materials, but I don't use iRay - so if anybody does iRay mats for this please let me know.
A single prop consisting of 384 books (six rows of 64 books) that can be fitted to most six-shelf bookcase. Includes morphs to give random-ish book sizes, and three alternative textures. Works in DAZ Studio too (and I'm working on a DS-native version).
There's a magnet parented to it that can be used, via the controls under 'Individual Book', to tilt and pull out any one of the 384 books (unfortunately this bit doesn't work in DS3 :o( ).
To use the prop with ANY six-shelf bookcase, first set the 'Close Gaps' under 'All Shelves' to 1. Then use the standard x/y/zTranslate, Scale, and xScale dials to fit the bottom bookrow to the bottom shelf. Next use the 'Adjust All' dial under 'All Shelves' to position the top bookrow on the top shelf. And finally, if necessary, use the individual 'Adjust' dials for shelves 2-5 to tweak those.
There are two 'Quick Fit' dials for the two six-row bookcases I happen to have in my runtime. Simply parent the prop to the bookcase and set the appropriate dial to 1 - that's all !
Of course, you may not want all the books the same size - simply use the 'Randomize All Books' under 'All Shelves' and/or the 'Adjust Odds/Evens' under the individual shelves.
This is the second freebie from my book stuff project - . Seethe associated thread on the Smith Micro Poser forum for more information.
The second image is another texture map for the bookrows. Use the 'View Original' option on this ShareCG page, download the image (it's a 2048x2048 JPG), and apply it in the Poser Material Room.
Known problems (see the readme for full details).
- In Poser you MUST parent the prop BEFORE using a Quick Fit dial
- In Poser 6 the selection of individual books doesn't work properly.
- No DS materials, and the 'Quick Fit' and 'Shelf/Book Number' dials are not restricted to integer values and are displayed as percentages.
- In DS3 the individual book selection doesn't work.
- The 'Quick Fit' for Seachnasaigh's bookcase (which was in OBJ format) is based on the way I imported it
Just noticed that the magnet (inc. base and zone) doesn't load in DS any more, so you can't select and pull out an individual book. <-- ignore that ,it's rubbish.
It was working fine before I replaced the magnet geometry with a null, and it still works fine in Poser. (I'd actually saved it as a DUF and reloaded that - but only the prop,not the magnet, got saved.Nothing to do with the null geometry. It works fine in DS4, but DS3 has problems)
I've also just done an Encyclopedia texture - here's some PP2014 test renders:
And here's the texture - download it and apply it in the usual manner:
I've just managed to do a DS-native version of this six-bookrows prop (a simple problem that went rather round the houses before it got resolved).
If anybody's interested in it I might see if I can do DS materials.
So is anybody interested ?
I know that I for one am definitely interested in the prop.This has had quite the wonderful journey, and it looks so incredibly useful I am excited to use it. The materials are less of a concern since I use Iray and would have to convert them anyway. You mentioned before that you would be interested in an iray preset for these, correct? I'd be happy to share!
As usual, one person interested is good enough to make it worthwhile.
Not sure of timescales though - hopefully within the next week or two. I'll try including 3Delight materials too, as it seems a shame to skip that. It's been quite a while since I last did both Poser (Firefly) and DAZ Studio (3Delight) materials for something I'd made, but I recall that it wasn't too difficult - just a bit of a PITA remembering what I need to do, so I need to refresh my brain (I've got another thread regarding that).
(I guess I'll probably do a DS-native version of the original prop too, and any subsequent props)
Regarding iRay (Or is it Iray? Or IRAY?? iRAY???) textures, yes indeed - and I've posted a request on the General Freebie Requests thread for that.
I am very interested in this prop and have downloaded the poser version already. I didn't have time to try it out yet though. It would save so much time to simply load one prop instead of many books for a shelf. So I would be happy if the prop would work in Daz. I don't mind if there is Daz material or not. I don't use Iray so I would have to convert the material anyway. Thank you for the lovely freebie, 3dcheapskate
Two people ! Now I'm contractually obliged to do a DS-native version !
The Poser props already work fine in DS4 with just the minor niggles noted in the readme as far as I'm aware (I've tested with DS4.8 and DS4.9 beta which are the latest I have).
All you need to do is File > Import and select the Poser PP2 file from anywhere.
Or if you have Poser files in a Poser runtime (and every DAZ Studio user has at least one Poser Runtime whether they realize it or not - the 'Runtime' folder in every DAZ Studio Content Directory is a Poser Runtime, although you may not have any Poser format files in it). Use Edit > Preferences > Content > Content Diractory Manager and add any Poser Runtime that actually contains Poser content to the Poser Format section.
So making a DS-native version is just making it a bit more user-friendly for DS users.
Well, it looks like I'm not going to meet those timescales. Unfortunately I felt that I was going round in circles once again with the DS Glossiness problem and just got fed up. I'm now looking at the book stuff again, but a different part of it.If I can build up enough enthusiasm again I'll try and get the DS-native stuff to a state where I'm happy to upload it.
Edit (11Dec2018): ...and... it would appear that apathy hit me again !
Texture for another 41 dubious pulp fiction titles...
( for the original 41-book prop )
First, a render:
And here's the texture - simply download it and apply it to the original prop:
Texture For 41 Dubious 'Classics'...
( for the original 41-book prop )
In the unlikely event that anybody wants to change some of the titles on the 41 book prop, here are the spine backgrounds and text as separate PNG files. Import into GIMP or whatever as layers (one titles layer over one spine colours layer) and fiddle to your dear little heart's desire !
(Note: you'll have to rotate the final texture 90° clockwise to match the prop's UV mapping)
I've started a total rework of the original 41 book prop - it's becoming three five* separate 64 book props. Here's a render of how-far-I've-got, and there are a couple more images attached. More info on the SM thread:
*I'm also going to do non-minimalist versions of the two hardback meshes - adding a 'joint' (that gutter-thingy down the covers near the spine) - see my next post
It is looking great Pete!!
Can not wait to see the finished product!
@Saphirewild - I don't think that I ever really 'finish' anything, but I should be able to get this 64-book prop (and some of it's variants, and some of its smaller versions) to an acceptable state before I get bored with it again ! ;o)
Poser Prop '07HBC+Gx1.pp' (For Test Purposes)
This Poser prop is a TEST PROP for anybody who wishes to try it out and provide feedback. Please read the part around this post on the associated SM thread for more details - it's basically the most complex and high-poly (88 vertices, 86 faces - ha! ha! ha!) of the five base book meshes that I'm going to use for the reworked bookrow/stack prop, and has about half a dozen simple morphs.
An edited screenshot of the basic mesh in Blender is also attached to this post
The attached ZIP contains just one file, a Poser prop file - '07HBC+Gx1.pp2' (07HBC+Gx1 is my abbreviation for Blender file 07, HardBack, Curved spine, plus Gutter, single book). It will ask for a texture file (not included in the zip or this post) when you load it (that's available on the SM thread - maybe I'll add it to this post in a moment... edit: it's actually the texture attached to the previous post here.). If you do play with it I'd be pleased to hear any feedback - if you think it's c**p then tell me so, but tell me why it's c**p !
Proof Of Principle - Poser ERC Opening Book
13Sep2019: Uploaded to ShareCG here around 4 months ago- I just wanted to add a couple of pictures related to that upload to this thread
More Of The Cheapskate's Books
The first part of the rework of the original 41-book prop is complete (well, near enough complete), so I've uploaded it to ShareCG
"More Of The Cheapskate's Books" - https://sharecg.com/v/92967/view/11/Poser/More-Of-The-Cheapskates-Books
Here's a screenshot of the ShareCG page...
(Notice For Idiots: Clicking the link on the image below won't work - it's just a screenshot.You need to click the text link above to go to the ShareCG page)
And no, I haven't done DS materials for it yet
(note: the other attached image shows the 5 base meshes that I used, ranging from 8vertex/6face to 88vertex/86face)
Well, if there are Runequest booksin your prop, I need to dowload it to check if you have there a rulebook I'm missing or something....
The books in the prop seem to be mainly dodgy virtual pulp fiction at the moment ...
Anyway...
The original 41-book BookRow prop also had some morphs for allowing it to be used as a stack of books. I intentionally did not include those morphs in the replacement, as I have other plans regarding stacks of books.
One of the options I've been playing with is loading multiple single book props and parenting the second, third, etc to the first. Then creating dials in the first book that will control morphs, rotations,etc in all the other books.
But the first step is to get each individual book to use a different V_Offset into the image map. (Remember here that I'm using Poser to develop this). I thought I had that sorted - using multiple single-book props, using a master dial on the first book to define a global V_Offset into the texture map, individual (slaved) dials on each book to define individual offsets from the global one, and Parmatic to update the actual V_Offset values in the Image_Map material nodes.
Four slightly modified versions of my single HardBack with Joint prop (07HB+Jx01.pp2) with the second, third and fourth parented to the first. Saved as a single prop (from PP2014) - copy attached tothis post foranybody who wants to play (the attached FourBooks.zip file contains a single Poser prop file 'FourBooks.pp2')
The modifications are that
A picture speaks a thousand words, so here's a picture. Annotated with some extra words of explanation.
So, starting from where the annotations on that picture end...
In PP2014 I change 'BookOffset_0_to_32' from 0 to 10.
The PM:BOOK_0_TO_31 dials in the parameter tabs of all four books change correctly.
(The PM:BOOK_0_TO_31 in the matertials don't change because I haven't run parmatic yet)
First book selected, run Parmatic Updater, render... big surprise, it's exactly as before!
Weird. Go to the Material Room - PM:BOOK_0_TO_31 shows as 10,the correct value for the first book. Go back to the Pose Room and render - the first book is now correct.
Hang on, this smacks of an old material-not-updating-unless-you-manually-enter-and-leave-the-material-room problem...
Select the fourth book, go to the material room, value is 13 which is correct, go back to the Pose Room, rerender- fourth book is now correct too.
If I try to be clever and go back into the material room with the fourth book selected,and in the material room select the third book and then the second book I see that they both still have the wrong (i.e. the old) values, but when I return to the Pose Room and rerender one of them is now correct.
Oh Lordy !
I decided that I need a few more titles for the stacks of books I'm now playing with...
(nothing new to release yet, but I'm working on the stacks)
I've finally completed the stuff pictured in the previous post !
But in a twist to my usual preference, I'll be releasing a DAZ Studio 4 (DUF based) version first, hopefully in the next few days.
(Poser version will follow)
And yes, it will be a freebie as usual.
Released ! See this "A Few Books (Hardbacks) For DAZ Studio 4" thread for specific details
(the attached images are all used in thefirst few posts of that other thread)
Something to whet your appetite perhaps for the next book-type thingy that I've started* playing with...
If anybody's interested in how things are going I'll be posting progress on a new thread, in a more appropriate 3D Content Development forum over at Hivewire - My rather infrequent, and possibly apocryphal, 'books project'.
*no ETA - maybe next month, maybe next year, maybe next decade, maybe...
*Looks like around three years ?
Anyway, I've recently dusted the cobwebs off this book stuff and started playing around again and I now have a simple bookstack figure for creating wobbly stacks...
Test version uploaded to post #101 of my book stuff topic over at the HiveWire3D forum if anybody wants to give it a try -My rather infrequent, and possibly apocryphal, 'books project'. | Page 6 | HiveWire 3D Community (N.B. Poser only - *unfortunately DAZ Studio doesn't like it)
The basic figure is a four book stack which can be nested to make taller stacks.
The whole stack can be randomized with a simple Python script - from simple rotations and positional nudges...
...to a mix of hardbacks and paperbacks with various morphs
*I created it in Poser using alternate geometries and valueParm maths and it works rather nicely. But unfortunately DAZ Studio doesn't seem to like it. I can import the basic four book aligned stack but some of the adjustments do weird things to the books
Not a sausage, but no worries there - more sausages for me !
(But seriously, if anybody does download that test version, and about a half dozen have, then please do let me know whether it works or not for you, and which Poser version you're using. Ta!)
Regardless of the tumbleweed, and regardless of what I said on 26 Aug about this not working in Studio, I just imported one of the latest (hopefully almost ready to release) Poser CR2s into Studio 4.20 and it's actually looking reasonably promising...
But no promises
Unfortunately it doesn't look as if I'll be able to do a DAZ Studio version, so it's just the Poser version uploaded
At ShareCG - Multi-figure bookstacks for Poser - Poser - ShareCG
At Renderosity - Multi-figure bookstacks for Poser (renderosity.com)
Here's a screenshot of the ShareCG page...
It's a shame you couldn't get it to work in Daz, that's a really handy item.