ZBrushCentral

Backwards compatibility issue?

ZBrush Usage Questions
#1

Hey all,
I have a perplexing issue that I’m trying to resolve but none of my ZB using friends have had this issue (guess they don’t download ztools online to see what others are doing/have done.
Anyway, I have a few ztools that I believe were made using ZB 3 or 3.5 (that’s the folder I had them saved into in my “filing system” aka - “organised chaos”) - no credit that I can find but that’s not so much the problem (at present).
So, when I load these ztools (I have ZB4R7 P3), they load with a bucket-load of artifacts.
I was wondering whether this had something to do with compatibility (hence the ‘?’ in the subject title)?
Any suggestions?

Attachments

LionFin.jpg

Wolf head.jpeg

#2

As features evolve, there are occasionally changes that make work done with those features different in the newer version. This is especially common with ZSpheres but there are other places that it can happen as well.

The more versions back a model goes, the greater the risk that this will happen.

Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid this happening but it usually only affects a few models.

If you still have the old version available on your system, you can open the model in that version and export it as OBJ. Then you can import it into 4R7 P3 and continue working. That’s the only option I can think of off hand.

#3

Thanks for the info; at least I now know that I wasn’t missing some “magic” feature that solved the problem.
I’ll have to go through my files to see if I have a copy of ZB 3 or 3.5.
These models are only example models I downloaded from somewhere years ago (no read-me or anything else to identify it), so it’s not a big deal; it was just one of those, “I wonder why” type questions.
Anyway; thanks for your time and your help.
Cheers
Erwin

#4

I think if you open them in zbrush 4r6 they load correctly. They might even load correctly in 4r7p2.

#5

OK, I’ll try that; looks like I deleted my older (3 - 3.5) copies of ZB (d’oh!), so hopefully an earlier v4 will do the trick.
Thanks.
Quick Q: can you have 2 versions of ZB installed on the same PC (obviously using another HDD than C drive)?

#6

I’ve installed two versions of zbrush before, just have to install them to different folders. I’m guessing you could install them to different hard drives but I’ve never tried it.

#7

I haven’t had the chance to dig out ZB4.0 yet (I’m pretty sure I still have it… somewhere (too many HDD’s - 10 currently running and several more smaller ones of 300GB or so each; I think it’s probably on one of those as I did a search last night - using the Locate32 program, not MS’s own search which is useless and it found nothing…).
But I will provide feedback when I know more (It’s more an exercise in gathering knowledge than recovering files…); I’d like to be able to contribute to a thread with an end and hopefully an answer…
Until then; thanks to all for all the advice and help…

#8

Looks like --E-- hit the nail on the head!
I found and installed ZB4R4 (Same location as ZB7R7 P3 in case someone’s curious; ZB named the install folder “ZBrush 4R4” and the other install was already named “ZBrush 4R7” so all was fine) and all the files I had tried in 4.7 loaded fine in 4.4!
I’m unsure as to what order the screencaps will display so:-

  1. The dark, full figure is what “LionFin02.ztl” looked like when opened in 4.7 (it opened fine in 4.4 and was the regular red wax brightness).
  2. The light, full figure is what “LionFin.obj” looked like when imported in 4.7 (saved as obj out of 4.4) - notice that the figure has no clothing; these were all separate subtools which I assume I would have to individually save out of 4.4 as obj’s, import into 4.7 and append to the figure & finally save out of 4.7 as a ztool.
  3. The dark head is what “Wolf Start.ztl” looked like when opened in 4.7
  4. The light head is what “Wolf Start.obj” looked like when imported into 4.7 (again, saved as obj out of 4.4)
  5. The folder image simply shows both 4.4 and 4.7 installed nice and neatly next to each other and both work. In case anyone is wondering; no, you cannot run both at the same time…
    Note that the imported obj’s loaded fine, without any artifacts, into 4.7 and could then be easily saved out as a “refreshed” ztool out of 4.7 that will now work fine in 4.7.
    I hope that all makes sense. I am happy to answer any related questions but please remember; I have been using Zbrush for about a fortnight. In other words; a total newbie…
    Lastly; from the preview, it looks like the screencaps loaded in the order that I described them so it should be pretty easy to see which is which.

Attachments

LionFin02.jpeg

Imported OBJ.jpeg

Wolf Start.jpeg

Wolf Start OBJ Import.jpeg

ZB4.4 & 4.7.jpeg

#9

Just opening the bad .ztl in an older version of zbrush and then saving it back out as a .ztl will “fix” it so that it can be opened in 4r7p3. All of your subtools and everything will be fixed. There is no need to export out .objs

#10

And --E-- does it again!
So now for another (related) question.
I thought it would be cool to show to 2 different version next to each other on screen but I could only add a naked version of the alternate version .
So is there a way to select more than one subtool in the subtool list?
I know I could have appended multiple subtools via the SubTool Master plugin, but the question covers more than one reason for wanting to know this.
My other reason was that I had initially loaded up the 4R4 saved complete subtool and then appended the older (fuzzed up) version of the subtool (the naked one) but it loaded it a totally different location; so I thought I’d frame both by selecting both and then framing. But I can’t find a way to select more than one subtool at a time (other than merging which makes it a single subtool anyway)…

Attachments

4R4 to 4R7 direct.jpeg