best way to import poser models

There's a particular model that I found in a Poser file that I would like to use as the basis of a new avatar. Are there any plugins that can convert the Poser model into equivalent prim shapes? I don't even mind manually creating the prims and copy/pasting in the text data to the prims, as time consuming as that would be. But being able to simplify the initial creation part would help immensely.

First, do you have permission to use that Poser model for this purpose? With most Poser content, the license allows for use in rendered media, meaning images and movies, not in real-time applications or games. Check the licensing on the particular model you're interested in.

Second, what exactly do you have in mind here? You mentioned converting the Poser model to prims. Well, you can do that using Jeffrey Gomez's OBJ importer, but considering that even a low-poly Poser model is usually somewhere around 20,000 polygons, that's really not an option. You'd need two whole sims just to get started, not to mention the fact that you can't possibly attach that many prims to an avatar.

Also, unless you're talking about a robot or a non-humanoid animal or something, I can't imagine why you'd want to make the whole av out of prims anyway. If you're talking about a human character, then what you want to do is use the in-world sliders to sculpt the body form, and then use good texturing on the skin to add any further needed detail. Poser models won't do you any good for that stuff. There's no way to import the geometry, and since the UV's are so different, the Poser textures aren't likely to be of much benefit either.

Sorry, I know that's probably not the answer you wanted to hear.

Yes its a freely available model of a Cylon centurion from the next Battlestar Galactica. Yes, its for an avatar.

You won't be able to import something like that directly. As I said earlier, you could export it from Poser to an OBJ, and then use Jefferey's OBJ importer script to bring it into SL, but it won't be as you want it. The script works by creating a triangular prim in place of every tri in the poly mesh, and as I said earlier, Poser models tend to be on the order of 20,000 polys or higher. You can't rez 20,000 traingles in SL in any practical way.

If you want a cylon avatar, either build one yourself using SL's available tools, or else buy one from someone who's already done so. If you want a TOS cylon, by the way, stop by the Sci Fi Museum in Indigo. I haven't seen any new series ones floating around, but I did start working on one a while back myself. I'll get around to finishing it one of these days.