Xna Posing Studio
lastmod 2020-06-28created 2020-06-281 edits
XNA Posing Studio. A 3D doll tool program, originally named XNA Lara. However, since XPS is an abbreviation widely used for other things as well, the name XNA Lara is still commonly used by the public. Note that searching Google only brings up Dell XPS as the first result or the XPS document format as the second. In fact, XPS as a document format is so little used that hardly anyone knows it, but it seems to be more famous than this XPS: searching for it turns up a fair number of results, and it ranks higher.
About
It is also called XNA realtime Posing Studio, with "realtime" inserted in the middle. The "realtime" part is surprisingly important: because it renders models in real time, it eats up resources on par with high-end 3D games despite its lousy performance. Loading a high-spec model can make it stutter even more than a game.
It was made by Tomb Raider fans to extract and work with Lara Croft's in-game model, so its origin is the same as MMD's. Having a character's name in the program name is also the same. It is used to manipulate extracted models into poses, mainly to take still images. On top of that, various objects can be implemented to stage scenes, ranging from city scale down to a single slice of pizza. It is mainly used to create and upload 3D model gravure on sites like DeviantArt, to collect snapshots into serialized works, or as images for self-made games. Compared with Garry's Mod, which holds a similar position in the West, Garry's Mod is a toy-building tool that combines various elements to make things move, whereas this is a doll-play tool.
It started with Lara's model, but countless users flocked to it, and now not only game-extracted models but also countless user-made models and plugins are floating around the web. Data on 3D model conversion keeps being shared in fan communities, and it is safe to say that almost any game that draws attention for its graphics and has decent 3D models will be converted to an XPS version. Some people also focus on converting MMD models to XPS (or vice versa).