Hi,

I recently bought a new computer, but my dusty old Poser 3 won't run. Seems
that if you have 1GB or more of memory then Poser 3 thinks you have none. As
the suggested remedy is to remove physical memory until Poser 3 starts is a
non-starter, it may be time to upgrade.

So... Should I spend my hard erned cash on a Poser 4 or Poser 5 upgrade?
From the price list at http://www.egisys.de/onlinestore/index_en.html, I can


Poser 4 and 5? Is it worth the extra cash for Poser 5's functionality?

Cheers,
Ian Shumsky

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news:40333719$1@news.povray.org...

> So... Should I spend my hard erned cash on a Poser 4 or Poser 5 upgrade?
> From the price list at http://www.egisys.de/onlinestore/index_en.html, I
can


> Poser 4 and 5? Is it worth the extra cash for Poser 5's functionality?

P5 has better default characters, a better internal renderer, a slightly
better interface and some very interesting new features (dynamic clothes and
the ability to create Poser characters out of non-boned models
particularly). Dynamic hair is less useful for POV-Ray users because there's
no good way to export it right now. The face editor is nice but limited to
the default P5 characters. I'm very fond of the dynamic clothes feature
which was worth the upgrade for me.

Now it's also a resource hog, and it has a troubled history of bugginess
which took 3 service releases to solve, so many people didn't upgrade. It
seems OK now, but it still has occasional issues (not that Poser was ever
ultra-stable either...). If you can afford it and have a fast machine with
lots of RAM (I have 1 GB) P5 is very good. Otherwise P4 (aka "Poser artist")
remains a good bargain.

G.



-- 

**********************
http://www.oyonale.com
**********************
- Graphic experiments
- POV-Ray and Poser computer images
- Posters

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I've used both Poser 4 and Poser 5.  If you plan to buy DAZ models, you
might like Poser 4 (Poser Artist) just fine, if you want to save a little
money.  But (as Gilles already stated), the default models in Poser 5 are
much more detailed, and the dynamic cloth(es) is a feature that I couldn't
imagine being without at this point.

After I bought it a couple months ago, I upgraded to service pack 3 right
away (from Curious Labs' site), and I haven't had any technical problems,
but I'm not a heavy user at this point.  Poser (imho), has never been very
user friendly, and getting the models into a proper pose can be a tough job.
But since you've used Poser 3, you probably realize that already, and know
what you're getting into.  I'm personally happy with Poser 5, but I could
name quite a few things that would make it better (multiple levels of undo
would be a good start!).

-- 
Jeremy
www.beantoad.com


"Ian Shumsky" <ian### [at] outerarmdemoncouk> wrote in message
news:40333719$1@news.povray.org...
> Hi,
>
> I recently bought a new computer, but my dusty old Poser 3 won't run.
Seems
> that if you have 1GB or more of memory then Poser 3 thinks you have none.
As
> the suggested remedy is to remove physical memory until Poser 3 starts is
a
> non-starter, it may be time to upgrade.
>
> So... Should I spend my hard erned cash on a Poser 4 or Poser 5 upgrade?
> From the price list at http://www.egisys.de/onlinestore/index_en.html, I
can


> Poser 4 and 5? Is it worth the extra cash for Poser 5's functionality?
>
> Cheers,
> Ian Shumsky
>
>

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"Jeremy M. Praay" <jer### [at] questsoftwarecom> wrote in message
news:40336bc8$1@news.povray.org...

> user friendly, and getting the models into a proper pose can be a tough job.

With P3, I've always found using the dials a hell of a lot easier than using the
mouse...

> name quite a few things that would make it better (multiple levels of undo
> would be a good start!).

That's *still* missing? Stunned...

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"Tom Melly" <tom### [at] tomandlucouk> wrote in message
news:40337c37$1@news.povray.org...
> With P3, I've always found using the dials a hell of a lot easier than
using the
> mouse...
>

Absolutely. I could never get the hang of using the mouse to control the
body parts.

-- 
Cheers,
Ian

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After checking the P5 functionality at Curious Labs and looking at some old
posts, I think I'll go for P5. I have a reasonably spec'd box, so it should
be able to cope...

Thanks for the replies.

Cheers,
Ian

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Jeremy M. Praay <jer### [at] questsoftwarecom> wrote in message
news:40336bc8$1@news.povray.org...
> I've used both Poser 4 and Poser 5.  If you plan to buy DAZ models, you
> might like Poser 4 (Poser Artist) just fine, if you want to save a little
> money.  But (as Gilles already stated), the default models in Poser 5 are
> much more detailed, and the dynamic cloth(es) is a feature that I couldn't
> imagine being without at this point.

Clothing is a major issue. Does P5 have more clothes than P4?  Right now I
spend a lot of time making accessories in Hamapatch, and tweaking the 2 or 3
usable stock items to get a little more out of them.

Looking at the features list of P5, it didn't really look worth spending the
cash, but the comments here sound like the dynamic clothing is a pretty good
feature.

RG

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Many of the significant changes in P5 concern its own rendering, like
the fact that it now has its own ray tracer and procedural textures.
That makes P5 a better choice for people who intend to produce their
final images from Poser, but for people who intend to export the objects
to a more sophisticated rendering system, like POV, these changes are
much less significant, and they might prefer the better speed, stability
and easier learning curve of Poser4.

-- 
Mike Williams
Gentleman of Leisure

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news:403454cb@news.povray.org...

> Looking at the features list of P5, it didn't really look worth spending
the
> cash, but the comments here sound like the dynamic clothing is a pretty
good
> feature.

In Poser 4 and below, clothes are props that, at best, conform to the body
parts they cover. This is good for lingerie (which doesn't cover much
anyway), for stiff clothes (like armour, hats, boots etc.) or extremely
tight ones (like tights). More casual clothes like dresses or shirts,
however, typically look too stiff because they don't fold properly with the
conforming system.
In Poser 5, dynamic clothes behave according to physical laws (like the
cloth simulation feature in Megapov). Not only they conform to body parts,
but they also fold, hang, flow etc. See the following examples :
http://www.oyonale.com/histoire/images/judy_test3.jpg
http://www.oyonale.com/histoire/images/judy_test4-5.jpg
In the first case, the cloth conforms to both the character and the chair
she's sitting upon. In the second case, the dress and the scarf also react
to a wind effect. All of this can be animated of course. Such uses are
completely impossible to do with traditional conforming clothes. The
drawback of dynamic clothes is that they require a lot of time and computing
power to get right. Also, the cloth models have to be one-sided (no "thick"
ones, so it more or less excludes heavy clothes like coats) and must be
relatively low-resolution (otherwise it takes forever). The low-resolution
issue can be fixed by exporting the mesh to another software and doing some
subdivision there, but it's still a limitation.

G.

-- 

**********************
http://www.oyonale.com
**********************
- Graphic experiments
- POV-Ray and Poser computer images
- Posters

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"Gilles Tran" <tra### [at] inapginrafr> wrote in message
news:40335d2e$1@news.povray.org...

>>Dynamic hair is less useful for POV-Ray users because there's
no good way to export it right now. <<

Oh darn, that was a major reason I was thinking of upgrading.

So if you do a .obj export (i.e. for PoseRay) the dynamic hair doesn't show
up?

I'm trying to simulate some moving hair INSIDE a space helmet and it turns
out that's a collossal hassle.  I'm having to put very short hair on any of
my females that go outside :)

I upgraded anyway but now I find dynamic cloth doesn't export for
animations.

        == John ==

(Mistakenly replied instead of Replied to group, sorry Gilles!

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