I just read the Zygote Q&A with Chad... and I am STILL waiting for a reply to an E mail I sent to Dan, regarding the "folded wing eagle" model...I am left with a sinking feeling that Poser 3 and even 4 figures/program versions are going to be "left in the dust"!! I have been asking the Zygote folks for a "folded wing eagle" for a long time..waiting patiently for the "big new project" to be done, and out of the way... Now it looks like Victoria (and Victor??) are taking over... I for one, did not buy Victoria..having no interest in another human model with all that I have..and all the morphs available for them. Now, here comes talk of Poser 5...but Poser 3 works fine!!(and 4 sort of..er.. I hope THAT version will be totally fixed, before another version comes out....unlike the Metacreations past trends.. !!) Does anyone else feel the same??

Well, actually, I like Poser 4 a lot better than 3 simply for the heirarchy editor, sketch designer and grouping tool. I would hope that Poser 5 would not come out until there a "huge" advances, not a few nifty neat things. Sorry the eagle project was never advanced. Davo

Speaking of which, I am curious about whether there is any word of a projected timetable for the potential development/release of Poser 5. I have access to use Poser 4 at the time being, courtesy of the Digital Media Lab here at UW, and thus I am reluctant to upgrade my personal copy from 3 to 4. I would feel most frustrated to upgrade, only to find that a new version was scheduled to be relased a short time later. Kolschey

Well I figure P5 wont be due out untill sometime in the fall...maybe later. I like p4 for its trans map ability along with everything davo said

theres a patch avalible Marie.....at the metacreations site. It fixes some of the bugs....

Davo, I prefer Poser 4 too, but the three features you mention I've never even used! I like it mainly for its conformable clothes. I would probably like it for its magnets too, but I've never managed to get them to work. It's probably just me. What are other people's favourite features (or indeed least favourites)?

Magnets aren't too hard. The concept is the relation bewteen the magnet zone (the sphere) and the magnet itself. The magnet base is just for moving the magnet around without causing anything to happen in the magnet zone. It's kinda fun once you get the hang of it. Davo

Well to be honest, I USE

Well to be honest, I USE Poser THREE all the time..and only bought Poser 4 to have access to the P4 freebies that users generously post here!! I know there is a patch..but am reluctant to install this thing manually...SHeesh.. some patch!... Anyway I still want to assert my main CONCERN...(maybe zygote and new poser group will read this?) That us Poser THREE and 4 users will still have access to new models that will still work ..in 3 and 4?!!? I have bought a lot of zygote models over the years.. and if the model format changes..so that P3&4 will not read them..when the P FIVE comes out... then what!? Poser folks.. PLEASE do not do a "metacreations" on us..making new versions before the last ones are FINISHED...and please make new versions backward compatible!!!!

I'm very low-tech, and I like Poser 4 mainly for the transparency feature which really helps with realism in several key areas, and the better face detail possible with Poser 4 texture maps. Mapping Poser 3 eyebrows is usually a pain, and the finished results with Poser 3 textures are usually unspectacular. I used the very first Poser 4 patch released last January(?) and haven't tried the others because of scary reports such as Tim Burton's dresses and lingerie not working! I don't know if this is true, but I dare not chance it.

Poser 4 is hands down better then 3 IMHO, come on, magnets, waves, sketch designer, conforming clothes, point-at, trans & reflect maps, heiarchy editor, grouping tool (I can't put into words the sheer power of that one) new figures.... my list is almost endless. Then if you add the patch (which if you follow the instructions is rather painless) you get morph export, saving multiple figures to 1 .cr2 file, better curve joints, loads of fixes, and export options.... Bring on poser 5! If the jump between 3 & 4 is any indication of what 5 is going to hold for us I can't wait! (Bring on the specularity mapping!) -Trav *ok so I am baised, I love P4 :) *

Traveler is right! I forgot several things. (bad week)

Hmmm, well, I am going to HAVE to be brave and install patch..does this really "cure" the bugs of 4?? I still use my P3 which is HOOKED UP to my RDS5.2 WITH obj/poser patches..for all my morphing!! When I read of how Metacreations upgrades RDS & P4 do not "talk to each other"..all being different, AGAIN, I resolved to keep my P3 and RDS5.2 as my main "morphing-modeling" team..using P4 only for what I HAVE to...and I admit I am still learning.. P5? I am happy with what I have..still need to LEARN more about them.. I suppose if P5 comes out, and will DO IT ALL..even with ORIGINAL models.. it would be worth the money..if and when IT is a FINISHED version, and comes with many "user recommendations"...BUT I will always use good old poser THREE as my basic trusty version! heck, the OLD zygote animal CD figures work there..then zygote goes and changes the mesh of the same animals- like the frog- and the morphs made for the old frog do not work on the P4 frog.. CH CHING! Forced to buy 4... I feel taken advantage of! Sigh..this "rant" could go on forever..and I doubt any "companies" really care .. so I will stop now..having vented a bit to make myself feel better...

Marie- I feel your pain. :) At Zygote we also use Poser3 all the time. We want our products as well as our weekly free models to have the widest audience possible. As a result, they are almost always created in P3. (Though when they do require exclusively P4 functionality we work in P4, of course.) Also, I have to admit, P3 requires less memory than P4, so we usually use it to create the images for our site as well. As far as your concern that Poser3 and 4 users will still have access to new models that will still work in 3 and 4, I think that you're okay for the most part. Though I can't speak for Curious Labs, I know that they are very concerned about backwards compatibility, and will not change the model format. Your more realistic concern is that people will start creating models that require conforming clothing, transparencies, or other P4 functions, or that they modify the extra content that is included in P4 (or eventually will be in P5). It's a tough decision. Ultimately P3 will be fairly obsolete for file trading purposes, I would imagine. Poser2 currently seems to be in that situation. (Zygote certainly doesn't sell anything for P2.) I'm sorry for this negative side to improving a product, especially as Zygote is a major contributor to it. However, just for the record, Zygote does not make any money from Poser sales, and would certainly not intentionally modify models for a new version of Poser so that users had to buy a new version of something that they already had. Thanks for the feedback, Marie. -Chad Zygote Media Group