I am ready to upgrade. Do you think I should purchase Poser 4 w/ ProPack or Version 5. I am reading a lot of issues with Poser 5. I have also read it is not compliant with other 3D applications. I am a graphic and web designer. I want to do realistic work. I am also debating between Bryce 5 and Vue D'Esprit. Any input would be welcome.

The cloth room in P5 is pretty amazing, but the hair room still needs a little work, I think. Given the choice, I'd opt for ProPack. Bryce vs. Vue? Vue has a pretty cool rendering engine, but Bryce is far better with lights. Just depends on what you ultimately want to create, I guess.

Purchase the Poser4/Vue d'Esprit bundle from CuriousLabs for $320.00....and you will never ever regret it. SWAMP

Poser 4. Poser 5 works fine, the extra features are nice but more of a novelty than anything you'll be using on a regular basis. The extra features where fun for about a month, but too slow and poorley implemented.

I bought 5 (even after finding out about all the bugs etc). I loaded SR2.1 and poser is almost completely stable on my machine. I really like p5's firefly renderer, even though it gets mixed reviews ... and the cloth room is sweet (once you figure it all out)... my $0.02 sez get poser5

I agree with swamp.poser4 and Vue seems the best value.

I'd wait and see what Daz Studio is like, the base version will be free and comes with a superb and fast renderer. Some functions, like animation, will require the purchase of additional modules but we don't know what they'll cost yet. Hopefully they'll be affordable! Baz

I like Poser 4 and Vue because they play well together. :) You can import Poser 4 scenes right into Vue, textures and all. Importing into Bryce is harder. I don't even want to talk about Poser 5. In spite of all the updates it still does not run right on my system, and I have given up on using it. :(

I'd opt for Poser 4/Pro Pack and Vue. I would go with P4 over P5 for reasons which I will not restate here but which have been adequately and fully stated by many. I have both Vue and Bryce. There are a few reasons I prefer Vue. It works very, very well with Poser 4 pz3 scenes. There have been times I have opted for a Poser 4/Vue scene over a Poser 4/Cinema 4 scene. I feel the Vue renderer is faster than Bryce. I prefer Vue atmospheres over Bryce, yet I agree that Bryce lighting is a bit more flexible especially for any interior work. Also, another advantage with with Vue is that you do not have the joy of having to deal with Corel, who happens to be in very dicey financial straits right now. Who knows where Bryce will end up? If anywhere. Do not under estimate the importance of this. Corel IS in very precarious shape, IMHO. My vote - Poser 4+Pro Pack+Vue. Take care, be well, keep flying. casamerica

Daz Studio-comes from Daz, so it won't be affordable. P4-Has the setup room. P5-has the setup room, face room, cloth room, much improved rendering. Hair room isn't great. Overall, it's the best value. For character work you won't need another app.

P5 is real cheap right now at Amazon. Fire Fly works OK with me. I haven't tried Vue and Poser except the demo version free on their site. I do a lot of renders in comic book style so I need to quickly render/pose/render and so forth. Vue is probably great for those single shot girl with sword pics but I found it too much of a hassle to quickly do work. P5 is very stable with the latest patch but is a memory and CPU hog. As people said, if you're not needing the better features then maybe waiting to see what Daz comes out with might be better. But if you have disposable income then P5 is real cheap right now.

Vue+PoserPropack. Like pepperonis on pizza :)

You can't go wrong with the Vue/ProPack combo.

Bryce is DEAD IN THE WATER.

DAZ Studio is a long way from being released, and even longer until you will be able to do anything but render with it.

If P5 had plugin support(besides the ridiculously priced Reiss Maya plugin), I may recommend it over P4.

In any version of Poser, rendering is slow (P5 is very slow). You will most likely want to render in a different app. P4 doesn't raytrace, but with the Propack plugins, you will be able to do it in Lightwave, Cinema 4d, or 3DSMAX. If you are(or think you may be) serious about 3D graphics, then at least one of these should be on your wishlist.

Again, and as others will suggest, Propack and Vue will probably make you quite content to sit in a dark room night after night being creative.

Mark

Poser 4/ProPac and Vue. I have Vue. I have Bryce 4 and I have Poser 5. Poser 5 doesn't work with Vue....or much of anything. There are still many shortcomings in all it's "flashy features" It's also a resource hog. I couldn't recommend it to anyone at this stage. Vue is wonderful!! You will absolutely love it! :) Like some, I'm waiting for DAZ studio. Hope one of their first plugins with be for Vue.

Corel is in dire financial straits and may be sold to another company. Right now, there's no guarantee that there will be any more work on Bryce. I prefer Vue over Bryce anyway due to the tree generator, etc. but Bryce renders a bit nicer, IMO. P5 still isn't as stable as I'd like. I'd do P4, PPP and Vue, if possible. If someone came out with a real library system plug-in for P4 like P5 has, I'd buy it and dump P5 in a heart beat. DAZ Studio is months away, and while the renderer itself will be free, there will be commercial plug-ins to add functionality. I haven't a clue on pricing. Hope this helps, Cres

I have P4 on one Pc and P5 on one other, I use P5 most of the time, I have not had many problems with. The material room is great, cloth room good, Face room works well with the P5 models. I have not used the hair room much, can't say for the animation. If you can only buy one get p5... other wise go P4 and Vue... thats my nickel.

I use Poser 5 all the time. I have Windows XP so I can use all my memory-- I have a bunch 2GIgs. My processor, Dell, is 2.4G. Poser 5 takes a long time to start up, it sometimes freezes in renders. The renders can take quite awhile-- not as long as Bryce. I use P5 today for hours and not a bit of trouble. 6 renders, no freezes. I use it for the Materials room and the FireFly renderer and the vastly improved library situation. I never want to go back to Poser 4 and that mess. With those limited expectations and keeping the poser 5 runtime fairly lean, I have little or no trouble. In fact, it keeps getting better. Poser 5 is certainly worth Amazon's price. The question of which one has the longevity-- I'm afraid Poser has no longevity. If and when I see SR3, I might change my mind. Emily

I have Poser 4 with Pro Pack, Poser 5, Bryce 5, and Vue 4 with Mover. Hands down, the best combo at the moment is Poser 4 with Pro Pack and Vue 4 (add Mover 4 for animating Poser scenes in Vue). Don't get me wrong. I think Poser 5 has gotten a bum rap and will ultimately be my "weapon" of choice for quickly setting up scenes and animations. The problem that I have with Poser 5 is no plug in support for Lightwave, etc.

Attached Link: http://www.greenbriarstudio.com/3D/

Interesting thread. I never upgraded to ProPack because as I recall there was a problem with certain character morphs not working or something. No one seems to be bothered though so maybe I'll bite the bullet - I've wanted the jpgs for bumpmapping feature for a long time - I hate the HUGE .bum files. As I recall these problems were with characters and morphs that were freebies from people so maybe since most of the models used now are MM folk that old problem is irrelevant... Hmmm... Also, I've recently seen some really nice animations done with Poser and Vue (I guess with Mover) and that is desirable to me as well. I wish Poser animation was compatible with Bryce but oh well... seems fine in Vue though so I have much to consider.