I think I might want to upgrade to Poser 5, but I want to keep 4 as well. If I get 5, can I just install it to my Poser 4 directory so that they can share a Runtime folder, or will one version overwrite the other? Is anybody else using both who can tell me what's involved in setting this up? Thanks.

I installed p5 in a different directory than p4.And you can link from p5 to your p4 runtime ,so you can use your p4 stuff in p5 without changing anything in your p4 runtime.

Link how? I'm not sure what you mean.

P5 will not overwrite P4, and you will need to keep the P4 install if you use the PP plugins. In P5, you can link to P4 libraries, but it may have trouble finding geometries and textures. When this happens it gets confused and sluggish, and if you don't point to where there file is, it farts and dies. I run both with identical runtimes, it is less of a hassle, easy to synchronise, and I always have a backup. The only downfall is the amount of space it takes, but with 60GB devoted to Poser, it isn't much of an issue. I rarely use P4 anymore except to use the plugins, in which case the files need to be in the P4 runtime.

I've heard the P5 manual sucks. Are there places online that can walk you through this kind of thing? And what are your overall opinions of P5? Is it really much better?

Jelisa has a step-by-step tutorial on linking your existing P4 runtime to Poser 5. Once you've set it up, you can use the Library to switch between your P4 and P5 folders.

http://www.fignations.com/jelisa/tutorials/p5link.html

"Oh yeah, it's worth it ... if you're strong enough."
-- Tommy Lee Jones, Men in Black

I'm using both P4 and P5 and I keep separate runtimes. It's working well for me. P4 is a lot faster and simpler while I'm setting up most of a scene - then I switch to P5 to set up materials and cloth dynamics and render. Having separate runtimes helps me keep track of which things I can only use in P5 and makes sure I can still access all of my old stuff in P4. With the price down so much, I think p5 is well worth the money now. The manual seems fine to me, but I wish it had more information on the material nodes and how to use them. Most of what I now know about those I've had to learn by trial and error.

If you truly feel you wish to embark on the Poser 5 adventure, do not install it in the same directory as your Poser 4 and do not remove Poser 4 from your system. If you use Poser with Vue dEsprit, for instance, removing Poser 4 from your system makes the importation of Poser scenes into Vue much more difficult. Also, if you are using Poser 4 with Pro Pack and wish to easily export into a different rendering program, you will need them since Poser 5 has no equivalent method of exporting into Lightwave, Cinema 4d, etc. Such abilities have been promised for the future, but well Also, for whatever reason, Poser 5 refuses to open previously saved Poser 4 scenes at times. After 4 months and numerous SR patches, we could still never figure out any pattern as to why certain scenes would make Poser 5 choke and puke and other scenes opened just fine. So you will want Poser 4 on your system to be able to use any older scenes that Poser 5 deems unworthy of its time. You will also be able to link your Poser 4 runtime into Poser 5 so do not worry about having to reload all of that. It will also allow you to easily keep your Poser 4 and Poser 5 only files separate. You will encounter problems with Poser 5 being unable to find geometries and/or textures. It might allow you to manually point it to the file or it might not. It depends on the mood it is in on any particular day. >>>And what are your overall opinions of P5?<<< Personally, I view it as worthless, not much better than a poorly written alpha and a final piece of evidence that you should trust no one in the software industry. But then my opinion has earned me endless condemnation, flames and now even threats of violence from the CLCDNW mafia. So do read other opinions and make your decision. I cannot recommend that anyone buy Poser 5. All BS aside, I would at the very least wait until SR3 is released and see the reaction to that. I would think that after 8 months and numerous previous service releases they would finally be getting close to the functional program they promised last year. 8 months. Has it really been that long? Time does fly >>>Is it really much better?<<< No. The Firefly renderer is marginally better than the original Poser 4 but was outdated before Poser 5 was released. And if you are using Poser 4 mainly for animation, Poser 5 in its present condition will be virtually useless to you in my opinion. Also remember that the much touted dynamic hair and clothing will not currently export to any other rendering program I know of. The one thing that I will say was a vast improvement was the library structure, but even that has bugs. Go figure. After looking at your gallery (I particularly liked Maya, Destinys Path, ~Classic~ Tribute to Liv Tyler and Liv Again.), I see nothing that Poser 5 offers that would, in my opinion, add to or broaden your talents or make your work easier. A possible exception would be the dynamic cloth. But I think you would spend more time fighting the frustration of working with an unstable and unworthy product than creating more art or extending your talent. Very good work, by the way. Our production tools currently include Poser 4, Pro Pack, Vue dEsprit, Bryce, TrueSpace, Rhino and Cinema 4d. Lightwave is joining the list. Poser 5 will never be on the list. Take care, be well, keep flying. casamerica

We are all entitled to an opinion, mine is that Poser 5 works well and is great value for money. You do not need to over write your existing Poser 4. Poser 5 will instal to a Poser 5 directory. You will then be able to access your Poser 4 files from within Poser 5.

P5 works well in some areas, not well in others. The improvements over P4 made it worth the money to me, but some advertised parts still aren't acceptable. Check the P5 Beta forum for bugs. CL has said they hope to release SR3 this month or early next month if things go well. I'd wait for the SR3 release before shelling out any money. Don't delete P4 from your system. Install P5 in a new directory. How to link to the old P4 libraries from P5 is explained in previous posts. I use Vue and Tailor, and neither one works well with P5 output. Vue intends to support P5, but there's no update yet for that. Tailor doesn't recognize P5 .cr2 files, so I have to go back into P4 whenever I make a new .cr2 and want to use it in Tailor.

I agree you should at least wait for SR3 and do not remove 4 or install 5 in 4's directory for all the reasons Casamerica mentioned. And consider that if you plan to use the dynamic hair and cloth--even if P5 works fine for you--these things can slow P5 to an unusable crawl (depending on your system). If you plan to use more than two or three quality characters in a scene with hair and clothes, P5 will probably slow to a crawl no matter how powerful your system is.