(My post to 3DCommune) ====================== System: Dual 1.25Ghz G4 (FW800) 1.5GB RAM Radeon 9000 Pro OS X 10.2.6 I was quite surprised to see Poser 5 for Mac OS X. Especially considering the recent abandonment of Mac Bryce, and the amount of time it's been since P5 Win was released. I've been using Poser since Poser 1 -- ca. 1995. I'm upgrading from Poser 4 (never bothered with ProPack). I'm looking forward to spending this weekend with Poser 5. First impressions (I might pick some nits here): This is a serious upgrade from P4. I can see why some folks were turned off by the sheer depth of this program compared to 4, but I'm really looking forward to digging into some of the new areas... materials, etc. I'm a geek like that. It was kind of a chore to re-install Vicki, Mike, and Steph. I had to install Vicki 2, then upgrade to V3. Since I wanted to leave my Poser 4 folder alone, I had to extract and manually install the DAZ people. It went without a hitch, but the manual install sure takes a lot longer than the "Easy Install". Also the installers for the DAZ people are all Classic apps (even if you want to extract) - so don't delete that OS 9 System folder just yet. I haven't really pushed it yet, but so far, this version feels at least as fast as Poser 4 as far as working in the interface- rendering is slower. One of the very first things I noticed was lack of scroll wheel support. =( I certainly expected to be able to use the scroll wheel - like in just about EVERY other OS X app. Scroll wheel support is built into the system fer cripessake. Glaring omission: No "undo" when tweaking parameters numerically?!?!? If you twiddle the dials, you can undo, but if you input numbers, you cannot undo. I simply do not understand this at all. This is a MAJOR BUG. Hopefully a patch will fix this. Switching between programs will sometimes make the document window totally disappear. Have to click on a different room to get it back. Seems to happen if you're using Poser 4 rendering option. Worse still, if you switch out of Poser while rendering in Poser 4 render mode, and switch back to Poser after rendering is complete, the document is not rendered (!). Using Firefly, it seems okay. Rendering is slower than P4 - even using Poser 4 rendering style. (Draft Quality, No shadows, Ignore shader trees) Minor bugs: Cosmetically, Poser 5 feels a little slapdash. ex.: http://www.th0r.com/p5men.htm Non-movable rendering progress window- I miss the Poser 1 progress dude. ;) Inconsistancies in interface elements - pallettes, dialog boxes, title bars, buttons, fonts. ex.: Drop Shadow mask is missing from the moused over "Render Now" button. Command-h does not hide the app. Changing the orientation of the Tools or Document Style has become a bizarre experience. Used to be option-click the name to toggle horizontal/vertical. Now, you need to option-double click, and the toolbar changes but it disappears until you double-click the name again. Confusing. I wish I'd been a beta tester for this app. Good stuff: VERY stable. Thanx PC beta testers! Lots o' stuff to explore. Split document window. I think I like the new Library organization. Parameter dial/properties pallette. Materials room looks very cool. Looking forward to using the Setup room in conjunction with ZBrush characters. I was going to wait for DAZ studio, but I couldn't resist -- Poser 4 was about the ONLY app I used Classic for. I haven't deleted Poser 4... yet, but I just might.