I am so sorry if I offended any body out there. It is not the artist or Renderosity. I have been having this problem for a long long time about loading charactures into Poser 4 for a while. A lot of people have tried to help with no success at all. I have had great success with the material from DAZ 3d. In fact I have spent a heck af alot of money there with 100% perfect files installation. It must be the exe. file installer? I am a artist not a software engineer. I bought Poser 4 over a year ago and I am still having problems with it. I wanted to combine my sculpting capabilities with CGI artwork and animation. I own Vue-Esprit 4 and I love it. same goes with 3d studio max R5 and Adobe photoshop 7 ,Lightwave 5 . Why do I have so many problems with Poser 4? (curios labs you listening? try to fix this file placement problem) Like a patch? I know I am not the only one who has encounterd this! It should be very very easy to do, not computer software brain surgery. When you buy a car it should run when you turn the key, right? You should not have to open a crate and put the thing together first. Here is a Idea? Artists out there add the exe. files to your work? I will. So everyone out there once again I am very very sorry with my last message post but I hope you can see my frustrations with Poser 4. when it works it is great but I will be waiting on upgrading to Poser 5 ( if it is worth the money ) Once again sorry Cryodragon

I think the people that run Customer Services here at Renderosity and the people over at Sixus1 will be glad to here everything is ok as it was them that were probably most hurt by your comments

But there is a reason most people do not use .exe; many of us will not unpack .exe files. Viruses! It is very easy for unscrupilous people to put a virus or a trojan in an .exe and you would have no idea. (Not saying that any of the merchants or freestuff providers here ever would do that). Many people prefer to see the files names and file extensions first before they unpack it.

Funny you should mention the preference for .exe files. This is something that we are exploring the possibilities of as I'm sure that it is an element, as you have stated, that makes many people more comfortable with product purchases from Daz. What we are considering is offering the option to choose manual loading zip versions of our products (which is what would be available at Renderosity due to policies here)or self-installing exe files similar to those provided through DAZ. I understand how confusing and frustrating the installation process can be, especially if you aren't totally comfortable with poking around for little tricks in some software. FYI: my method of unzipping a Poser related zip file is to just open the file with Winzip, immediately click on the "Extract" button and in the dialogue that pops up, make sure that "Use Folder Names" checkbox is turned on and that the path in the drop-down for "Extract To" points to your Poser directory (example: C:Program FilesCurious LabsPoser 5). That method works every time for me without fail so you might try that in the future to avert some frustration. Thanks for the apology. Thanks even more for purchasing our Grey Alien! Let us know if you need anything else and we'll be glad to help!

.zip files are also prone to hostile scripts. If you have one of the two best-known anti-virus programs, you generally shouldn't need to worry about viruses from .zip or .exe files, especially when they are downloaded from Renderosity or DAZ. I'm a total download addict, and have never once, ever had a virus problem as the restult of downloading anything from any Poser vendor or free stuff provider. The only times Norton caught something nasty was when I stupidly downloaded something from someone's personal website...it had nothing to do with Poser, and Norton deleted it immediately. While anyone who uses the internet would be foolish not to use A-V software and a firewall, I honestly think that the virus threat is hyped up unrealistically, particularly as regards items from trusted merchants. I have no real complaints about DAZ' self-installers, but there is one drawback: You have no idea what directories all components are installed to. Their ReadMe's only indicate which Poser library you can load the product from. I prefer .zip files, because I can then temporarily unzip to an "install" folder on my desktop, then put the library files where I want them. (e.g. instead of putting DragonBreath's Morphing Cheesecake .cr2 into the default "Dragon Cheesecak" folder, I can put it into my general "Food" folder, saving library space." With DAZ products, it takes a bit of post-installation sleuthing to do that.) It might be nice if DAZ were to go the extra mile and indicate exactly where all components of their products are installed to, as many merchants do here.

I think if we move to offer both zips and exe's we would certainly keep with the in-depth readme's that we currently provide. Rebekah is in charge of doing those and the packing, and I know she puts a lot of effort in the cataloging of every little file and path needed. I think either way we would definitely stick with including that because I feel that it's just a courtesy to our customers to do so.

It is also possible to install the DAZ exe files into folders outside of Poser. Just hit the "browse" button when the installation gets to the point where it pulls up your poser directory and change the installation to "Poser Temporary" or something like that. I never EVER install directly to Poser. EVER.

I'm 100% in favor of using legit executable install software instead of zips. Either can contain a virus. However, that would take PC/Mac incompatibility a step further.

Kate, you're right! Agh...sometimes the most obvious things get forgotten. OK, I stand happily corrected. Sorry, DAZ peeps! xoco slaps own forehead

I far prefer a zip to an exe installer. Several reasons. I can check the installation paths to make sure they are correct. I can instantly tell if the download was corrupted or not. When storing long term, it is easy to check exactly what was in what package. Let me give an example-- there's a texture package in the store and a freebie offered in FS. I download the freebie, click on the jpg inside the zip to check the quality Before I install. It's good, I buy the product; it's too small too low-res, I don't. Love zips, they re user friendly. Emily

I much prefer zips. I won't download or install exes unless they are the major components from the software makers themselves.... If I get PhotoShop from Adobe, or Poser directly from CuriousLabs (you know boxes, manuals, and guarantees) I can be fairly sure that it doesn't contain a trojan; anything from J Random Vendor and I'd be taking too many chances. I run both PC and Macs in this small office so opening stuff on one computer and hand-carrying it to another isn't really that much extra work, but why risk any of my computers? As much as I hate this Windows box, I don't torture it. And if I don't have the particular software on this box, your exe won't install anything anywhere anyway, so there'd be NO benefit to me. Only risk. Since I do almost all of my graphics on the Mac, I won't buy PC-only items from the marketplaces. Carolly

I also second the no exe ...

What Les meant to say in fewer words was that we are going to be offering the choice of exe or zip in the future. No worries, you like zip we keep zip....you like exe...we have exe for you ;) Rebekah Garner Sixus1 Media

Most people offer "smart" zip files now - you use unzip them to your Poser directory and they sort themselves out. I certainly expect that in a purchased product. I would be ok with EXEs from DAZ but not as freebie - I would worry about viruses.

Is it really that hard to unzip with "use folder names" checked?

This Is Cryodagon I fixed the install problem ( it took a while,4-5 hrs at least) I have been reading the replys about the exe. and zip files my solution offer both! For virus protection software, junk Norton,Mcafee and get Ez-trust Innoculate! This software is used by Banks,Boeing,and large corporations! I would not worry about artists installing viruses,worms,or trojan horses. This is a crime now regarded as cyber-terrorism and is punshable if caught with heavy fines and jail time! You would have to be the biggest stupid fool on the planet to try to do this while letting everybody know you were the one who sent the virus!Would it be nice if Curios Labs made there own file-extraction,cataloging type software app. dedicated for Poser 4 and 5 only? P.S the Sixus Grey alien works and it kicks butt! awesome! Best regards Cryodragon

Most people don't intentionally distribute a virus. Some of them slip through, though, and are UNintentionally distributed. For instance, my sister, running Norton, was taken down by a virus a year or two ago. When she got back up, she had to re-upload parts of her website. Why? I don't remember the details, but the virus exploited some Microsoft bugs and attached itself to every HTML file on her system as a malicious script. Some of those HTML files were then unknowingly loaded up to her site, where they could spread to her visitors. I would hate to see my beloved sister punished with heavy fines and jail time because she was an unfortunate victim. The point is, a virus can get in without anyone knowing it. Viruses have been found on shrink-wrapped CDs bought from major software companies. They're just insidious buggers.