This is the readme that you get right before you install. Tells you what the changes are, and I can see improvements already. I am keeping the update, and I have instructed my zonelab firewall to not allow the access. I haven't had any problems with the program by not allowing it to access their server. I think DarkEden is probably right. But they should give you the option before you install. I'm sure they will deal with this, I'm not too worried about it myself, I look at it as more of a help to keep me updated than some evil trojan. =) Marque Curious Labs Poser(r) 4.0.3 --------------------------------------------------------- Hello Poser 4.0 users. This updater incorporates a number of fixes to problems found in version 4.0 of Poser. In the Updates section of this readme are some of the fixes and improvements you'll find in this update: ---------------------------- CONTENTS ---------------------------- - Important Information - Poser(r) 4, RayDream Studio(tm) 5 - Common Problems and Solutions - Updates - Technical Support ------------------------------------------ IMPORTANT INFORMATION ------------------------------------------ Poser(r) 4 is a 3D-character animation tool for the creation of images, movies and models that can be incorporated into web, graphics, video and 3D projects. For a full description of new features in Poser(r) 4 check out the printed User Manual or the PDF version on the CD. Understanding these basic caveats with Poser(r) 4 will enhance your overall experience and productivity- 1. Click on an Edit Tool to select it, then click and drag a BODY PART to manipulate that part only. 2. Click and Drag on an Edit Tool icon to manipulate the ENTIRE FIGURE. 3. Use all tools in SMALL MOTIONS rather than large motions and results will be much more predictable. 4. The parameter dials will control the figure's limbs in more controllable increments. The default figure when you create a new file is a Poser(r) 2 figure. Replacing this figure with one the "People" figures in the Figures Library will enable all the new model functionality of Poser(r) 4 including facial expressions. Instructions for changing figures are in the Quick Reference Card and the Poser 4 Manual. Be sure to visit the Curious Labs web site, www.curiouslabs.com for more information and tips about working with Poser(r) 4. You can also go directly to this site from within Poser via the help menu's Web Links. The Quick Reference Card is a very important resource to use in conjunction with Poser(r) 4. It lists numerous shortcuts and keystrokes to save time and enhance functionality. In the interface Camera Controls, the small previews which by default display the Face Camera, Right Hand camera and Left Hand camera, can be used to store your current camera choice by ALT Clicking on the small preview. This allows you to quickly click to get to 3 of your favorite cameras. It is recommended that you download and install Apple's latest QuickTime to load Mac Pict image files into Poser 4 and to view .mov movie files. ---------------------------- POSER(r) 4, RAYDREAM STUDIO(tm) 5 ---------------------------- Poser(r) 4 is not supported by the RayDream Studio(tm) 5/Poser plug-in. OBJ import/export between the two applications is still functioning and has actually been improved in RayDream Studio(tm) 5.5 ---------------------------- ---------------------------- COMMON PROBLEMS & SOLUTIONS ---------------------------- - When creating an animation using one of the Male or Female Characters, be sure to make your figure choice before creating keyframes. If you've created keyframe for facial expressions, these will be replaced when switching figures. Saving your keyframes in the Pose library will allow you store this information and apply it to a different figure. - If you are going to create a new figure from spawned props, do not delete the original prop before the figure creation process has been completed. - Saving sets into various the Libraries when your screen resolution is set below 32bit/millions of colors will create a square background behind the saved library set's preview. - Alpha channels are best created by rendering over a black background. Imported images do not provide a good backdrop if you need a rendered image with an alpha channel. The Sketch Designer does not render a useable alpha channel. - If you run Poser 4 in 640x480 screen resolutions, set your Windows Taskbar to "Autohide" in the Taskbar's properties controls. - Poseable hands and facial controls are only on the Poser "People" figures. Once one of these figures has been loaded into your studio, selecting the figure's Head will reveal the facial control dials. Selecting the Hand will reveal several global controls for all the fingers and thumb allowing grasping and stretching. The Poser 2 default figure in your new document window does not have facial controls and poseable hands. - The Figure Height settings and body part scales may produce erratic results when applied to the new "People" and "Animal" models. Scaling the whole figure may produce better results. - If you switch between various animals, it's advisable to use 'Edit Menu: Restore: Figure' to get the animal model into it's default state - When you first open the Walk Designer, a delay will occur as the walk animations are being loaded. Each time after the first, opening the Walk Designer is much quicker. - 999 Frames is the maximum limit of frames displayed in the Animation Controls, although animations of any frame length can be created. - There are fundamental limitations with Poser's z-buffer shadow map shadows that forces the user to take some control over shadow parameters to get better results. Shadow maps generate a square image to be used as information for the shadow generation. The larger this image, the better the shadow will look -- but at a large cost in memory. The user can control this by selecting each light and increasing the map size dial. Default is 256 which is pretty small. Values of 512 or even 1024 or more may be needed for closeup renderings. Again, this will use a lot of memory when rendering. Also, turning antialiasing on will make the shadows look smoother as well. Some situations are unavoidable with shadow maps. When the light strikes from the side so the area seen in the depth map view (from the light) is tiny but results in a large area from the main camera view, you will get very low resolution and quality on the shadows in that area. This is true of all renderers using shadow maps. Shadows can be lowered in intensity and/or turned off completely for individual lights. This can also help improve quality when there are problems. ---------------------------- UPDATES Changes Found in the 4.03 Updater * FEATURE CHANGE-- Limits are now applied when IK is on. This was not being applied in the original Poser 4.0 This may change your current poses until you turn Use Limits off. * FEATURE CHANGE-- Compound figures (parented or conformed) will now save into Figure libraries as compound figures. * Full Left to Right or RIght to left symmetry copy operations will now copy any objects whose INTERNAL names follow the naming convention of having the first character 'r', 'R', 'l', or 'L' and the rest of the name matching (for left versus right) * The Vrml/HAnim plugin has been seperated in to two plugins. A Vrml plugin, and an HAnim plugin. You will now see these two choices in the File->Export menu. * Material dialog fix -- was incorrectly updating some materials * Aliases in Libraries work now (Mac only) * Metacharacters now allowed in library names * Fixed intermittent rendering hangups and crashes on some machines due to line elements in data files. * Fixed magnet reordering problems when resaving opened files * Several 3DS, VRML, MetaStream (and other file format) import/export fixes * Fixed some non working grouping operations * Fixed potential crash when drawing origin axes. * RIB file output improvements * IK fixes when switching between IK and non-IK * Ground plane forced to be at 0.0 * Fixed reading of material names with spaces in them * Fixed crash bug when trying to render with Bounding Box only mode set * Fixed Bikini Top * Parameter lists can now have more than 100 dials * Turned hither parms on for perspective cameras. * Background color distortion between limbs has been cleaned up. * Fixed crash bugs related to improper display of drop shadow polygons. * Exported OBJ. figures with props attached import into Bryce. * Imported 3D models retain textures when the file is saved and reopened as a poser file. * Static values (non animating cameras, etc) now written to libraries. * Fixed some precision problems in BVH read. * Fixed problem related to group picking. * Fixed grouping tool display problem. * Stability and functionality improvements to Hierarchy Editor. You can now refresh in the Hierarchy Editor when changing body names. * Made it safe to delete a figure when an IK goal from another figure was attached to it. * Light sets now include all lights properly and will turn off unused lights when reloaded. New lights will be created when a light set with lights is applied.additional. * Remove light from figure when deleting figure. * Added some missing channels when creating a spotlight. * Enable Metastream export of Poser figures. * Custom prop Morph Targets remain during figure change. * Export for Morph Target support. * Morph Target parms weren't writing for attached props. * Inherited bending properties when saved with the Pz3 file. * Removed the neck from the female catsuit figure that had a neck attached. * Interactive Reflections now draw on polygons which have no UV coordinates. * Improvements to Curve channel deformation appearance (tails, snake, etc) * Fixed transform problem when inheriting bending properties. * Depth cue fixes have been incorporated. * Deformtarget wasn't always setting correct actor when reading a file. * Hither parms now write to files. * Character sets are now written out with proper reset values (not current values). * Better scrolling in graph views. * Fixed problems with the genitalia command not affecting all figures properly. * DPI setting is now saved with rendered images. * Some information was not properly interpolated during final rendering which resulted in some badly replaced shadows. * Numerous fixes to subset selection when saving to various libraries. * Fix for improper storage Offset value which could result in saved files reloading with corrupted appearance. * Smart prop saving of props attached to props enabled * Fixed other potential data loss issues when saving files. * File saving now temporarily moves a file being saved over to a temporary name and deletes it when saving is complete. Always keep joint window menu choice active now. * Sketch designer can now export painter scripts in Windows version * In the walk dialog box, the walk style and slider values no longer run out of the fields. * Undo translation of points on a walk path. * Default lights are no longer added when opening files which have less than 3 lights stored. * Updated RIB export to work again. Tested with BMRT as well as PRMan. * Improved the group picking by not picking shadows' polygons * Several group mode display issues have been fixed * Spawned props no longer display axis. * The material values were not being copied to spawned props. This has now been resolved * The unused materials weren't being purged from spawned props. This issue has been resolved * The display update when spawning props has been fixed * For OBJ export: Appending figure # to material name when export multiple figures * For OBJ import: Fix import progress bar error * Removed writing of preset materials from files since they are no longer used * Improved IK solution * The prop library now selects Prop Types first time (instead of Magnets) * For OBJ export: enter two slashes (//) for face with only verticed and normals * Record right foot position too for preblend in WalkDesigner * Reduced unneccessary keyframes when switching from IK to non IK. * Fixed redraw when camera is switched back to animating. * Fixed broken spline interpolation * Fixed resampling animation using "Analyze curvature" * The figure parenting now works in the hierarchy editor ---------------------------- TECHNICAL SUPPORT ---------------------------- For up to date information on our support policies, go to: www.curiouslabs.com You must be registered to receive technical support. Please visit our web site for the latest information on registration and technical support. Telephone support services are available in the U.S. and Canada only. If you live elsewhere, please contact the international distributor nearest you for sales, service, and technical support. Note: Curious Labs reserves the right to change its support policies at any time. ---------------------------- Copyright (c) 2000 Curious Labs, Inc and egi.sys AG. All rights reserved. Curious Labs Poser 4 is a trademark of egi.sys AG. PhotoShop is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated. QuickTime is a trademark of Apple, Inc. Windows 95 is a registered trademark of Microsoft, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.