hi all! i just want to know if theres still anyone out there still using P1, P2 or even P3.....the reason i ask is cuz i want to know what the interface of these progies look like....also want to know the features (like render engine, special features, etc) and when they were released......does the interface look like P5? juz curious.....it like a blast from the past....thinkin of the good old days of poser when it was only a wee bitty egg plant. =)

oh...forgot....if possible could you please post screen shots... thanks =)

Ye olden daze. Ah ... the memories. ;=] ;=]

hi Doc! is that P1 or P2? can they still use figures for P4 and P5? wait a minute....why does the title bar say "Curious Labs"? if this was P1 or P2 shouldnt it be MetaCreations? ehh....was sup doc?? lol.... =) aight....thanks Doc..

Attached Link: http://larry.curiouslabs.com/poser/Poser/TestsAndMemorabilia/tests_and_memorabilia.html

The doc is using the Poser 2 UI easteregg in Poser 5. Here are some early renders from the original creator's web site: http://larry.curiouslabs.com/poser/Poser/TestsAndMemorabilia/tests_and_memorabilia.html

can they still use figures for P4 and P5?

P1 and P2 could use no external figures at all - P1 was entirely limited to figures and props that were built-in, and P2 only allowed to import (static) props but no figures.
Because of that, you can neither use P3+ models with P1 and P2, nor can you directly import the original "built-in" P1 or P2 models in P3+.

The only files that survived the P3 revolution are textures and pose/lights/camera library files. In order to keep them working, P3+ included the "P1" and "P2" models, but these are actually "emulated" models - they are new P3 models that behave and look like the original P1 and P2 ones (to allow to use the old textures and poses).

Thanks for that link, Stewer, it was a fun trip thru the time machine :o) And MartinC thanks for explaining :o) I always thought the P1 and P2 characters WERE the original ones shudders they're so scary, yet still bear a strange fascination. Something like opening up a DOS prompt on WinXP G also kinda emulated, yet it LOOKS like the real thing. :o) Wasn't the early-interface-easteregg present in Poser 4 as well? I just forgot how to execute it, please someone TELL us what to type :o)

P O 2

"You've come a long way, Baby!" Poser(1) was originally done by a company named "Fractal Creations." (circa '95) ... then "Metatcreations" and ... ... finally "Curious Labs." (if memory serves) ;=] I'm not sure where the P --> P2 --> P3 --> P4 transitions occurred. I believe that P3 introduced much better models which were done by "Zygote" which then had a "spin-off" and became DAZ. My post (#3) was done in P4 by typing "po2" to show the old interface. Type "po3" to get back to the original P4. I'm not sure if it is available in P5. "Hmmm, I'll go check ..." (from the tv commercial) ;=] ... be right back ... ................(a little filler music here) ............. Nope, it doesn't appear to work in P5, but why would you want it to??? Sorry guys, I know you're really disappointed. ;=] So ... Here's a pic from Doc's gallery so you can see what you've "missed." Note - P3 is not missing (per se) - it would have looked the same as P4. cheers, dr geep ;=]

Poser 1 review: http://www.wap.org/journal/poser/poser.html

I can move and pose MUCH easier with the P2 interface than P4!! Cams, posing, lights...SO MUCH EASIER!! Thanks guys...

"Different strokes ... " ;=]

I still use Poser 3..except for getting clothes in and out of it..I feel slightly less ignorant using it than 4..and it was a lot cheaper..;)

i wonder in 5 years what 3D will look like? if we can make pretty realistic looking renders with stuff now, what in 5 years? any technical thoughts?

In 5 year when you click Render, the figures will appear in the middle of your room. Life size! ;) They still wont have any phyical form they will be holograms. Didn't want you to get to excited. LOL!

Hmmm??? THAT would make posing them verrrrrrrrry interesting! ;=]

I have th e P1 and P2 boxes sitting right here :) wonder if they wil even load into XP ???

Oh we could only dream! ;D

Poser(1) was originally done by a company named "Fractal Creations." (circa '95) Hey, Doc... this old timer remembers the company as Fractal Design. Unless I'm mistaken, didn't they also put out a majorly cool program called Fractal Design Painter? Brynna, remembering the "good old days"

Hmmm ... I do believe you are correct. That was a looooong time ago and many, many miles have been traveled since, no? Just think ... someday, these will be "the good old days." ;=]

If memory serves me right, I seem to recall the working window showed only in a green wire frame (P2, that is, I never saw P1). I haven't seen the interface in years, but I seem to remember that it was pretty unsophisticated. I'll have to try to find my disk and see if it'll install. I imagine it was on a floppy, considering how old it is. LOL Melanie

a floppy??? whats that? is that like a CD-RW or a DVD+R? oh wait! i think its this small thingy i poke my pencil in while waiting for Poser 5 tha render! =)

WELL..HERE YOU GO :) Fractal Designs it was

about the P1 people.....how do you work with something like that? i mean how do start making it look like a person? seriously man....um thinkin if i was given a project and id have to use the P1 people id say no can do.... =) no...but seriously....how do you make a figure like that look like a person? do you just slap on a texture or do you have to export to a modeler? lets say its 1994-95 and you only have the tools available back then....how would an artist pull something off like that? juz curious...

oh//its on 3 3.25 floppies

the origianl Poser concept was to have a human shape/form..then take it into a paint program...and use it as a base for an artist to flesh out :) Here is the box text from Fractal Design: Fractal Design Poser is the extraordinary art creation tool that lets you design with the human form. Developed for graphic artists, illustrators, designers, and multimedia mavens, Poser is the perfect tool for integrating the human figure into your creations. Use Poser for developing marketing concepts, for "virtual" photo-shoots, as a tracing template for "drawn" artwork, for creating 3D models, or for producing figures for use directly in your designs. Poser takes the science out of drawing figures and lets you use the human form as a design element---in any program. You will be astounded by the results.

dave_so thats kewl man......P1 still works on XP? and you have a copy? damn...where can i get me a copy? id like to play with that! oh now i know why that interface looks familiar!!! i had Fractal Painter installed on my Windows 3.11 computer looooooong ago!! i remember that comp was the first comp i made....it was the year 1994 n i was 18 years old.....i built me a Intel 486 66MGz comp with the full shabang of a whopping 8 Megs of RAM!!!!! with 512KB Video memory!!! woohoo!! then i upgraded memory to 20 MEgs!! FASTFORWARD to the year 2003....that comp was sitting in my garage....i decided to take a steel hammer...put me on some goggles.....then whacked the crap out of that slow ass computer!! AND I FELT GREAT!!! Guys, if youve destroyed something without a care in the world you know the feeling im talking about!! PURE PRIMAL TESTOSTERONE PLAGUED RAGE! =) heh....the good old times man....just like the 1980s! =) kewl man....kewl...... =)

DAVE_so LOL...im starting to love P1 people....they all look like Cyclops from X-Men...they all look they have goggles on.... the default lights also look like the P5 default lights with that white, green and orange lights going on....LOL man....i really gotta get me this program....maybe itll be worth some money in a couple of years...or maybe i can pass it over to my kids (god forbid i dont have any though)....they be hoggin my computer and all....crazy kids :)

what's funny, it works but gives an out of memory error after render... it was written for Win95... I'm not sure where you could find one now, other than an old timer that wants to give his copy up :) Its like a collectors item :) I actually had most of the old Fractal stuff.... Expression Painter Ray Dream Designer..which became Studo..now Carrara Detailer..which I just gave away Then Bryce came out...I just gave away Bryce 2 which was the first PC version, I think...it was originally made for MAC...... That company, then Metatools..then Metacreations had probably the most creative team in the graphics industry..IMO anyway :) There was another forerunner in there..HPS I think it was ??? And some great community spirit..like a big family... there are still quite a few of the original folks around..but slowly falling off...bummer to that...

hey man....thanks for the info =) i got a college friend who is now an (unemployed) computer engineer....i'll bet he'd love to get his hands on P1 or P2 and just reverse engineer it....he be adding stuf left and right...putting smiley faces here and there....one time on this other prog he disected he put a pic of his dog taking a poop right smack in front of the program's screen....pretty funny....anyway, he also loves 3D apps... thanks again man! =)

The font used (like in P5, Arial) was so much more readable. Any way to change the font in P4?

I remember I had to take my renders into a paint program (at that time I only had something called Paint House)and draw faces onto them. I also had to paint over that horrible wooden hair, once I actually discovered there was hair in there. My poor people were bald for the longest time. But I was so thrilled with it because I could actually visualize my story characters who populated the fiction I write. The DAZ Millennium people are so far beyond those early creatures in Poser that's it's laughable. Melanie

Never had poser 1 & 2. Still have Poser 3. (A Mac/PC Hybrid CD, no less) I just purchased 5 for OSX on my mac. My 10 year old saw me working with it to create some scenes for her FFRP campaign and asked if I could put it on hers. Wasn't about to shell out the money for Poser 5 for her windows PC, so I put Poser 3 on her computer (Windows 2000) it's running great. Also had to bring it in to work, since our boss wanted a couple of things done. Vicki and Mike, btw work in Poser 3... at least on the PC side they do. Now... if I could just figure out how to get poser's blankety-blank-blank-blank hair room to work so I can add hair to this one figure!!!

Well, she's only 10, so I'll let her play around with 3 for now before I decide to purchase an additional PC copy of Poser 5 (The Poser 5 copy I own is Mac OS only) True, the textures are limited, but at least my daughter can use the same "cool people" she saw me working on (for my wife's FFRP campaign, not my daughters, left that out in my last post) instead of the "sucky" people that came with poser 3.