Today Curious Labs released the Service Release 4 (SR4) for Poser 5 English on Windows now available at: http://www.curiouslabs.com/go/sr4. Please be sure to read the text posted on this page before downloading for further details. Also, please note that separate updates for Mac OSX and localized Poser versions will be available soon. The free demo of Shade 7 Basic can be accessed through the link on our SR4 page as well. There are three levels to Shade 7. Basic is Shade 's entry level application, Standard is the core level and Professional offers advanced capabilities. Currently only the Basic demo is available, but demos for Standard and Professional will be available shortly. Pricing and availability have not been finalized nor have the final details of the Shade/Poser compatibility , which is in currently in development. We will update you with more details as they become available. Below lists expected fixes within SR4. (Kind regards, Katherine) FireFly Render Engine --------------------- - Increased stability for long AVI/Quicktime movie renderings. Shadow map memory is now properly freed after calculating each frame. - Corrected calculations for displacement mapping normals. Improved lights and shadows on displaced surfaces. - Draft settings adjustment: Only 1 pixel sample per default. This reduces quality, but speeds up the draft rendering. Use higher values for an increased anti-aliasing effect. File I/O -------- - Improved search speed for missing textures when loading a Poser scene. - Improved texture memory management. - Document title will refresh immediately when saving a file with a new name. Animation --------- - Animating lights are now only animated if the 'Animating' checkbox has been checked. - The 'Animating' checkbox for lights will remain checked. - The on/off camera animation now does work correctly. Face Room --------- - Adjusted size of female head for improved application of geometry from the Face room. - Increased stability: Poser will not crash when the allocation of the head database fails. Library ------- - If desired, Poser can now omit thumbnails when browsing library categories that contain more than a certain threshold of items. Default set at 100 items per subfolder. Please adjust the previewNum value in Runtime/prefs/LibraryPrefs.xml if you prefer a different value. Cloth Room ---------- - Parented objects can now be selected as collision objects. - Improved control of constrained vertices when conforming figures are involved. - The setting start draping from zero can now be saved within a Poser file under the Cloth Collision Objects menu. - 'Collide against' now remembers multiple figures when saving and reloading a Poser file. - A props' collision and friction parameters are not reset to default values any more when adding/removing other props or figures to/from the collision. - When a cloth simulation is finished, the last frame is now displayed correctly. Walk Designer ------------- - When values required from the enhanced Walk Designer provided in SR3 are missing, the Walk Designer in SR4 will choose reasonable default values. - In case the Walk Designer cache needs to be regenerated, Poser will no longer take any runtime directories other that of the default into account, preventing cache corruption through outdated Walk Designer poses. - During startup and updates a progress dialog is now shown indicating what part of the Walk Designer is currently in process. Python ------ - Poser does not freeze any more on certain Python scripts that delete lights. - A script that assists in calculating the values for Depth of Field has been added to Render Controls. - A script to measure figure hip height and feet distance for the improved Walk Designer has been added to Print Info. - Geom.WorldNormals() function has been added. Morph Putty ----------- - Smoother Morph Putty handling and better support for non-Poser 5 figures. Hair Room --------- - Poser now prevents using names that contain blanks as protection since hair groups will not allow blanks. Material Room ------------- - Corrected an erroneous condition where multiple, disconnected nodes were added to the background color node. As a result, the background color was not editable any more. This problem is fixed in SR4. However, if you still happen to have files where this condition is present, there are a couple simple steps you should take to correct them: 1. Open the problematic file 2. Go to the material room 3. From object menu select background. You'll recognize that there are duplicated nodes. 4. Select and cut/delete all duplicated nodes except for the "BG Color" node that was originally connected to the Background root node. 5. Save the scene. In case you have set to open new documents with your preferred state, the problem will still reproduce in files created by File->New. Please repeat the process described above after creating a new file and set the preferred state again. - Solved some drawing problems that occurred when a Poser surface node was collapsed. - Improved consistency on shader node options. Miscellaneous ---- - Clicking the Pose room Tab repeatedly in the pose room will not disable the document update any more. - When changing the visibility of a body part or prop on the Parameter Dials palette, the visibility status is not out of sync any more on the Hierarchy Editor. - Choosing Display>Camera View>Four Cams from the menu now works. - In some cases, switching camera visibility off and on resulted in a displaced camera position which has been fixed. As well rendering after such an action will no longer cause a displaced camera position in the final image. - Using the UI dots will not separate the Editing Tools from the Editing Tools title any more. - The default UI prefs are now in the correct location, preventing the memory dots to disappear.

Hooray for the new WorldNormals function!!!!! I've been wishing for something like that, and trying to get the same action through various tricks that don't quite work.

OK. It sounds fine, let's see if it delivers this time...:)

ockham: I've been waiting for that function too :) But if you need it for ProPack, feel free to copy the respective function from my PoserMan exporter script.

I'm on it!

Thanks!

Attached Link: http://www.curiouslabs.com/go/sr4

Hi Rylan! :-) Tell everyone in the office I said hello, will you?

Done :) and Hello!

Upgraded Poser to SR4 and it broke it. Program locks up at startup "FFVrml.arp" Have to to kill program. Left message with Curious Arts Tech Support. Anyone else having problems?

What is that Service Release 3 Figures Updater that is downloadable from the same page ?

The figures updater has been around since SR1 and fixes certain issues with the base figures (Lost in space folks) that come with Poser 5. rschulte. I installed it within a couple minutes of her post at RDNA, and I have not experienced the issue you described. I am about to reboot, but I am very happy with it so far -- it's resisting my attmepts to break it.

Found someone else that it did the same thing to. Trying to discern the cause...

Hoo-boy! Increased stability, better texture memory management! Better missing files search! FINALLY! er, is there a way to undo the upgrade in case something goes awry, as in rschulte's case? If not, which program files should be backed up so a user can restore to the previous SR?

I had a very similar problem with SR3, I had to fix it by uninstalling then, reinstalling Poser 5 then installing SR3 over it. I'll wait and see with tech support has to say, I might have to reinstall Poser again.

I'm using Windows ME, working to get XP asap. I've found it to be a lousy OS and wouldn't be surprised if it is part of the problem.

Please share the results, hon -- very interested in this. As Jackson will likely tell ya, I'm a bit of a booster for P5, lol Jackson -- no kidding. Looking into a way to return to a previous state right now. For a backup, in general terms, though, just copy your Poser directory exclusive of content files -- i.e. no Geom, no texture, no libraries. If it goes bad, just replace. so far no one running 2k or xp has reported any issues, which is why I'm curious about rschulte's OS...

"I'm a bit of a booster for P5" Sure wish I could be one. Maybe this sr4 will do it ;) Yes, I can back up the whole thing but what about registry entries? Does sr4 change any of P5's registry settings?

Not according to my comparisons -- no before and after changes.

ME wasn't an OS, it was a MEstake. (grin) It caused a lot of problems with a lot of different programs.

So was the multiple magnet channel duplication bug fixed when loading and saving files with figures using magnets to shape clothes?

Top thanks for the update!! :)) Cath

Mason -- I haven't checked that one yet -- and now it'll be tomorrow before I do (sorry) -- but it looks like they've definitely been paying attention! lol If they haven't, we'll be stuck still trying to figure out a work around -- no worse than with ProPack...

Thanks for the heads up and I'm looking forward to the MacOSX update.
This sounds like quite an update!

Mine hangs too at the .arp... Using XP Pro and never had THAT happen before I installed the patch. Sigh... Re-install, here we come?

hmatienzo, try to move away the .arp files from Runtime/plugins first before re-installing. Does it launch then?

Please go to RuntimelibrariesPoseWalkDesigner and check whether you have duplicated walk designer poses there (i.e. the same name, with .pz2 and .p2z extension). This can happen when unpacking the runtime with the Python scripts. If yes, remove the .pz2 files. If that doesn't help, remove the .pwd file (the Walk Designer cache) and try again.

well in the walk designer I have a Don for Walk Designer.pwd is this the one you mean for me to remove? I left it loading the walk designer room till this post so it has had almost a full 30 minutes with no movement.

Yes, Don for Walk Designer.pwd is this the one to remove if there are no duplicated poses.

I also had a look around my runtime and I now have a back up folder with the walk designer poses in it as well. In the Curious LabsPoser 5Runtimefigures folder there is a walkDesignerFigure with no extention on it. Don for Walk Designer.pwd is in the RuntimelibrariesPoseWalkDesigner folder/

x-posted with you :)

all is loading now as expected thanks uli_k

No word about, when the SR4 for other languages will come out. And if.

Why the heck did I purchase the german version of P5???

bangs head against nearest wall

I did it only because I thought I had to, to be able to use my P4 Runtime. But it wasn't so. It wasn't the least so. I could have taken the english P5 and would have lived happily everafter. Only there was no information about that factor nowhere. E-mails to CL requiring about that weren't answered. I found out only when having it installed. Now I'm stuck with the german version.

wall bangs back

Would like to give the german P5 back and get the english version in exchange. If that would be possible?

wall shrugs

Don't bang your head too hard, the other language versions are normally out within a couple of weeks to a month of the English version. Looks like I'm gonna be reinstalling Poser5 myself today :) haven't even looked at poser for months been too busy with real life. What's the verdict from people who have tried it already? Does the patch fix everything that was wrong with Poser5 or should we be looking for an SR5 in a few months?

ps does it still slow right down in the materials room if you have more than 1 light active in your scene?

I talked to Tech support last night, very fast response. They recommended running defrag on my system (I had very large runtime folder 15+gbs) and suggested I not load Cachemann v5.11 to see if the memory manager is causing the issue. Only then they suggest uninstalling Poser5 and reinstalling it (note it will not touch content in runtime, only files it installs) then reinstall SR4. (for those who wish to backout to SR3 you can install this instead). They indicated the SR is cumulative but it prefers clean Poser 5 install. I had to do this for SR3 when it came out so my systrem (OS is ME) was already suspect. I'll let you know if it works.

.

Bekaval you could ask curiouslabs nicely, and if you have proof of purchase, they might give you an english version copy of p5.

I tried this before. CuriousLabs never even bothered to answer. I had to buy a new english version of Poser to be able to work. That's one reason I never updated to Poser 5 until my boss bought a copy in the USA. The german version of Poser is a piece of #*$%&!

rschulte, thank you!!! The other person I've found who had this problem also has a huge runtime, and, oddly enough, is also running Windows ME. I am very interested now...

I have Windows ME and had no problems installing and running the update.

good to know!!! Thank you pigfish9 :)

Hi, There's some concern about the German release of SR4. In the original announcement, the mention: "Also, please note that separate updates for Mac OSX and localized Poser versions will be available soon" -- localized Poser versions means the German and Japanese versions. These will be out soon. Kind regards, Katherine

Ran defrag, unload Cacheman - still no luck. Still locks up at FFVrml.arp The clean reinstall of Poser 5 and SR4 didn't work for me and I even backed out to SR3 and it too failed at startup. That was what I was at before SR4. Back to tech support. Fortunetely for me I have 2 systems, the other is XP so I'm going to transfer my poser to it. OS is Win ME, very large runtime folder (15+) Gbs...

"- Increased stability for long AVI/Quicktime movie renderings. Shadow map memory is now properly freed after calculating each frame."

YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! If this what I think it is ... the fix to the infmaous memory leak on animation renders using shadow-maps --- yes!!! THANK YOU!!!!

Great Service Release all around. Now if we can just get OpenGL, Network Rendering, Multiple Undos, and standardized interface for the next version, we'll really be cooking with gas!

-Tim

Curious-Labs: That's really good news! Thank you, Katherine! Will they then be available at CL? The SR3 was at Egisys as I recall. Xantor: I bought it from a german distributor. They had it from Egisys, it seems. So I think, I would have to ask them. But I don't believe, that you can give back software, even if you wish to change only the language. ;) Gabi

More on the Poser 5 "stops responding" at FFVrml.arp on startup after applying SR4 on ME. (I haven't heard back from Tech Support yet) I've backed up my large runtime dir (15+ gbs) so my "assets" are saved. (huge sigh of relief) next steps/test: 1) I'll install Poser 5 into a brand new and clean directory (barebones runtime) then reboot my system. (after deactivating antivirus software) 2) start Poser to allow it to initialize itself. 3) If ok, I'll re-install SR4 and restart my system again. 4) Restart Poser and if ok, copy back my Runtime dir into it. 5) Run Poser again to see if the runtime dir size still an issue. I'm thinking the first start of Poser either via install or SR, the relative size of the runtime dir may be a factor. Once this initial start runs, then the system runs ok after that. Secondly the usage of Cacheman had been recommended by Curious Labs as a way to deal with memory usage by ME systems. The OS limits an application to 128mbs ram only (even though I have 512mbs I can't use it). My second thought, does Poser SR4 require mote then 128mbs to startup? I'll keep you updated on progress. If all else fails, I'll move my Poser to my XP box. Russ

Hi Gabi, It will definitely be availble through Curious Labs direct. We'll post the update when it has been completed (SR4 G, J and OSX). Kind regards, Katherine

Thank you for the info, Katherine. Looking forward to it. Gabi

try to move away the .arp files from Runtime/plugins first before re-installing. Does it launch then? Nope, sure doesn't... :-

This was the response from Tech Support. They read my mind regarding installing to a clean directory. It now works with SR4, although I have not copied my Runtime directory over yet. I'm going to do that soon. For those having the same problems I'm having, hope this works for you! Russ Here's the complete text that I got this afternoon: "I'd recommend trying to install Poser to a new directory and update that version. The uninstaller will only remove files that it installed, so newly created files (preferences and such) and added content aren't removed when you uninstall. If any of these files are damaged they can still be problematic for the new installation. I would suggest going right to the SR4 updater, but certainly if you would like to be cautious you could try SR3 first. Once that is running succesfully you can perform the SR4 update again. When you get a copy running in the new directory you can integrate the old content in a couple of ways. You can use the multiple Runtime support of Poser 5 to dynamically link to your older Runtime. To do this click the "Up" arrow at the top of any library until you reach the top level. You can then click the "+" at the bottom of the library to add a new Runtime. Double-clicking any of the listed Runtime directories will load the contents of that Runtime for the current library. If you use this method for accessing all your content I would recommend manually deleting every except the Geometries, libraries, and Textures directories. If you anticipate using this method it might also be a good idea to choose the Minimum installation when installing Poser 5, or select Custom and pick only the new Poser 5 content. This will help avoid having alot of duplicate content using up drive space. The other way of integrating the legacy content would be to simply move the older Runtime into the new Poser directory. The two Runtimes will be merged, however newly installed files will be overwriten by the older ones. Again I would recommend deleting everything except Geometries, libraries, and Textures directories before merging. This will prevent updated resource files from being overwritten by previous ones. Lastly, (with tongue partially implanted in cheek...) by all means please do move Poser to XP!! More seriously, it would be a good test to install Poser on the other machine. Note that the license allow installation of the software on any number of machines. It only prohibits running it simultaneously on mutiple machines. There would be no problem having it on each."