Finally, after hearing that P5 was a somewhat usable piece of software, I upgraded from P4-PP to P5. I even went to the various forums and read up on the "right way" to install P5- CLEAN install in separate root directory, installed both NEW SR-4 and Character Update packs on W2K Machine, then re-booted to update registry- so-

First negative experience is that I CANNOT DELETE "Don".
Every time I try "NEW", Don comes back in original location.
Tried setting my user prefs- still Don comes back! Tried moving P5 characters from the runtime, and P5 complains that it can't find Don's #$@% hair each time I start up!
Tried saving the Untitled scene without anything in it, and STILL the same problem.

What's up with this P5 Don weirdness? Anyone know?

Can you delete Don from the scene? If so, do it then set the empty scene as your preference.

Jackson is right-on. In more detail: After deleting Don, do: Edit / General Preferences: 1. select Launch to Preferred State. 2. "Set Preferred State". 3. OK.

BTW, this behavior of Poser5 is EXACTLY THE SAME AS IT WAS IN POSER 4 and ProPack. In those versions, you probably deleted "Poser 4 Man" from the scene eons ago, by a similar method...

Yes- I know, and have TRIED all those things already. I have used Pro-Pack for years and before that P4. But it isn't working. Deleting Don only brings him back again when I select new. Removing the P5 folder, with Don in it, only causes P5 SR4 to load asking "Can't load Don's Hair". I have even SAVED that empty scene, quit P5, then re-opened it again and get the same routine all over again. It is extremely weird because this is a brand new, fresh install in a new folder that is in no way associated with P4-PP. I had immediately installed SR-4 over the CL downloaded "Full Install", which is around 360MB, then re-booted again and still have the same problem. I have a really good, fast, updated machine and am not in any way new to using Poser. My P4 and P4-PP never acted weird like this. I am going to try the un-install--re-installed route and see if that helps in any way. P5 seems to be a real bundle of problems!

Try this (at least it workde for me) 1 Delete Don 2 Go to Edit:General Preferences 3 Under "Document Preferences", Check the "Launceh to Prefered state" button: then press "Set Prefered State" button: Under "Interface Preferences", Check "Launch to Previous State: if you want to keep your interface. 4 Press "OK" 5 Exit Poser, then restart, and it should open to an empty document. mike

Hey, thanks, but I did all those things in the very beginning! But- I NOW have it working, by- 1. Completely un-installing P5. Then re-installed it using "Custom" and selected only P5 "basic stuff" and "runtime". It STILL installed all kinds of other garbage ANYWAY, including all the Avatar characters and other crap I don't need- but anyway- I installed SR-4 over that, re-booted, and its working O.K. so far (having actually done NOTHING so far). 2. Also went ahead and removed "Content Paradise" using the nice tutorial over at Poser Pros by Netherworks. O.k- now that hopefully someone is still reading this thread, how do I add new runtimes? I scanned through the PDF manual and they only mentioned adding Libraries. Yet when I was mousing around inside the "Expressions" folder it had an option to "Add New Runtime"- so I did. But then I realized I didn't want my P4-Props under "Expressions", so I deleted it. Then searching under Props and Figures, I could NOT find any option there for adding a new runtime. So what-where is the menu-trick for doing that? If this is in the PDF P5 manual, where is this listed? I couldn't find it- but then, I didn't read every single word in there.

Page 127 go create a subdirectory that you want to put the runtime in. In poser in any catagory (i.e. figures, poses etc) hit "up one level" till you see the libraries (i.e. "Poser 5" and "Downloads") then you hit the (+) button at the bottom. then it will ask you to navigate to the folder containing the "runtime" you want to add. select the sudirectory you created.

O.K., Thanks Tyger purr, during my last re-load of P5 I thought that it was a tidy thing to delete the "download" and blank runtime folders in there- but- obviously thats the method that P5 seems to want to use to add more runtimes. I thought it had something to do with "Content Paradise". So went back and re-installed that part of the Custom install, installed the service packs again, and then re-added my edited Posershell.xml file to the UI- but it appears P5 didn't overwrite that anyway. So- back in business again, it appears, now with some P4 content to test with. I'm mainly curious about the Fire Fly renderer and how some things might "possibly" look better, primarily water effects. I've seen the P5 Pool Water tutorial and a couple of nice water pics, so that's what finally got me interested to try out Fire Fly. I really don't care about a lot of the other stuff in P5- but maybe will someday :)

A10- "Deleting Don only brings him back again when I select new. Removing the P5 folder, with Don in it, only causes P5 SR4 to load asking "Can't load Don's Hair". Well, Duh. Why don't you STOP doing things that you don't know how to do safely - did you CAREFULLY follow the instructions that were offered to you freely twice above, most especially: "Launceh to Prefered state" button: then press "Set Prefered State" button:

Yes, Duh, I said that in my first post, and again in my following post. Go back and read it, Duh! Then you won't be repeating what's already been said several times already in this thread.

Here is an easy way to get rid of Don at startup! Brows to the file ".Poser 5Runtimefiguresdefault.figure". Make a backup of it. Open the original in a text editor. Put two forward slashes in front of the line that reads: readScript ":Runtime:libraries:character:Poser 5:Don Casual Hair.cr2"

So that the line now looks like this: //readScript ":Runtime:libraries:character:Poser 5:Don Casual Hair.cr2"

Resave the file.

P.S. The answer given in post #3, sounds like it should work to me, I don't have Poser 5, so I can't say for sure. The solution I give in post #12 attacks the problem at its root as it is the "default.figure" file that is responcible for loading the default figure.

A10 Firefly; there is still a problem with it in as much as it tries to make straight edges curved, as follows: Make a cube primitive. Render it in firefly; some of the edges will become convex. Only workaround i've discovered is to switch off smoothing, but then you lose some of the shadows.

lesbentley: That's a neat trick. I think that it will be WAY too complicated for someone who deletes entire folders worth of content without knowing what affect it will have. The instructions by ToolmakerSteve are correct and work the same in P4... except that it's the ugly P2 Male that's the default, not Don. A10: The FireFly renderer is not all that it's cracked up to be. Don't forget that there are many things that go into a render besides the render engine. You need a good texture, a good set of lights, and usually good postwork... not to mention a good idea for the image.

A10- "Yes, Duh, I said that in my first post, and again in my following post" No, that is NOT what you said, in either of those posts. Apparently, you can't even TELL THE DIFFERENCE between what you did, and what several people suggested you do. Have no fear: I've got better ways to spend my precious time. I won't bother YOU again with my advice. It is fortunate for you, that there are more patient people around than I.