Attached Link: http://www.sparkchaser.net/blog.html

I wouldn't agree with the "Content Provider" comment either, I'd say Daz is trying to make themselves "The Main Marketplace" maybe & possibly the future of the Poser Community (They protest against that too much for it not to be so) Daz being put out of business because D|S doesn't live up to the hype (I'm being hypothetical here) would be a big blow to the community but I'm not sure it would end it all in an instant. Only time will tell if we need to worry about the fallout from a Daz closure, personally I don't think we will have to. I don't see any reason why people have to be limited to just the one Modelling program either, once the SDK for D|S is out the smarter programming types out there should be able to write plugins for whichever modeller they prefer, most programs do accept the use of plugins afterall. Whatever happens in the next year or two it'll be interesting & thought provoking & it's bound to be a lively time to be part of the community.

" Daz being put out of business because D|S doesn't live up to the hype (I'm being hypothetical here) would be a big blow to the community but I'm not sure it would end it all in an instant. Only time will tell if we need to worry about the fallout from a Daz closure, personally I don't think we will have to." That's something I hadn't thought about, and quite interesting... what if D|S did flop? It could take out DAZ entirely, though it would have to be a pretty big flop; but all that content and the copyrights to the in-house stuff would have to go somewhere... I suspect that it wouldn't disappear entirely, but just get bought by someone else. I also agree on the plugin factor you'd mentioned (that someone can always code one for a given modeller), though I based the rough requirement set for modelling programs on what the programs themselves can do. If a modeller doesn't support shaders (Rhino), Inverse Kinematics and Weightmaps (3DS VIZ), or wht-have-you, you'd either have to find a way to add those otherwise, or get a modelling program that has the features found in the .daz file format (or make a limited product, which in the case of props ferinstance would be sufficient. ) I'd also inadvertantly left out texturers, but that should be somewhat evident, since even in a pure shader environment (not very likely given existing compatibilities in D|S), you'd still have some method to plug-on mapped textures. So I guess that texture-makers will have very little problem in making the leap. It will be an interesting time indeed... especially if DAZ manages to bring in a lot of new blood. /P

To corrupt an old cliche - capitalism abhors a void. If DAZ bites it, I'm certain someone (or someones) will come along to produce figures without a hitch to the community as long as there's a market. I've no concerns about that one. Unzipped

I didn't realise not all modelling programs support shaders weightmapping & IK, that'll really limit what programs can be used then. It'll limit how many merchants can afford to make the move over to D|S too as some of the higher-end modellers are quite expensive. Shade will also make things less clear-cut especially if it's combined into poser not that I can see that happening for a few years at least (Poser8 maybe). I'd hope the community is strong enough to survive the split when it happens, we've done it before so there's no reason we can't do it again.

Gawd, don't you love speculation? ;) Coldrake

I do, especially as information comes to light. And, if it helps to get folks on the content provider side mentally and skill-set prepared, then all the better :) /P

How about the fact that at least DAZ Studio forced a number of people to actually upgrade from their ancient Windows 98 to Win2000 or XP- and realize the concept of what advanced graphics cards are for. I was amazed to see how many were using crappy old OS's yet expecting good graphics performance! It seems that being FORCED to change made them realize how BAD their previous experience was. If nothing else, Daz Studio Alpha was a much needed wake-up to the "hobby-users" to move on to better performing software upgrades. DAZ isn't going away. Some of the people in this forum seem to have no concept of what else is going on in the big, wide world. Poser users only see a part of what DAZ does. Poser is a small fish pond, not the Pacific Ocean!

"I was amazed to see how many were using crappy old OS's yet expecting good graphics performance!" Dunno... I kinda wish that, if I am ever permanently stuck with Windows, I could go back to using Win98 full-time; at least it isn't anywhere near as bloated. (XP's saving grace is that I can shut off 80% of the services in it, and then go through and cull a ton of unused crap. Can't quite do that as easily with Win2k.) OTOH, OSX ain't half bad either, and it runs well enough... :) /P

Daz studio is very slow and doesnt do much, you shouldnt have to buy "advanced graphics cards" to make a program work, I hope poser 6 isn`t sold in installments like daz studio.

It's not being sold... the core of it is being given away, literally. As for speed issues, perhaps you could bring it to their attention, as well as a description of your computer? It's still in its teething stages. /P

The main program isn`t sold but if you want to make animations or make things for it then you will have to buy the plugins, without these it seems like a slow cut down version of poser 5 to me.