Can be interesting to know and a good feedback for Curious Labs! 1. The lack of a progress bar (I mean one that really works) during loooong renders. Not just seeing an empty progress bar with the label "Adding Objects". You really can't tell if the program is doing anything and after 24 hours it can be hard to keep waiting and I usually hit the cancel button. 2. Close to the above mentioned "hate", is the lack of an estimated time for renders. If you have an estimated time, lets say of 30 hours, you can shut the monitor off and just use an other computer to do other things and take a look every now and then to see if the ET is going down. Specially because the "Adding Objects" process uses 100% (or very close to that) of the CPU.

1. Material editor, have always hated the fact that you can't "first" select all the material zones you want to edit at the same time then apply the changes to them. 2. No omni light source (light that radiates in all directions from a single point) 3. No material pose file compatability for props unless they are first parented to a figure. 4. Cannot save 2 props together into a single file, even if they are parented to each other. 5. No ability to import a nurbs obj file. Other than that, poser is a fantastic program for the price, and if you think it renders slow, you should try some other ray tracing engines. I agree on your status bar idea, but I think that such an enhancement would only slow the sytem down more. There are some threads here in the poser forum that tell you how to replace the little "sidestepping man" animation with something else, which has been reported to actually speed up renders. I have a "beating heart" animation.. it's kinda cool.

Davo, I do 4 all the time, by selecting subset. Then I just click the tiems I want to save as one item. Or did you mean something else?

oh, and my hates are: undo/redo point/omni lights multiple selection

I really hate not being able to instance/clone a figure or props.
I hate not having multiple UNDO.
I hate not having point lights.
Most of all, I hate not being able to select and manipulate multiple items in a scene at once.

All of those things would make work flow more convenient. I'm all about workflow more than anything else really.

I do LOVE the materials room and cloth room, and I'm starting to like the hair room more and more. ;-)

Message edited on: 07/14/2004 11:56

My main problem is a lack of workflow. Before saying anything else: it may well be that I'm still not used to it. What I don't like is that when for example I am working on a V3-based character and pose, I often have to select the camera to change its settings (focal, dolly, orbit) after which I have to restart all over selecting, say, the head, change a tad, select the camera, etc etc... Switching camera's is easily done with shortcuts, but selecting one isn't. Which is why there should be a kind of manager/dialog box in which all used elements are stored (not that dropdown list at the bottom of the "studio" but a real manager) and in which hey can be selected with one push on their name. All elements should also be named here. Example: suppose I applied the morphs of charX for V3. When several characters are in the file, it becomes difficult to remember and cumbersome to have to go back to Pose>etc etc. A manager would display for example: obj01 (that I can rename as V3charX) >body (that I can rename V3body_charY) >head (that I can rename V3head_charZ) (the head of anoher char. I purchased) etc for hair, clothes, props, camera's, lights,... and with one click on any item I reselect it. What's more: these items would be groupable in sets like lights, cameras,... I would prefer this by far to the library which can easily be replaced by a simple "open" function or a dropdown list from the main bar. (The object list would be just great for this.) in other words: get rid of that Metacreations feel and get a good interface.

OH... I almost forgot... NETWORK RENDERING! I fU**ing HATE not being able to do that in firefly.

The **@@$##!!!! Interface...... I can't stand the trackball, and the little hands, and the little dots.... Ever tried to use those with a graphic tablet instead of a mouse? I hate that there is only one undo. I hate the grouping tool..pretty useless. I hate scrolling down forever down the Pose folder. I hate the 4096 pixels limit on renders........ Boy it feels good to get this off my chest! :-)

I really dislike, misleading information. Requirements: Win 98,2000,ME, or XP 500MHZ Pentium Class or compatable (700Mhz or greater recommended) 128MB Ram (256MB recommended) 24bit Color Display, 1024x768 Resolution 500mb Free hd space. Ok..I have for a system. WinXP, 1.8Ghz (AMD Athlon XP2200+), 512MB DDr, 80GB HD, 128MB video card. And then I get the message "Low on virtual Memory" on my winxp taskbar. I would think the system I have compared to the recommended requirements, I wouldn't have any problems. Twice and more of the recommended requirements is what I have. This is not the only misleading software, I delt with.

I hate the 4096 pixels limit on renders....... Upgrade to Poser 5. And then I get the message "Low on virtual Memory" on my winxp taskbar. How is that a problem? WinXP then just increases the size of the swap file and goes on as usual. WinXP is providing Poser with an effective address space of 2GB, regardless of your physical RAM - that's the whole point of virtual memory. I'd much rather die for: * OpenGL * background rendering * light linking * reusable shadow maps * deep shadow maps, while we're at it * the ability to use additional mouse buttons for easy view navigation (a la Blender or Maya, for example) * a shader SDK * the ability to use texture maps to control dynamic hair attributes Hm...that's more of a wish list than a bitch list, though.

"How is that a problem? WinXP then just increases the size of the swap file and goes on as usual. WinXP is providing Poser with an effective address space of 2GB, regardless of your physical RAM - that's the whole point of virtual memory." I know how virtual mem functions. Yes, it will swap files and will go on as usual. Although that does cause other problems after the render. Computer starts to get slugglish. The requirements say "256 mb Recommended". I have 512mb. And they are DDr's.

Real lights!!!!!! and good plugins that would allow some effects like particle engines, a dynamic fur plugin like sasquatch or shave and a haircut. (in combinaison with the hair room it would be wonderful) radiosity and caustics. This would be very nice to have those features.

Hmm... I like the interface but I wish it was a bit more customizable - user defined shortcut keys, roll-up palettes, user colorings on different elements etc. What I don't like? Inability to clear all unused textures from memory, inability to clear all lights without a script (but that does work), program itself redraws slowly (like if you minimize, maximize and things don't always redraw), Tools losing focus (Joint Editor boxes grey out, etc), incomplete and Buggy Python methods (where are the shaders? and other elements? Why don't props save correctly via Python?). All in all though I'm pretty happy with Poser but only after adjusting to the shortcomings. But isn't that true with most things?

Neftis, all those things you mentioned are GREAT extras, but without distributed/network rendering, they'd only make things more unusable (slow) and memory intensive. :-(

Please no radiosity! Any other GI algorithm, light tracing, photon mapping, but please no radiosity! http://www.cgnetworks.com/story_custom.php?story_id=1724

Oh yeah you are sooo right Maxxxmodelz!!!well let's just hope for a speedup rendering time then:) lol well maybe if they were rewriting the entire software from scratch!;) but then again...they could not call it poser anymore LOL

Please no radiosity! Any other GI algorithm, light tracing, photon mapping, but please no radiosity! LOL. I have to agree with Stewer on this one. Irradiance/Photon mapping or light tracing would be a much better GI solution for Poser. ChaosGroup, creators of the Vray render engine, have recently come out with something called "light mapping", which is supposed to be faster than photon mapping. An example situation would be to use Photon mapping for the first bounces, and light mapping for the secondary bounces.

Navigating the library...

I hate it when you tell it to stop looking for a texture or something but it carries on anyway!

Little inconsistencies, such as: * Poses saved to the library do not include the Body channels. * Exported BVH files do not include the Body trans channels. * The Walk Designer's spline paths are 2D only, which disallows changes in elevation. * Point At ignores limits.

Aeneas, What you are describing sounds like the HeirarchyWindow Chris Cox

hmm..the folder system..it would be so much nicer just to have all related files for a model go into one directory, instead of troubleshooting the 'textures go here, the character files go there, oh, and I changed the name of the character directory to be different from all the other directories'..also the ability to re-order or group characters and clothes in seperate areas, so that all the characters go here, and clothes go there, or the clothes go to the same area as the character..;)
only other thing is the ability to keep sharp edges on imports, I know the 'vertices' option helps, but I'd like those razor-sharp pleats to stay where they're pressed..;)
I'd like a Bryce-like (heresy!) ability to apply textures in general to parts of a model or prop, instead of having to get 'x's textures for y's modification of z's model'..;) I think that's enough kvetching for one day..;)

I also hate: Poser not remembering the last file(s) you opened. Poser not remembering the path to the Scripts library and other paths. Not having a representation of the cones of light emmited by spotlights.

the file system limitations in P4.... that P4 or P5 locks up when using V3, M3 with any hair, clothes, etc... ...you don't think Curious Labs will consider this "feedback" do ya...they haven't before....that's why P5 is full of problems..

"What do you hate more about Poser?" Not being able to keep several libraries open at once, adding elements with a simple drag-and-drop interface.

1. Extremely primitive "Open" window - Win98 style. Or even Win95. And it 'sticks and runs' when I scroll in it - drives me mad! Has been doing this since P3! Or even P2, I forget. 2. Saving a render with wrong suffix by mistake gets you thrown into deep space. 3. Missing texs and bumps (incorrect ref) do that too. 4. Disastrous freezes sometimes when trying to render a SINGLE figure with clothes, hair and hires texs and some props - on a 1GB system! Ridiculous. 5. Primitive lights. 6. No multiple undo. 7. No 'recent files' or similar. 8. P5 forgets every time where I want to save my renders - I have to go all the way to the right folder every time, during same session. 9. Popup windows can disappear behind the interface, giving appearance of a hang. 10. If you click on a dial the 'focus' is lost from the preview window. This was NOT the case in P4 but it is in P5. Extremely irritating. 11. Default is IK on. Should be a switch for this in Preferences. I HATE IK on!!!!! 12. 'Compress files' in Prefs is general - but I want it ON for pzz's and OFF for everything else. So I have to go in there and switch it off and on and off and on and... 13. 'Figure Circle' is always on, I want it OFF! 14. I can hide a single figure, but only un-hide all of them at once - if I have 7 figures hidden and I want 1 back, I have to un-hide all of them and re-hide 6. Huh!!?? 15. Lights must be deleted one at a time. I know there's 3rd party python for delete all lights, but it should be built in. Basic. 16. Why must Poser read the whole Runtime when it starts up? Quite unnecessary. And why does it take 30 seconds to wake up sometimes when I click in the Libraries to get the folder listings? 17. It's impossible to save a pose file with Body values - that is SO ridiculous!! And how about saving scaling values in general if I want to? 18. MAT files should have their own Library instead of being mixed up with other poses. Hands and faces can have their entries, so.... And that list was just off the top of my head, real quick. But I still adore Poser, you couldn't get it loose with a crowbar even. Or death threats. :] Fish

Hates? 1. That huge paramiters pallet in Poser 5. 2. That ERC light controle does not seem to work properly in Poser 5. 3. I hate the fact that leg IK is on by default! I would love to be able to have it off by default without having to edit all my cr2's. 4. I hate it that when I add spotlights they come in with random colours, not at the origin, and with various rotations. A tip; keep this code snippet in a text file, when you add a new spotlight just use 'Paste' from the Poser Edit menu to paste it into your light: Light 1 0 xrot Spline 0.0000 Light 1 0 yrot Spline 0.0 Light 1 0 zrot Spline 0.0 Light 1 0 scale Spline 1.0000 Light 1 0 KdRed Spline 1.0000 Light 1 0 KdGreen Spline 1.0000 Light 1 0 KdBlue Spline 1.0000 Light 1 0 KdIntensity Spline 1.0000 Light 1 0 xtran Spline 0.0000 Light 1 0 ytran Spline 0.0000 Light 1 0 ztran Spline 0.0000 Loves? I love Poser 4, with all its faults. For it's time it was (and still is) a great application. It would not be going too far to say it changed my life. I can't say I feel the same love for Poser 5 yet, I recently heard it described as "the evil version", but perhaps that's a going a bit too far. Sugestions? 1. Ability to save MAT, MOR, Delta Injection, and BODY actor poses. 2. Parse files based on extension, not on location, so that pz2, hr2, pp2, etc, can be stored in same folder as cr2. 3. New file type that can selectivly save any combination of elements in a document to a pallet. 4. Last used folder remembered in Open and Save boxes. 5. Default save name for image same as name of pz3.

Nothing. For the price, they (P4 and P5) are excellent prog's.

I saw this mentioned somewhere else, but it's a major peeve (applies to all versions of Poser): Accidentally applying a pose to clothing... AFTER you've spent 20 minutes adjusting the dials... and just because you forgot to switch figures. If the currently-selected figure is conformed to another figure, Poser should apply the pose to the conformed-to figure, rather than the selected figure. That way, you can select any piece of clothing, apply a pose, and Vicky changes poses, NOT the clothing. And, like a previous poster mentioned- correct support for a tablet. Poser is WAY too sensitive: I move the pen slightly and the figure goes flying across the screen. Conversely, if the image is complicated, the tablet will stop working after the image is rendered. I have to move the mouse to get the pen to work again. Delete All Lights: This should definitely be a basic option. Yes, there is a Python script that works great with Pro Pack and P5, but there is no such option for P4. And who thought it was a good idea to add lights when you apply a new light set to the scene? If you apply a few of them, you now have tons of turned-off lights in your scene! Applying a light set from the Library should clear the existing lights then add the new ones. Pop-up dialog boxes: These "disappear" and "lose focus" because CL refuses to use standard Windows dialog boxes. If a box asks you "Do you want to save?" you shouldn't be able to hit Enter and watch the document window change to "box" mode! And the boxes should use standard questions and answers: "Your document has changed. Do you want to save it? Yes No Cancel" NOT "You have changed the document that you were working on. Do you want to save it now? Don't Save Save Cancel" (Um, where is the usual "Yes" button, that we've grown accustomed to, for the past 20 years?) Poser 5: Most keyboard "shortcuts" stil DO NOT WORK when you are on the parameter dials palette. I applied the latest patch (version 5.04, patch #3,234 or some such) and Ctrl-T WILL NOT switch to the Top Camera unless I click on the background and "give focus" back to Poser. I complained about this when Poser 5 first came out (posting a message here and sending an e-mail to CL tech support), yet it's still not fixed. --John

everything takes so friggin' long to do....from materials, the omg..."group editor", joint editor......you can't model with it....the lighting isn't precise, at all....in fact, most of it is just not precise what i like about it....it is good for "posing" characters. although, i don't know if it is any easier than dragging their parts around in lightwave, to be honest. dragging parts is dragging parts :*)

"Little inconsistencies, such as: * Poses saved to the library do not include the Body channels. * Exported BVH files do not include the Body trans channels. * The Walk Designer's spline paths are 2D only, which disallows changes in elevation. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Hi LD' as a general rule never use the "body" as a means to transport your figure along any of the x, or Z axis's always use the hip for these type of moves Ihave come to believe that the trans channels of the red circled"body" are some sort of faked scene dependant hack similar to the "grasp" ;-/ even the python script "drop figure to ground for all " frames" uses the "body" and will NOT keep him there for a saved animated pose file or exported BVH using the hip which is the true "root" of any character rig will assure that you get true permanent exportable keyframed positions for the trans channels.

It's SOOOOO Slow!

Hi LD' as a general rule never use the "body" as >> a means to transport your figure along any of the >> x, or Z axis's always use the hip for these type of moves Walk Designer doesn't give me a choice in the matter. I'm going to pester ockham sometime and ask him if there's a way to transfer the body's trans channel values to the hip with Python scripting.

Hmmm.... How difficult would it be to peel the GUI off of the Poser renderer and tack on a TCP/IP interface, like Vue has for their RenderCow? Even if it is limited to 3-5 nodes, that would be a godsend for animators and those who want to push the envelope with the shaders. If CL wants to test it, I have a 4 box rendergarden willing to play guenie pig.... ;) Seriously, such an addition would allow them to turn on all or next to all of the abilities of the Firefly renderer...which includes just about everything people want so far as lighting goes, except for the latest lightmapping concepts.

I dream a lot about improvements, and the main improvement I'd like to see with lights is an easier way to predict where they will come in when you add them (why they all come in at the same place is beyond me.)

Imagine this. You add lights while looking through a "light camera." Once you place the camera in the position you want (ie: the origin of the light), you select the object that you want the light to point to (ie: the light target), and press the "Add Light" button. Boom! A light that is positioned accurately right from the start, instead of having to zoom out for lord knows how long to position them correctly.

Another improvement? "ZOOM EXTENTS". If you have to reposition lights, or if you've lost track of something that you have repositioned, a zoom extents button would make things a HECK of a lot easier to find after they go out of camera range. Please? Pretty please?

Message edited on: 07/14/2004 23:02

I hate that Curious Labs asked for our input for Poser 5 and then promptly ignored 90% of it. There is almost nothing about Poser 5 that isn't totally disappointing. Face room, Hair room...(Rooms, by the way? Really?) And that goddamned firefly render. Let me ask you this...What in the hell good is a new renderer if you don't have new lights to go with it? If there is a new way to handle joints, then by god it should've been worked into Poser 5. Joints are the toll of the bell on any render. What good is a model if it can't bend properly? Shoulders still balloon and butts blow up. Poser development should be focused on making what it already does work better. That is how it went from 1-4. It should not be about adding new features, not until the old ones work or are replaced. Crappy additions like the face room and Don and Judy should be stuff you can add-on ala plugins. That is what I hate about Poser, it is a strong contempt for a company that seems to feel greater contempt for it's customer base. -WTB

multiple undo, what program doesnt have this?? conforming clothes that have half the body always poking through, posing clothing by mistake and did i mention not having multiple undo's???

Well, since JHoagland has violated the DMCA by circumventing my tin-foil hat and read my mind, there's no need for me to repeat the things I hate which he so eloquently stated. I will instead assist Aeneas in keeping a bit of sanity and/or hair by pointing out that using the "1" and "3" keys on the keyboard will switch between Pose(1) and Camera(3) modes.

A thing I hate that hasnt been mentioned yet is the animation, the poser keyframe thing is terrible they would be better making it something like the lightwave version 5 one which is much better and easier to use. The newer lightwave animation has been "improved" so much that it isnt half as good as it used to be.

The whole selection model is bad; the idea that there is always one active figure and one selected item and only one selected item. And the difficulty of selecting anything accurately in the display window. Also the ineffectual orthogonal views.

What I hate about Poser? It's OLD! Designed for OLD hardware. I agree with everything said above, but much of it is P5 only or got worse in P5. This leads to what William The Bloody just said. The original CL crew didn't give a rat's patoot about us...they suckered us and cheated us.

It's still a Mac app! On both platforms.

E.g. The "Windows" dialogs, as FishNose states "Extremely primitive "Open" window - Win98 style. Or even Win95." (Win 3.1?)

E.g. No normal Windows click function - look closely and you'll see it is all done by hotspots on the screen, which is why a mouse click on a button (image) won't take sometimes if you click near the edge of the button (image).

E.g. Delayed cursor changes. All Windoze apps suffer from a coursor icon change delay to some extent, maybe 0.5 to 1 sec, but on Poser it can be - and often is - 20 secs or more with absolutely no indication that your click took.

I suspect that Windows versions of Poser are still built on a MacOS platform. Certainly the code used to emulate/simulate/interface with Windows API calls is still that used for Poser 1 or 2 (whichever was the original port to Windows). This means that all later - read current - aspects of Windows are unavailable. Better file dialogs, dual monitor support, ability to cohabit with other apps, etc, etc, etc.

All the other items listed by others are important, but until and unless this applciation is natively compiled for its target operating system, all bets of a stable application are off. It will remain an ill-behaved applciation by definition. And sloooooow.

And to add an item missed so far - context sensitive confirmation dialogs, e.g. "Do you want to delete Figure 1? Yes/No" instead of "Do you want to delete the CURRENT figure? Yes/No". Oh, and yes. I'd like the above as a FREE update please, at least for the initial punters who were sold P5, for the reasons given by Jackson above. Thanks.

Message edited on: 07/15/2004 10:43

#21 : quote: Aeneas, What you are describing sounds like the HeirarchyWindow Chris Cox Partly, yes. But first of all all cameras are displayed in one long list (this could be changed into a cameras tree, just like there is a fig1 tree) and second even if I do select to include props, the hair I saved with a cr2 is not displayed. Third I see this combined with an Objects Menu on the main bar that includes the items that are now in the library, and replacing this library in the main GUI. That Objects menu would be organised more logically so that all hair would be in the hair entry, poses in the pose entry and mats and mors where they belong. Now some hairs are characters, eyes can be props while juwels can be hair, clothing can also be character etc etc. If people really want the library, then make it and that new HierarchyWindow (that I call a Manager. simply different terminology) tabs. Besides: the only problems of having to quit Poser with force because of freezes here on my machine are just when using that HierarchyWindow. (P5SP4) (most probably memory issue in Poser)

Aeneas, Have you checked your mouse driver? Logitech mouse did have an incompatibility which would trap you in Hierarchy Window if you dragged an entry at all, even accidently. CL reproduced but never fixed the problem, later drivers from Logitech fixed the problem. (MouseWare 9.4 had the problem under W2K and XP, it was fixed by version 9.7.)