I am very happy with Poser 4 but am thinking of getting Poser 5. I have heard that there are some drawbacks esp in use of memory. I would welcome any advice people would like to give.

Poser 5 Rocks! How much memory do you have? You can operate just as you did in Poser4, with no significant slowdown, in my opinion. The Poser 4 render engine is in there. HOWEVER.... why would you want to???? No... if you are going to 5, you want the power of 5. The new tools. Dynamic cloth and hair. Raytrace and depth shadows and shaders oh my. Therefore you will been putting stress on your system. Therefore you might need more memory. It's fun. ::::: Opera :::::

I'd say 1 gig is the perfect amount for Poser 5. Less and it bogs down, more is just wasted.

I've been using P5 on a laptop for over a year now with no serious problems. I recently upgraded from 1.8 GHz to 2.4 and 768 MHz RAM(added a 512 RAM chip to the existing 256) and the improvement in performance was very noticeable.

Attached Link: http://www.daz3d.com/galleries/index.php?id=5663

Keeping in mind that I have started using P5 more than P4 lately, after about 6 months of looking at it with disgust... Biggest drawbacks to P5: don't try to work at 800x600; my default display is 800x600 and P5 just won't do it, making it neccesary to switch to 1024x768 whenever I want to use it. I hate the pose dials, which float. if there was a way to make them NOT float, I would do it; but in order to see everything on my screen, i'm constantly moving the dang thing around. it's more of a resource hog; if you have less than 512MB of ram, you are going to be hating life. works good with a gig of ram, though. I think the material room is slightly too complex for most use; I wouldn't want to dumb it down, but perhaps having a "use poser 4 type material only" option would be nice? Forget about rendering straight to video when using the firefly engine; perhaps someone can do it, but most of the posts I've seen say otherwise. works fine if you render to images and then stitch. Dynamic hair still goes through the face of the figure about half the time. those are just the drawbacks as I see them; dynamic cloth makes it worthwhile, in my opinion. 1 outfit can fit ANYTHING.

On my last PC I found the firefly renderer almost unusable. The PC was good spec but cheap components and couldn't live up to its promises. Not a fault of Poser5. Even so, I wouldn't go back to P4. I had to use to P4 renderer in poser 5 for most things, but the other features, esp linked runtimes and nested folders made it worth the troubles. Having recently replaced my PC with something a bit higher spec (it's a 1.2G processor, 512k ram) I find P5 runs like a dream and I'm loving what firefly can do. Got to re-learn dynamics next. I agree with the above re. screen resolution, but I work at 1280x1024 anyway.

Based on my experience:

P5 will freeze for a lot longer than P4 when it can't find a texture or other file. It will sometimes lock completely requiring ctl-alt-del.

If you use more than a few characters and/or props, P5 will bog down much sooner than P4 and you'll begin to experience some very quirky camera behavior. Also, firefly will become useless, rendering most of the advantages of the Material Room also useless.

Advantages of P5 over P4/PP:

1. Multiple runtimes
2. ummm... My system: Dual pentium 4 1.7 xeons 1 gig o' ram 350 meg hard drive space / 250+ free

Message edited on: 01/18/2005 10:41

sheesh, jackson, are you running it on an osborne? I have never had the slightest hint of anything like that. but it won't run on an osborne. Poser5 rocks. ::::: Opera :::::

"I have never had the slightest hint of anything like that." How many figures do you usually work with? And you're saying you can load a figure/prop with a missing texture and it comes right in? Either you're very lucky or I'm very UNlucky ;) Have you ever used P4?

was on P4 for two years. Here's my rig. What's yours? Pentium4 2.4Ghz 1-Gig-333-RAM 80 Gig IDE HD XPHome. Which is not a super high-end system, but very respectable. I have no problem with two P5 figures with textures and clothes and a few props. I never touch Millenium figures as they are too overblown, don't look right, etc. ::::: Opera :::::

i don't know what you mean by 'load a figure with missing texture." You mean the texture is not attached in a node to the diffuse root, or something? ::::: Opera :::::

My specs are listed in my first post. I'll add I use XP Pro. "I have no problem with two P5 figures with textures and clothes and a few props." Ah, there's the answer then. As I said in my first post... "If you use more than a few..." P5 behaves fairly well for me too with only two figures (still slower than 4 though). But it still freezes or locks when it can't find a file.

Crossposted with ya. I mean if you attempt to load a cr2 or pp2 that points to a texture or obj that isn't in the correct path.

I think I will need an Upgrade as I have only 256k RAM . Thanks for all the responses!

I think I will need an Upgrade as I have only 256k RAM . Thanks for all the responses!

Even if you don't use P5, I really recommend having more than 256MB RAM! You won't regret it.

i don't know what you mean by 'load a figure with missing texture."<< I assume they mean when it asks you to locate thje texture and it's not in the zip, which P4 usually takes as a cue to freeze up. P5 handles it much better.

life as an animator: keep it light, keep it simple, multiple takes and composite, etc., plus have big iron. I guess Poser WOULD like that! I guess it's a grand irony...90% of the users making single frame shots, pushing Poser to the wall and gacking, while meanwhile the animators have light sailing and no worries, stability-wise. ::::: Opera :::::

I've said it before and will say it again: I would never part with Poser4. In my case, there's no special need too. I would hate the thought of having to work with new characters. As long as I can get my V3 & M3 to work with P4, I don't see any reason why I would need to upgrade just to get other figures. ;)