Most of these things could be done, if anyone at curious labs is looking here, they have not finished writing it yet (probably) so it could happen...

1. Make IK OFF by default. Those people who need it to animate can turn it on when needed (or have it automatically be turned on when a figure is loaded into the walk designer). Just before rendering, Poser puts up a dialogue box saying that it is calculating shadows. Surely we could have a little box pop up and say "turn on IK?" with the checkmarks. Right now, IK is like a ladder into the attic: useful if you need to go up there, but a pain in the kazoo for anybody else walking down the hallway and tripping over it. It is possible to have ladders which retreat when not needed. I have 15 years experience as an animator, but I still think IK needs to be OFF by default. 2) Multiple undos. Because of system resources, the user ought to be able to specify how many levels. I like PhotoShop's history palette. 3) Multi-processor support. My dual 450 G4 is able to handle more than is thrown at it... and now they have dual 2.5s! :sniff with jealousy: 4) Point lights. This would take fewer system resources than using 6 spots to approximate the effect. Good lighting makes good pictures. 5) Easier access to python scripts. They are vital and something which makes life easier should be easier to get to.

"(and I'm still waiting for someone to provide a good reason to go to OpenGL." So moving a figure doesn't become a slow-motion slideshow that I have to time? No, I'm not looking for OGL renders as in 'hit render button and get OGL to render something.' I guess I should more specifically say that I'm wanting OpenGL to render in the programmer's sense of 'Render', as in: "have Poser incorporate an option to actually use a vidcard's GPU/OpenGL capabilities for preview screen draws as a user rotates or otherwise moves a camera about in the UI..." I hate slideshows, and I know full well that OGL (Quartz, whatever) programming can be used to speed shit up immeasurably in that department. THAT flavor of OpenGL. And before anyone screams 'the redraws would be too slow with such high poly counts!' or whatever horseshit? I have third-year students that can code real-time OGL-based interactive rendering simulations, which carry an average polycount high enough to comfortably hold three fully-clothed V3's without slowing down. We test 'em on a typical lab machine: a Pentium 4 2.4GHz/256MB/GeForce2 setup. I know it can be done, but I also know that something's gonna have to be overhauled in that thar Poser engine first - and heavily. Now would be a great time to get in and do it... Hrm, upon reflection, I really couldn't give a rats arse-end what they use for the "turn 3d object into 2d image" definition of 'Render', so long as it's sharp, accurate, anti-aliases worth a frig, and goes relatively fast. /P

Opengl wont work on my computer.

Doesn't mean it can't be put in as an option one can choose during install. For folks who refuse to give up their ghetto vidcards, there's always software rendering, no? ;) /P

Oh, while I'm pipe dreaming, why don't I add a multiple Redo function as well as the Undo.

OpenGL /DirectX/ Quick3D previews, Vue 4 Pro/3DS Max style: configure it from your Preferences panel. If it won't work with the graphics card, back to sofware rendering. I'd LOVE to see that!

• clothifiable body parts; ROFL, oh the visuals!!!

Heheee, Deecey, you should take a look at the Kill Don series in the Poser gallery by jwdell. He clothified Dons head once - gruesome and hilarious! No, clothifiable body parts are very useful for hybrid conformers/dynamics. Think about those Victorian dresses: a tight and stiff bodice - conforming - and a wide long skirt - dynamic. It could also be very useful for soft body dynamics: have Vicki sit down on a stool that deforms her buttocks, for instance.

No, clothifiable body parts are very useful for hybrid conformers/dynamics. Think about those Victorian dresses: a tight and stiff bodice - conforming - and a wide long skirt - dynamic.

You have that to a degree with dynamic groups. Select the faces you want for the tight bodice, and specify a new dynamic group name. Then assign stiffer material properties to that dynamic group. There are also the Soft Decorated and Rigid Decorated material groups that accomplish the same thing, but each clothing article can only have one of those.

Try different dynamic groups, though ... it will take some experimentation, but it should do what you want it to do.

It could also be very useful for soft body dynamics: have Vicki sit down on a stool that deforms her buttocks, for instance. Oooh, you got off that one easy. The instant visual I got was something that was more pertinent to Michael. LOLOL

Message edited on: 01/20/2005 14:19

As some people pointed out already: make every aspect available AND USABLE in Python! By usable I mean a good and workable API. Not that first attempt of an API where every programmer shakes his/her head (like writing a function for creating an object like CreateLight etc. and not returning the created object).

" As some people pointed out already: make every aspect available AND USABLE in Python!" Not entirely CL's fault on that one... tkinter for Mac OSX is badly fooked-up. Check the Macintosh forum here for a long and detailed discussion on that little nightmare. /P

Penguinisto: I didn't complain mainly about Tkinter, since I'm on a WinXP machine, but the API could REALLY be better. That CL choose not to use third party GUI toolkits is a reasonable decision, as you said: that it's broken on the Mac is not their fault and something out of their sphere of influence. Anyone tried to install wxPython in the site-packages directory of Poser? Hmm, something to do, if I have some spare time.

I read most of these posts and agree with a lot of it. So I won't repeat them other than reiterating the core needs rewritten. But I truly wish CL would take a look at Vue. In Vue you can choose to use OpenGL or you can turn it off. You can grab a light or camera and move or rotate it directly in the scene. But what I really like is AREA RENDER and the tree view. In the tree view you can see all the items in your scene: models, lights, cameras, etc. You can group items making them much easier to work with. You can also make them invisible so they won't appear in the render, a great time saver. And Vue 4--released long before Poser5--does use multiple processors and network rendering. And Vue's interface is so well-done and easy to use I learned it in about 20 minutes. I am not, nor have I ever been, affiliated in any way with e-on software.

HAIR! HAIR! HAIR! Long, rich beautiful flowing mane!! With no strays! Just like the shampoo commericals! An animated model just isn't believeable without realistic dynamic hair. The more I work with the hair room, the more frustrated I get. It makes very little sense in how it works and even if you get to a point that you can dynamically render it, it almost always freezes. No one seems to have a good tutorial for it. Probably for the same reason, they can't get it to work either. The Hair Room was the reason I purchased Poser 5 in the first place. And after 4 Service Releases, I don't see hardly any improvment in it. The cloth room is great and rather easy to configure in my opinion although it does have its problems. But if the hair room worked as well as the cloth room, that would be a serious major improvement!! It's a pain to render an image where the character has her head leaned back and her middle of the back-length hair is "stuck" to her back. IT SHOULD HANG DOWN!!! I wanna be able to twist the head side to side and have the hair follow realistically. Have the hair bounce as the model walks or leans or does whatever. And while your at it, make it styleable. Be able to add curls or kinks and body. I would be MORE than willing to beta test it!!!! And while were on the subject of realistic movement, it would be nice to have something like a dynamic breasts setting so they would move realistically as well. Adjustments like in the cloth room or maybe even a python script if possible. And speaking of Python scripts, I liked what someone mentioned above about a Python pull down menu. That would be nice. Instead of having to build the button menu thingy. But I would MUCH rather have the Hair fixed!! Thank you. I'll get off the box now. (Please fix the Hair Room.....) Nebula

The cloth room is great and rather easy to configure in my opinion although it does have its problems. But if the hair room worked as well as the cloth room, that would be a serious major improvement!! It's a pain to render an image where the character has her head leaned back and her middle of the back-length hair is "stuck" to her back. IT SHOULD HANG DOWN!!! I wanna be able to twist the head side to side and have the hair follow realistically. Have the hair bounce as the model walks or leans or does whatever. And while your at it, make it styleable. Be able to add curls or kinks and body. I would be MORE than willing to beta test it!!!! Hmmm ... I'm a little confused here. But the Hair Room does already create hair that reacts to position and movement, and you can add curls and kinks and such. Do you have some screen shots of what you're talking about? Maybe we can help.

Oh, I know the current hair room is suppose to do these things. My problem is that it's very cryptic on how to use it especially to get the results you want. There are tons of collision issues and stray hairs and unwanted kinks. I have purchased a couple dynamic hairs' to see if they work and I get the same poor results. I don't think it is their product. I think it's Poser Hair Room.

The Cloth Room is sweet. I found an article on CL's site some professor wrote that explains everything in cloth room. Using his document as a guide, I got some wonderful cloth results. I wish there were some guides like that for the Hair Room. I've yet to see one and do try to keep an eye out for them. But I don't think Hair Room works well enough for anyone to make a tutorial.

I don't need hair on a ball. I need hair on V3 and it needs to flow as she walks or sits in a chair with her head back or hang to the side as she tilts her head for a portrait. I want it to blow in the breeze. I want her to be able to run her hands thru it. That's the kind of things I am trying to produce. I even purchased a tablet to try and paint it by hand. It was obvious why I purchased Poser for the Hair Room. Suffice to say, I can not paint hair. hehe

I am all ears if anyone has any help in this area. If you search the Forum for Nebula, your sure to come across my previous posts on this issue. There are a ton of smart people on here and I appricate everyone of them. I get more help than I can stand sometime! lol Renderosity is a great place! I will try to generate another hair scene and upload it for everyones input. If you know of a good Hair Room tutorial, PLEASE pass it on!!!!

Thanks again,

Nebula

Message edited on: 02/07/2005 16:05

"Give me lots of hair... HAIR!.... shoulder length or longer..." My hair is butt-length, and I don't consider it long enough. In the old stories, and renaissance pictures, hair would easily be knee-length or floor length, and would flow like water. :) I'd like to be able to do real braids, in horses as well as people. However, I'm patient. Carolly

I'd like to be able to do real braids, in horses as well as people. However, I'm patient.

And patient you will have to be. 8-)

Braids are possible now in Poser 5. However, they are definitely not easy! LOL

I think the best way to start would be to create a hair growth group for each braid section (in other words, three sections). But then you would probably have to primarily use the Styling Controls (the Style Hairs button in Section 3) to do the braiding. And even with that, you'd have to play with the falloff slider so that you work only on the portion of the hair that hasn't yet been braided ... so the falloff will increase more toward the ends of the hair as you braid it.

It won't be pretty, however! You'll probably have none of your own hair left by the time you are done. LOL

Message edited on: 02/07/2005 18:41

Attached Link: http://www.jardinpuzzles.com/galnielseneastwest1.htm

So, braiding a horse mane like this is out of the question for now? :sigh:

ROFL ... did you hear me laugh clear across the USA? ;-)

Attached Link: http://www.worley.com/media/examples/sas/SasGallery/braid.jpg

By the way, it IS possible to do braids in strand-based hair, it just takes a lot of patience. The URL above is a braid done in Sasquatch, which is a plug-in for LightWave and which produces some of the most remarkable hair I've ever come across. It works a bit differently than the Hair Room in Poser, in that it allows you to model your guide hairs in LightWave, and then generate the strands from the models. However, they both work on basically the same principal. LightWave 8 comes with a Lite version of Sasquatch but the controls aren't as extensive as those in the full-blown version. There's a great gallery on Worley's site, if you want to see some amazing stuff ... http://www.worley.com/sasquatch/gallery.html

So that's what startled the cat! (We both ignore earthquakes.) ;^) But, if a person was really compulsive, and meticulous, and determined... they MIGHT be able to get a braided mane? The Worley image is quite nice... it even thins down near the tip naturally. It reminds me of the Wyeth drawing of the lady next door... someone who really LOOKED at hair. BTW, a couple of years ago, I was dating a Jewish man with a nice thick thatch on his chest. After a few minutes he looked down and said, "What ARE you doing?" I replied, "corn-row braids" with an innocent grin. He freaked for some strange reason. I think it would have looked handsome. Even without beads. :sigh: Men are no fun at all. Carolly

I have an idea it's too late to adopt any changes, because Poser 6 is scheduled for release this spring.

Well they should think about implementing a lot of these ideas in poser 7.