Just got an email from Curious Labs announcing an expected release date and more 'secrets'

*"Poser 6 Windows and Mac OS X versions have the expected release date of March 21st"

Secret # 4 - Subsurface scattering of light effects
Secret # 6 - New Content*

The email is a little muddled and the links don't work (for me anyway) but thought some of you may not have heard the latest...

Message edited on: 03/01/2005 20:35

Ditto to all of the above. ;=?

Do they say what the new content is?

Its going to have SSS?! Can't wait to try that out!

I got the email to and it says that full details on poser 6, including the new features and content will be available by March 10th....

AND OSX????? Maybe I should upgrade to OSX finally. ;) bB

Looks like the SE with Shade LE is a good buy ?

What I find more interesting is the inclusion of VUE 5 on the main page.....

Cool, I wonder though, will there be an easy way to put all my poser content I have downloaded into the poser 5 folder into poser 6 or will I have to actually move all the folders manualy?

wolverine, My guess is that P6 will use linked runtimes similar, if not exactly, the way P5 does. In other words, you should just be able to link to your P5 folder.

mm cl and e.on are flirting wildly with each other (more then ever anyway) which of course is good for all of us, the better integration between poser,vue,shade the better.

Thanks for the info PabloS :)

From CL NEW! PHOTOREALISTIC LIBRARIES OF CONTENT ~ New male, female, boy, and girl figures, new poses, hair, clothing, and accessories offers you ready-to-go, professional results. quick!

Philywebrider: NEW! PHOTOREALISTIC LIBRARIES OF CONTENT ~ New male, female, boy, and girl figures, new poses, hair, clothing, and accessories offers you ready-to-go, professional results. quick! Is there a link to this, I can't find it on the CL site ;)

Attached Link: http://www.curiouslabs.com/article/articleview/1354/1/414/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Curious Labs Announces Expected Release Date for Poser 6!

Santa Cruz, California, February 28, 2005 - Curious Labs, producer of the powerful 3D visualization and figure design product, Poser, announced that the much anticipated Poser 6 for Windows 2000/XP and Mac OS X has the expected release date of March 21, 2005.

Poser 6 includes several powerful new features:

• NEW! A MORE EFFICIENT AND FEATURE RICH USER INTERFACE ~ offers a faster and more efficient creative process than ever before possible.

• NEW! OpenGL HARDWARE ACCLERATION ~ gives you better and faster previews when designing & posing 3D figures.

• NEW! AMBIENT OCCLUSION ~ for global illumination-like effects and photorealistic soft shadows.

• NEW! PHOTOREALISTIC LIBRARIES OF CONTENT ~ New male, female, boy, and girl figures, new poses, hair, clothing, and accessories offers you ready-to-go, professional results. quick!

• NEW! IMAGE BASED LIGHTING (IBL) ~ can illuminate 3D objects with measurements of real light, making objects appear as if theyre actually in a real-world scene.

• NEW! CARTOON OUTLINE RENDERING EFFECTS ~ one of the most requested new features.

• NEW! IMPROVED FLASH SUPPORT ~ offers user-defined Flash export colors for the Web.

• CONTENT PARADISE REDESIGN ~ the best and easiest way to add more content to Poser 6!

I just hope the face room size limitation is fixed,

Something else I thought of.. having the ability to just install runtime content or not. It's be so nice to be able to run a completly clean runtime, and then just install the characters and props I want to use. Or to just be able to reinstall the program, without installing all the content after something buggers Poser up. Other installers have these features, and it's be nice to see CL add them as well.

"NEW! PHOTOREALISTIC LIBRARIES OF CONTENT ~ New male, female, boy, and girl figures, new poses, hair, clothing, and accessories offers you ready-to-go, professional results. quick!" Sounds good, guess this is the reason DAZ is panicking and trying to get as many of us hooked on their free base figures now. Well, I kept my money in my pocket and didn't fall for DAZ's lures, since I expected Curious Labs to make a new move on this area. I'm really curious now. All these rendering features do not excite me at all, but this sound good.

It would be nice if they released the manual a few weeks early so we can get a jump start on what to expect. One thing I havent seen mentioned. Is the application or renderer finally multithreaded? I know that allot of work went into making P6 and Im sure I will appreciate it. But I would like to know before I get the DL.

I love corporate talk and their over enthusiastic announcements... "offers you ready-to-go, professional results. quick!" At least, they understood what the base Poser user wants. The famous "make art" button is probably scheduled for Poser 7. "CONTENT PARADISE REDESIGN" Suspense, suspense... Can they make it worse ? This said, and all cynism apart, I bought the pre-order...

I wouldn't make any assumptions about the new P6 figures just yet......remember what Don and Judy were supposed to be.

On the other hand, perhaps CL has done it this time. We'll see.

However, I am so heavily invested in the mil figures at this point that switching to new figures would most likely be a long-term proposition. BTW -- I am happy with the DAZ figures, so I don't perceive that I "fell" for anything.

Besides, there's no reason not to mix 'n match figures, anyway -- so long as they all work well together.

For some reason, I didn't receive this particular e-mail from Curious Labs.

Interesting. I've received the others......hmmmm.

"Sounds good, guess this is the reason DAZ is panicking and trying to get as many of us hooked on their free base figures now." Actually, Aiko3, V3 and M3 free were offered months before we got any official "Poser 6 spring" release date. And how is giving you something for free panicking? Hell everyone's already sold on their high end characters, in one flavor or another.

I got that email later then everyone else, di, but I did finally get it.

still no mention in regards to animals though... And after seeing the P5 family - I'll stick to mill. figures.

I'll wait and see what the new figures look like. Being able to use them in the Face Room is a nice advantage, IMO.

And contrary to popular belief, the fact that the Face Room doesn't work on the Millennium figures is not an evil CL plot. It's the nature of the Face Room (and Facegen). It can only work with one particular mesh. Unless Judy and V3 had the same head mesh, you couldn't expect the Face Room to ever work on both of them.

Regardless of the reasons for it ---- the fact that the P5 Face Room couldn't accommodate the DAZ mil figures made the FR practically useless to me.

On top of which, the P5 FR doesn't work very well on the figures for which it's intended, either. Unless if you are wanting to do cartoonish or satirical faces, that is.

I'm hoping for FR improvements in P6. That would be a giant leap forwards.

If the P6 figures are good enough, then the lack of Face Room support for the DAZ mil figures won't be the major drawback that it is now..........

However, all of this remains to be seen.

I'm optimistic. I'm looking forward to finding out.

From my perspective, I'm not seeing anything in the press releases that catches my eye as a breakthrough development. It would appear that the only real improvements have been made with the rendering engine. In my case, these improvements are irrelevant, as I do all of my rendering within 3ds MAX. OpenGL will be nice, and we'll have to see what sort of "new and improved" interface they've come up with. My concerns are more with improvments with dynamic hair and cloth (which they have not made any mention of).

Xenophonz, you're not alone. I didn't get one either and I have been getting them.

Dr. Geep --

As everyone knows, if anyone is capable of taking lemons and making lemonade -- it's you. ;-)

I bow to your ability to make the battered old violin sing.........

However, you are one of the few (very few) individuals that I've ever seen achieve such results out of the Face Room. In addition to which, it isn't just about faces, it's also about body types, shapes, etc......

I suppose that if I'd had the patience to spend the time (hours) tweaking things in the FR, then perhaps I could come close to this. But I am inherently lazy, and I don't like to spend frustrating hours upon what might very well be a lost cause.

Actually, the FaceGen program itself would be the way to go for me......if it wasn't for the $1000.00 penalty involved to do so.......and if it wasn't for the fact that the Singular Inversions folks require you to submit images for remote computation on head models -- then I would buy the full version of FaceGen. And I would likely use it all of the time.

As for using the P5 FR -- my hat's off to the master.

Us mere 3D hobbyists are looking for an easier way out, I suppose.

;-)

I'll have to take a careful look at your tut.

In fact, now that I think about it, you might be the only operator that I've ever seen do things like this with the P5 Face Room..........

Hi XENOPHONZ, I thank you for your reply ............... and the accolades. ;=] re:"I'll have to take a careful look at your tut." I would appreciate any and all comments that you might have about the tut. What could I do to make the next one better? cheers, dr geep ;=]

I certainly appreciate your solicting my opinion on your tut. I'll have to honor your request with a response in the near future.

I'm at work right now....so I'll have to look at the tut later.

Your tuts are always worthwhile for both serious Poser users and for novices.

"Actually, the FaceGen program itself would be the way to go for me......" what $1000? the program is only $495... and to quote from their site : "Purchasing BUY NOW - US$ 495 You can buy the upgrade from v2.x or 3.0 here (US$ 99). Legal Images, video and sculpture rendered using FaceGen models are yours to sell or distribute. FaceGen '.fg' files are yours to sell or distribute. " if your're putting Facegen into another program thats different.. but buying it and making meshes with it? nooo prob's and it's not restricted to just 1 or 2 meshes - "Or apply your face to your own mesh and UV layout using the FaceGen Customizer." ;)

For my own part, I may just wait and see what Dr. Geep comes up with before I spend money on P6. There's so much he's revealed about P5 which isn't clearly apparent in the manual. There's so much which seems to come from putting two different bits of the program together, and he seems to be able to see the connections before anyone else. Obviously, the man has a warped mind.

"Or apply your face to your own mesh and UV layout using the FaceGen Customizer."

I think that just applies a texture. Which is a good and useful thing, but most people who buy Facegen want to re-create a specific face. Celebrities and other digital clones. For that, you need to reshape the mesh.

If you're good enough at modeling to get a likeness in an original mesh, you can just take V3 or M3 into your modeling program and reshape their faces. Without having the hassle of trying to fit the Facegen mesh to the unimesh neck.

And that price is just for one module of Facegen. You'll need both the customizer and the modeller to do what the Face Room does. They are about $500 each, hence the $1,000 price tag quoted. If you want a license that allows you to redistribute, it's another $1,000.

*what $1000? the program is only $495... and to quote from their site :

"Purchasing

BUY NOW - US$ 495*

For full functionality, FaceGen Modeller 3.1 ($495.00) + FaceGen Customizer (also $495.00) = $990.00.

That's pretty close to $1000.00.

Sure, you can go with FaceGen Modeller alone....but that leaves out the ability to apply your faces to meshes other than the default FaceGen mesh.

In looking over their website, it seems that they might have dropped the remote server requirement + the per head charge.....if so, then that's a step in the right direction. But it's hard to tell. I'll have to investigate further when I have time.

Unless if someone knows the answer already.........? Message edited on: 03/02/2005 14:27

If you're good enough at modeling to get a likeness in an original mesh, you can just take V3 or M3 into your modeling program and reshape their faces. Without having the hassle of trying to fit the Facegen mesh to the unimesh neck.

I've gotten my best results at realistic cloning simply by tweaking the DAZ morphs in Poser.

It works.....but it can be a headache to accomplish. Not to mention taking up a lot of time.

Oh, yeah......there used to be a British company called 3DMeNow that produced an excellent face-creating software package. They were happy to sell the program to you for $2000.00 US.

3DMeNow also produced a body-creating program.

However, 3DMeNow appears to have bought the farm/gone belly-up ("taken a Burton" in British parlance).

I've gotten my best results at realistic cloning simply by tweaking the DAZ morphs in Poser.

In that case, the Facegen customizer may be of use to you, at least if digital cloning is what you're going for. IME, the big drawback to dial-spun likenesses is the textures aren't right. Without the right texture, you'll never get a good likeness.

I don't think you need to submit images or animations to the Facegen servers. I think you do if you want to redistribute the mesh. They don't charge per character, but per software package. So if you want to use Facegen faces in your game, it's $1,000, no matter how many characters you have. Sequels are included, but a new game would require another license.

Without the right texture, you'll never get a good likeness. Admittedly, it's a lack. But one can come close. Frankly, most digital clones that I've seen are of the "who do you think that this is?" variety, anyway. But I've seen a few amazing likenesses, too. Which can be a bit morbid IMO....when the celebrity in question is dead.

Hmmm...8 days left until all the details about P6 are revealed, 19 days until its expected release. Shouldn't CL be bombarding us with an array of promo images to hype every aspect of this new version. There's not really been any build-up except for people eager to get their hands on it.

Damnit, I lose out by 4 days! My hubby bought poser 5 for me for my birthday. He purchased it on Jan. 31. NEXT DAY they announced Poser 6. But wait! CL tells us that if you bought Poser 5 within 45 days of the release date of Poser 6, you get P6 free! Easy to do the math....28 days in Feb., 21 in March equals....49 days. AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHH!

LOL @ ockham !!! Wait a minute ............. "patented?" ;=]

re:"Obviously, the man has a warped mind."

Uh oh, somebody must have ... an ability to read minds.

Just don't try it with NaySayGuy ... it would be like trying to divide by zero.

cheers, (anyway)
dr geep
;=]

P.S. Thanks for the compliment Antonia. ;=]

goldfire I hope I'm giving you the right info. You also missed out on the $109.00 preorder Feb 16-22, ( with the 15% discount ) and the $89.00 special price , but if you register Poser 5 and purchase/preorder the Poser 6 Special Winter edition, with Shade LE before 3/21/2005 you can get the Poser 5 upgrade to Poser 6 for the $129.00 price. Do I have this right folks?

Goldfire, There are still people using Poser 4. I hope Poser 5 doesn't linger for the same wrong reasons, but the drooling over P6 features seems a little excessive around this thread. Excuse me while I go and wipe my paws.

AntoniaTiger; Say wha....? Considering the hype in the air around the P5 release, this is tepid at best...and probably for the best. It'll be interesting to see how stability issues have changed with the dropping of the 9x support. And if they will have network rendering support finally (with dynamic hair, cloth, HDRI and subsurface scatter, they'll need it...unless there is some new trick in the goody bag). Oh, I just hope the OpenGL implementation isn't a stinker...

I tried to spawn my own Geeps ... no luck :)