i've noticed people have alot of complaints about poser 6 and i rarely see any about poser 5 i want to get poser 6 but is there really any difference between the two? can someone tell me the pros and cons between the two? thanx d.c.(shishomiru)

The reason you rarely see complaints about Poser 5 now is because CL spent a year making SR's to fix the many, many problems with the initial release (can you say - paying beta testers?) ;) Poser 6, considering the improvements in many areas, has relatively few problems - the only glaring one is the memory bug. I think you should wait just a little longer for release of SR1 to fix these and go for Poser 6. If you can't wait, get Poser 5 and upgrade after the SR1 release.

Since I installaled P6 (on the download date) I havn't used P5 at all. P6 is faster and have some nice new stuff for rendering, the mat room is better, there is a lot of improvement in P6. I would suggest you get P6 if you use Poser a lot or want to in the future. I too had problems with P6 in the beginning, but now it runs smoother and faster than P5 did.

i think only those with more than 1mb ram come across the memory bug.. i'm using 1meg physical and 4gig virtual .. never had a problem even with highly dense scenes, other than it stopped rendering once it reached a certain limit (only because i was being crazy and using 0.0 for minimum shading rate lol!) P6 is definitely far better than P5 (statement from personal experience only)

I'll add to that, I have just 1Meg of RAM and I have experienced many issues with P6 including the memory one. This "urban myth" that has grown up around here about people with this or that memory not having the problem is total rubbish. The memory issue hits people with all sorts of different set ups and also doesn't show for some people with the same set ups, very confusing. To answer your question, I have 5 and 6 and there's no question that 6 is better and will seriously rock when the issues are sorted. thefixer poser coordinator.

If you want to render in Poser, get P6, if not P5 will get the job done.

thefixer? please refrain from calling something rubbish when it is FACT that Windows has a 2GB memory limit per application. that is what some are hitting and causing problems. I would do research first lad.

We have had similar discussion about P5 vs P6 and I agree with thefixer comments

infact to quote : "Windows NT-based operating systems are working in so-called protected mode, meaning that the operating system is running at the highest �current privilege level� (CPL=0) whereas user applications are running at a low privilege level (CPL=3) that will not grant direct access to either memory space used by the kernel or else I/O ports to applications. The easiest way of protecting the memory space allocated to the operating system from unauthorized access by any user application is to split the 32-bit memory space into two separate, arbitrarily defined 31-bit memory spaces ranging from �2^31 to +2^31. In this case, all memory addresses allocated to the operating system will be lower than 0 whereas all user applications will only have access to the positive memory range. Attempts by applications to access the negative virtual address space will result in a fault handler execution that can create for example an error message saying �Insufficient Memory� or �Out of Memory� depending on the personal taste of the programmer. As a consequence, all user applications together can only access a total of 2 GB of combined physical and virtual memory (with virtual memory in this case referring to HDD space allocated to the page-file). These limitations apply to WindowsNT, WindowsXP and Windows Server2003 (Windows.net). One exception is Windows 2000 Server Enterprise Edition along with some configurations of Microsoft Exchange Server 2000 and Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server that allow the so-called 3GB switch to enable 3 GB of usable memory for applications. Bottom line is that WindowsXP cuts the memory accessible by 32-bit applications and processors in half meaning that of the 4 GB total memory available in a 32-bit address space only 2 GB are usable by any application. If more memory is required, the user either needs to migrate to a 64-bit processor and operating system or else to the old-fashioned Windows2000 Server. The latter will work up to a total of 3 GB of memory needs for applications. If more memory is required, the only way out is a 64-bit edition of WindowsXP or 2003 Server along with the necessary hardware to support it." I would guess it comes down to this : "Attempts by applications to access the negative virtual address space will result in a fault handler execution that can create for example an error message saying �Insufficient Memory� or �Out of Memory� depending on the personal taste of the programmer." - and it's fouling the scene. thing is, it is only in the last YEAR that systems at home have been getting to this limit. remember when Poser 4 / Propack had to be updated to handle 1gb + ram? and the recommendation was to cap your virtual at 2gb?

Khai I congradulate you that you know your stuff and everything you say may be correct. Then answer my problem I am having with P6 that have been posted in a number of places in the forum as well as CL tech support that did not come up with what you have explained. The problem is i create scene that contain in access or 4 figures fully kitted out P6 fails to render with error messages like the one mentioned above as well as cant find textures when in fact it staring directly infront of the application. Tell me what you think is the solution when you are getting these types of errors. That would normally work without any problem with its P5 and P4. I have 4 HDD totalling 16G of page files. Before you say the Windows maximum limit 4g I am aware of it. Application dynamics is not our forte that CL techs business. CL have states this is a memory leak and they will resolve it with the forthcoming update.

Based on my observations of people complaining about memory problems. the vast majority of people complaining and stating their computer statistics have said they have more than one gig of ram. the vast majority of people who have not had a problem have said they have 1 gig or less. There are exceptions. I have 1 gig and it took having poser running for 3 days and 94 renders before it gave me the error. P6 is better than P5 in my opinion. and will be even better when this memory bug is fixed.

i just realized my mistake: i said i have 1meg instead of 1gig lol! i agree with what Tyger purr said about "the vast majority of people complaining and stating their computer statistics have said they have more than one gig of ram"

P6 hands down. Everything in a Poser 5, and More. just remember, 5<6.. ;)

I haven't gotten it yet, but I certainly hope Poser 6 is better than 5! I fell in love with 4, and was terribly disappointed when the bugs in 5(even with service packs) were so many and so extreme that I couldn't use the Cloth or Hair rooms at all. My art has been on hold for a long time, waiting for this. Here's hoping CL got it right this time.

"I have one meg ram" Anyone remember when Bill Gates had stated that "640 kb of ram was enough... Who's going to need more than 640kb?" LOL!!! Semi ON TOPIC, I reformatted my C drive (had windows, P5 & P6) and after reinstaling XP pro and JUST P6 I have to say that P6 is SOOOOOOO much faster now... Don't know why as I regularly defrag etc. I'm just looking forward to P6 NOT constantly looking for textures fron the P5 runtime! G

6

ghelmer: That's called "munge" (technical terminology there). It is well known that over time, after installs, uninstalls, reinstalls, updates, constant adding to/removing from the registry, and so on, Windows starts to bog down. Has absolutely nothing to do with defragging (which is a FileSystem issue, whereas "munge" is an OperatingSystem issue). The recommendation is to format your OS harddrive once every year to two (some even recommend six months) and do a complete reinstall to boost performance (with all caveats about backing up and saving important configuration information).

Khai,
I'm not going to get into an argument with you.
I wasn't talking about the "windows memory limit" when I said that. What I was referring to is people saying that only those people with "X" amount of memory in their systems is getting the memory issue which is just not true. Perhaps you should have read my post a little closer Khai!

thefixer
poser coordinator.

Message edited on: 05/07/2005 03:36

Poser 7

I've got 2 GB RAM. When is it that you get the memory problem in P6?

fixer, the 2 are one and the same. I did read your post. You choose to rubbish the research I did on this subject after I tried to help you and others with this problem. please watch your tone while you hold a postion of responsibility. at this time you are verging on being insulting and arronagant. you have made an erronous post. the limit and the crashes are linked. nuff said.

Khai, I have not so far in any way "rubbished" any research you may have done because I wasn't aware that you had done any, that's the first point! I congratulate you on your endeavours and that is no way sarcastic before you lay that one at me as well, it is meant with all sincerity. I will restate what I did say: There are some people that are saying the "memory issue" hits only those with upwards of 1.5 Gig of RAM in their system which I believe is untrue as I don't have that much RAM and I know of a number of others here and at other sites who also don't have that much RAM that get the memory issue. I have merely posted my experiences with Poser6 so far and the memory issue which is just one issue anyway. My post was not erroneous or insulting, just stating my own experiences, it is a fact that this issue is affecting different people and systems in different ways. I hope I have now clarified my earlier post and I do hope the discussion stays civil. If you have any issues with me on a personal note about this issue then I would prefer it if you IM me and we can sort it out between us in a responsible manner. thefixer poser coordinator.