I've downloaded Studio and am now wondering whether it has enough features or things it does better than Poser that make it worth learning. I'm not looking for another debate on which is better because I've heard the arguments and frankly see little value in there being another emotional outburst on the subject. I can own two pieces of similar software without developing an irrational hatred against one of them. I'm only trying to find out, as an existing Poser user, whether there is something compelling about Studio to make it worth the time to learn. I tried using a beta version on an underpowered computer and did find out that more power and memory were needed, in that older version of the program, than what was needed to do the same thing in Poser. The interface was different enough that it wasn't worth the time to invest more to get used to those differences since that older beta was essentially not usable on my old computer. Again, I'm not looking for arguments about the interface. It's different and that means investing time to become familiar with it. Whether it's better or worse than the Poser interface (which took a long time to become comfortable with) will require more time to get used to so that an informed decision can be made. The one thing that might be better is working with an OpenGL system because that is something that I do not have with Poser 5 (6 has it, but I'm not yet ready to spend another $100-$200 for that). One of the more frustrating aspects of Poser 5 is setting up lighting I like in the workspace, render the image, and find out that the render doesn't look much like what the workspace previewed. There is even a major difference between draft and production renders, let alone what's seen in the workspace. I don't know if OpenGL provides enough of a more realistic preview environment that's close enough to the final render that it would help me save time in the long run. The two things that take me the most time, working in Poser, is setting up the figures and props and getting good poses and composition; and the annoying iterative process of render, fix, render. I'm looking for thoughts from people who are familiar enough with the new version 1.0 release of Studio and Poser 5 or 6 and can offer seasoned advice where Studio has worthwhile features worth exploring. Does the released version of Studio render in about the same time as Poser? What features does it have to make it worth taking the time to explore, considering that I'm already comfortable with Poser? Are there certain types of images that are easier to create in Studio or look better when created there? Does importing a saved Poser PZ3 and rendering it in Studio provide any advantages? Basically, with my limited time, I'm not looking for marginal improvements because those aren't worth learning something new. That's just a practical limitation of the amount of time I have.

Whenever I turn my back and they think I'm out of earshot they're at each other's throats. Constant bickering, name-calling, wrestling about...they trash my runtime and eat up all my RAM. ;) Seriously, the bottom line for me is this. I can set a scene, move items around, make all those adjustments (and re-adjustments) faster in Poser. It works smoother for me, not because of the interface or amount of time I've been using it, it's just faster and uses my system resources better to set up a (or load an existing) scene. On the other hand D|S will render a scene in openGL lightning fast, once it's done churning through any RAM I might still have left. My Poser renders will take 15-30 minutes for the same scene. D|S also has the advantage of future plugins, so you just can't say for sure how it will end up. I have a gig of RAM and an NVidia card with 128 megs of vidram, if that helps. For now, I still use Poser as my primary app, but I'll mess around with D|S now and then to check out a plugin.

Yup same here. I am grabbing the plugins while they're free and cheap because I think it could be a very robust program. We have no idea what they are planning for it so it's best to keep an open mind. I use poser 6 and will be playing with the studio as well. Marque

I am beginning to do more and more in DS than in Poser. I have now begun to think that given a few more months, I will be able to do 99% in DS. To me, it is faster, more reliable, and gentler on the eyes than poser.

I use it to export to obj for applications that dont import native poser files (Cinema4D CE+, Truespace...)

I usually choose to have only one application of any type on my pc, and the benefits of Poser for me heavily outweights the ones of D|S. Usually, in Poser6 I pose things/characters very fast using OpenGl preview (I've an old Radeon 9800 card), choose lights and check with the area render small parts to be sure of the lightning I choose. Then I launch rendering while I'm doing something other on the PC(usually watching a DVD or surfing the web), so for a good final result the times are of no meaning to me. I don't think that the two apps compliments each other, there's so much to learn and experiment to find new way of use them that I think it's better to focus on ONE of them... which one, it's all a matter of personal preferences :)

2 questions for the people who use DS: Does it use the same teeny tiny microscopic scale that Poser uses? Can DS save figures and scenes etc in a format that Poser can use? cr2, pz3 etc. :] Fish

I don`t know about the scale in daz studio but it loads and renders poser stuff so the scale might be similar.

It can`t save any poser files which is something that daz should change ASAP.

Message edited on: 10/02/2005 07:21

I'm not sure I've got the right end of the stick, but I think D|S uses a more normal scale and ups the scaling on Poser imports. It's hard to tell deinitively. It does use cm as its internal unit, however. No Poser exports, but Rob Whisenant has hinted that he's done a script for his own use at least so it should be possible - Stewer has a Python script that will read D|S pose presets if they are saved in ASCII format. For me, the advantages are multi-selection of parts and surfaces, mutiple undos, better (though not perfect) preview, and more-robust feeling controls and more "sensible" organisation (but that's a matter of taste, obviously). If you are pretty much happy with Poser therte's probably no reason to give D|S much attention, if you have serious issues with some aspect of Poser you might try D|S and see if it can help with the current toolset, or wait to see if easier interoperation appears later. (DAZ forum mod, so take with added salt)

I have poser 4,5 and 6, plus daz studio. A lot of it's down to personal preference with the interface and so on, but I use studio more and more in preference to poser. Valid reasons to learn studio (as unbiased as I can be) Multiple undo - This is a biggie. If you build large scenes, it's invaluable to have undos. Not only to undo posing/moving, but also undoing MATs you apply, or figures you delete, then change your mind. Lights and cameras - DS lights/cam are far better than poser's, not in their advanced features, but in general use. To be able to frame any object or body in the scene, no matter where it is, orbit round it, then reframe the entire scene, is a huge advantage. Adding a light and selecting a camera POV to use for it, or copying an existing light makes life so easy. And if you only have poser 5, DS will give you and extra option - shadow softness. Power Pose - Far superior to poser's IK system. Ask anyone at all who's used it. OpenGL - What you see is what you get. No need to continually do test renders. Memory management - DS uses your resources properly. It doesn't sit there like a vampire sucking up 100% of RAM. Displacement - DS's displacement is much better than poser's No doubt people can come up with reasons not to learn DS, but without knowing what it'll become in the future, I wouldn't care to go into that. I can see the sense in not spending extra time learning a useless app, but at the same time, DS will continue to add new features and plug-ins. Spending some time now, might make it a lot easier to learn than picking it up in a year's time and starting from zero. mac

"DAZ forum mod, so take with added salt" RHaseltine, your reply is far more balanced and objective than many fanboys of both programs! :D

As ProPack user, my main fun with DS is displacement and cartoon renderer mode. For normal renders I use PP just because I got used to it and I find putting the scene together much easier in PP. But I've grabbed the plugins, and I'm ready to wait what will happen next.

No, since you cannot open D/S files in Poser, DAZ Studio 1.0 DOES NOT complement Poser at all. Also still (even in v1) not all poser files can be opened in D/S.

By complementary, I didn't expect full interchangeability, but am trying to learn what Studio does better to make it worth investing some time in learning. Photoshop and Painter are similar applications that both allow painting and image editing. It's well worth having and learning both programs because each have their individual strengths. I'm reading some things that start leaning me towards taking time to learn DAZ Studio, but don't like not having a means to go back to Poser. Studio isn't as feature rich as Poser (nor should anybody expect it to be at release 1.0). By not letting me go back to Poser, playing with Studio will be a one-way street. That's not very good where I'm more comfortable with using Poser. I hope Studio eventually offers that compatibility because I could see going back and forth between programs where there are different strengths and different comfort levels. I regularly do that with Painter and Photoshop and probably lean more on Painter because I bought it first and learned it better, though have taken the time to become more comfortable with Photoshop. Not being able to take what I've done in Studio back into Poser is a bit of a deal breaker right there. I had expected that functionality to be added in the final release. How does Power Pose differ from dragging figure parts in Poser? One of the things I don't like about dragging on the screen with Poser is that unexpected translations start occurring in a different axis than I'm moving. Translations ought to be limited to the X-Y dimensions in my view. Poser starts making odd movements in the Z direction that makes dragging more often a pain than not. I've given up trying to drag objects to where I want them in Poser because of those unwanted translations. It's safer using the dials to move objects in a scene and not have to worry about changes in axes that I didn't want made.

I understand about the lack of 2-way compatibilty. I don't think it was much of a priority for V 1.0 (unfortunately). My point about learning studio at an early stage is that, since it's free anyway, you can always get it and learn it in slow steps, and when things like DS> poser export come along, you won't be struggling to start from scratch. Re Power Pose - I know it sounds like a cop-out, but you honestly have to use it to appreciate how much better and smoother it is than poser's IK. I'm a dial man myself. I never touch the doc window with the tools if I can avoid it, but PP is a real pleasure to use. It really takes posing to a new level. As regards control, you can pin/unpin any single body part, or any number of different body part you want. This makes a huge difference to how figures can be posed. You can also choose to pose from a body part's center, end point or joint, so pretty much anything's possible with it. mac

With PowerPose you can activate the translate gizmo, which is a set of axes you can drag to move in just the desired direction, or squares between the axes you can drag to move in a plane (some graphics cards are able to run D|S but don't let you use the manipulation gozmos, however). That won't completely remove unexpected translations in tha nother plane - the parts are rotating about their joints, so if you drag past the point where everything is at full stretch something will have to give - but I find it works farly well, to the point where I am willing to use PowerPose as I wasn't to use the in viewport tools in Poser. However, I wouldn't try doint very fine posing with it - my brain seems to be wired wrong.

If DS went both ways I'd try it again. The super posing whatzit plugin sounded interesting, but If I can't use those Poses in poser it's useless to me. I downloaded 1.0 and the plugin "just in case" but I currently have no plans to install them.

Attached Link: http://www.stewreo.de/poser/importds.html