Quote - So why don't E-Frontier re-write Poser from the ground up (aside from it being a time consuming process)? I would have thought that this would make Poser so much more advanced in one huge step. Perhaps it's the existing content issue (i.e. will it still be usable?) that is causing it to remain entrenched in that old code (?)

Well, time-consuming means expensive, and yes, content is very much an issue. If I were going to re-write Poser from the ground up, the very first thing I'd do is scrap that God-awful CR2 format and replace it with something that doesn't look like it was designed by sixteen retarded monkeys on a weekend bender. No offense meant to alcoholic, retarded monkeys, of course.

Once I did that, I'd have to write a translation program to convert existing content to the new format, or I'd be lynched by the existing community. Which would happen after I got fired for making a product that can't be sold. But, even if I did get the data to somehow convert from it's existing, insane format (did I mention that I don't really like the way the format is designed?) it almost certainly wouldn't render the same way as it did before, and it probably wouldn't animate the same way as it did before. Which would probably hurt sales, too.

The reality of the situation is, if e-Frontier were to invest in making a program that would do all of the things that the users want it to do, and that the content developers want it to do, and that the people who integrate it with other apps want it to do, and all of the people that make add-ons with Python want it to do, they absolutely could do that. They could make it into a CG tool every bit as powerful and sophisticated as, say, Maya or 3D Studio. Everyone who used it would be supremely pleased with it (well, mostly; I've never known of software that everyone liked).

Betcha it'd sell for more than $250 or $300 US, though. And it wouldn't run on anywhere near as many computers. If they decide to sink enough money and time into Poser to re-do it, I'd bet the farm that they'll write themselves into a new market. Somewhere during the project, someone would say, "Hey, let's make this a really high-end application, and we can continue to sell the existing Poser for the same price." Money makes the world go 'round, and if a company spends hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to develop a software app from the ground up, they're gonna wanna make it back, as fast as they can.

That's pretty much why, I'm afraid.

Captain Jack