Thanks Xeno, that was what I meant. Wow, P7 will render a scene for you as fast as P4?! I've got Propack, P5 and P6 all loaded onto my computer...and when I take a scene and render it in Propack (p4) it will take - let's say 32 seconds as an example - then when I try to render it in P5 (using the P4 rendering engine) it will take well over a minute...and P6 is almost always dead on to take twice as long - like 64 seconds (Again, using the P4 rendering engine). If there's some trick to getting my 3.2 Ghz Pentium4 with 2 gigs of ram to get rendering speeds lower with Poser5+ versions, I'd love to hear it.

I can't speak to whether Poser7 is actually faster or not when it comes to using the P4 rendering engine within P7...I've heard a lot of people claim that it is...but whenever I've asked someone to test it for me (even against Poser6) it seems that render times have either not changed, they are even slower, or those that I ask don't seem to get back to me. For this reason I have not, nor do I intend to purchase Poser7

I've talked to a lot of people that don't seem to think this is a big deal...but as an animator, doubling render times with newer versions is a BIG DEAL. Instead of a clip taking 2 hours to render, I'm now looking at 4+ if I choose to use Poser 5, 6, or - I imagine - 7. Now if I were just rendering single-frame images of Naked Vicki in a Temple...well I could care less about rendering speeds.

It just seems to me that if I have to keep Propack, P5, AND P6 all loaded onto my computer to get the results I need...well the upgrades just don't strike me as sufficient. I'm surprised more people don't feel the same way...but everyone is entitled to their opinions. Unfortunately, it seems that nothing is going to happen with render speeds unless I start vocalizing my own though. Maybe someone at EF will finally get the message, and fix the problem with Poser8 so that I can FINALLY drop Propack into the recycling bin, God willing.

Again, sorry for the rant, I just don't think Poser7 looks like enough incentive to warrant another upgrade. I've listed my primary reasons, but I'll also say that the new features listed on the EF website did nothing to encourage my decision. As a matter of fact, I nearly turned red in the face when I saw that they added the Talk-Designer into Poser7 - something I consider to be completely unneccessary, and if it works anything like all the other "rooms" in Poser, will just eat up more system resources (whether I use it or not) in an attempt to undermine Daz as a competitor. It just strikes me as petty.

All that being said, I don't have a problem if EF adds new stuff with newer versions of Poser. Hell, I love dynamic cloth, hair, etc. But not every scene I make demands that I use it...so why can't I turn it off when I'm not using it? Or the Face Room? Or the Setup Room? These are the things that slow Poser down to a crawl...at least for me. I'm just saying, I want the option to turn them off so that Poser can run more efficiently without being drained of system resources by these things when I don't need them.

Now, before anyone tells me that Poser7 renders twices as fast as Poser4 (Or I actually use ProPack), I ask you to do a few render tests. And is there ANYONE who wouldn't like the option of "Turning off" these extra features/rooms when you don't need them? Until these things get some work done to them, my advice is not to upgrade.

Anyway, sorry for the coninued rant. I really don't mean to be Mr. Negativity here. I love Poser, I really do...I just think that it could be so much more than it is, and I was really disappointed when I saw what was being offered with Poser7. Hope this helps to at least spur the conversation in some constructive ways.