Great to see this site is still here. Some years ago I purchased Poser 4 and had great fun with it. I also like many invested in a number of props, including Vicky and Michael.

I have now rediscovered the old set up, reinstalled everything and taken a look at the current state of play on the web. Predictably things have moved on a fair bit, with the mass of new software and addons thoroughly confusing me. We now have DAZ Studio, Vicky4, and three upgrades to the old Poser 4.

The question I have of you knowledgable lot is what is your advise on upgrading my old P4 version. Do I go straight for 7, or is it better to opt for a more stable version in between. In other words just how much better is 6 over 4 and 7 over 6.

Also how does DAZ Studio fit into all this???

Any freindly advice, info, and insight, would be greatly appreciated. :)

Thanks

Gary

first of all go get DAZ Studio .. its Free ..so thats a Cool start ..
And then play with it and see if it fits your needs  ..if it does forget P7 and the rest of them..
If it does not fit your needs then go get P7 

So simple is it
Remember that a lot of old stuf may not work anymore and is not suported anymore
But AIKO is free at DAZ and M3 and there is even a link somewhere that give you AIKO HIRO V3 M3 for free .. i just dont know wer that link is its a Legal link !!

And tons of freestuff here and on DAZ and loads of other site's

enjoy 

Chris

EDIT and go get Apollo Maximus !! He's free too !!!

See freestuff forum for links etc etc!

6 is approx. 100 times better than 4 IMVHO. 7 is probly 2 - 3X better than 6. YMMV.

DAZ Studio is a good program, but lacks the functionality of any version of Poser beyond 4.

P6 is stable, although it adds quite a few new features that will take some time to get used to.

P7 is still a little quirky, but in addition to the P6 additions, allows Poser to take advantage of multiple processors, improves memory management (I've rendered 5 fully clothed, textured V3's with hair in a single scene at once, P6 wouldn't do that in the P4 renderer), and includes up to 100 levels of undo.

However, unless you've got a fairly powerful system, you're not likely to be able to take advantage of some of the P7 features, in which case I'd recommend getting P6 instead.

Attached Link: http://www.download.com/Poser-DAZStudio-3D-Models-Pack/3000-6677_4-10581779.html?tag=lst-0-3

Windows versions !!

Enjoy 

Chris

imo, the best upgrade is p5 and vue;)

DS is a fancy P4 and will cost you a good sum for the plugins. My opinion would be to use that money and go with P7. I have upgrade with every version from P4 and each version got better. P5 was a nightmare for many.

But, that all said. I would suggest getting DS and the demo of P7 and see what you like best.

Poser 6 and 7 are ok, not a lot better than p4, they have some good new things but the interface has been badly messed up and firefly doesn`t work properly and it seems that it wont be fixed.

Which is why I still mainly use propack and sometimes p5 If I have too.

P6 agree that P6 is the most stable.  I purchased the prerelease of P7, but hav'nt used it more than a few days!

P7, but it doss'nt play nice with Vicky 3, and other DAZ figures.

Poser 5 was Poser's biggest overhaul.  This version was given away free, just before 7 was released.

Crikey, I'm even more confused than ever now. :)

There seems to be a real mixed view on whether this new bunch are taking Poser in the right direction.

Thanks for all the tips though, I have now got my old P4 installation running again, along with the old models like V3 and M3. I have also installed the DAZ Studio thingy, but haven't really been able to make it fly yet.

I guess I need to find out more about the upgrades, since I unfortunately missed out on the P5 offer. Does 6 and seven work in a similar way, and have you got a good amount of control over textures, without rsorting to buying loads of 'nearly right' stuff. In P4 I used the ability to make my own textures in photoshop, extensively, to get exactly the right feel. Hopefully this will still work in the later versions, and would hope they should be much better. Presumably the rendering engine is more sophisticated with regard to how it deals with light, texture, reflection,  diffuse and specular properties.

How does hair work with these, it is one thing I had the most difficulty with before.

Thanks again for tips and feedback.

Mmm! nice lips Angelouscuitry ;)

"'nearly right'"

Nearly Right comes from P5, Material and all the other extra rooms being the diference.

P4 Pro Pack started Python.

:biggrin:

The only figure that P7 had a problem with is the V4.1 and that was using the morph tool. There is a fix for that. This would be the first time I have ever heard of any Daz figures having problems with P7.

You will always find people that don't like the new versions for what ever reason. Don't take anyones word on what version is good or not. I for one could not go back to the older versions. I like what P7 can give me and was very stable right out of the box, compared to P5/6 and I never had problems with them. But that is my opinion.

Get the P7 demo also and try it before you buy anything. Don't be one of the complainers that say I just bought this version and now I have to upgrade or how come I can't do this with my version and so on. There are a lot of those threads and already.

I just looked at CP, but I'm not sure there is a P6 Upgrade, I do know the P7 Upgrade applies back to P4.  I would hate to discourage anyone's investment, my P7 Registration came with a $140 in CP Gift Certificates and Discount!

My DVD-ROMs failed twice; it would'nt complete a single render, I could'nt  Import Daz3D MorphTarget.OBJs; nor did all of the new Morph Tool Functions work, I'd hate to discourage anyone's investment, my P7 Registration came with a $140 in CP Gift Certificates and Discount!

My DVD-ROMs failed twice; it would'nt complete a single render, I could'nt  Import Daz3D MorphTarget.OBJs; nor did all of the new Morph Tool Functions work, Wyrmaster's Deformers went haywire, and then the Update finished it off, just before the 90 day EULA started creeping around...

Quote - I guess I need to find out more about the upgrades, since I unfortunately missed out on the P5 offer. Does 6 and seven work in a similar way, and have you got a good amount of control over textures, without rsorting to buying loads of 'nearly right' stuff. In P4 I used the ability to make my own textures in photoshop, extensively, to get exactly the right feel. Hopefully this will still work in the later versions, and would hope they should be much better. Presumably the rendering engine is more sophisticated with regard to how it deals with light, texture, reflection,  diffuse and specular properties.

How does hair work with these, it is one thing I had the most difficulty with before.

P5 and up (I don't know about P4PP, have an expanded Material Room, where you can do more with textures than in P4, and each version has additional little features. It does however take time to get comfortable with (P6 and P7 offer a P4 style Material Room setup though), but allows vastly more useful effects than P4 could.

The Firefly render engine is more powerful, and capable of things such as reflections, but incurs an increase in render times. I prefer it, but others seem like they consider it a plague upon humanity, so YMMV.

All content that worked in P4 will, in almost all situations, work approximately the same in the newer versions, and the file structure for content is exactly the same. You can still create textures in photoshop and apply them in Poser, only you've got a bit more control of the end result from within Poser now.

But the suggestion of checking out a demo is a very good one, as would making sure your computer meets the minimum recommended requirements for that version of Poser (P7 requries a DVD drive and works best with at least 2 Gb of RAM and a hyperthreading processor).

Attached Link: P6 upgrade from P4