I've heard a lot of mixed reviews about V4, and I wanted to ask some questions about her, since I'm considering getting her as a birthday present to myself, ehehe.

Anyway, first question - can she use V3 items, such as props, textures, morphs and clothing, or does she need her own new collection? If the latter is true, no way - my Runtime folder is already swarmed with waaaaay too much V3 stuff as it is!

And the most important - did DAZ finally fix those damn joints?! If they did, that might sway me into getting her. The joints with V3 are the biggest pain in the butt, seriously. I can't stand it, almost every piece I have to take into photoshop to fix it...pfft.

If anyone could answer these questions, it would be great. Thanks =)

summer1412 - I need sleep as I write this so my brains not fully active!
OK, V4 will not take any textures or morphs from V3. I think there is to be a converter to be released for the textures so they can be used, but the morphs & clothes, no. If you purchase V4 (well it's V4.1 now) there is a V4 to V3 figure. This seems a bit daft as it means you can only use the base V3, so you can attach your V3 clothes to her but it will only be the base figure, very bland without any of the morphs. I think you can morph V4's head on this body but I can't be sure.
V4's joints are much better than V3's, still problems though, but better. I still love V3 but getting V4 is worth it because she does offer greater versatility.
Sorry to not give you any specifics but even writing this was a chore, LOL!!
I need sleeppppppppppppp................................

1. No, she can't.

V4 is new geometry, new joints, new everything, so she needs completely new clothes and textures.
There is a V4toV3 legacy figure included that can wear V3 clothing, but it can't use bodymorphs so you're stuck with the default V3 bodyhape when you use it.

1. The shoulders are better, but have VERY high armpits.
   The rest bends not better than V3.
   (Actually, the thighs bend WORSE because V4 lost the separate "buttocks" group that V3 had)

To make the shoulders look better, DAZ added Joint Smoothing Magnets to V4's cr2.
These 69 JSM magnets add 207 additional actors to V4 which slow Poser down and make V4 incompatible with a lot of other programs and python scripts that work flawlessly with V3.
There are also numerous other problems with the way V4 is constructed.

Generally speaking, she is way too complicated and tends to break under her own weight.
V3 is much more robust.

If you can afford Poser 7, the built in MorphBrush can easily correct all of the older meshes shoulder (Or ANY other) problems, so there is basically no need for V4 at all.

Here's a small example of what the P7 MorphBrush can do:

Shoulders WITH P7 MorphBrush morphs:

Shoulders WITHOUT P7 MorphBrush morphs:

Straight P7 renders with NO postwork.

well at first she was going real well then all at once the muscle went crazy now. I need to see about 4.1

Quote - Anyway, first question - can she use V3 items, such as props, textures, morphs and clothing, or does she need her own new collection? If the latter is true, no way - my Runtime folder is already swarmed with waaaaay too much V3 stuff as it is!

You kind of answered your own question.  Regardless of whatever other pluses and minuses, conforming clothing and textures are incompatible.  Some clothing can be converted fairly well with something like Wardrobe Wizard, but it will never be automatic, and a lot of it will never look right.  DPHoadley here is talking about remapping V4 to use V3 textures but that isn't done, and I don't expect he'll be finished for quite some time.  Since the geometry between the two figures is completely different, morphs are incompatible.

Personally I like V4 a lot, but the figure is not without problems as Joe points out.  I don't think they're that serious, and do not regret switching, but if you have textures or items that you are attached to for V3, you may not want to switch.

Quote - 1. No, she can't.

If you can afford Poser 7, the built in MorphBrush can easily correct all of the older meshes shoulder (Or ANY other) problems, so there is basically no need for V4 at all.

Here's a small example of what the P7 MorphBrush can do:

I'd really like to see a tutorial on fixing shoulders using the MorphBrush. Whenever I've tried using the morph brush, I've gotten very frustrated.

Don't forget the morph brush problem with V4.1 that Daz does not seem to be in much of a hurry to fix. P7 crashes the instant you try to use it on her head.

There is a fix but you have to do it yourself.