11/6/07

I appreciate that E-F/CP has finally given a price for the Poser Pro product. I assume (unless corrected) that this price of about $500 is for the 10 node, version with hosting for 3dsMax, Maya, and C4D, and with content that I already have from Poser 7. Seeing that I do not have 10 computers for a "render farm," I do not have 3dsMax, Maya, or C4D, and I already have the content that came with poser 5, 6, and 7, I do not need these features. I would hope that without these features the price can indeed be substantially lower for the Base Side-Grade to Poser Pro.

It remains unclear to me whether Poser Pro Base will be sold as a stand-alone product. Personally I would like to see it marketed (but with Poser 7 content) for first time buyers who want a midlevel product. I know nothing about the 3D Graphics business beyond my hobbyist roots, but I like the idea that Poser Pro could offer access to the large selection of Poser and D/S content for those who use more expensive and powerful applications. If the program sales even modestly well this could be a great boon to content providers (and the rest of us who like to have access to lots of new and high quality content).

I like the PDF feature comparison chart. It lets me see where the intended changes are being made. I must admit that I would like to see more additional or improved features, but there are things there to like. I would also love to see a chart that added Poser 4, 5, and 6 to the comparison to see how things have developed.

Having created discrepancies, it is now up to E-F/CP to reconcile the differences between the information (i.e. Lightwave Hosting) on their web-page:
http://www.e-frontier.com/go/poserpro , on their FAQ page at:
http://www.e-frontier.com/article/articleview/2308 , and with their PDF at:
http://www.e-frontier.com/filemanager/download/1916/14d5592e45a7648fb05ecc75a087936c/PoserPro_Comparison_Chart.pdf . This should be done sooner rather than later.

Poser 7 still aborts on me while doing large or complex scenes leaving the render unfinished. If running a render on several nodes or 64 bit rendering engine will solve this for me, I would pay for a reasonable Side-Grade. If background rendering actually works, I would love to have it. Normal map support and Gamma Correction for Linear Rendering sound interesting. It is hard to get excited about the extra content, as I don’t actually know what most of it is.

I also appreciate being told now (rather than the last day of autumn) that the program will not be released until winter (as much as 3-4 months). I was a little surprised that the updated information was not announced in a newsletter from E-F. Not every body is watching the Poser related forums for this kind of information.

LMK

Probably edited for spelling, grammer, punctuation, or typos.