Now that Poser's future is secured for another version or two there are some things that could be improved. I’m talking about really basic things like the Content Browser and the light controls The Content browser in Poser is annoyingly slow. Compare it to Daz Studio and you’ll see what I mean. Sometimes I keep Daz Studio open while I use Poser, simply because it’s easier and quicker to find the content I’m looking for. There is no reason why Poser’s content browser can’t be improved, aside from, perhaps, tradition. Lights orbiting and shining on a ball might have been cute in Poser 1, but is there really any reason to not include the ability to maneuver lights while seeing out of them? This is, by far, the best method for placing lights, and it is commonly used by a slew of applications including Lightwave, Vue and Daz Studio. Why not Poser? Then, of course, there is the Setup Room. Not only is it defective in all of its basic functions, it also lacks some very obvious features. There should be a way to duplicate a string of bones with symmetry. You should be able to cute and paste bones from one figure to another. You should be able to create a bone and save your changes without crashing… Perhaps you can think of something else to add to this list.

My first thought would be "modules"
Perhaps split the different parts up into modules that you only buy if needed.
The basic package would be the modeller. Then a renderer module. A Cloth room module etc, but these would all be a cut above what we have now.
Just an idea.

*"Lights orbiting and shining on a ball might have been cute in Poser 1, but is there really any reason to not include the ability to maneuver lights while seeing out of them? This is, by far, the best method for placing lights, and it is commonly used by a slew of applications including Lightwave, Vue and Daz Studio. Why not Poser?"

*You can do this now. While in shadowcam you can click on primary light on lightball. This switches the view to light and you can dial/move from there.

"Then, of course, there is the Setup Room. Not only is it defective in all of its basic functions, it also lacks some very obvious features. There should be a way to duplicate a string of bones with symmetry. You should be able to cute and paste bones from one figure to another. You should be able to create a bone and save your changes without crashing…"

The setup room is why there are so few human figures. Mega bucks required to fix it, too.

My first suggestion for improving Poser would be to change the default lights.

What default lights? You do realise you can change them & save it so Poser opens to your specifications?

Yep!  How many newbies know this though?

Not enough? :b_grin:

You can do this now. While in shadowcam you can click on primary light on lightball. This switches the view to light and you can dial/move from there. I must explore this shadowcam. Thanks for the information.

Copying a string of bones in the Setup room (left-right symmetry): it's there. You'll have to create the left-hand series of bones yourself, but with the Figure->Symmetry command you can mirror all joint parameters between rigth hand and left hand bones.

Although the setup room definitely requires improvement. Naming of bones goes wrong, inserting a bone moves the endpoint of the parent bone, numerical entry fields need more than 3 decimals, etc etc.

A new and improved Poser should be rebuild from the ground up, using modern object oriented design, and scriptability built right into each and every object, instead of being tacked on later. A full multithreaded standards-compliant Python would also be great.

And please, a configurable user interface that wastes far less screen real estate....

Copying a string of bones in the Setup room (left-right symmetry): it's there. You'll have to create the left-hand series of bones yourself, but with the Figure->Symmetry command you can mirror all joint parameters between rigth hand and left hand bones. I know about this, but don’t count it as nearly the same, mainly because the mere creation of bones is fraught with peril. Each new bone is best followed by a new save to a new file and crashes occur with such frequency that manually duplicating a string can be an ordeal. I agree that Poser's interface could stand some improvement.

I think that is also time to improve that Poser's interface, I did well changed it a bit by myself, but would love to get it more compact.
Cath

As for plugins,  I wish Poser would integrate with this,  http://www.hdrlabs.com/news/index.php  Their light tools are a real time saver.

As for bones,  it would be nice if they dropped mesh grouping and adopted bone/vertex influence as grouping.

One thing that I would love to see is a change in the installation program itself. Several checkboxes to selectively install

• Core program and necessary Runtime files ONLY. (No content)
• Most current figures (assuming we are talking P7 Pro or Poser 8)
• Poser 7 Figures and content
• Poser 6 Figures and content
• Poser 5 Figures and content
• Legacy content (pre-Poser 5)

The way the current installation stands now, it takes forever, and it would be nice to break it down so it installs faster. That, and the fact that there are quite a few of us that rarely use the content furnished with Poser.

ALSO, the option during installation to install any content in an external runtime of your choice, rather than in the Program Files path.

I'd like to see improved dynamic hair handling and support for industry standard figure rigging (yeah, right, huh?).

Quote - Copying a string of bones in the Setup room (left-right symmetry): it's there. You'll have to create the left-hand series of bones yourself, but with the Figure->Symmetry command you can mirror all joint parameters between rigth hand and left hand bones.

Although the setup room definitely requires improvement. Naming of bones goes wrong, inserting a bone moves the endpoint of the parent bone, numerical entry fields need more than 3 decimals, etc etc.

A new and improved Poser should be rebuild from the ground up, using modern object oriented design, and scriptability built right into each and every object, instead of being tacked on later. A full multithreaded standards-compliant Python would also be great.

And please, a configurable user interface that wastes far less screen real estate....

I absolutely agree with this - especially the part about rebuilding Poser with a new modern foundation.  Poser is really a circa early 1990's hack in terms of computer software technology.    However, I'm not hopeful that this will be addressed by the new owners. 

I'd like to see the core software go Open Source or at least license it cheaply. This would allow different applications to be built which would be suitable for different tasks and requirements. It would also uncomplicate the development of plug-ins for higher-end 3D apps. Another possibility is the facility to bolt-on additional renderers.

But the content - figures, props, poses etc. - would all have to conform to the 'official' standard.

Quote - What default lights? You do realise you can change them & save it so Poser opens to your specifications?

As this is possible, could you explain how? It would be greatly appreciated.

I agree with having custom selections for installation. Having the options of what to install would really make sense.

Basically, you set up the screen the way you want it -- characters, lights, everything -- then go to preferences and save it as the start up preference.

Okay, Here's my list.

-Improved browser, as mentioned before, preferably with scroll bars.
-built-in modeller.
-built-in texturing/texture painting, like deep3d-paint or similar

• GI -lighting, real SSS, 64 bit renderfarm, texture baking.
  -improved 3D-interface, Mec4 is absolutely right, especially use of the right and middle wheel mousebutton, but I don't know if that works for MAC-user (the last MAC-mouse I used had one button) => wheel button: zoom in-out and panning, rightbutton orbiting.
  -weight and normal maps, I don't know exactly what they are, but other porgrams have it and it sounds exciting.
• direct cloth manipulating, I know you can do that with magnets but I just want to click a piece of cloth  and pull it.
  -real time and active collision detecting,
  -real time dynamic clothes, I know that is possible,why do we have to wait for every clothroom simulation.
  -improved animation editing.
  -soft bodies simulation.
  And all this for the price of a regular poser-upgrade ( in dollars please) ,I don't think that will be very realistic, but we all have our dreams.

regards,
Bopperthijs

I agree with alot of what everyone said though somethings are out of my range of understanding. I'd also like to include adding a help file and a custumizable toolbar where you can add your favorite functions without having to go through the menus all the time. And maybe being able to have more than one sence open at once. I know this would be a memory killer.

I'd like Poser to be able to handle it's own content/product better. Thumbnails for Pz3s, an index saved with the Pz3 indicating what files it calls for,  searchability across runtimes; the ability to have a resource on the system once and have Poser point to it regardless of runtime. For categories like lights, cameras and materials to be easily accessible regardless of runtime.

Following up on Deecey's suggestion. If Poser limited it's prime runtime to essentials, then that runtime ought to load and be available with each individual "content" runtime.

You forgot the kitchen sink in there, bopper...... :P P7Pro is slated to have up to a 10 node network renderer and a 64 bit render engine, so that's coming. Normal mapping is an advancement of bumpmapping; where a Poser current bumpmap is a grayscale image, a normal map uses RGB and sometimes the alpha channel. The color channels would provide XYZ 'bump' data, increasing the depth and detail a map can generate, and the alpha channel usually handles albedo, or reflectivity. It would be very nice, but it -might- break the current bump mapping scheme. On the other hand, the increase in non polygonal detail would be worth losing the old bumps, just like losing the bums from P4 was a godsend.... Weightmapping is a kind of rigging system. Instead of the falloff zones and spherical rotation zones Poser currently has, a weightmap system would use the same boning, but have 'maps' of where the mass of a body part is, and how it changes due to the effect of the bones involved being moved. IIRC, A Poser mesh would no longer have to be cut, as the weightmaps would control the deformation and folding along the joints. It would probably be a nightmare to retool all the existing figures for weightmapping, but if Poser could support both the current system for legacy figures, and a weightmap system for more modern and new figures, it would be an animator's wish come true. SM needs to add an 'Animation' tab to the workspace, and move all the animator's tools there, and make a few new ones. A 3 pane graph editor, with default XYZ translation/rotation would be very helpful. A dopesheet has translation controls available at a keyframe of a bodypart would make the animation pallete a true dopesheet. That way those who just pose with it could stay on the front page and not have any animation stuff to confuse them, and the animators could have -all- their tools ready and onscreen. Realtime or much faster dynamic cloth is likely doable, but would require the core app to be multi-thread capable. All cloth sims run a simulation cycle; Poser is at a big disadvantage due to the high number of polygons in the meshes. If weight mapping were implemented, it should be possible to build a low poly bounding box slightly larger than the actual figure and have the cloth collide with that...which would cut down sim time dramatically. It would be nice if someone were coding a softbody dynamics system for Poser....but you would run into the same polygon count calculation issue. As for the modeler/texture painter, you might as well take a look at Modo and be done with it. And getting half of that for $129-$200 would be a steal.... But its a nice dream.

FYI: Just checked the feature set on P7Pro, and one of the things they list there is support for normal maps. So strike that one off the list, and it doesn't seem to have voided regular bumps, either.... :D

My wish would be a better walk lab. One where you could at the very least create side to side movements (useful for skating) and have movement presets for basic fencing, dances (such as the waltz, salsa, tango -- for both partners), and some skating and skiing motions would be great. It would also be nice if you could apply these presets to groups of people and off set them. It would sure speed things up when trying to get thirty or forty to dance in sequence, or do anything in sequence. Then again I've been asking this for years since Poser 5. David

Speaking of the Walk Designer, how about the ability to create a 3 Dimensional walk path so we can have our characters walk over hills, down stairs, etc?

An Animation Tab would be a great idea.  That and true spline control in the animation pallette.

Amen on the spline controls. And joint by joint IK pinning; it would be so -nice- to pin an elbow as a temporary 'end' of an IK chain, leaving whatever forearm and hand motions present alone. Lets hope some notice is being taken....

You can swap bones between characters. That's already in the setup room. Don't expect morphs to swap though, unless the characters share the same geometry and cuts.

Quote - The Content browser in Poser is annoyingly slow

True:
one thing I do HATE when browsing multiple folders is that each time you go back one level, the browser points to the top of the list of folders instead of selecting the one you just come back from, so that you have to scroll down to find the next folder in the list

Agreed, if there is one improvement that has been long, LONG, LONG overdue, it is the way the content browsing is handled.

The ability to scroll and just the basic need to return to where you were in the list (as opposed to jumping back to the top half the time like Mask2 mentioned) would make life substantially easier.  

Small improvements to the content browser would have a more immediate effect on the entire community then half the fancy crap that was added for P7.

And screw if being in the next release of Poser, for the love of all that is good, could we please have this addressed in a service pack release.  It's just embarrassing!

I'd really like to see the cloth room and hair room take advantage of 64-bit processing and multithreading.