Quote - "Poser itself has non-ASCII file types now (most notably .obz, .pzz, .crz, etc)."

These are simply the ASCII files compressed using GZip.

True, though not all of them work as easily. Similar IMHO to the whole .rsr thing... take a common format and modify the headers (e.g..rsr files are just PICT files with changed headers). -- > Quote - It's the D|S users that you can accuse of fanboyism, not the Poser users, because they are the ones who try to rationalize a crippled and incomplete program as being an actual "option" comparable to Poser.

I'm not going into any arguments as to one side vs. the other, because both sides have the same problem. > Quote - The beauty of Poser is that YOU DON'T NEED TO BE A PROGRAMMER to open and hack a cr2 file. All you need to do is know how to read.

Err, I don't in either program - export the .cr2 file in either program, open and mess around with it, then load it back in either program. What part of this do you not grok? As for being simple? Err, no. Not unless you instinctively know what deltas are, how joint parameters work, how to calculate Quaternian Rotation... things like that. In a (typically) tens of MB large ASCII file that requires something other than notepad to operate in w/o errors. At best, about 0.01% of Poser and D|S combined userbase would want to dig into the mess and fogure it down. In both cases, they can, but it's not pretty, nor is it the artists' panacea that you're proclaiming it as. > Quote - And yes, Poser uses python to execute scripts. Have you checked lately how many FREE python scripts for Poser are out there ?

Sure - for something that's been around since the mid-1990s, one would expect this. Interestingly enough, both programs have that in common - a lot of free scripts to do useful stuff. > Quote - So that DAZ gives away the D|S SDK for free while you have to pay for Poser's is completely irrelevant, because "normal people", i.e those without a programming background wouldn't know what to do with it anyway.

Indeed - it's the same with being able to hack a .cr2 file... those who don't know what a normal or delta is, or how UV maps or materials work... meh. It's a wash. Now for those who really want to make it go? Look at it this way - imagine how much faster, say, Wardrobe Wizard would run if it were ported for either program as a native-speed plugin, and not just a script? > Quote - Well, I guess then you better DO stick with D|S if you can't recognize the difference and what breakthrough the morphbrush is for Poser users who want more realism.

Now you're just descending into fanboyism, because that's not what I wrote at all. I said that one can emulate the other, and that there is an 'arms race' of sorts concerning that feature. "and so it goes"... > Quote - Speaking of V4.1, I could give you dozends of examples where she is inferior over V3, but here are two very obvious ones:

Okay, let's see: > Quote - There were a lot of V3 hybrids out there: V3's head on Posette's body, V3's head on V2's body, V3's head on Judy's body.

No new news here. Go look at Nanana for V4: http://ken1171.deviantart.com/art/Nanana-Pinup-55868377?offset=30 http://blog.zgock-lab.net/poser/nanana-kai/ (scroll down a bit) You get a custom-built body part lashed onto another body altogether. The only complaint I see you having is that there's more parts involved. That lends towards flexibility as well as complexity, so it's a wash overall. If you want to continue using V3's head on something else, no one is stopping you from doing so. Also, I thought your complaint was (earlier) that things are too 'dumbed-down'? Now you complain about complexity? I don't get it... > Quote - A lot of people made free textures for V3. A V3 texture is fairly easy to make in Photoshop because all major body parts are scaled similar so it's easy to paint over seams. Now with V4.1 the bodyparts are scaled all over the place. Result: Without buying a full fledged 3d painting program it is impossible to create a proper V4.1 texture without noticeable seams.

Err, again... you're complaining about complexity? Okay, forget I said that. IMHO, all it would take is to figure down the scaling diffs (not hard to do at all, and I can use GIMP's measuring tool and a calculator for that), publish them, and you're all set. Build once and run many. Ever seen a professional high-end texmap? You'd cringe in utter horror at the wild variety of scaling and layouts on just one figure. One of the project leads @ work just got done paying $4k for a fully textured head... a head. The head skin, the eyes, the irises, the tongue, the teeth... all had wildly different scaling (but the rendered results? Hooly sh!t it was good...) I can gratefully defer to SnowSultan for the rest of it :) Bottom line - any new user should try both programs (Poser still has a demo mode, yes?) and choose which one he or she prefers. /P