Quote - Let's all save our money from not buying PoserPro & have one big booze up!

Already ahead of ya - hiccup... ;P

Well I did buy Poser Pro and I like it. I can see a huge difference in the render quality.

Here's my plus list for the $199.

1. Gamma correction
2. 64-bit Firefly
3. COLLADA straight out of Poser instead of shifting it thru D|S
4. Unlimited render nodes, Queue Manager

I am vaguely interested in the hosting, but having had a bad experience with Body Studio, I am quite dubious, until shown. Missing: support for hosting in Modo.

Checking out the Modo bundle for $999 that would be pretty good if it were $300 less for current Poser 7 owners, and if there were a plugin for rendering PoserPro scenes in Modo. I wonder if we can get that bundle for $699?

::::: Opera :::::

On Collada, yes you can upload assets into Max or Cinema etc. by .obj but do you get morphs, textures in place and possibly rigging (optional)?

::::: Opera :::::

hmm...since Modo is $895 and the PP upgrade $199.....call that $1100, and the bundle is $1000, it's a hundred bucks savings.  

interPoser Pro + Cinema, yeah you basically get everything and it tends to work very very well.  There are a couple of things it has trouble with, notably bodypart smooth scaling, but overall it is tremendous.

I'm headed over to CP to pick up my copy.  If I think that it's great -- I'll express that opinion.  If it's so-so -- then I'll express that opinion.  And if it's a dud -- I'm not above saying that, either.

But IMO it's best to have used it first before deciding which of those three categories it falls into.

Why not let you throw your $200+ down and beta test it for me :)

Quote - Why not let you throw your $200+ down and beta test it for me :)

Heh -- actually, in my case it's a business expense: so I can write it off anyway.  :biggrin:  I sort of have-to-have Poser Pro.

I'll make you a deal, though -- IM me your CC # and I'll take out half of the price as a small fee for beta testing..........cheap at the price!!!! 

No thanks, but if you want to buy me a full copy and write that off to I guess I could give it a try.

Quote - No thanks, but if you want to buy me a full copy and write that off to I guess I could give it a try.

:lol:

Let me consult with my financial advisers, and I'll get back to you about it.

I like Poser. It’s the only way to get content into Vue. I want Poser to survive and prosper, but I don’t have any reason to justify buying Poser Pro. I don’t want to render in Poser and so it doesn't matter to me that the renders are speedy now. I own Lightwave, and Poser Pro doesn't go there. The new figures look lame as can be. No Quidam either…

I'd much rather save my money on an upgrade to Vue 6 Inf. But of course there are always those that have to keep up with the Joneses  lol!

I am finding that VUE has very nice lighting in the renders.  And fast rendering too.

I'm just done buying upgrades that don't offer me anything I want or need just to keep up with the Cyber Joneses.

I loved the post "I didn't know what the difference was between the $149 and $199 upgrades, so I bought the $199 upgrade." 

Marketers love it.

Quote - I am finding that VUE has very nice lighting in the renders.  And fast rendering too.

At first I didn't know if I'd like Vue or not so I started out with Vue 6 Espirt and really got into it then when Vue had their sale about a week or so ago I bought the side grade modules and upgraded to Vue 6 Pro Studio and it rocks! I have found that doing all the work in P7 and then saving the scene and then bringing it into Vue to render is a snap and I love the results.

So I am holding on to my money to buy the upgrade from Vue6 pro studio to Vue6 Inf which is $299USD. I really don't need to have the collada, fusion and some of the other rubbish. It's also my understanding that when EF sold to SM it also damaged the relationship with e-on the makers of Vue. So I would imagine that new versions of Vue will not be supporting PoserPro but like with anything else that remains to be seen.

Quote - So I would imagine that new versions of Vue will not be supporting PoserPro but like with anything else that remains to be seen.

How could they "not support it"?  It uses, so far as I can tell, the same files and internal structure as Poser 7 (at least).  If the data stays the same, they can't help but support it.

Quote - > Quote - So I would imagine that new versions of Vue will not be supporting PoserPro but like with anything else that remains to be seen.

How could they "not support it"?  It uses, so far as I can tell, the same files and internal structure as Poser 7 (at least).  If the data stays the same, they can't help but support it.

At one time EF and E-on were very tight and worked closely together HOWEVER, since EF has been sold to SM that long working relationship has been damaged and the chance of future versions of Vue may not supporting PoserPro unless Vue can read the PoserPro.exe.  But as I stated that remains to be seen if this will happen it may not who knows as it seems many of these companies that have been poser friendly seem to be getting kicked out of SM's corner of the universe. LOL!

Quote - At one time EF and E-on were very tight and worked closely together HOWEVER, since EF has been sold to SM that long working relationship has been damaged and the chance of future versions of Vue may not supporting PoserPro unless Vue can read the PoserPro.exe. 

Since you are stating this as FACT, where did you get your information?

I would like to know where all these facts are coming from. I would also like to know how all the vultures know how good or not PP is when they don't have it and have no intention of getting it. Just want to rain on others parade? Why, what do you get out of this, a free copy of DS? LOL.

I have not had a crash yet. I have thrown together a scene poser choked on but has no problems rendering in PP with higher setting and more reflections and trans maps. Not mention better lighting. That's as far as I have had a chance to test.

I'm happy with what I have so far.

dauphine, just a note of thanks for your input in regard to the new version of poser.
I daresay the users will appreciate any help you can provide in conveying their issues
to SM.  although testimony of users who haven't posted any renders here recently may be
less valuable than the experience of those who have posted renders in the gallery here
with keywords "poser pro", all users' experience may be useful as SM finishes the next SR (patch).

Well, I'm glad I did buy it. For me, it was a great purchase.
 I like the quality of the renders and I really like that I can now use some 3DS sets I own that Poser 7 couldn't handle. Poser Pro hand no problem importing a 37 MB set in less than a minute.

goes blue from holding breath

Xeno! Post opinions already!

Okay - to the ones who have it - is the render quality really as different to P7 as it's made out to be?
I'd like to see side by side comparisons of a scene set up in P7 and rendered, then opened in PPro and rendered with the same settings.
Could someone do that so we see the difference?

I wish they had a 30day returns thingy... :)

Quote - goes blue from holding breath

Xeno! Post opinions already!

:lol:

I will, as soon as I can figure out where the power switch is on my PC...........

Here's one opinion:  Vue 6 Infinite is top-notch.  Among the best.  You can't go wrong with Vue 6I or Vue X-Stream.

slaps Xeno and goes back to holding her breath

 MIss Nancy, I'll see what i can do about getting some renders up in the gallery this weekend.
Dauphine13

Why does it look blurrier?

Probably because the default gamma correction is set at 2.2. Doing a series of tests myself and finding my tastes lean towards the 1.1 to 1.4 gamma correction range with V4's supplied standard res texture maps. But not enough time yet to fully explore Gamma Correction yet using other texture maps.

5/1/08

I read somewhere that legacy scenes (Poser 7 and before) opened into Poser Pro will have Gamma-correction turned off by default.

LMK

I have to say... I don't like the pro render. It looks even more washed out than the regular P7 render.

Garee, I can get P7 to look like that. What I meant was the side by side above your post. The PPro render in that post looks more faded and washed out than the P7 one.

Can you put a non-tweaked P7 render next to a non-tweaked (and that includes photoshop) render of them next to each other?
You cannot tell the difference if it's just one pic, know what I mean? Saying the render quality is better is all very well - but is it? Or is it only better because of the gamma correction - which, quite frankly - I can do in Photoshop. That doesn't justify a $200 upgrade pricetag for me, but if it is significantly better than P7 (I don't see how it can be - same engine as far as I know) without the gamma correction then it might be worth it.

So far nothing I've seen tempts me. I run on 32 bit windows, so the 64bit does squat for me, I don't network render, so that's a "shrug" as well. I don't run Maya / 3D Max / C4D, so the Collada stuff leaves me somewhere sub-arctic. (Besides, if I did use Maya, I would probably not bother with Poser at all, lets face facts lol), I don't have the foggiest idea what they mean with a "Normal Map" so I would likely not use it, and the "Professional Content" is pretty laughable from what I've seen of those figures.

What pisses me off is how VAGUE they are in their details about PPro. You'd think if it is so PRO, they'd be shouting the differences to P7 from the rooftops.

Ergo -- what exactly is there for a P7 owner who doesn't have Maya/3DMax/C4D to entice them?
I guess the answer is "Nothing" since the base of P7 doesn't appear to have changed, they just added plugins, effectively.
And if they updated the render engine... Then P7 should be updated to it since that indicates that there is a problem in P7 then.

 Silke,
"nothing" materializes in the form of a render queue....
I'd like to point out that the Queue Manager  will run locally as well as over a network. I use both options, but the great thing for me is that you can work on a file in Poser and send to render queue, which launches the Queue Manager to render the scene there.  Thus freeing up poser to continue working. I know I mentioned this in another thread. I just can't keep my mouth shut because for me this is a such a useful feature that is not really being talked about. Its one of those features that appeals to the regular Poser user and the Pro user.  There is background render also which renders in the background while you are working. This keeps  the image in the Poser render cache as Poser 7 renders are. Again you can work while it renders.  if you only render once in awhile then this feature won't matter either, but for anyone actually using the app and rendering a lot, it is indispensable. I seriously couldn't live without it now.

The Pro Figures, I have seen them mentioned as bad figures with no clothing here and there, but the reality is they are not to be thought of as normal poser figures. They are for bringing to say Zbrush, do some morph work and then bring the Normal map and/or model back into poser or whichever app you want.  They are a Base, not an end all solution like the G2 or like figures. I know  many of the current P7 user base doesn't get a lot of the features of Poser Pro and some things like Normal maps and such, but this is why it is "Pro" because there are a lot of people out there that do understand and use features such as these on a daily basis. I am not dis-ing the crowd here, as I fit more in here, then at some of the Pro sites. Just trying to make a point that there are markets more advanced in 3D then what we are typically dealing with.

p.s. Great figure Gareee!

Thanks, Dauphine13! Warcow was VERY popular during Daz's Dragonworld theme, and has been one of my most popular creations to date. I'm still texturing his tack set, and Tiny is also working on a poser dynamic fur product for him as well.

Here's the latest wip of the tack and it's textures, and to make it topical, this is another P7 render.

If I had to wait for poser 7 for the test renders, it'd take me ages, since I had to consider the warcow's displacement map as well with the conforming rug part on his back.

Oh.. and the only postwork on all these images is tossing the png from poser pro into photoshop, creating a background layer, and tossing a gradiant on it.. no retouching of the actual render including color correction or gamma correction was done at all.

As far as lighting, these had on ao aree light, one color tinted (slightly) spotlight, and one 'edge light".

(This is also the exact same light set I used in poser 7, BTW.)

Okay the render queue sounds good, that is definitely something I'd want. I hadn't heard about it at all, thanks for pointing that out Dauphine.

I didn't say the Pro figures were bad, I said they didn't justify it for me spending $200 to upgrade. :)

And - hah - I take it PPro isn't capable of using SubD which Daz is getting so fond of, either? So for that stuff I would still have to switch from this "Pro" version into another package altogether to use any SubD? (Just wondering)

Thanks Garee. I still maintain I can get the same thing out of P7, but if PPro renders faster and good quality, I might reconsider it.

Like I said, I wish they had a 30 Day guarantee so we could trial buy it. :) But I get why they don't. :)
I also wish they'd actually made a distinction between P6 and P7 owners when it comes to pricing.
I feel put out considering I spent money on every upgrade - and then they allow people to skip an upgrade for the same price. That REALLY irks me. I'd like to see at least a $50 difference in prices between versions there.
But alas, loyalty isn't rewarded these days. Getting new customers is more important than holding on to your old ones.

I did a test render one the tack today... just the main part of it. with render quality set up two notches over raytracing, a render about 1000x1000 took slightly less then 30 seconds.

Same exact same scene and lighting in P7 sr3 took almost a full minute.

Quote - As far as lighting, these had on ao aree light, one color tinted (slightly) spotlight, and one 'edge light".

Can you clarify that?  Did you mean "area light"?  I'm not picking on your spelling, I'm pretty interested to know if that's what you meant, because that's one of the big weaknesses of older versions of Poser, no area lighting or area shadows.  I've learned how to fake it in P7 (multiple spotloghts in an array) but I'd like to know if this was improved in Poser Pro, no mention of this was made in any promo info I saw.

I'm guessing he meant an infinite light, pjz :)

Well, I'd like to know, that would be a good point in PPro's favor if so.

Yeah infinite light.. I consider infinite lights area lights mentally. Im infinite light has its ao settings.. i kno wper material is best, but when I'm developeing content, I have to develope for other possible apps.

All right, that's too bad.  Area lights actually behave pretty differently from infinite lights, which was why I perked up.  Thanks for clarifying.

Well, ya can always use point lights... ;)

Points and spots with blurred raytraced shadows work pretty well in P7, I get pretty nice results with em - just you have to use a group of them close together if you want to simulate area lights and shadows.  It's not a big deal, I'm actually fairly happy with what P7 does, was just curious.