I picked up Poser Pro during the SM 50% sale.  I currently have Poser 7 installed.  I do not foresee any use for Poser 7 once Poser Pro is installed.  Should I uninstall Poser 7, then install Poser Pro and move my runtimes to that directory, or would it be better to leave Poser 7 and install Poser Pro in another directory and just add the runtimes inside Poser Pro?

Any input from someone who has made the change would be appreciated.  Are there any Pros and Cons to each method?

Thanks,

Klebnor

i run P6 P7 PPro on one system just let them be and add runtimes..
i dont have problems at all...
One thing i do it make the scene in poser 6 and load up Pro and render it that,.,. 4 cores ;}
No need to remove any poser .. it will work..

Chris

Ditto on BAR-CODE's post.  On an old machine, I had P6, P5 and P7 together sharing runtimes.  Now, on a rebuilt machine, I just have P7 and Pro co-existing without issues.

Just wondering, what do you use P7 for?  As I haven't installed Pro yet, perhaps it will be obvious (different interface, posing, etc.) but right now it seems a substitution rather than another application to select from.  Do some things work better in P7 than P Pro?

BTW, I have a quad core CPU, but still run 32 bit XP.  I assume as I don't have a 64 bit OS, I won't see the improvement in render times (the main reason I use Carrara almost exclusively now).

Thanks,

Klebnor

I can't see what the point is for having them both installed. Pro is a superset of P7 and even shares the same manual. If you have pro then ditch P7.

I have no problems with this except you do need to make a dummy exe called Poser.exe (make a copy of PoserPro.exe) to fool Daz installers otherwise they whine that they can't find Poser.

In case you have your runtimes in the Poser 7 directory, then better move them elsewhere before uninstalling, as there's the chance that the uninstaller removes everything. 

So does P7 only use up to two cores?

ahudson - I love your content installer - use it all the time.  Thanks for the feedback.

Dizzi - does the Advanced Library support drag and drop into Carrara?

klebnor

nobrot:

If I understand the issue correctly, and I may not, there is a different firefly render engine for a 64 bit OS with improved multi-threading which is unavailable on a 32 bit OS.  The 32 bit firefly engine appears to use all four cores (I have watched in the task manager) during processing but I understand the results are much quicker with the 64 bit version.

If you want to see screaming renders, try Carrara.

Klebnor

Klebnor - Many thanks! Glad it helps!

I just can't "do" Poser at all without Dizzi's Advanced Library. Now, there IS a FANTASTIC product.

Regarding your questions above, you wont see an improvement in Render times. A 64 bit machine will be faster as the 64bit version of firefly kicks in (as long as you render in background or on the queue)

As far as "things running better in Pro"... umm.. not a lot better. In fact, 95% of the product is identical to P7 - as I said above, it shares the P7 manual with an addendum manual which just details the changes - namely:

The different installation options
The network render queue
Render in Background
64 bit render engine
Gamma correction
Normal Mapping
HDRI Export
COLLADA Import/Export
Poserfusion plug-ins

Apart from these things Poser Pro IS P7.

Adrian

Klebnor, I have used Carrara but I dont get on with the way Carrara renders some of the Poser textures/materials... makes em look kinda grainy. I may revisit it sometime.

Adrian:

Thanks for the info.  There are some things I have to use Poser for (applying PMD morphs and saving the instance for use in Carrara for example) but generally I just use Carrara now.  I was hoping Pro wasn't as prone to freezeup and crashes as P7.

nobrot:

I hear you.  Carrara 6pro definitely mangles some shaders and poses which apply shaders may or may not work.  If I have a real conflict, I load the object in Poser, apply the shader, and save the instance.  This usually works.  I do wish Carrara had a material room, but it has such much better tools for mesh manipulation that I put up with occasional lapses.  It also renders about 50 times faster.  Oh, and the lights are head and shoulders above poser.  Finally, the ability to create impressive 3d backgrounds (including realistic skies and oceans) seals the deal.

Klebnor

In my experience P7 crashes and freezes have always been traced back to video driver problems, notably nVidea drivers. Usually the advice "get the latest version" has not been the answer, but "fiddle with the settings in the driver for Poser" has sorted it out.