I'm thinking of upgrading to Poser Pro from Poser 7. Could someone let me know if they've upgraded and found rendering is faster in the Pro version?  I mainly use DS because rendering seems faster. Dunno if it actually is? Many thanks.

Poser Pro on a 64bit system is much faster than P7.

Renderings speed also is subjective. DS's renderer isn;t as robust as Poser 7's, and doesn't do many things, like volumetrics, or AO. Turn off the good stuff and you have a faster renderer, but also an inferior less realistic rendering as well.

Even with all the DS plugins available, the DS renderer does do a LOT the poser renderer does.

You do need a 64 bit OS to get the most out of poser pro, but if you do, some renders are 40% faster or more! And that's with all the goodies turned on as well!

Just did a simple test render in P7 which took 2min and 32 sec.
Same scene from P7 but now in Poser Pro took 38 sec.

But of course it all depends on the scene and your system.

Thats why I always say 40% or more.. I crank everything up here all the time now, including shading rate, just because I can.

Also quite important is that the renderer in Poser Pro is truly multi-threaded, so if you have two or four cores, you will see a significant improvement over Poser 7. Combine that with the potential for 64-bit support and there is a large performance advantage in favor of Poser Pro.

And then, of course, there's the fact that Poser Pro has a Gamma Correction function. Bagginsbill showed why that's such an important feature in this thread. It really makes a huge difference in realism.

Quote - Well, 400% is more like it :-)

Just did a simple test render in P7 which took 2min and 32 sec.
Same scene from P7 but now in Poser Pro took 38 sec.

But of course it all depends on the scene and your system.

Exactly the comparison I was looking for..thanks! Are you operating on 64 or 32 bit pc?  I'm on 32.

Anyone know if it's possible to run 32 and 64bits on the one pc? I was thinking of upgrading to 64 but my 'puter guy warned me that lots of software won't work on 64bits.

That's completely untrue. Sounds like you need to find a new "computer guy" because this one doesn't have a clue.

Both Windows XP Pro 64-bit and Vista x64 can still run 32-bit applications just fine. There were some hardware issues when Vista first came out, but those have either been resolved or the hardware in question is so old that either most people likely aren't using it anymore/it died from old age/it should probably be replaced anyway.

As for having both a 32-bit and a 64-bit operating system installed at the same time, there's no need for it. If you have either XP Pro 64-bit or Vista x64 installed, you'll no longer need the 32-bit version. 64-bit operating systems can do everything that 32-bit OSs can. Think of it as going from a three string instrument to six strings. It can play all the same songs with the same notes, but now it can play more complex chords as well.

That said, if and when you upgrade from whatever version of Windows you currently have to either XP Pro 64-bit or Vista 64-bit, you will need to reinstall just about all of your software. Unlike upgrading from XP to Vista, you can't go from 32-bit to 64-bit without doing a fresh installation of Windows and thus most of your applications will need to be reinstalled.

Quote - Exactly the comparison I was looking for..thanks! Are you operating on 64 or 32 bit pc?  I'm on 32. Anyone know if it's possible to run 32 and 64bits on the one pc? I was thinking of upgrading to 64 but my 'puter guy warned me that lots of software won't work on 64bits. 

I run Poser 7 and Poser Pro on Vista 64bit with 8GB ram and a 4 core CPU. The main reason for me to go for a 64bit version was the 3GB ram limit for the 32bit version. My scenes tend to be big and Poser would crash while rendering on a 32 bit system when I ran out of ram.

I also heard about all the 32 bit programs would not run on a 64 bit system, but there was only 1 video editing program I couldn't run and my old powerDVD 4.0.
But these programs runs fine on a 64bit system:
Pegasus, Clothes converter, texture convertor 2 and MorCloth when it comes to programs for Poser.

You can install Vista 64 on top of XP 32 and have a multi boot if you want - or was it the other way around ? Can't remember. But I did had a multi boot first just to have a "backup OS" if the other one should fail. But now I only have Vista 64bit installed.

OK many thanks..very interesting. I've asked my tecchie twice now and both times he said the same thing. Good to know it's possible to run both 64 and 32 just in case, and that I shouldn't have a problem with software. :-)

And additional info.. poser pro IS a 32 bit application. it just also has a 64 bit backgrund renderer.

What won't run? probably really old junk you most linkely don;t want to use anyway.

Hwever, there is supposed to be the ability to run xp as a launch platform for older programs from within vista.. there was a thread about it over in Daz's commons.

Never tried it, since there isn;t much at all I can't run.

You WILL find though that most applications are still 32 bit. Heck even the latest photoshop comes with 32 bit and 64 versions, both install, but you have to run the 32 bit version because all the plugins are written for the 32 bit version.

Some programs are way behind in ading improved 64 bit functionality.

Yes, it should be noted that the main Poser executable is still a single threaded 32-bit application. You need to go to the preferences and make sure that the Separate Process box is checked to make use of multi-threading and 64-bit instructions.

For the same reason, doing an Area Render will take just as long on a 64-bit multicore system because Poser still handles Area Renders internally and won't make use of the external renderer.

And yeah, Adobe is slow to adopt new technology. They've put off 64-bit and multi-threading for a long time.

Worst then adobe is all the 3rd party plugin developers.

You HAVE to use the 32 bit photoshop on vista 64 to have the plugins work.

If you run the 64 bit version, you pretty much only have the vanilla install without your cool plugin additions.

Apple's Quicktime VR also doesn't work on vista64.

Bopper.

Quote - Apple's Quicktime VR also doesn't work on vista64.

Bopper.

No surprise there. Remember how long it took for Apple to finally release a Windows compatible iTunes? One might think that sort of behavior was deliberate...

Thanks all. The plug-in problem isn't good, and if Poser utilises only 32 bit in render area then I'll probably just upgrade Poser Pro. and stick with 32 bit for a while. 

I only migrated to DS from P7 because of slow render times. I just tried one using V4 with no props except hair, v4 mat and 3 default lights no shadows.  The render (setting on the second up from draft) took 4 mins and 20 seconds(!). Rendering in DS with same setup took 45 seconds (but the skin looks much better in Poser).  Adding clothes and other props blows out the render times heaps and it's really frustrating. I'm also not sure if I should wait for the new DS version or upgrade to PP.  I just purchased Fabi's latest figure Bettine..she's really beautiful but I didn't read the fine print that her make up won't work in DS. Some of Surreality's fantastic products work best in Poser too. Decisions, decisions. It's getting a bit hard to justify spending money with this economy the way it's heading. :-/

First of all, the plugin issue is only with the 64-bit version of Photoshop. You don't need to use it if you don't want to. 32-bit applications work just fine with 64-bit version of Windows, so you can still use the 32-bit version of Photoshop. There is some performance improvement with the 64-bit Photoshop, but only very advanced, multi-layer Photoshop work will benefit appreciably from using the 64-bit version. Don't worry about it. Just stick with regular old Photoshop because you're not doing anything nearly that complex. Professionals might have some interest in 64-bit Photoshop, 99% of everyone else doesn't have much use for it.

And regarding the Poser "Area Render" function, you have that backwards. I don't think you understand what the Area Render function is. The Area Render function is when you select a portion of the full scene to render. Say you have an 800x600 render, but you only want to render the table that's in the scene. You select that area of the render like the rectangular selection tool in Photoshop or the crop tool, and it only renders that small box. In that case, it is using the old internal renderer. Any time you render the whole scene, it will use the external renderer which is 64-bit and multithreaded. You will see a very large performance difference if you switch to 64-bit Windows and Poser Pro.

As for DS vs Poser, there's no contest between the two. Poser's render, despite its flaws, is still more advanced than what DS has to offer. DS might be easier to use, but Poser can definitely achieve a higher degree of realism. And then of course, there's bagginsbill's VSS prop, which is designed for use in Poser and that alone is enough for me to stick with Poser. Nothing else makes skin look as real.

My .02: I believe the majority of problems with Vista 64 were driver problems - which generally means hardware issues, not software. That's why my music computer is still on 32 bit, even though I could dearly use the extra RAM 64 bit provides support for.

And that leads to the other point: If you upgrade to Vista 64, you can throw a lot more RAM at your renders. That should work wonders.

Thanks everyone for yr input, it's been really helpful. I'll probably upgrade to PP and then see if I can afford a PC upgrade. :0)