Attached Link: http://poser8.smithmicro.com/index.html

Will have to wait and see how the wxPython API works.  Could be the best
thing since sliced bread, or a slight advance; depends on the details.

Doesn't appear to be any basic change in animation, but again the wxPython
could open up new horizons in that direction.

There is "Wardrobe Wizard". Is this the same as Philc's?
Besides, CP removed its forum having P8 feature requests. It seems that most of them could not be found in P8, if my memory was correct. :( **
**

the new feature list looks pretty decent to me. I never upgraded to P7, but it looks like P8 may be on my hard drive. Depends a lot on upgrade pricing.

Even the new figures sound exciting. 8 of them lo and hi res. plus the 1.8gig of new content, then all the legacy stuff. Mighty tempting.
indirect lighting
the new content library...drag items from the library right into the scene..now that's cool.

 I'm liking the Indirect lighting and Global Illumination. To be honest, EF had GI in Shade, so I wonder why it was left out of P6. And SM should have included it in P7. Guess there's something escaping my logic.

Morph tool over muli groups is a great. Sounds like they have improved the rigging and morphing tools. I like that.

The UI set up they show looks like a lot of wasted space to me but they say all can be docked so it may be fine. I like the old style as you can flip them vertical or horizontal. seem they take less space than the new docks. Won't know till we try I guess.

The figures don't look great but does it really matter after we get our hands on them and do our thing? nothing wrong with more different figures as far as I'm concerned.

Lighting rendering improvements, nothing bad about that.

It looks fairly good on paper. Some of the promo images looked pretty good. Now we just need to get our hands on it and find out what it is really like.

Is there still a regular P8 and a pro versions. I didn't see anything mentioned about that.

"I'm liking the Indirect lighting and Global Illumination. To be honest, EF had GI in Shade, so I wonder why it was left out of P6. And SM should have included it in P7. Guess there's something escaping my logic."

Didn't SM buy Poser after P7 was pretty much done? So this would be the first version by them?

 Updated UI preserves elements Poser users are accustomed to while taking advantage of various screen resolutions. So all the floating devices can be moved to a second screen? Hasn't this always been a feature?

[edit] just found the screen shot. Looks like it's been standardized to look / function like a "mainstream" 3d app. Looks like an improvement.

Quote - There is "Wardrobe Wizard". Is this the same as Philc's?

Excellent question!

No 64Bit version...shame...Maybe they are saving that for the next release of PoserPro.

Give it to me NOW!

The only problem I have with it, is that I don't want to get P8, and then upgrade to P8 Pro later.
I'd rather go from P7 straight to P8 Pro 64 bit.

Quote - > Quote - There is "Wardrobe Wizard". Is this the same as Philc's?

Excellent question!

I haven't asked PhilC, but most likely it is the same program. 

Quote - "I'm liking the Indirect lighting and Global Illumination. To be honest, EF had GI in Shade, so I wonder why it was left out of P6. And SM should have included it in P7. Guess there's something escaping my logic."

Didn't SM buy Poser after P7 was pretty much done? So this would be the first version by them?

Which just makes it even more mysterious that it wasn't in P7.

Unless I'm going daffy in my old age EF bought Shade with the GI stuff already included, they never wrote the program to start with.

I'm bound by an NDA so I can only confirm those details that have been made public. Yes it is the Wardrobe Wizard you know and love, fully integrated into Poser 8 incorporating wxPython.

Tone mapping is a good feature if you have GI & indirect lighting.
New UI Kinda Looks Like DAZ Studio.

Looks Like A decent Upgrade so far for poser users.

Phil can you say whether Poser8 Wardrobe Wizard will be usable with all Poser figures (including daz) out of the box or will we have to buy the extra support file sets?

 Good question.  Sharen

I'm sorry but I'm not able to give details.

I had a feeling it might be covered by the NDA, I bet it's frustrating not being able to answer questions isn't it? ;)

Congratulation PhilC, thats made it the Wardrobe wizard in Poser8, a great tool and a big improvement! The new P8 looks promising, can't wait to get it in my hands! :thumbupboth:

Mazak

Are dependent parameters something like ERC morphs?
the new lighting options look great! the "Ralphling Scene" image on the gallery looks fantastic!!!  however I don't see any  hair-cloth room improvements...
the build in WW is fantastic news!
also what are the other new 6 figures included?

where can we use tone mapping?

p.s. i see reflections are not mentioned. so you didnt do soft reflections better or faster? 

Quote - Are dependent parameters something like ERC morphs?

Yes. Now we can actually set them up in Poser using GUI controls, making things faster and more intuitive.

Quote - also what are the other new 6 figures included?

from the accompanying paragraph at the top of this page:
"The new Poser 8 figures are offered in four pairs of male/female couples with European features, African features, Asian features and Hispanic features."

Basically, it's Alyson and Ryan with ethnic morphs (the least exciting new feature IMHO, as it's really just 2 new figures).

plus low res versions of the figures. Plus 1.5gig of new content..plus all the legacy content. That's a great package, especially for the new folks to Poser. And with WW integrated, its good for us too, although I already have WW. Hopefully all the existing figure sets we already have will work, although its done in a different version of Python, so probably not, which will be a real bummer if we have to buy all the figures again.

So those are just 2 new figures with different default shape... At least there will be a low and high resolution version of them... also no new kids or a new baby...

1.5 GB of new content, 1.8 GB of legacy content, think I might go for a boxed copy rather than a download this time :-)

I didn't see it but where is it stated that there is not a 64-bit version? If this is true I find it hard to believe all the new stuff looks great in this version but if it's not 64-bit then you are right back to the same memory limits as before which kinda robs, what looks like a great upgrade, power from the application.

Maybe a 64-bit version of PP8???

Quote - I'm sorry but I'm not able to give details.

Are you able to say you're developing Wardrobe Wizard 3, or are you done with it for good?

"Normal Mapping
Poser Pro’s Normal Mapping is a resource-efficient technique to add the appearance of complexity and surface detail to 3D objects. It can transform object surfaces, making them appear more intricate than they actually are, without the added overhead of polygonal detail. This saves designers valuable time and offers increased creative flexibility by allowing faster and more light-weight computation of rendered results."

That's cool. I mean, it's nice to see that SM has finally realized and acknowledged what all the rest of the 3D app world has known for a long time now.

I find it disturbing that 4 out of the top 5 features listed have to do with content and the interface. Not that that surprises me, but I was unrealistically holding onto a belief that there might be a possibility that massive improvements in rendering would be high on the list.

But there's also this:

"OpenGL Preview Improvements
Real-time preview engine improvements in Poser 8 now display lights and their accumulated values more realistically, sorted by intensity. The light properties control allows the user to select each light they wish to illuminate the scene preview. Mip Map support has been enabled for enhanced performance when previewing large textures. Together, these real-time preview engine enhancements let the user view larger textures and offer more complete scene previewing when setting up lights."

That sounds semi-promising at least for making it quicker to set up a new scene.

Overall, meh.
We shall see.

P8 looks like a significant improvement.  Did anyone see if they made changes to the animation controls or provided more options for animators?  Also, GC will again be with only Pro2 or has it been implemented in P8?

I truly hope they give the new ladies nice breasts that look good and morph nicely. For those of us who like voluptuous ladies outstanding breasts are a major feature and the past characters were sadly lacking in these attributes.
cheerio
lululee

Quote - "Normal Mapping
Poser Pro’s Normal Mapping is a resource-efficient technique to add the appearance of complexity and surface detail to 3D objects. It can transform object surfaces, making them appear more intricate than they actually are, without the added overhead of polygonal detail. This saves designers valuable time and offers increased creative flexibility by allowing faster and more light-weight computation of rendered results."

That's cool. I mean, it's nice to see that SM has finally realized and acknowledged what all the rest of the 3D app world has known for a long time now.

I find it disturbing that 4 out of the top 5 features listed have to do with content and the interface. Not that that surprises me, but I was unrealistically holding onto a belief that there might be a possibility that massive improvements in rendering would be high on the list.

But there's also this:

"OpenGL Preview Improvements
Real-time preview engine improvements in Poser 8 now display lights and their accumulated values more realistically, sorted by intensity. The light properties control allows the user to select each light they wish to illuminate the scene preview. Mip Map support has been enabled for enhanced performance when previewing large textures. Together, these real-time preview engine enhancements let the user view larger textures and offer more complete scene previewing when setting up lights."

That sounds semi-promising at least for making it quicker to set up a new scene.

Overall, meh.
We shall see.

mike normal maps were already possible in poser pro  and i think i 7. but it doesnt work with  reflections,alt_diffuse and specular.

what if it again doesnt work? 

Quote -
what if it again doesnt work? 

Have no fear.
Whoever owns Poser 9 will take care of it. ;-)

About a year ago someone asked if Poser could replecate the following image  (see attached) - at the time it could not.  Now, with global illumination and tone mapping, it should be very possible.

take care

in re: eclark's question: yes, poser 7 and later included IL (indirect diffuse, no indirect specular) and GI, but they were slow and didn't work well, displaying low photon density (grainy shadow edges) and bucket-edge artifacts, hence they weren't supported by SM. it may still need some work in P8 if some of the renders are any indication.  in any case, trying to set GI parameters will be a diffficult and complex job for default users, hence they may disable shadows as in past versions, or they may skip GI to get quickie renders.  I'm not seeing a good understanding of IL by D|S 3 users in forum/gallery here (with one or two exceptions), so it may be the same with poser 8 users.

Quote - No gamma correction for P8, instead we'll use of tone maps - so I'm guessing that it'll render in 32bit floating point color just as Poser Pro does.

About a year ago someone asked if Poser could replecate the following image  (see attached) - at the time it could not.  Now, with global illumination and tone mapping, it should be very possible.

take care

in this pic you have subsurface gallore. and since poser 8 doesnt have SSS i think we can not do it.

Yup,  I figured SSS would still have to be faked,  but we may be able to get close  :)

take care
 

I'm sort of surprised they didn't try for SSS in Poser 8. I never believed they could do it without a new render engine anyway, but still surprised.
The global illumination should be... interesting to see.

Oh but let's not make this a complaint thread. After all, the interface will be new, which is a HUGE...no, an important.... hmm, no.... it's a..
Well, it's a nice thing that they did that.

And I for one can barely contain myself thinking I might be able to replace a double click with a drag and drop. Why, that alone will shave seconds off of every months' worth of Poser usage. :rolleyes:

Wow!  With joint improvements and a cross-body part morph tool and built-in Wardrobe Wizard, I may find that I no longer have any reason to whinge and gripe about Poser.  Huzzah!  High hopes here that I can get back to loving the program as much as I used to, and as much as it seems like I should.

Bravo!  :D

Quote - I'm sort of surprised they didn't try for SSS in Poser 8. I never believed they could do it without a new render engine anyway, but still surprised.
The global illumination should be... interesting to see.

Oh but let's not make this a complaint thread. After all, the interface will be new, which is a HUGE...no, an important.... hmm, no.... it's a..
Well, it's a nice thing that they did that.

And I for one can barely contain myself thinking I might be able to replace a double click with a drag and drop. Why, that alone will shave seconds off of every months' worth of Poser usage. :rolleyes:

i am not suprised. SM did what users wanted. like BB explained. you saw for years people saying '' i want GI''. noont said that he wants SSS. but IMO a lot of people wanted GI because they think that this is an easier way to make realistic renders. you know just push  a button and enjoy in realism.

were the DM shadows fixed?

Will there be a Presidential Bail-out so we can afford this?

Quote - > Quote - I'm sort of surprised they didn't try for SSS in Poser 8. I never believed they could do it without a new render engine anyway, but still surprised.

The global illumination should be... interesting to see.

Oh but let's not make this a complaint thread. After all, the interface will be new, which is a HUGE...no, an important.... hmm, no.... it's a..
Well, it's a nice thing that they did that.

And I for one can barely contain myself thinking I might be able to replace a double click with a drag and drop. Why, that alone will shave seconds off of every months' worth of Poser usage. :rolleyes:

i am not suprised. SM did what users wanted. like BB explained. you saw for years people saying '' i want GI''. noont said that he wants SSS. but IMO a lot of people wanted GI because they think that this is an easier way to make realistic renders. you know just push  a button and enjoy in realism.

Actually, it is a big leap in realism, at the push of a button. Did you not notice all the demo renders I did using only one light? Without tone mapping and GI, that one light scenario doesn't look real at all. Now it looks like a Vue render.

Wardrobe Wizard alone makes it worth the upgrade for me, even if additional (Daz) figure support costs extra. The rest looks promising too, so far.

Quote - > Quote - > Quote - I'm sort of surprised they didn't try for SSS in Poser 8. I never believed they could do it without a new render engine anyway, but still surprised.

The global illumination should be... interesting to see.

Oh but let's not make this a complaint thread. After all, the interface will be new, which is a HUGE...no, an important.... hmm, no.... it's a..
Well, it's a nice thing that they did that.

And I for one can barely contain myself thinking I might be able to replace a double click with a drag and drop. Why, that alone will shave seconds off of every months' worth of Poser usage. :rolleyes:

i am not suprised. SM did what users wanted. like BB explained. you saw for years people saying '' i want GI''. noont said that he wants SSS. but IMO a lot of people wanted GI because they think that this is an easier way to make realistic renders. you know just push  a button and enjoy in realism.

Actually, it is a big leap in realism, at the push of a button. Did you not notice all the demo renders I did using only one light? Without tone mapping and GI, that one light scenario doesn't look real at all. Now it looks like a Vue render.

but you still had to use your ENV_sphere and a good image.
do people already use it?

in poser 7 you used one light and one IBL with AO. it was also not so hard yet people didnt use it. now its mroe realistic but i am talking about people that are usiing poser 7.  in poser 7 with IBL and AO it was maybe 30 seconds more of work yet noone used it.

Relatively few gallery posters used IBL, but in the last year 314 images in the Poser gallery mentioned IBL or AO, which means several thousand actually used it.

Granted, most of them are devotees you and I know, people who also use VSS and the environment sphere and the shadow catcher and so on. These people will use the new feature. They would also use SSS if we had it. But wanting SSS is a figure-centric desire, whereas GI applies to everything. Given I can only have one, I take GI.

As a less than advanced user, I'm not sure any of the new features are worth the upgrade.

 I've used Wardrobe Wizard in the past - PhilC is brilliant - so I'm sure it will be great

Bagginsbill's previews have been fantastic - but of course he could make a pile of dookie look like the the Sistine chapel.  The new rendering and lighting options sound great though...

The only thing I'm worried about is the face room.   It's been the one hang up with Poser in the past that has had me not utilize their default figures to their fullest potential.

*"now its mroe realistic but i am talking about people that are usiing poser 7.  in poser 7 with IBL and AO it was maybe 30 seconds more of work yet noone used it."

*And here I thought I used it all the time, must have been dreaming it. The same goes for most of the users I talk with. They must be faking or dreaming that they use it too.

Granted I do believe that the average users are more lazy now than they used to be.

I know I will be using GI in poser when It has it or should I say when I have a copy that has it. I use GI in all my other software that has it. I don't see any reason to stop now.

 I do have one question that unfortunately, the Preview page doesn't address. What are the system requirements to use P8 and it's new features? I've already blown my budget for a computer upgrade this year and found out that I still didn't upgrade enough. I'm precluded from using DS3 because I don't have OpenGL 1.3 and can't upgrade to it.  If P8 is the same, a lot of you are going to be P8 bug testers for me.

I don't know the answer. I don't think there's anything different from Poser 7.