Ok, wow, I was away last week, but decided I was going to get Poser 8 at some point, so why not just buy it and see what it can do.  I read about through page 4 of this thread (through Thursday, I think) before buying.   Then I travelled to a place with only dial-up, which to me means NO internet other than emergencies, LOL.  Saturday evening was my first crack at installing and playing with Poser 8.

I should qualify everything I say here by saying that I really am a light user of all 3d apps.  I don't animate.  I am a hobbyist.  If I were grading my renders I'd give them an overall C, and working hard to get an A.  So my first impressions are these.

It's still excellent.  A little crashy for me (see below), but all in all a good improvement and well worth the upgrade price.  I'm using the 8.0.0.10099 (the hotfix version).

At first it wouldn't even start up.  I deemed that to be an emergency, read a thread about downloading the latest version of Microsoft C++, downloaded, installed and it worked like a charm.  Not terribly impressed, but glad it was an easy fix.

1.)  The GUI?  I had no problem with P7's interface, except I wished that the parameters dials would stay put.  So YAY for the interface!!  I love being able to move the palettes around and have them stick.  Something isn't working right with the palettes in the material room, but in the pose room it's really a good improvement.

2.)  The libraries. It took me forever to figure out how to add all my runtimes.  I read the included documentation and it talked about adding runtimes, but never said exactly how.  (It certainly never mentioned the Shaderworks script).  Anyhow I added them all one by one by the "add library" button.  Most of mine are on an external hard drive that isn't always plugged in.  I bought Semidieu's runtime utilities to add all my runtimes when I forgot or couldn't plug in my external in P7 and that doesn't work in P8.   Then I just read and found out about the new script.   I wish Poser had a way of keeping my runtimes in its memory when my external HD isn't attached, but the new script is ok.

3.)  More on the libraries, I don't like the tiny icons much, but found if I select one and it's big, then I can scroll through the rest and that's ok.  Yea, don't like it much.

4.)  And also on the GUI, I wish that any docked libraries could be slid closed and opened with a click like in P7.

5.) The material room GUI seems like it's not quite done.  I've seen people talking about the titles running off the nodes, which I've experienced as well.  However many times, Poser 8 crashes when I enter the material room. Are others experiencing this?  It happens with new scenes and old scenes, but a work around seems to be to reopen the document and select a different figure before switching to the material room.  I will file a bug report on this.

6.) The preview window somehow got docked in the bottom of my screen, and I can't get it to dock anywhere else or remain undocked. I never really found that preview screen useful in P7, but the OpenGL in P8 is much better and now I want to use it, so I hope this will get fixed soon.

7.)  The lighting is very much better.  Not nearly as much blowout and softer falloff is really making my renders seem gorgeous (perhaps a C+?!  ;->)  And faster, so so much faster.  I have dual cores, and often watched in P7 as one core finished its job and not help out the other core.  This does much better.  I'm not sure why, but hair seems to render much prettier, with better highlights.  Very cool!!

8.)  P7 scenes open without a hitch, and render immediately.  Whew, and thanks!

Well, that's my first impression input.  If anyone has any advice that would help any of the minor issues I'm finding, I'd appreciate it.  I'm glad I got it, and see no reason to use P7 anymore :)

Indi.