Quote - Heh. I doubt many folks from S-M will be reading here, but thought it may be more realistic to ask for truly new features in PP 2010 than in a service release for P8.

So I'll begin with these:

1. Port the upgraded features of P8 to Poser Pro (e.g. IDL). Pretty self-evident, but we may as well state it. And yes, I want the upgraded library. :) (With the forthcoming upgrades/improvements etc, of course.)

2. Native 64 bit application.

3. Subsurface Scattering.

4. Object-specific lighting. (If this can already be done, I'd like to know how. One use: It would be nice to set a shadow map light specifically for hair, so that there are still shadows if you exclude it from raytracing.)

5. Context-sensitive image import and export: App returns to last directory imported from (i.e. for textures) when importing, and last directory exported to when exporting (for saving renders).

6. PSD alpha channel support.

7. Exclude object from camera. Still cast shadows and shows up in reflections. This is possible in other apps; easy solution to accidentally rendering with a wall in the way (at the very least: upgrade preview to match render, so that if the wall isn't in the way in preview, it doesn't show up in the render).

8. Import .obj as full body morph.

9. Additional morphing tools. I'm not expecting another ZBrush inside of Poser, but some basic tools would be nice, especially in Poser Pro. E.g. Rotate, Move.

10. Ability to maneuver camera rotations and placement within the posing screen (e.g. right-click, move left = rotate left).

11. Ability to save Morphing Tool morphs with a simple right click from the interface with the new morph selected (or better yet, use the existing save to Pose dialogue to allow the option to save a custom morph to a pose file). Should be able to create dials for the figure Body and the affected body parts.

12. Selective undo. There are many uses for this. E.g. Sometimes you've made a change and then nicely set up a camera or whatever and notice that your change doesn't look so good from the new angle. You want to be able to undo your change without undoing your work since.

I don't know if I dare ask for it, but multiple background renders would be nice. Although admittedly, Poser Pro's ability to render in queue alleviates this somewhat, sometimes one wants to see multiple renders while in progress. Another option, though I don't know if it would be possible, is if Queue could be toggled to display periodic progressive rendering. I'd think multiple bg rendering would be easier, as the technology and display system is already there for bg rendering.

Agree with all this, though whether we see a FULL 64 bit app - as opposed to 64 bit rendering only - in Pro is open to serious question. Yes, I want it very much. But the programmers may see this as too big a step up. What CAN be done reasonably cheaply is:

64 bit rendering
A gizmo to move objects (C'mon SM - Daz Studio was doing this for free years ago!)
Selective Lights and Shadows
Better - easier grouping of objects. The Heirarchy Window is just old and clunky!
Ability to save morphing tool brush changes as saved Poses on-the-fly.

I also agree with the person who said it's OK to dream big! If the only changes that the SM team were to ever conceive of were the tinest tweaks to existing features, the program would simply fade to insignifance as folks like E-On and Maxon gradually pulled away the Poser customer base. Like the shark in Woody Allen's Annie Hall, Smith Micro must keep Poser 'swimming' - ie evolving - if it is to survive.