I hope this is a simple question - is it worth upgrading to the pro pack? I'm not (yet) into creating poser items to redistribute, and I don't create animations in Poser, just single images. Everything I've read about the Pro Pack suggests it's extra support for animations and flash: stuff I wouldn't use. But I do like to have the latest versions of software I work with. Are there features in the Pro Pack I don't know about? Do people think it's worth upgrading? yours Eiran

I just bought Pro Pack myself, solely for its improvements in the area of character creation. The whole Set Up room thing is cool, but if you're not interested in that or ready for it right now, it's probably not worth it. Most everything else is built around animation and Flash and all. The Python scripting business has some potential, but I haven't gotten into that yet and don't think it would probably do much for you unless you're a real power user, not to mention that you need to learn the whole Python language. Someone else could give you more details about that part, though. It has motion blur, even in stills I guess, but I haven't used that as I render everything in Bryce. And if you don't need the other features, it's a lot to pay for that feature alone. About the only the other new stuff is the multiple pane thing, which may mean more to you than it did to me, and (and this is totally undocumented as far as I know; I haven't even seen this mentioned in reviews or the forums or anyplace) it adds a .png to your character files (in fact, it apparently relaces the .rsr altogether on newly saved characters). In case you don't know, a .png is an image file. So you can save a rendered picture (render at 91x91 pixels) as .png and use it to replace the current one for a character or prop or whatever, and voila, you have a nice rendered thumbnail. You can actually see transparent hair, like Kozaburo's, in the thumbnail picture. So is that, motion blur, and multiple pane view worth the bucks to you? That's up to you and your wallet. And you may want to learn more about the Python part if you think that's something you might be interested in.

I've had the ProPack for a couple of weeks now and will probably uninstall it due to some serious rendering limitations. The new features are nice, and Python scripting has some powerful potential, but the learning curve is steep unless you already know python. I would definitely NOT recommend it untill they fix the problems with rendering, lighting, and scaling. The new features just are not worth the tradeoff.

One extra comment: the Python aspect doesn't require knowing Python in advance, but I suspect it does require a general expertise in programming. I'd never even heard of Python before, and was able to master enough of Poser's subset of Python to do what I wanted very quickly .... maybe one day of learning. But I've been programming for a living in C for 15 years. The Python is wonderful if you want to set up animations in ways that can be defined mathematically, such as moving props around according to the laws of physics, or introducing randomness into character movements. I use both of those, and Python has been a godsend for my purposes. But if you primarily make static renderings, it probably won't do you much good.

ronstuff do you have servicepack number two or not?

I haven't gotten to the figure creation or other advanced features yet, but I LOVE the multiple views - makes working much more efficient. I've tried out some of the python scripts and use a couple routinely. You don't need to know Python to use the scripts. I'm planning to buy bushi's Face Shaper, which is python based and works with Mac or PC Poser 4 with ProPack. I expect there will be more add-ons like that available that will add features to Poser. None of these alone may be worth the price to you, but you'll probably be glad you got it.

I have bought it also but i wish i had not.Except for multiple views i don't use too much the new features:i don't have time(hobby time) to create from zero a new character,and don`t have 3D max or LW.And i have some bugs ,like no name thumbs with some of my libraries.Think more seriously about real use of it.

Thanks, everyone. Sounds like something I'll undoubtedly want to get, but maybe a little further down the line rather than now. Cheers, Eirian