D|S always seemed more memory intensive on my machine, at least, if I try to run any "extra" stuff that makes D|S comparable to poser.

Some people say that D|S gives them smoother, softer renders (you have to turn pixel samples way up in Poser render settings for the same effect).

I could never get decent lighting in D|S without something like dreamlight's products for it.

I like the cartoon rendering option in D|S. SO much easier than toon shaders in Poser.

I also like that you can change the rendering bucket pattern/direction in D|S. Sometimes I just like to start a render at the bottom, you know? lol

D|S gets more expensive than Poser is, if you want the same functionality (i.e. rigging, complex materials, magnets/d-formers, complex lighting, dynamic cloth simulation, etc.) 

Poser's cloth room kicks ass, you can run any obj file through simulation. D|S's cloth simulation is very, very limited. They haven't released anything for it since its initial release. However, from what I've seen of the D|S cloth simulation it is very nice, better than what you can get with Poser.

Poser is friendly with Vue, and D|S is friendly with Bryce--I love Vue. So that's a point for Poser. ;-) Although Bryce is very useful, and admittedly much cheaper than Vue, and I do use it every now and then.

Poser has a multitude of very cool python scripts available for it. D|S has some useful plugins, but nothing comparable, just because of the lack of support.

D|S has a better library set up, though a friend of mine says that Poser 8's libraries have improved toward the folder tree setup too.

D|S always seems to be buggy, and they're always updating to a higher version number. And patches? We don't need no stinking patches! You have to download the entire program over again, uninstall the old version, and reinstall every time. I have dial-up, and D|S is a huge download, so I don't update very often I still have ver. 2.3. The problem with that is--NO, absolutely NO files made by anyone with an even slightly higher version of D|S will work in previous versions. And since most people who make content for D|S use the encrypted file types, you can't open them up and alter them to work for another version of D|S. Also a problem if there's a mistake in it, and it, say, points to a missing or incorrect file path. So, if you decide to go with D|S, be prepared to update it, often.

A lot of poser MAT files use Poser's material nodes, and while they will still load in D|S, they will load incorrectly. Sometimes very incorrectly. If materials are not very simple or D|S specific, you will have to do alot of tweaking to make them look right.

In summation: If you don't need the kind of functionality that poser offers, then D|S is a good, free substitute. Be warned, however, that DAZ seems to be commercializing it, and it may not stay free.

I keep D|S on my machine for D|S specific content, toon rendering, and making my products D|S compatible.

--Sparky

 
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