I finally took the plunge and got me a nice iMac PPC, 2GHz, 1 gig of ram (i plan to upgrade to 2 gigs), and i'll be soon running Leopard (10.5.6)... soo, being a Poser user, i plan to indeed install Poser on my Mac, and even though i've seen similar threads about it, i just wanted to get updated replies to the situation...

I've seen different installers for Mac and PC versions of Poser files... thing is i already have a very organized runtime (took me like 2 years of work to fully put everything in place) of about 40 gigs... if i need to re-install EVERYTHING on my mac, it's gonna take me years... so, questions:

1. can i really simply move my PC runtime into my mac Runtime and voila??
2. if so, if i replace my mac Runtime with my PC runtime (overwritting files), am i not gonna screw everything up? if so, are there any folders i should not replace (like "prefs" and "python")?
3. Any new files that i get, if there is no mac installer for it, can i just install it on my pc, then once in the PC runtime, just move it to my Mac runtime? is that a sound train of thought?

I'll appreciate any input onto this... thanks in advance...

First i think you need to BUY poser again ...
Poser did not come in a PC/MAC version but a OR/OR version

I tryed the migration from PC to mac ..and run into all kind of troubles ...
At the end was reinstalling a better faster option ..

At DAZ.site you can show both PC and MAC files in the "my Downloads"
So when you need to have them downloaded you need to reset them all

Fresh installs are ALWAYS better then transfering..
Specialy from PC to MAC

Chris

its too bad you did not get an Intel Mac.
it would have made life so much easier.

I know, i thought of a mac-mini, but, on my current budget, a PPC was the best i could do... and yeah, i know i have to install the Mac version of Poser in my mac.. my main question is about the runtime... if i can just copy my PC runtime into my Mac Runtime (which i read is feasable to do), then things would be peachy, i just wanna make sure this can be done before i do any further installations...

the poser 8 DVD has both mac/win installers, just like in the old days with fractal designs/MC.
the windows runtime may transfer o.k. but may have thumbs.db and possibly other crap like rsr files.
however, would recommend separate runtime in downloads folder of poser installation.
new OS X users run into overwrite issues when trying to incorporate new runtime items into main runtime.
p.s. them old PPC imacs is about as rare as hens' teeth these days.

I recently migrated from my older Powerbook to a new iMac and after making a fresh install of the Poser8  app on the new mac just put my old PoserPro  runtime in another location (in my User>Documents folder ) and linked to it as a secondary runtime. I've even been adding any new library content to that older Runtime because its already organized just as I like. Poser links to it just fine.

Python scripts however definately do need to be in the primary Runtime folder to work as I found out but I wouldn't just drag the old one over to completely replace the new.
Better to duplicate any scripts that you want to keep from the old and put them in the new python folder with a colour label (I do that to easily identify them if they need removing as I have a bad memory ) and try them out from there.

I would also start with fresh preferences too.

I do realize you are moving from Windows to Mac -not Mac to Mac as I was- but at least if you try just linking to your Windows Runtime first you won't be messing up your nice new Mac Poser installation and if all your old content works ok you've saved yourself a lot of reinstalling   ; )

Hope it goes ok !

Manually installing becomes a fairly quick task once your momentum is built up :)

Really, I have never installed via an installer or directly unzipped into the Runtime "Unless" it is a DAZ product. 

Opening multiple windows of the main drive and simply moving content from one window to the other is pretty quick IMO.

Now may be a good time to re evaluate the runtime "Bloat Factor" and only load the content you actually use :)

As for Poser operation a PPC Based Poser 7 is just plain Pokey, Stable but pokey.

Poser 8 on a PPC is MUCH faster than 7 in all respects.

I run on a G4 PPC " Door Stop" as well as on a iMac (Intel) no problems on either machine.

Welcome to the Mac "Cult " Bwahahaha ;)

hahaha, thanks for the welcome into the Mac Cult...and well, i was planning on use the Poser 6 mac version, as i figured my imac was kinda too old to handle anything higher than that... would you happen to be saying i would be better off running Poser 8 on my PPC rather than Poser 6?

and thanks for all the advice... I'm definitely leaving alone the Prefs and Python folders on the mac install... and move my old pythons to a new folder in the mac python one... will let you guys know how this all went once it's done...

I also found P8 does run very well on my older Powerbook under 10.5.6. , 1.68Ghz and 2gig ram.

Poser7Pro also ran well .

P6 was a total 'pita' on it ...  I gave up for the better part of a year it was so bad.

But hey , what is a disaster for some seems to work for others so there is no telling.

P8 is very nice though .

aparently on mac, if you install Poser 6 without the SR2, it's buggy as heck...

Congrats. Using my Runtime here as it existed in Windows. No worries, no difficulties.

BTW, you should be aware that merging folders does NOT work the same on a Mac as it does in Windows.

 you can use your old runtime but you do need the mac version of poser. Perhaps SMwill let your edownload it?
Anyway there is one thing you have to be particularly careful of.  If you were to drop a runtime folder into another folder containing a folder called runtime, they won't merge like they do on a PC.  The folder you drop in will completely overwrite the old runtime folder.  I use a utility from Kaveman called merge to merge runtimes.
You can link your old runtime (that you used on your PC) to your mac version of poser. No conversion utility should be required and it should just work normally.
Have you still got your old PC runtime?
Love esther

i do have my old runtime, and i'm going to transfer everything, except for the Prefs and Python folders.. but actually, i'm not even gonna merge them, but rather integrate them.. i mean, i will transfer my structure to it, rather than fully replace it, so everything should be fine...

and i do have the mac version of Poser 6... it runs beautifully so far, so we'll see how it does with my PC runtime... i'll do it soon, so i'll report back here... thanks for all the help!

 you can just choose your old runtime as an external runtime

Help please? I am a newbie and have purchased Victoria 4.2 but how do you get her into Poser8 please?

 have you run the daz installer and chosen poser 8 as the runtime where to put her yet?
Love esther

well, eventually upgraded and got even a better imac! its a sweet baby: intel core duo 3.06 Ghz, 4 gigs of RAM, 500 gig harddrive, the screen is 21 inches... I'm in love with this machine!!

BUT BUT BUT BUT...

Poser 6 runs like a frigging snail!!!  i can't believe how sloppish P6 is EVEN with such powerful specs...so i'm giving up on my old friend and looking for alternatives...

i was happy that i was able to tranfer all my PC runtime into Mac with no problems whatsoever, but since now i'm thinking of maybe moving to Daz Studio 3 for mac.. will i be able to move my Runtime there with no issues? because i always see Daz has its own installers, but i wonder if something that has already been installed in Poser will be able to run fine on DS3...

any tips will be welcome...

What's next?

Frustration and, if you're smart, a return to PC.

Frustration and, if you're stubborn or artsy, hang on to the MAC despite the frustration.

The hatches are battened in preparation for attack from the MAC folks.

 Smith Micro now has a program called WMware Fusion that's supposed to make your Mac experience bearable by being able to run Windows based apps on your Mac without rebooting.  It's on special offer at the moment:

WmWare Fusion.

I don't get the whole "finally on a mac" thing though.  My PC was replaced with Mac in my work place some years ago and I was told it would change my whole computing experience.  It didn't.  Wasn't much worse but it didn't offer any improvements to my PC.  In fact, even companies like Adobe have features in their programs that are "PC only".    

ok enough.

lets not get into the idiotic who's machine is better. it's pointless and wastes time and effort (plus do you sit around arguing which screwdriver is better? Slot or Phillips?)

it's just a computer. nothing more.

 ...and I agree completely.  Which is why I don't get the whole "finally on a Mac" thing.

Quote - lets not get into the idiotic who's machine is better. it's pointless and wastes time and effort (plus do you sit around arguing which screwdriver is better? Slot or Phillips?)

Exactly. We all know Torx is the best anyway. :-D

Exactly. We all know Torx is the best anyway. :-D

True! Especially if you drive a Jeep :)

Poser 6 was bad for me on my Mac, (poser 5 was really bad) but Poser 7 runs much quicker and I think the more recent ones might even go faster.

Quote - do you sit around arguing which screwdriver is better? Slot or Phillips?

Phillips, unquestionably.

To the OP Mac user ... my condolences.

Quote -
i was happy that i was able to tranfer all my PC runtime into Mac with no problems whatsoever, but since now i'm thinking of maybe moving to Daz Studio 3 for mac.. will i be able to move my Runtime there with no issues? because i always see Daz has its own installers, but i wonder if something that has already been installed in Poser will be able to run fine on DS3...

you can link your poser runtime to DAZ studio and everything will work fine, no need to move your runtime, if DAZ has installers for DS though you should install those as well, as those generally contain Studio optimized material presets. (newer installers combine them generally as Studio can now read the studio presets from the poser runtime if there is a poser mat pose of the same name in the same folder).

agreed, GOM, i just installed Poser 7 on Mac... and NOW we're talking!! what a difference, man... this is what a fast machine is supposed to work...

yay for technology!!

 Sandmarine- glad it worked out for you.

  Up until a few days ago I was on an olde G5 twin 2Ghz tower- from 2006. Lots of spinning beachballs!  Last month I upgraded from Poser 6 to PPro2010. Much faster! 

  I was looking at the 3 Ghz duo two Macs- then a few days ago- I found a good deal on a used Xeon Quad Mac Pro. Wow! talk about fast
And I COULD run Win7 very nicely-as well- but- then I would short circuit myself by getting into circular arguments with MYSELF over Pc vs Mac..... :-) 

  I

 just an update for anyone who cares: i finally moved up to Poserpro 2010 for Mac, and hell yeas, this is what i'm talking about! No issues whatsoever, and everything runs smoothly and beautiful so far  :)

i installed Parallel desktops to run winxp on my mac, and i use my virtual windows XP to install all the PC files for Poser (clothing, characters, etc), i find it so much easier than having to worry about finding mac installers...

so far, i have to say i'm a happy mac user... i dont consider myself artsy at all, i just like my computer to work with me instead of always putting barriers on what i wanna do, which i felt all windows platforms always did, but i know this is an old issue and it's merely personal preference... all im saying is: having a powerful mac computer that runs OSX and Windows under the same environment, using one machine only? I'm there.

Haven't tried Daz Studio for mac though, i guess it took me like 4 years to fully understand most of the trinkets of Poser, i wonder if i wanna take on another high learning curve and fiddle with dazstudio´s settings... like, one of my main things is working with lights... would my light rigs from poser transfer properly to DS?  If they do, then i might consider giving daz3d one chance.. i just don't feel like using 2 different software to do exactly the same thing...  any thoughts would be appreciated...

unfortunately, Poser lights do not come into DS very well. they come in with shadows off and usually overbright.

quick..run out right now and get a PC

 sad to hear.. well, i've seen very cleverly lit renders in DS, so i guess it's time to undertake new learning curve to get the lights in DS the way i want them to be, at least the motivation is there...

Carrara 8 is also available for Mac.. i was wondering if i should skip DS altogether and just jump straight to Carrara?

I'm finally a mac user ... what next ? Nothing, you have more problems than before ... 

For the same price you will have a PC with better specs, but when we have a mac we are up the poor people :D

 Sometimes us mac users wait longer, but eventually there should be a 64 bit poser and 64 bit DS coming.  they say they are working on it.
I have no other problems with my mac.  I've had a PC too and just gave it away to a relative as I haven't turned it on in over a year.
I use Vue, C4D, Poser pro 2010, DS (very occasionally) and adobe photoshop, comic life magiq (brilliant by the way) for my artwork just to name the main ones.
Love esther