V3, M3, V4, M4, etc.
I'm sure some people use the characters P7 and Poser8 come bundled with but personally, when i used to use P6 i never used the female. I did use James, he's good but that's it.

Everything else was Daz characters, and i'm sure many other people do the same cause I mostly see DAZ characters stuff in freebies, in forum questions, in foreign poser sites etc.

Are bundle characters not getting good marketting or why aren't people using them that much and also why doesn't the company that makes Poser just bundle POSER with at least 50 characters they make themselves?

You basically gave three answers to your own question.  Poser is tied to Shade which is tied to anime which equates to non-sexy which results in old fogees still using Poser.

DAZ Studio is tied to V4 which is tied to better morphing and better clothing (or lack of clothing) for the better morphing which results in sexier sells figures.  The younger crowd just wants to render neked chicks.  And V4 is free.  Studio is free.

that and the Poser bundled figures seem to be freakily proportioned

The most obvious reason seems to be all the free stuff that is available for the Daz characters. That makes them versatile, but I am still bored with the sameness of all the V4 renders out there. I plan to use the Poser characters more to get some variety in my images. I started with the G2 characters and have already spent the money on skins and clothes, so I might as well use them.

I think the Poser characters are improving a lot now. Considering too they are more user friendly to Poser than others, that is a plus as well.

It is probably better using the Daz characters in Daz Studio..just my opinion though

Actually, I'd like to do more with the Poser-bundled human figures (those that came with Poser 7 and 8 and Poser Pro 2010), as well as with the Miki2 and TeraiYuki2 figures, and Apollo Maximus.  
I feel the need to expand my repertoire. 

"The younger crowd just wants to render neked chicks. " 

A crude generalization which ignores the many young people of delicate sensibilities and the many older folks who have horned - excuse me - honed their skills rendering countless naked Posettes and Vickies. I don't think the notion that anime can't be sexy holds water by any means either :-)

Since the original Poser figures were created by Zygote which spun off Daz, I don't think it's too remarkable that they lead the market. They've been at it a long time, they've got good marketing, a good return policy, etc. Some folks don't care for the products, but they obviously appeal to many, and that popularity translates into increased 3rd party support. IMO rather than bundling 50 figures, SM would be better served by including more accessories for the figures they have.  Apart from making a really cool orgy scene, 50 or 20 or 10 figures wouldn't  be that useful without clothing, characters, hair, etc.. Yes, I know you can convert, morph, tweak and so on, but many people want pre-built content. Daz caters to this and does a good business at it by all indications.

I'd imagine it's probably because most users got DAZ figures long before they got P6 or higher (P4 days myself) and so had lots of content already which they continue to use, and when figures were updated it was a natural migration.
Also the fact that DAZ figures have much more items available than the native Poser figures means that's what people tend to see in the galleries and so you get the 'hmm, they used DAZ figures to do that pic, that means I need to use them too' mentality. (Similar to other pusuits, ie, photography where amateurs see a great pic was taken with a such'n'such camera/lens combo and so think they need the same to take that type of photo, whereas we all know it's not always the equipment, it's the user.)

 ok dave, when are you going to release your "how to" tutorial of your magic? :)

 ok dave, when are you going to release your "how to" tutorial of your magic? :)

Quote -  ok dave, when are you going to release your "how to" tutorial of your magic? :)

What magic?  It's all blood, sweat, toil, & tears!!!  1st I remapped them to take v3 & M3 textures, and THAT does a lot to make them look more like your latest & greatest from DAZ.  And, if you click on my Homepage and look at my Artist Input/Freestuff, you'll find all my Posette & Dork remaps there!  Plus a remap of the P4 Horse to take MilHorse textures, which goes a LONG way to improve him! (I learned in my 3ds Max class that TEXTURE was a LOT more important than Polygon count!).  Then, there's posing.  Again something I learned in 3ds Max class was the 1:2 ratio of bending joints.  An example of this is bending Posette & Dork's neck and head: for ever 10 degrees bend of neck, there should be 20 degrees bend of head, etc.  Raising the arm, 1st you raise the collar, then the shoulder, etc.  Everything should flow naturally.
dph

Quote - that and the Poser bundled figures seem to be freakily proportioned

The DAZ characters are hardly the norm, either.

A big factor is price of accessories.  The included Poser figures don't come with much in the way of morphs.  You can use them in the Face Room and shape them with magnets, but how many really do that routinely?

Back in the day, to get the face and body morph sets for Jessie or James, or G2 Syd or Simon cost at least $40 per scharacter.  In the case of V4, (before she was free)  I picked up  a bundle with her, her morphs, some textures, some clothes and hair and shoes for $17.

RDNA has morph sets on sale now for around $6 each, but if they had been cheaper in the first place, I think the Poser figures would have been a lot more popular...

Daz got the love of the public because:

1. The Poser figures were just that bad. No morphs, hardly any clothes, etc. as mentioned before.

2. Daz brilliant marketing strategy of giving the people what they wanted (imagine that?).

3. And by getting people in the one place they couldn't resist - in their pocketbooks. Daz made Poser content "cheap" and consequently drove prices into the basement where they remain today. This is at the same time a blessing and a curse: while they definitely got more sales (volume) because of that, they cut their own profit margin and now have little money for further development on the very figures that made them what they are ;o). While it's nice for us, the users, to get things free, it costs the company money...lol. Now that the release of the Kids and less Poser compatibility has caused an uproar, I just hope no one's shot themselves in the foot ;o).

Laurie

Anime can be a lot sexier than "realism" for those of us who can't bridge the
Uncanny Valley!

At the risk of getting slapped down again...

Many people, like myself, are NOT adept at creating our own content. (I can't model worth squat!) Therefore, I bought and used those characters that had the greatest amount of content available to go with them: Daz.

It's that simple. 

I think it´s because the average quality is still pretty high at DAZ. You don´t have to tweak the figures a lot to make them look good, just load them an pose them and hit the render button in most cases the render will turn out somehow good.
Try this with the built in content, the G2 characters ( except for Kelvin) look somehow freakish especially Simon and Sydney they just suck , Judy needs a lot of morphing on her face alone to get a decent result, the P6 kids have a real bad rigging, just try to pose their fingers, I could go on for a long time.
DPHoadley did a great job with the picture he posted here, but he spent an awful lot of time to morph, remap and pose the figures. Most people just don´t want to spent that amount of time and DAZ offers them a lot of easy and ready to use content. If you join the Platinum Club you have more than 2000 products for less than 2$ sometimes even less than 1$ to chose from.
I personally don´t like every DAZ Figure and really hate V3 and M3 but they did a pretty good job with M4, I really love him. Not so sure about the new kids yet and not a big fan of V4 but she´s a great improvement over V3.

@Slochez: Art is not supposed to be easy.  The quality of art depends to a large extent to the time and effort that you put into it!  I myself am not an artist, and never will be, but as a semi-skilled craftsman, I like the end results of my craftsmanship, BECAUSE of all the effort that I put into it!
dph

1% inspiration 99% perperation

IMO the daz figures are better because that is what daz does, hence they get more sales.  The bundled figures are just what whoever shipped with poser so it had some functionality however it wasn't what they do; they make computer programs.

Let me underscore what a couple of people have already said:

DAZ makes it easy.

Never mind that the meshes are resource hogs, with twice the poly count of most CG characters created for Hollywood (Trivia for you: V3 has twice the poly count of Jar-Jar Blinks): you basically dont have to do anything, just point, pose, and click. Yes, there's more to it than that, but not a lot, guys. Most folks -- even vendors -- rarely move beyond the cookie-cutter head morphs for Vickie, in any of her iterations.

But to work with the bundled characters, you have to... well, work at it. SnowSultan made what I consider arguably the best Posette texture ever, and if you tinkered a bit with the mesh, you had a great looking result. I took the P4guy into places few ventured, and for my pains, I got characters that were on the level of M2/3. But none of this is easy. You have to treat the character mesh like a tabula rosa, not a fait accompli.

But we dont do that anymore. We wait for someone else to do it for us. We dont want to learn all the incredibly cool stuff built into the programs because that's hard.

Yeah, well, whatever.

I agree with you Sean (although I may have worded it different, but then again, maybe not ;o)). I learned how to model so that I could make what was in my own head rather than what was in someone else's and the same goes for texturing. The only reason I did texturing long before modeling was because it was easier for me...I was a graphic artist and Photoshop was a good friend of mine...lol. I learned to use the morph brush and make something I liked, make props I like. I think that's where I get my satisfaction...in seeing something that I made myself. However, that's not the general rule (and in some cases just not practical) because of folks that use the program commercially or for people who are perfectly satisfied with having their art look, more or less, like a lot of other images in the gallery. I'm not saying that to be ignorant either - some people do this purely to unwind and if that's what it does for you, than I'm all for it. I'm just never satisfied with my own stuff to ever sit still and just use what I can buy ;o).

Laurie

After reading LaurieA's post, I just had an epiphany, and I don't know why it has taken me so long to see it. 

There are two groups in this discussion: The techies and the users. 

The techies are like techies in every other area of computerization. They ADORE pushing the limits and seeing what can be done. They are the people who over-clock their cpus and write code of ever-increasing convolutions.

The users just want the damn programs they buy to work so they can write their letters and play their games.

It's a good thing that both of us exist. Without the users the techies couldn't make a living, and without the techies the users would have nothing to use.

Perhaps a bit more respect in both camps is what is called for, rather than espousing that everyone needs to be able to do everything..

Part of the comparison to the Jar Jar Binks model fails to take into account the rendering engine and other things. Whatever renders the Star Wars movies has a lot of options that Poser doesn't. Also Jar Jar doesn't morph into Han Solo but the polys need to be there for that possibility with the DAZ figures. If you have no morphs you end up with James, and no support.

Quote -

There are two groups in this discussion: The techies and the users. 

The techies are like techies in every other area of computerization. They ADORE pushing the limits and seeing what can be done. They are the people who over-clock their cpus and write code of ever-increasing convolutions.

The users just want the damn programs they buy to work so they can write their letters and play their games.

It's a good thing that both of us exist. Without the users the techies couldn't make a living, and without the techies the users would have nothing to use.

Perhaps a bit more respect in both camps is what is called for, rather than espousing that everyone needs to be able to do everything..

Thank you
Excellent post!!!

Since we are tossing polygon numbers around...

A generic character in shrek had 60k polys for head/body/clothing and 760k for hair/fur.

Quote - > Quote -  ok dave, when are you going to release your "how to" tutorial of your magic? :)

What magic?  It's all blood, sweat, toil, & tears!!!  1st I remapped them to take v3 & M3 textures, and THAT does a lot to make them look more like your latest & greatest from DAZ.  And, if you click on my Homepage and look at my Artist Input/Freestuff, you'll find all my Posette & Dork remaps there!  Plus a remap of the P4 Horse to take MilHorse textures, which goes a LONG way to improve him! (I learned in my 3ds Max class that TEXTURE was a LOT more important than Polygon count!).  Then, there's posing.  Again something I learned in 3ds Max class was the 1:2 ratio of bending joints.  An example of this is bending Posette & Dork's neck and head: for ever 10 degrees bend of neck, there should be 20 degrees bend of head, etc.  Raising the arm, 1st you raise the collar, then the shoulder, etc.  Everything should flow naturally.
dph

That's a good Mini Tutorial in 1 paragraph Dave! That 3DS Max class sounds like it helped you out a lot!

Quote - Since we are tossing polygon numbers around...

A generic character in shrek had 60k polys for head/body/clothing and 760k for hair/fur.

And that's the original film. I'm sure since then they've become even more complex. LOL

But that doesnt turn away from the fact that the DAZ characters really do go into polygon overload, especially now when it's one mesh fits all. No wonder Michael's "equipment" had to go separately!

Sometimes, when posing I use a 1:2:3 ratio; for example, such as twisting the neck.  I might twist the chest by 5 degrees, the neck by 10 degrees, and the head by 15 degrees: everything thus graduated in a smooth fashion: -the torso moves a little, the head moves a lot.
And another thing!!!  NEVER move the Forearms and Shins 'Side-to-Side!  They can't DO it in real life, therefore they shouldn't DO it in Poser!  Rather twist the Shoulders and Thighs instead.  And remember, when twisting the hand, FIRST twist the forearm, and possibly even the shoulder (If the are is outstretched! -And again, in that case follow the ratio 1:2:3).

All this applies most certainly for posing the legs & feet TOO!
dph

but ease in creating quality artwork isn't the only issue.  there are figures out there with as great or greater number of features like morphs as the latest DAZ figure.  and since morphs take time to dial, and most "users" don't take that time (or the time to fit those body morphs), lots of those features don't have any effect beyond making people feel good about a purchase.

every time i load V4 or have an image of her on my screen and my boyfriend looks across the office, he can't refrain from commenting on how ridiculously long her arms are.  i mean, seriously can't keep from exclaiming each  time. 

DAZ figures are the norm now largely because they became the norm years ago.   V4's high cut shoulders make her look way worse in most positions than V2 in that area.  but how quickly did people get used to seeing that and not even mention the problem in comments?  how quickly did people boast about not correcting it in postwork?  how many people said of Antonia, "wow, her arms look really short," when they were actually the right size based on photo references?  

it's not nearly as simple as techies vs. users.

even staying within the DAZ stable, it's not technically harder to user V3 than V4.  there's actually more high-end freebies for V3, like morphs and textures rather than just dial-spins.  M2 and Capsces' Boris are now free. i collected gigs and gigs of free content for the version 2 and version 3  figures.  you could just use freestuff from DAZ and elsewhere and make artwork of the exact same quality and with as much ease as the average V4 user.  not the "techies" that get great performance out of her, but the more common "users."

it's not technically easier for average load and render users to use the latest DAZ figures.   i see literally no difference in the average quality of renders in the galleries from V3 to V4, and in a lot of cases i've seen a decrease due to V4's less realistic default head.  it's easier logistically and impulse-wise.  you can follow the latest trends and not spend as much time thinking about your content.  you don't have to think about if you really need the latest thing, or what's really appropriate to use for that image you have planned.  you don't have to wonder whether people will view you work for its quality rather than a glimpse of the hottest new content.   you don't have to worry about missing out on new stuff you do want that comes out for the latest figure.  you can just buy based on seeing and wanting, and keep thinking about each incremental buy instead of that total spending you're doing.

people like collecting Poser content like comics or action figures.  most of us customers use so little of what we buy, we need a system to tell us that we've already bought something to keep from buying it again.  tons of people bought the morphs and add-ons for the version 3 kids who never used them, just as tons of people bought the present Kids bundles who will never use them.  but now, they don't have to worry about something cool coming out for the Kids and their morphs that they could only get if they justified the cost of both the bundle (at full price) and the product.

much of the ease is in the mindspace. you can buy without guilt, and keep acquiring content with the latest advances without worrying about compatibility. what's technically more difficult is working with lots of different figures.  DPH does a lot with Posette, but most Posette users wouldn't have to do that anymore than every V3 user had to make TextureConverter themselves. if you just choose Posette, technically, life is about as easy if you just choose V4.  but if you choose one of the less popular figures, you won't get to be a part of the latest content trend.  most people choose to just keep up with the most popular figure.  the problem is that this keeps you from even finding out what you could do on your own and for free.  and from seeing what you'd actually do if you weren't following everyone else. once you start the practice of looking to merchants first and your own work second, it's hard to stop.

if people who've been around long enough to remember a time when you only paid for Poser advise against rushing into buying things, it's because it's a bad practice for your wallet.   most of us only use a small percentage of what we buy, and even more only gets used once, deliberately, in a render of the latest purchase.  it's amazing how much you can spend when you only think about that single purchase.  people don't advise being creative first and spending second because "techies" think people should be able to "do everything."  it's because first seeing what you can do and giving your own artistic vision top priority and marketing and peer pressure lowest priority is just a more economic thing to do.  and those of us with runtimes full of content we can barely organize and didn't even have time to use before the newest, must-have figure came out sometimes like to pass along what we've learned through our own mistakes.

Quote - Trivia for you: V3 has twice the poly count of Jar-Jar Blinks...

True, but at least V3 didn't make Palpatine Emperor... :lol:

Speaking of Work v. Easy , I wish there were a standard for hair morphs-every time I use a hair I need to spend ten minutes fooling with it to remember which dial moves what, where.  Often fun, but non-productive...

Quote - but ease in creating quality artwork isn't the only issue.  there are figures out there with as great or greater number of features like morphs as the latest DAZ figure.  and since morphs take time to dial, and most "users" don't take that time (or the time to fit those body morphs), lots of those features don't have any effect beyond making people feel good about a purchase.

every time i load V4 or have an image of her on my screen and my boyfriend looks across the office, he can't refrain from commenting on how ridiculously long her arms are.  i mean, seriously can't keep from exclaiming each  time. 

DAZ figures are the norm now largely because they became the norm years ago.   V4's high cut shoulders make her look way worse in most positions than V2 in that area.  but how quickly did people get used to seeing that and not even mention the problem in comments?  how quickly did people boast about not correcting it in postwork?  how many people said of Antonia, "wow, her arms look really short," when they were actually the right size based on photo references?  

it's not nearly as simple as techies vs. users.

even staying within the DAZ stable, it's not technically harder to user V3 than V4.  there's actually more high-end freebies for V3, like morphs and textures rather than just dial-spins.  M2 and Capsces' Boris are now free. i collected gigs and gigs of free content for the version 2 and version 3  figures.  you could just use freestuff from DAZ and elsewhere and make artwork of the exact same quality and with as much ease as the average V4 user.  not the "techies" that get great performance out of her, but the more common "users."

it's not technically easier for average load and render users to use the latest DAZ figures.   i see literally no difference in the average quality of renders in the galleries from V3 to V4, and in a lot of cases i've seen a decrease due to V4's less realistic default head.  it's easier logistically and impulse-wise.  you can follow the latest trends and not spend as much time thinking about your content.  you don't have to think about if you really need the latest thing, or what's really appropriate to use for that image you have planned.  you don't have to wonder whether people will view you work for its quality rather than a glimpse of the hottest new content.   you don't have to worry about missing out on new stuff you do want that comes out for the latest figure.  you can just buy based on seeing and wanting, and keep thinking about each incremental buy instead of that total spending you're doing.

people like collecting Poser content like comics or action figures.  most of us customers use so little of what we buy, we need a system to tell us that we've already bought something to keep from buying it again.  tons of people bought the morphs and add-ons for the version 3 kids who never used them, just as tons of people bought the present Kids bundles who will never use them.  but now, they don't have to worry about something cool coming out for the Kids and their morphs that they could only get if they justified the cost of both the bundle (at full price) and the product.

much of the ease is in the mindspace. you can buy without guilt, and keep acquiring content with the latest advances without worrying about compatibility. what's technically more difficult is working with lots of different figures.  DPH does a lot with Posette, but most Posette users wouldn't have to do that anymore than every V3 user had to make TextureConverter themselves. if you just choose Posette, technically, life is about as easy if you just choose V4.  but if you choose one of the less popular figures, you won't get to be a part of the latest content trend.  most people choose to just keep up with the most popular figure.  the problem is that this keeps you from even finding out what you could do on your own and for free.  and from seeing what you'd actually do if you weren't following everyone else. once you start the practice of looking to merchants first and your own work second, it's hard to stop.

if people who've been around long enough to remember a time when you only paid for Poser advise against rushing into buying things, it's because it's a bad practice for your wallet.   most of us only use a small percentage of what we buy, and even more only gets used once, deliberately, in a render of the latest purchase.  it's amazing how much you can spend when you only think about that single purchase.  people don't advise being creative first and spending second because "techies" think people should be able to "do everything."  it's because first seeing what you can do and giving your own artistic vision top priority and marketing and peer pressure lowest priority is just a more economic thing to do.  and those of us with runtimes full of content we can barely organize and didn't even have time to use before the newest, must-have figure came out sometimes like to pass along what we've learned through our own mistakes.

Another very excellent post!!

I guess it is as simple as what you want to do with Poser - or maybe, what you want Poser to do for you ;o). If it's just a creative outlet and more or less adult "play-time" than that's what it is. No wrong or right in that. Me? I don't even download freebies anymore that I can make myself. Why? I've just said it...lolol. It serves me in a different way than most I guess. For instance, I make chainmaille jewelry. But I don't wear it...lmao. Just like I use Poser and almost never render a scene. I just make stuff for it ;o). That's where it gives me the most of whatever it is that it does for me....lol. For what the Daz figures do for it's users (and I'm only a user once in a great...) is different for every person. But since Daz is sort of the only main thing going, their figures will continue to be on top until someone or a group of someones with some talent and drive does their best to change it. So far hasn't happened. Don't know if it will, unless Daz stops selling Poser content all-together. That's not impossible, but not very likely ;o).

Laurie

I think it comes down to several important things concerning V4 (and her kin) versus the Poser core figures.

V4 has large support via the DAZ PAs, Platinum Club team and often its a unified front.

The Victoria line has a reputation of quality and features - I'm not necessarily talking about V4, but going back to the beginning of the line.

The Poser core figures haven't fared as well.  They tend to require a lot of work to get the same feature set as the DAZ lines.  Small details are constantly missed - picky details that DAZ tries to fix in their figures.  If SM really wanted the community to be more prone to adopt their own flagship figures, I would highly recommend that they run a survey and see what users really want.

I'm not trying to side with anyone regarding this, nor hurt any feelings.

I agree with Sean and others that feel that the V4 mesh is too poly heavy.  I also personally don't like the embedded deformers in any of the figures.  It feels kludgy to me.  M4 proved that you really don't need it.

I don't really care for the empty channel injection system either.  Rather see PMD adopted for figures in Poser and let DS have it's own binary system.

So, I have gripes on both sides.  I have adjusted to the things I really don't care for and when I can, I create my own solutions - pre-inject my figures and save out PMDs, for example.

several things actually

1. The origional Poser figures had flaws. The origional DAZ figures had less flaws.

2. Poser figures are free. Dazz figures cost dollars.

3. What one gets for free is often neglected. What one pays for is taken more care of..(or one regrest the buy) One seeks justification for the dollars spend.

Then the show OFF.

Others want to be able to do the same. Too lazy, or do not want to invest the time it takes,  to morph the origional Poser figures, So only the BUY option gets it.

10 dollar, 100 dollar, oeps this is getting out of hand?  The justification?

Better make something, but I need???

But, you need the hair too, the clothes too, and a marked gets created.>

Others see the profit, and jump in on the dollarmaking-game.

Once the ball is loose, there is no stopping it.

Me? I never, or very rarely BUY something. (Ibought 3 LO Res figures, and regret it.)

No V's in this house. None, never-ever.

Then the hypes? The sale arguments?

The ridiculous poly count.

Untill some of us discover that polycount is just that ; a hype. A sales argument. Nothing, and absolutely nothing more.

But, most have already way too many $$$ invested to drop out.
So, the hype goes on.

idealy, a figure has 20 to 25K polys, the rest is pollution.

Posette, Judy, Alyson Lo Res, fit the bill very  fine, thanks.

I"ll morph them and build my own Victory's.
Also, the CPu likes them, the render engine likes them, the memory likes them.

it is like megapixel camera's.

Not noticed yet that some market leaders are coming back down??? to 10 - 15 megapixels...

With a good lens, it is all one needs.

just my 2 cents.

Why? What are the alternatives? Poser 8 figures? They look like they've escaped from some freak show. With every new Poser version released, the figures get worst. That counts for DAZ also, but they're not as bad as the Poser figures are.

It's simply a case of supply and demand..... as long as Smith Micro or others fail to supply figures that are way better then DAZ then the still flawed DAZ figures, we all buy at DAZ. I guess it will never change, unless DAZ finally decided to drop Poser support.

Whenever I'm buying a new Poser version, I'm not even bothered to download the new content, it's a waste of time and a waste of drive space. It's 1.5Gb of stuff I will never use.

Just go to content paradise for fun and check out what items are in the top selling list.... the majority is for DAZ figures and a few items for the G2 figures. Even they themselves fail to market items for their own figures and make a lot more more money from the DAZ figures then their own.

Quote - Why? What are the alternatives? Poser 8 figures? They look like they've escaped from some freak show. With every new Poser version released, the figures get worst. That counts for DAZ also, but they're not as bad as the Poser figures are.

Actually, I don't think the Poser 8 stuff is really that bad...  Sure, Alyson needs some morphs to look presentable, and really, someone should have fixed that before she got in the box, but with some help, she can look pretty good.   3Dream and Deecey both have some free morphs out there that make Alyson pretty.  

Dial her legs & arms longer, and you've got a fairly decent character to work with.   (Of course, there isn't a lot of content for her out there, but that's what the wardrobe wizard is for.)  In the very least, she's good as an alternative to using V4 in every scene.

Quote - Quote - "Why? What are the alternatives? Poser 8 figures? They look like they've escaped from some freak show. With every new Poser version released, the figures get worst. That counts for DAZ also, but they're not as bad as the Poser figures are."

Actually, I don't think the Poser 8 stuff is really that bad...  Sure, Alyson needs some morphs to look presentable, and really, someone should have fixed that before she got in the box, but with some help, she can look pretty good.   3Dream and Deecey both have some free morphs out there that make Alyson pretty. 

Dial her legs & arms longer, and you've got a fairly decent character to work with.   (Of course, there isn't a lot of content for her out there, but that's what the wardrobe wizard is for.)  In the very least, she's good as an alternative to using V4 in every scene.

And then, there is my remapped Posette & Dork.  PosetteV3 comes with something like 200-300 face morphs alone (never counted them, but there's an awful lot), for shaping her face alone. Same with remapped Dork, albeit for his extra face and body morphs you'd need to get Momodot's Morphman.  Again, the range of possibilities with these figures is quite extensive!  And they're light-weight and easy to maneuver in the Poseroom.  With V4 I feel like I'm dragging a semi-trailer truck around, actually struggling with my mouse to get things to move.
dph

Often the texture maps are large which eats your memory for breakfast.  Since I'm not zooming into skin pores for most of my renders, I tend to batch resize them.  Half or Third Size of a 4000x4000 set of textures does wonders.

Good free tool for that here: http://www.rw-designer.com/picture-resize

Allows a lot of extra command line parameters if you are extemely picky, like me.

 I forgot that IDIOT Jar Jar made Palpatine Emperor!

  . I like the "realistic" look and I don't know of any hiRes photorealistic textures for Alyson-or any of the Poser People.
I just went to Content Paradise for the first time- I saw numerous character morph/textures for V4.2!
 
  I did not find a section with Judy, Jessi, or Alyson related products- from Smith Micro!!  There are of course the Manga-esque characters which are probably Daz,

 As far as being resource hungry- I feel that computers are evolving to catch up.

  And there is a whole genre of renders simply called "NVIAT"! For the few who don't know-that is a humorous reference to the ever present Nekkid Vicky in A Temple" renders. :-)

DPH has remapped several figures to take V3 textures, many of which surpass most V4 textures.  taking an example from my own runtime, Camielle V3 is a must have, while Camielle V4 is only OK at best.

just look in the galleries for images of Olivia G2, Miki 1, Miki 2, Koji 1, Koji 2, and others sporting quite beautiful textures.  my favorite artists that have used some of those figures are fabriced and carodan.

carodan also has some equally quality work of Apollo.

there at least used to be some pretty quality textures out there for Posette.  if you don't use her V2 or V3 mapping.

some of the most beautiful textures i've seen were StefyZZ's for V2 and V3.

Antonia already has some killer textures, and people are doing some equally killer renders with her.

that new figure by Mankahoo (i forget her name just now) comes with pretty good textures, just judging by people's results.

Maya Doll's default textures always worked well for me.  my one gallery image using her was pretty popular.

i don't know Alyson and Sydney well, because they weren't my thing, but looking there are some nice Rebelmommy textures for them and Terai Yuki  over at RDNA.

there's lots and lots of quality content out there.  and so much of realistic skin is realistic materials, not texture.

Quote - Since we are tossing polygon numbers around...

A generic character in shrek had 60k polys for head/body/clothing and 760k for hair/fur.

Wonder about the values for Avatar :)

For me it’s simple, loads of free content for Vicky 3 and 4 add morph package and some all round store clothing, bodysuit and MFD and you have most of that you need.

Add that you get lots of free textures to much of the popular clothes.

Yes you continue to shop because it always nice to have more.

It’s not a question about that is best; the question is that is best supported.

Quote - It’s not a question about that is best; the question is that is best supported.

Sad, but true. At least here in the States, VHS won out over BetaMax - definitely NOT the better of the two. VHS ruled for no other reason than it was cheaper. Didn't mean it was better ;o).

Laurie

Some would say VHS won because that is the one the porn industry used... Sony forbade porn makers from using betamax.

Quote - Some would say VHS won because that is the one the porn industry used... Sony forbade porn makers from using betamax.

Actually That is the real reason
Just as Time Warner's Choice of Blueray
Killed HDDVD.

Sounds like Apple is the new Sony then...lololol! "I'm gonna make you pay AND tell you what you can't do with it too!"

Sorry, couldn't resist ;o)

Laurie

Quote - Sounds like Apple is the new Sony then...lololol! "I'm gonna make you pay AND tell you what you can't do with it too!"

Sorry, couldn't resist ;o)

Laurie

Hi if you are referring to the"No flash on the IPad" Controversy
here is a Dose of $$Reality$$
I Found on another site:

Quote:
***Since the dawn of the Web we've been told that this brave new world came with brave new rules, one being that everything must be free and open. Force people to pay a subscription fee to read your news? You'll be doomed, the pundits tell us. You'll be left behind, eclipsed by all the smarty-pants companies that know enough to give their work away.

So everyone played along, and with a few exceptions, nobody is making any money. Funny, that.

Now along comes Apple with a walled garden. Not only does it produce the iPad's processor, its operating system, and the device itself, but Apple sells its content, via iTunes, and keeps 30 percent of the money. It also operates the App Store, the only place selling applications to run on the iPad, and it keeps a 30 percent slice there, too. This summer it will start selling ads that run inside the apps and will keep a 40 percent slice of that revenue.
**
Apple does not explain its strategy. But my interpretation of what it's thinking goes as follows:

The first two decades of the World Wide Web have been a huge mistake.
The Internet is not a philosophy. It's a distribution mechanism. The laws of physics did not change when the airplane was invented, nor have the laws of economics changed because the Internet exists. You make money on the Internet the same way you do everywhere else—by having something that people want and forcing them to pay for it. There is a reason a circus takes place inside a tent, and it's not to keep you dry when it rains. They want to charge you to watch the big show."*

Cheers

Ok, I wasn't really referring to having to pay for the item (I get that), I was referring to having to pay for the item then still having the manufacturer that sold it to me to tell me what I can and can't have on it or what I can do with it. Simple as that. Sorry if you don't like that I don't like being told I can't do something with an item I've payed for, but I myself have a huge problem with it. And no, I don't give a rat's behind about porn, flash or whatever someone else is doing or not doing. And just so you know, I don't really need a dissertation about why my opinion is wrong, in your opinion.

Laurie

Wait, if I get an iPad I'm going to have to see ads on it?

Stupid Apple.

Quote - Wait, if I get an iPad I'm going to have to see ads on it?

Stupid Apple.

I'm not quite sure that's what they have in mind, I don't know, but anyway...I got off topic... Sorry bout that.

/thread repair

Laurie