Quote - Ultimately however, it is always about the individual user. Just because a relatively small(?) group of users choose to tout a particular feature or SM wants to try make Poser into more of a high end application doesn't mean anyone has to buy into it. New advances are almost always good and it's good that we have people who take advantage of them and try to help others understand their use. Take what you find useful. If you find yourself doing something just because it's the new revealed wisdom, that IMO is a mistake.

The tone in these threads gives one the impression that the majority of Poser users read the forums. Seriously, how many Poser artists actually read these forums? I've read posts by Poser users with posting numbers under 10 who claim they've been using Poser for years. I think we might be flattering ourselves to think that we're reaching a large part of the Poser community.

I have bought into the concept that Poser colour processing has issues which users (successfully of unsuccessfully) compensate for with adding more lights. That's just a fact. My issue is this (one that I've repeated a few times before): why is gamma-correction considered a pro feature? If a renderer processes linear colours correctly and sRGB colours incorrectly, why hasn't this been fixed within the software?

If an operating system has a major security breach which makes it unsafe to use, most OS makers (whether MS or Canonical or whoever) put a lot of resources into fixing this problem.

Poser processes colour for a living. Well, FireFly does. FireFly processes colour for the casual Poser user incorrectly, but for those who decide to invest in Poser Pro 2010 the corrected method is considered a "Pro Feature". Just look at this: it doesn't make sense. If something core to a programme doesn't work properly, it needs to be fixed for all users, not just those willing to pay the extra amount. That just smells bad, to me.

And on the basis of that I can see where people might see this whole GC thing as just a ploy to get Poser users to invest in the upgraded product. But it's just not right.

Here's the thing... for the rest of us unwashed Visigoths using Poser 5-6-7-8, we need to either GC all our materials or find some other solution so that colours are processed linearly (i.e., correctly). Fair enough... and so we invest hours and hours 1) learning how to work in the material room - which I'm quite fond of but MOST artists find about as appealing as going for a dip at the local water treatment plant 2) put a node-set together that deals with straight colour (diffuse)... then 3) put a node-set together that deals with colour (diffuse) and and specularity...

Sheesh, let's just look at that "3)" for a minute. I've been mucking around a fair bit now with linearising colours (and there was some discussion whether each colour should be individually linearised before blending or anything else that involves the use of colours), then processing with Diffuse() then correcting before handing over to PoserSurface(). But now, we've got a new wrinkle: specularity. There's a few more nodes available than what's inside the Specular_Colour channel. Blinn() is supposedly the most accurate, but for what? And then, you need to subtract that value from the diffuse value (Conservation of Energy) ... and suddenly, at this point, almost all Poser artists run screaming into the night.

But I'm still there. Even if things are getting a bit grey, now. Simply because One Node Set cannot hope to satisfy all material needs.

And the instruction set for where to go from here is sketchy, disjointed and fraught with "It Depends". I'm starving for more concise information. I'm pretty sure something is in the pipeline, but in the meantime, are my shaders bogus because I'm not "being physically accurate"?

To those that see this as a reason to chuck the baby out with the bath water, I say this: in nursing, a good recovery-room nurse lives in a constant state of wariness and uncertainty about a patient's condition. That is why my patients do well: because I am alert to the possibility that I might have missed something and constantly reassess. A lot of nurses on the ward cling to old practices because that is what they are comfortable with and whilst many of their patients do okay, others suffer problems because of lack of vigilence.
So, I am comfortable being in a state of uncertainty. I'm always ready to try something I've never done before. To me, this is what makes Poser such a rich programme (even with the issues): you can find solutions to whatever you want to create. No band-wagon here... nothing easy or click-a-button solution: you have to think, consider what is being offered and see science for what it is. You can chose to ignore it but the fact remains: this is what happens in colour processing. Take it or leave it. Doesn't mean I have an answer on where to go from there, but oh well.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks