I am thinking of getting Poser 8. A long, long time ago I used to have Poser 4 and I know things have moved on from there :)

My question is this: I have bought a new emachines computer, Windows 7 64bit. It is perfectly clean at the moment, not a a single thing on it. if I buy Poser 8 do I need other things to go with it? can I use it exactly as it comes? What would you recommend that I "add" to it (figures etc)? What are the "must haves" to get the best out of it? what additional software do I need (photo editing etc).

Thanks you for taking to time to read, and hopefully, reply.

How much memory do you have?

For photo editing, you can use the free "GIMP".

So far as figures go, do you have the Millennium base figures? M4, V4, Aiko4?  Those are the most often used with lots of content both commercial and free.  V3 and M3 and Aiko 3 are the previous generation of Millennium figures. Lots of content for them too.

I don't know how much Poser 4 differs from Poser 8, other than you probably have way more options for lighting and the material room.

Hi Acadia - I have 4 GB of memory and a 350GB hard drive - I also have 2 X 500GB external hard drives.

I do have V3, and M3, but suppose a trip to Daz is going to be called for.

I read that poser (6?) alowed external runtimes - does Poer 8 allow that? Presumably I can install Poser 8 onto the machines hard drive and have everything else external?

Poser 5 actually allowed external runtimes , so yes, you can leave the P8 runtime and run from another one.

V3 and M3 are still good figures so I would stay with them initially.

Daz now has Daz Studio which is free. You could start with that. There are differences in how materials are defined , and Studio doesnt have dynamic cloth and hair that are Poser compatible. I suppose its a matter of how much you want to afford to start.

If you are on a tight budget, Daz Studio is a good way to go. You can pick up Poser 7 for $40.00 here if you'd like to play with the material room and other exciting things not offered by DS. If you go with Poser 7, you can then upgrade to Poser 8 for $100... upgrading is currently on special over at Smith Micro.

Poser8 comes with loads of extra content so you might have a bit of time to save up before you have to start thinking about buying extras.

You know, Luce... haven't even looked at that content... I've got gigs of stuff I need to organise, and then decide whether I want to install... embarrassment of riches.

I know the feeling well, I have a terabyte drive bursting at the seams with poser & bryce content I've bought or grabbed from freestuff going back to the days of Poser4, more stuff than I could easily use in my lifetime. Ain't this little hobby great? :biggrin:

I have Poser 8 but still use Poser 7 because I just hate the new layout in 8...
But my main use for it now is just setting scenes up, I actually do my lighting and rendering in Vue 8.5 Infinite.
As the others have said though, it all depends on how serious you are at all this 3D stuff and just how much you have to spend, it can become a very expensive hobby if you let it..

I certainly agree.  There is over one Gigabyte of really good stuff.  That includes the legacy Judy, Jessie, Sydney and male counter parts along with their dynamic and conforming clothing, Koz hair, dynamic hair and four different Alyson figures (Alyson, Alisha, Alysi, Izumi, and Maria and their respective male counterpart all have low and high res meshes and their own texture maps-interchangeable,  home interiors, wall, ceiling, and floor parts, furniture etc.  It also includes a bunch of critters, horse, dogs, cats, etc.  weapons, buildings, taverns etc.  Neat space stuff like Stonemason's space station-Jan 

You sure about that Plutom? I don't remember ever seeing that space station in my runtime.

Thanks all for the replies.  I will do a bit more reading and make a choice :)

If you can upgrade from P4-- do it. But be prepared, the material room is completely different and about 10,000 percent more complicated then P4's.

Quote - You sure about that Plutom? I don't remember ever seeing that space station in my runtime.

You know, I thought about that after I posted the image and check one of my  3DWorld Magazine CDs, it was there--darn senior moment.  Jan

Quote - You know, I thought about that after I posted the image and check one of my  3DWorld Magazine CDs, it was there--darn senior moment.  Jan

Ah Senior moments! I seem to be having them a lot lately myself.

Quote - If you can upgrade from P4-- do it. But be prepared, the material room is completely different and about 10,000 percent more complicated then P4's.

The manual is essential for when dealing with the material room, plus it's a goods idea to search for bagginsbill threads on here as well.