Is there any way that I can load an old Poser-4-created PZ3 file into Poser 2010 and render it such that it will produce an exactly pixel-for-pixel identical final render image to what I'd get under Poser 4?

I remember that in Poser 5 you had the option to use Firefly or "Poser 4 render" engine to replicate previous/legacy renders, but that option seems to have disappeared somewhere along the way. Is there any way to access it under 2010, or at least use a combination of settings that will give an exact reproduction? The reason I need to do this is not because I like the P4 engine "better" but because I have old scenes that I need to be able to make very small changes to figure/pose-wise, but leave the rest of the frame completely unchanged, so that it matches up to other renders in the sequence without standing out. So even subtle lighting/shading type differences are unacceptable.

Does anyone know whether this can be accomplished under Poser Pro 2010? Thanks very much for any assistance...

And you certainly ask Mercedes Benz if they can use the motor engine from 1930 because it made so funny noises, aren't you?

How about using Poser 5, if you remember that? You don't have to learn anything new. Poser Pro 2010 was not made for vintage rendering.

how about rendering the whole film?

I think those files made that days won't take too long to render in today's much faster computer

Well, the reason I am even using Poser Pro 2010 in the first place is because Poser 4 did not run correctly under Windows 7 when I tried it. I presume Poser 5 would behave the same way so I haven't bothered attempting it. If either 4 or 5 worked properly rest assured I'd be using them, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

The P4 render no longer exist in the current iterations of Poser and PoserPro.  You will need to go back several versions to find that render engine.

Poser 6 and 7 both included the P4 renderer...

try installing Poser 4 or 5 in a folder other than the program files folder.  UAC in win 7 will screw you up and I have heard it actually moves files into another area.

It's really weird. He has another thread with the title 'Poser 4 on new laptop running Windows 7'.

Come on. He has a NEW laptop and Windows 7. But he wants to render with Poser 4... and as Markschum pointed out Windows 7 can be unnerving. Why doesn't he use Windows XP? Then his old Poser 4 will work fine.

But he really expects a 3D software from 1999 to be compatible with an OS from 2009.

You know for testing purposes, I installed all my Posers, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 in my Win 7 Ultimate pc's....all work just fine.

Of couse non are installed in Program files, all on the c drive.  But again, no problem running any of them.

I also tested lots of Adobe products, photoshop, pro etc and again, had no issues.  Had to manipulate a few, but not alot of time and all were working.  Why test, because where I work alot of departments depend on old software and can't or won't upgrade, but OS is upgraded for network purposes, so I test....all works great.

My old conmputer with XP broke completely, which is why I got a new laptop, which came pre-installed with Windows 7. So I don't really have much choice about the operating system. I've been using Poser 4 for the last ten years and am comfortable with it and like it.

SAMS3D, when I run P4 under Win 7, it "works" but I get one very show-stopping glitch. When I go to move the mouse over any semi-complex element (like even the face/head of the stock business man character" it takes a couple of seconds to draw the highlight instead of being instantaneous like it should be. Do you not experince this at all? I have no idea why it's happening but I can't solve it.

I tried installing P4 into drive D but outside the Program Files folderm with no chance. The program runs and works 98%, but it maes it very difficult to use when you can be delayed up to 30 seconds by just moving the mouse briefly past a high-vertice figure or element, and then having ot wait for it to draw and then undraw the highlight.

Rather than giving him shit for not using the current version of Poser, folks might restrict themselves to just trying to, you know, HELP HIM with his question, that'd be all nice and Christmasy wouldn't it?  We know, Poser 4 is really old, everyone gets that.

Try to find an old used computer with windows 95 installed

a junk deaker or garage sale perhaps

or put an ad on Craigslist

offer someone $20 and you pay for the shipping.

Cheers

You have to install it in the c drive, not any other drive.  It won't work on D, it has to be in the main root folder.  Do you have the updated Poser 4, I know there was an update after Poser 4 came out.

I just tried installing in the root of drive C, and same issue. Everything works fine except for the element highlighting slowdown. On your P4 under Win 7 you don't get that issue, correct? If you go to hover over the face/head of the stock business man character, it doesn't take 1-2 seconds to completely draw the highlight?

Can you post a screen shot to let me see what you are doing?  Also, what is the version number of your Poser 4, did you install the update that was given for Poser 4

Oh yes, one more thing, is your pc 32 bit Win 7 or 64 Bit Win 7

in case anybody asks, poser 4 won't run on current OS X (sno-lep).  didn't read all the above, but just turn off ray-tracing, no smoothing, no displacement, no IDL, no ray-traced lites, no true reflection, no refraction, use shadow-mapped lites and shado-cams, no advanced material room, et al., to get poser4-style render.  should speed things up quite a bit.

Hi, yes sorry I did install the 4.03 poser update for large memory etc, and also had that installed on my old desktop. My current new laptop is running Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit, whereas my old desktop was running Windows XP Professional 32 bit.

I will try to get a screenshot together but basically, I just open poser to a blank scene, then load in the business man character. (This issue happens with all others but this is the easiest way to demonstrate). Then, I move the mouse over many different body parts, just hovering without clicking, to produce the highlight outline of the potentially selectable body part/element. For most simple parts the highlight is instant, but with the head/face since it is slightly more complex, the highlight takes a couple of seconds to "draw" and you can see it actually tracing over the outline pixel by pixel before it completes. With other more complex figures that have more vertices, this highlight delay can take up to 30 seconds or more, but it's observable already in the business man's face on my system. And this never happened on my XP system.

I also have Poser 6 installed on my new laptop, and it runs fine with no highlighting issues etc. However, when I use the "Poser 4 render" option, it takes MUCH longer to render than does actual Poser 4. For example, an absolutely blank scene with no figures renders in under 10 seconds under Poser 4. But under P6 using the Poser-4-render option, it takes 30-40 seconds!! This is even with all optional choices disables under settings. I have no idea why this happens either.

I could be wrong but it sounds more to me like you may have a budget laptop with video memory that's shared with the OS. That could explain the delay. If that's the case, you need more memory or may have to allocate more of your existing memory to the video if your laptop allows that. Or it's a driver issue. Maybe it's not compatible with what was being used for Poser 4.

Edit: we cross posted. The rendering issue is a separate issue and I don't know why it would be much slower to render in Poser 4 style in Poser 6. Maybe there was a previous issue others had trying that pre- Windows 7.

Actually my new laptop has a full 1GB of dedicated non-shared video memory on an NVIDIA chipset, whereas my old desktop only had a 256MB graphics card and worked flawlessly. I made sure to get one with dedicated graphics memory specifically for 3D production etc.

I think it's fairly likely that the display engine in P4 cannot address more than 32mb or something like that.  I doubt it was written up to the standards of modern graphics drivers, it's probably going through a couple of layers of compatibility code.  Considering that it behaved well on your old machine/OS, that may be your problem - you may want to look into getting a copy of P7, while it isn't exactly brand new it probably hooks to modern graphic drivers a lot better.

try turning on the following in your Poser 4 compatibilty mode -

Disable Visual Themes.

Disable Desktop Composition.

Disable Display Scaling on High DPI Settings.

I have the feeling that one or more may be the fix you want. I can't test I don't have P4, but I have used those to get older software running on Windows7 64.

^^^

Holy crap!!! That seems to have done it!! For three days I've been trying to solve this and figure it out, and tried every idea and suggestion available without success, until now! Disabling those three options now allows P4 to run just as it did under my old system, with no highlighting problems of any kind!

THANK YOU!! And thank you very much to everyone who offered their kind assistance here in this thread and the other one. I truly appreciate it and am grateful for every suggestion and the time taken to help.

I'll update the other thread with this solution...

Glad there turned out to be a simple solution, I'm gonna remember those settings.

Kewl.

For those coming later with similar questions: the last version available with the Poser 4 render option was the original Poser Pro. The option was eliminated in Poser 8.

Thats true.

Poser 5-7 and poserpro (2008) do.

I call PoserPro (2008) Poser Pro 7 becuase it is more less like Poser 7.

Although you got it solved now, I just wanted to say that Poser 5 runs fine under Win7 64 bit.

I couldn't get P4 to work properly, but I suspect there's something missing with my install, too (since I had PoserPro and it only loads the basic P4)

Poser 5 runs flawlessly though (well as flawless as Poser 5 ever ran L)

I still have all Poser versions installed, on an external drive - so it doesn't have to be on C: or anything. Mine's on K and Poser 4 STARTED fine, I just couldn't see the figure on screen. And since I somehow has switched to the Poser 2/3 interface (I remember there was an easter egg that let you do that.. I just don't remember how to switch it back).. well I couldn't remember how to do what L

"I just don't remember how to switch it back"

PO2       = Old

PO3       = New

I would say uninstall W7 and get Window XP and your Poser 4 will run fine again and you can still use Poser Pro 2010 as well.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2818342

See linked thread, there's a few extras thing to tweak when using compatability mode.

cough Nruddock? same user.... and I gave him the advice he used in this thread which he copied to that thread....

(: LOL :)