I may be poking a fire by asking but...

I'm a DAZ Studio user who's going over to Poser for dynamic fabric mostly (I like making conforming clothes, but deep down I feel like dynamic clothes are the future) while helping a sibiling with his college project. While looking around, there seems like soo many diffrent generations of Poser are still available for sale.

Pro 2010 is the most current (right?) but I'm not sure if I need it. Poser 8 seems like a good option too, and relatively cost effectice (108 USD on Amazon). Unfortunately, every time I go looking for reviews, I seem to only find 'THIS SUxXXX!!' type reviews. Now granted, as wisdom tends to say that people tend to review things they're angry about more often then happy, but still, it's hard for a ley reader to decript it all.

So, 2 things then:

1. Is there some place that just flat out compares the various versions that are around? Like in terms of features and compatibility? Company line like "improved cloth room" isn't really helpful in research.

2. Are there any versions that are considered 'bad'? (after a decade working in graphic art, there are versions of some media software that are spoken of in hushed tongues around my office)

I use DAZ Studio 3, which will probably remain my primary tool for poser-like artwork if only out of comfort, but if there's compatibility issues between my current runtime and any versions of Poser, I'd like to know in case I end up using it instead even after this project concludes.

Thanks for any wisdom you can impart on me.

~Soo

Smith Micro gives some comparisons of features. A lot will depend if you are running a 64 bit processor and operating system or not, if you are then Pro2010 might be better but 8 would still be worth looking at because it supposedly manages memory better that Poser 7 (which is what I have)

THere were a bunch of forum posts about the versions.

IMO the two big differences between poser 7, 8, and PP2010 for most people are that:

1.  PP2010 has IDL and built in GC. 

2.  P8 has IDL but no GC.

3.  Poser 7 has neither but is a lot cheaper now.

For me, and someone can correct me on this if I'm wrong, is that IDL still has a few bugs in it (particularly when using ambient objects, doesn't work with atmosphere, etc) and its pretty slow for the current versions.  It also hates transmapped things (in terms of rendering times).  That said it can produce better lighting in a scene.

GC is great but you'd probably need VSS to work with mutliple materials as most mats (like for characters) are designed with a pre-GC renderer in mind. So it has good results but requires more work.

There are some things you can do to give P7 and P8 GC, but that requires you learning to use the mat room to play with mats.  Unless there's a DS add-on, the poser mat room gives you  more options, but you also have to have more know-how for using those options.

A final thing to consider is interface.  Poser has a different interface than DS and that may or may not take some time getting used to.  I like poser's more having started in 7, but there are some people who prefer how DS looks.

Actually, that's very helpful. I don't need to consider IDL because I'm just using this to make content for someone else to use (he uses Pro 2010). Honestly if DAZ Studio 3 had a cloth room, I'd be using that instead. The morph creation seems nice too over manually tweaking in Blender.

If you're just needing to test dynamic clothing, get Poser 6 for $30.

If you're more interested in just making content, go for Poser 7. Though if you plan to be using Poser for a while, I'd probably get at least Poser 8.

DON'T go for Poser Debut, as it has no grouping tool, hierarchy editor, advanced material room, dynamic cloth room, or most importantly, the setup room.

Also, if you intend to make conforming clothing, or hybrid conforming/dynamic clothing for the Poser 8 figures, know that P8 introduced a slightly tweaked rigging system (along with the older Poser rigging system) that is used for those figures.

The best things about Poser 7 over other versions, even later ones, is that with a bit of work you can achieve pretty much everything as with later versions. You can put scenes together and they will load no problem in PP2010. And you can get Poser 7 quite cheaply. It is a workhorse... very stable, like PP2010.

I still find myself going back to it for things I need to do...

If/when you go down the Poser route, two actions to make the experience as hassle free as possible:

1 Make sure you get the most up to date Service Release as some versions are less stable out of the box than others.

2 If you're using Windows then DON'T install in C:program files to avoid clashes with UAC

Quote - 2 If you're using Windows then DON'T install in C:program files to avoid clashes with UAC

Only relevant if you have Vista or Windows 7.

I like poser pro 2010 mainly for the render to queue option.

You can render 10 things and still work on your scene whilst they are rendering.

Love esther

I wish for the next version there would be a Poser Semi-Pro; I like the features of Poser Pro, but I don't need the included plugins for the other apps...

Quote - I wish for the next version there would be a Poser Semi-Pro; I like the features of Poser Pro, but I don't need the included plugins for the other apps...

To further that thought: Semi-Pro with matured IDL and GC, which are not quite au point at the moment.

Just a little update on this, I ended up getting Poser 8. Thank you all so much for all the help. I owe a lot of favors ^^. I managed to weasel a render out of it after I finished. I did this scene with DAZ studio a while back, I think it looks much nicer now.