Just a couple, since I'm still seeking to buy the thing, but before I do, I'd love to know if a couple of things are true...

1. changing the y-scale (one-axis scaling) on a given figure: does this still break characters (or screw up their mesh)? I often use it to turn the massively tall and scrawny V4 into a real female figure. For reasons and references, see this link. 

2. How is the UI? Specifically, is it laptop-friendly (where monitor real estate is scarce)? Is it cutomizable, to where you can put all the tabs onto one pane (a'la DAZ Studio)?

Thx in advance.

If expandable menus for like V4 body bits makes the UI more appealing when you're cramped for space, this will certainly help. Also, the right-click menus have more to them, which is nice. Overall, however, I don't see a lot of difference from 2010... widgets still take the same amount of space, etc.

As RobynsVeil said - but if you don't have much space you can use the UI dots for switching between several UI layouts fast. I use them a lot. So you can have only those things on the screen which you really need and change to other things with a mouse click.

The scaling will be dependent on how the figure creator set up the joint parameters not the version of Poser.

That means if the figure's scaling is rigged well (Like Apollo and some early Poser figures), it will properly scale.

If it isn't (Like V4, M4, K4), it won't.

Yes, most (almost all, actually) DAZ/Poser meshes have ridiculously unrealistic proportions. But correcting this by single axis scaling is not the best way of dealing with it.

Scaling will always mess up the mesh. For example scaling a leg along the y-axis won't just lenghten/shorten the leg, it'll also distort the kneecap. Same with any other "bony" body detail.

Granted, it's not that obvious with your average big boobed soft bodied sexy sword wielding chick character, but once you try to create bodyshapes that demand more detail, scaling and dial spin morphing just won't do.

If you really want a DAZ/Poser character that looks like a real human, I strongly suggest you first find a proper reference you like. Thick, thin, pretty, ugly, doesn't matter. As long as you stick with your reference, the result will be realistic.

There really is no way to just eyeball or "create by commitee" a realistic character.

Import the picture into Poser and scale (This time it's permissible) the character until it matches the proportions of your reference.

You can also do some rough bodymorphing if your mesh has matching morphs.

Then export to a modeller/sculpting app like  ZBrush and fix the distortions the scaling has caused. Also finalize/detail the bodymorph.

Back in Poser, export the morphed mesh and re-import to "bake" the new shape in.

Add the original rig and then modify the joints so they match the new shape.

Finally create new JCM's where needed. (Using MorphLoader and the Dependency Editor, a pair of JCM's can be done in 10 to 15min with some practice) If you changed the bodyshape a lot, chances are the old JCM's won't work properly anymore anyway.

Enyoy your new realistic figure.

Yes, clothes will have to be manually custom tailored, but then again, this allows you to create perfectly fitting clothes with a minimum of distortion.

BTW, despite Genesis' flexibility, DS4Pro supports a similar technique by letting you "snap" the joint centers into a new fixed position in a previously scaled figure.

This way you can basically create a new "unscaled" rig by "freezing" the "scaled" one, which makes it much easier to fine tune the rigging, fix joint distortions and to create custom JCMs.

I haven't tried it, though, so I can't say if editing/fixing this automated "descaling" is actually faster than editing a rig manually from the get go like I do with my figures in Poser.

Thinking of it, if you completely convert a figure to weightmaps in PP-2012, you could then erc-slave the positions of the joint centers to the scaling dials, thus creating "auto-matching" scaling like Genesis has.

You'd still face the same mesh distortions all types of scaling creates, but again using the Dependency Editor and Morphloader, creating fixing JCM's that reduce these destortions shouldn't be too hard.

Re. the UI: Awesome tip on the UI dots. I'd totally forgotten about the things.

Re. the scaling. Urgh. Without raising any hackles or naming names, I was hoping that P9 would do what I can do right now in a similar app. There, I can scale the crap out of a figure (within reason), and the clothing usually follows automatically. Problem is, in order to get a decent IBL/AOL render, I have to export from it to LuxRender, which while an awesome renderer, takes forever. 

The one thing I was hoping P9 would do (and was hinted at in the previous scaling thread) was to give the best of both worlds WRT the V4 figure - a fast decent IBL renderer combined with the scaling and modifcation abilities. 

Now, about the scaling - the morph brush can fix a lot if you get used to it. IMHO there is no longer an absolute need to export something to ZBrush for small fixes.

About JCM - well, Poser Pro 2012 won't need them in the long run, I expect weightmaps to handle that problems. But that is kind of a long term solution since most figures have bending zones at the moment. But if you still need a JCM, you don't need to leave Poser to do it, dependencies can be done within Poser since P8.

but, rerigging loses all the visemes and expressions.

Changing the rig to weight maps won't lose the morphs, IMHO. Creating morphs with the morph brush and linking them to other parameters won't lose them either.