Quote - With no documentation for DS4, and an entirely different system, basic program, method of use, that makes DS the better choice?  I think not. The learning curve for DS is nearly as steep and long as that for Blender.  Poser at least has fairly decent documentation included, a huge improvement from the "manual" they sent with P5 which was more confusion than use.  Infinitely better than DS, which is, "Figure it out yourself". 

I'm not a fan of "V-things" or "M-things", I may use them when I'm forced to, but that's getting to be less and less.  DS4 has a free version, but V5 is far too expensive for me to look at, considering there isn't any way to use her beyond DS conveniently.  And DS does very little without the infusion of large amounts of money for the myriad plugins, that may not work with the next version.  Third party solutions to deficiency in the basic program is not a viable solution.  It's one that DAZ has no control over, and no guarantee it will continue.  Anastasia and Antonia are indications of what might come next, I'm just waiting to see if SM will pick up the ball and run with it.

But once again, we're not talking about program features... we're talking about characters. If you don't know enough about either program to render decently, but one has figures that I want to use over another, then I'll make the effort to learn the program that has what I want. You have no incentive to render if what you want to use isn't in it. Also, when you give examples, like there are no men mentioned. I don't render women... what are my options going forward? I have M4 and that pretty much works in everything. Ryan isn't viable, and Brad isn't finished.  If I don't have men to render in my program, then the manual really means nothing. And for DS4 advanced (which is around the same price as P9), doesn't need any plugins to render. I have the HSS (which has SSS in it) and uberlighting which is included as well.  If I want to buy plugins for Reality/Luxrender or Animate (which is a animation addon from what's included) I could get that and extends the program but aren't required. If i want to do landscapes, I can buy Infinito and add that in as well. But it's not a required purchase to do renders, so when people say I gotta buy addons I not sure what you mean.

And V5 isn't required either. If you want to use it, you have to buy it, like any other generation. And even if V5 was a standalone character for poser, you'd still have to buy it to use it, with any addons that came with it. I'm sure the same argument was made when V4 came out, where people said it's too expensive and I have enough investment in V3 so I don't need it.

Even with the females, there are issues to chose them over V4. Weightmapping, not a huge deal because the girl has to look good enough and look good when posed well enough to generate interest before we get to bending. Anastasia has a good start in that department, but she needs a complete morphing and expression replacement to supercede alyson's dials... and if SM was smart, they'd buy her out and do just that.... then contract out someone to fix Ryan in the same manner. V4 has that over the others, because you can use dials to make her into different looks and body types easily and there was a push behind her from a large company that invested in her. A online community that will easily be at each other's throats won't have that same effect to get things accomplished.