jjroland,

As you can see the question of DS4 or Poser 9/2012 is a very polarizing one!

Just to thru in my 2 cents,

For the sake of honestly let me say, I'm a Poser user since version 3 or before (I forget really) and rarely used anyversion of DS4 but was an early adaptor to both programs when the became available. I TRIED to like DS4 and Genesis, even tried creating some content for it, but I have to admitt it beat me.

As as been said, DS has virtually no written documentation and only sporatic video documentation so I found it very hard to determine where files were being stored during and afterthe creation process.

Both programs will use older content. But both also offer newer weightmapping. If you are interested in this I will say that DAZ's automated conversions to weightmap/Genesis is a bit less complicated than poser's and the content creation tools are a bit "smoother" but somewhat more complicatedbased on the lack of serious documentation. Posers tools arentl as "smooth" but, while the documentation isn;t complete (when has it ever been?) ther is enough of it available to make a good jumping off point. Also Poser's tools feel more familiar, which may be why they seem easier to learn.

If you have been out of the game for 5 years I will say that BOTH programs are substantially different so be prepared for a steeplearning curve, again the lack of documentation would hurt DS in my opinion, but that is up to you.

As for Genesis... As a base figure he/she is ok, certainly prettier out of the box than the Poser internal figures, But you will basically be in the position of buying new character morphs and, as is always the case, clothing conversions (while a slight bit easier in DS) is an iffy proposition, sometimes it works good, other items just don;t look all that great and things like gloves, shoes and hair are pretty much right out as far as I've been able  tell.

Poser has it;s own weight mapped figures Ryan2 and Alyson2. Ugly out of the box and with some mesh problems you won;t find in a Daz figure, BUT Blackhearted has already made a good morph in Anastasia which has been proven to be as much a potential starting point for further work as the Genesis morph Victoria5. There is also a free version of V4 that has been converted to weightmapping and is available for free at several sites along with plug-ins and documentaion for convertin clothing to weigh mapping, and there is the original figure Antonia available in both "classic" and weightmapped versions. Look thru the forums for more info there if you are intereseted.

Finally let me close by saying, I hold no malice for DAZ or DAZ Studio, I may be biased however, so take what I say and filter it thru other's information. At this point in time I am concentrating on Poser, I know a lot of tricks that work in poser, I know very few in DS so I can make better use of it. I do intend to learn DS but I am currently holding out for a (possiblely mythical) set of documentationr it before trying to learn it from basically skratch.

At any rate, welcome back, and welcome to the madhouse!!