You can almost call Poser's new Fitting Room a game changer. I say almost because I think the fitting room is not unlike Studio's Auto-fit feature, except it can work for any figure and not just Genesis.

So it begs the question, what impact will the Fitting Room have on Poser vendors and their sales, if any?

I would think it would make a big impact.  Folks like me who can't rig to save their lives will find it extremely helpful & I'm sure it improves workflow for experienced users as well. 

I drool when I look at the feature description & all the new changes to the others. I can't wait to upgrade, but right now is a bad time for me.  Hopefully for Christmas it'll go on sale again.

Quote - You can almost call Poser's new Fitting Room a game changer. I say almost because I think the fitting room is not unlike Studio's Auto-fit feature, except it can work for any figure and not just Genesis.

So it begs the question, what impact will the Fitting Room have on Poser vendors and their sales, if any?

Not much to be honest. And here is why. Most existing vendors have more powerful tools to make clothing fit than the fitting room. If they wanted to support other figures they would have done so by now. Fitting room might give users more power, but won't really impact vendors and the figures they choose to support. So just because fitting room is here, doesn't mean a popular V4 vendor is going to start supporting multiple other figures by using it. They can already make re-fits with the tools they use to make the content with, but choose not to because there is no real money in it. So game changing to vendors? Not really. If it was game changing we would have seen some converted items of their products in store by now, and the fact that there isn't, is an indication that most vendors aren't really interested with re-fitting for niche figures just for a few extra sales, or the fitting room isn't really a quick solution. So is it a game changer? To users maybe, to vendors, not so much. I'm sure one or two converted items will appear eventually, but don't expect it to become a trend on a regular basis or even converted with fitting room. Fitting room was created so users can do their own conversions, why would a vendor feel they need to do it? Most users with fitting room experience will have the attitude of " Why buy that converted item when I can do it myself?." Or at least attempt to. Which means even less sales for converted items.

I don't think it'll stop ppl from buying clothes. Will just make it possible for ppl to use clothes they already have on ANY figure ;).

Laurie

Yes, I agree, but with that comment, why would vendors bother to do conversions when users can? That is my point:)

I think in order to understand whether a feature is valuable to a Vendor, you really have to understand how a vendor thinks and works.

First, vendors generally support what they like. If they like a figure, they are usually inspired to make things for it.

Next, vendors will do only the amount of work to get their product to market. If a tool or a workflow enhancement comes along to speed the time to get to market, they may add enhancements to that product, but they rarely will restart the work for another figure unless they know for certain it will sell well.

Finally, depending on whether they're full or part-time vendors, they will generally work on figures that they know they will get a return on their investment. Generally they don't convert something because it's there, unless they want to and don't care about the return.

With that said, most vendors will make a product for a figure and about 80% the way through, they'll get tired of looking at it after fitting, jcms, materials and testing and realize that they still have to do promos. So when it's finally done, they're done.

And generally that's it for that outfit. They take a little break and it's on to the next product. I hear so many vendors say after they finish "I'm glad I'm finshed with that." And they mean it.

So if that's generally the process for vendors, how do you think the Fitting Room will benefit them?

I don't think it does. I've yet to see many vendors say anything about the fitting room, and that's because they already have their processes in place for their figures of choice. So far it's the customers that are buzzing about it. Really the key for any figure's survival is to make sure those figures are compelling enough (giving vendors everything they're used to with their current figure of choice) so that vendors will look directly at that figure and create content specifically for it. Fitting clothes to any figure after the fact is really a customer function not a vendor one and I think that's who is really going to use it.

I don't know if vendors will provide refits for their stuff, but they may be willing to make new stuff for a different figure. Vendors currently make clothes for V4 because that's what sells. Buyers buy for V4 because that's what's available. (kind of a vicious circle) But just as there are buyers who would rather work with other figures, I'm sure there are vendors who would too, but currently don't because of the potential ding in sales. But that now could change. Vendors might say I'd rather work with Anastatia and do so and not have it hurt their sales much because now people who use Vicky can still get the stuff and people who don't can get it. This won't happen over night. First, there are still too many who don't have the fitting room yet. Second, there are stubborn vendors who wouldn't change from Vicky if they were paid to. (not that any vendor reading this falls under that catagory) But perhaps as new vendors and new buyers come along, people who start with the fitting room and so don't know the constraints of the older poser versions may change things.

Quote - I don't know if vendors will provide refits for their stuff, but they may be willing to make new stuff for a different figure. Vendors currently make clothes for V4 because that's what sells. Buyers buy for V4 because that's what's available. (kind of a vicious circle) But just as there are buyers who would rather work with other figures, I'm sure there are vendors who would too, but currently don't because of the potential ding in sales. But that now could change. Vendors might say I'd rather work with Anastatia and do so and not have it hurt their sales much because now people who use Vicky can still get the stuff and people who don't can get it. This won't happen over night. First, there are still too many who don't have the fitting room yet. Second, there are stubborn vendors who wouldn't change from Vicky if they were paid to. (not that any vendor reading this falls under that catagory) But perhaps as new vendors and new buyers come along, people who start with the fitting room and so don't know the constraints of the older poser versions may change things.

I haven't tried the fitting room. Some say it's really easy to use and some say it's going to take them a while to get a handle on it. It would seem that the average vendor is probably a bit more adept at working with Poser and related utilities. If they could put the fitting room into their workflow where it's not very time consuming to refit a new item they could add a lot of value to their items and positively affect their bottom line.

Right now I see clothing built to fit V4, G4, and A4, or hair with fits for numerous figures. Those items are more appealing to me as a consumer. The vendor that puts out clothing items that fit V4, Anastasia, and Miki 4, for instance, would be selling a mighty valuable product. All those "pose, clothe and render" folks who don't have PP 2014 or can't be bothered to learn the fitting room would probably thank such a vendor from the bottom of their wallets.

I dont se where the OP says that vendors should be using the fitting room, but if I as a customer need for example a WW2 uniform for M4 and see one in the marketplace at $13:95 I may as well use the old one for M2 that I already own an now can convert in the fitting room.

In that way I think it can have an impact on the vendors sale figures.

I JUST installed PP2014 a day ago (ran into a major computer crash right after I'd plopped out the money for PP2014.. figures >_<) so I havent' had time to look at the Fitting Room yet.

But I hope it can do what I want it to do. I'm one of the weird people that likes to use other figures than V4 (even male figures O.o) ) and there just isn't much clothing for the Poser native figures.

Now, if I can manage to fit, say M4 clothes to Simon... it would make ME more likely to do other add-ons for Simon. Because all of a sudden, the native Poser figures are actually useable.

So I hope this will, in time, mean more textures, hair, morphs ect for the native Poser people. They deserve it! They're actually not all that bad (although I must say Rex is .. disappointing.. Simon is still my favourite Poser guy..)

A INCREASE in clothing quality.

Vendors will have to check that what they sell is fitting room compatible.

• Polygonflow
• Texturing
  -  Welding

All will have to be checked in the fitting room.

The single biggest advantage will be a increase in clothing quality.

As I showed some time ago; And I include one of the screengrabs here,

ALL figures, from Posette up to and including ALL DAZ figures and the latest Rex and Roxie are basically the SAME shape.

The vendor "can" build generic clothing now.

He/she does not "have to", but he/she "can".

Quote - The single biggest impact of the new fitting room is.

A INCREASE in clothing quality.

Vendors will have to check that what they sell is fitting room compatible.

• Polygonflow
• Texturing
  -  Welding

 

Really?

And how will we know if an article is "Fitting Room Compatible"?

So far, every single commercial article of clothing that I have tried has fallen apart...

"Fiiting room compatible" should be mentioned in the description as an extra selling point.

In short : It means that the clothing is properly welded.

Unwelded clothing will fall apart.

But the procedure to correct this "falling apart" of older unwelded clothing is in the PP2014 manual.

Quote -
So far, every single commercial article of clothing that I have tried has fallen apart...

Fallen apart? That sounds like the Cloth Room to me. Things tend to fall apart there if they arent'welded properly (and not all conforming clothes are, as they deon't HAVE to be)

I've only tried the Fitting Room very briefly, I used a pair of Poser 5 pants and fitted them onto M4. With ..erhm.. well.. I think I did something wrong because I couldnt' see any difference tbh. but I'm sure it did SOMETHING. I then used the new and wonderfully improved morphing tool (GAWD I'M IN OVE WITH THAT ALREADY!) to fix the pokethrus that were still very visible. And now Mike has a new pair of cargo pants :)

But I'm stil not sure what the Fitting Room is meant to do exactly.. As I said, I coudn't see any difference to the pants before and after. I guess I should gasp read the manual... Is there a manual somewhere?

A 913 page manual is automatically installed on your HD. (48MB pdf file)
It is in the folder where you installed Poser. (the main app executable)

There is a chapter on the fitting room, and the procedure is in the beginning of the chapter. (second page if my memory is OK.)

Quote -
Fallen apart? That sounds like the Cloth Room to me. 

Well, they didn't so much fall apart to be honest (and I know exactly what you mean, used to get that in the cloth room all the time), it's more like that during an animation, my conformed and refitted jackets and shirts would have elbows (and sometimes cuffs) that flew off somewhere else, although the mesh didn't break. So probably some kind of grouping error...

To be fair, the trousers (not a commercial article) were refitted just fine (after a bit of tweaking).

For older conforming clothing, welding was not required as the clothing only had to work on the figure it was designed for.

Welding was recommended, but not required.

For full fitting room and multiple figure compatibility, complete and correct welding HAS become a requirement.

Hence the increase in clothing quality that will automatically follow with good grouping and welding.

Quote - "Fiiting room compatible" should be mentioned in the description as an extra selling point.

I agree entirely!

Now let's wait and see if this ever actually happens...

(Not digging you out mate, I'm on your side regarding this 100%, and I saw this all coming when you said that now we're going to see which clothing meshes were well made, another call of yours that I agree with entirely.

In fact, you can often spot a dodgy mesh when importing into another app. They often behave very similarly to what they do now in the fitting room.)

• quote

I saw this all coming when you said that now we're going to see which clothing meshes were well made, another call of yours that I agree with entirely

unquote

I almost got shot over that remark.
LOL