Oh well...

It gets boring after a while....

Poser users are hobbyists. They hardly ever have pro tools.

My first "ribcage" was made with several dozend magnets, right in Poser 4.

While I do use ZBrush, I still use Version 3.0, as the latest versions with their gazillions of buttons and brushes and shortcuts and menus are too much for my 48 years old brain.

Also don't have a tablet, just use the mouse for everything.

That's why I use Wings3D as my modeller. Everything can be accessed with a right mouse click. No shortcuts to memorize.

No "speed enhancements" to aid "productivity in a professional pipeline".

You select a vertex and you move that vertex. And you cut an edge if you need a new vertex.

Simple and easy.

That's how I want my Poser figures to work: Simple and easy.

Working on a high res mesh is simple and easy. Use a magnet, use the MorphBrush, or even use a simple modeller like Wings.

Working on a SubD mesh isn't easy. Not for a Poser hobbyist.

You NEED ZBrush. And you NEED the latest version. And you NEED to know how to use it.

Another example:

The introduction of split UV-maps almost dried out texture freebies.

During the Posette/V2 split mapping and V3 pelt-mapping days, we had gazillions of home-made textures. Not all excellent, but a lot of variety because everybody could participate as long as he/she could open Gimp.

From V4 on you NEED a 3D painting tool to paint across seams because doing it in Photoshop or Gimp isn't possible any more.

Now we only have "professional" textures and perhaps the occasional merchant resource freebie. In fact even most merchants use resources these days, because making a good map for V4 from scratch has simply gotten too hard for the average hobbyist.

And let's face it, 99% of the Poser merchants still are just "advanced hobbyists" and not "all-out CGI industry professionals".

That's why I'm 100% opposed to any attempt to introduce arbitrary "professional standards" into Poser.

Especially if these "standards" have zero value in everyday use.

Poser is no game engine and your average hobbyist or advanced hobbyist or semi-pro hobbyist users positively do not care about professional pipelines or what "The Industry" does.

Progress is great. But only if it is actually useful for everybody and not just a selected few.

I don't care if a professional merchant saves a few minutes making clothes or rigging them if he can do it on a 20.000 polygon mesh instead of a 50.000 polygon mesh.

The need of the average users is much more important than that.

Content quality has drastically dropped with the introduction of V4, because everything is quick, quick, quick now.

And forcing SubD as a new standard will make things even more "quick, quick, quick."

The more simple, more straightforward solution is always better, because it is more acessible to more people.

And that's what Poser is about.

Giving 3D to as much people as possible.

 

To sum it up:

1. Hardly anyone can create a proper displacement map.

2. There is neither a RAM nor a render speed benefit.

3. Displacement maps are much more shape specific than morphs

4. They can't be manipulated directly in Poser.

5. Low res "cage" meshes can't be "cross flow" morphed.

6. Subdivided polygons can't be manipulated, neither in Poser nor ZBrush

7. Displacement maps are much harder to animate to simulate muscle          movement than a simple morph is.

Guess I forgot a few but that should do.

Muscle STRUCTURE and VEINS ? WRINKLES in a face and MINOR DETAIL ?

I'm all for displacement maps there.

SubD to smooth props that don't have much detail like transmapped hair ?

Or to give "extra smoothness" for extreme close-ups ?

Great tool to have.

But the MAJOR SHAPES of the human body (And of clothing and other realistic props) has to be build out of actual polygons.

Not virtual ones and not displacement map fakery.

I want the anorexic teen girl as well as the Hulk clone as well as the morbidly obese housewive as well as the average guy with a flick of a dial.

And I want them as REALISTIC as possible.

And that I can only do with lots of polygons.