Wow, 8.5 is out!  I almost thought Carrara had been neglected completely by DAZ a year ago. Carrara was much better than Poser or comparable programs when Carrara 7.0 or 8.0 came out. With Poser 9 / 2012, Poser took over, and nowadays, blender offers GPU based rendering of strand hair, and better SSS, for free.

 

So the upgrade price is irrelevant for me anyway (and yes, I also remember promises about a nominal upgrade free suggesting something in the range of 20..40$, when development of 8.5 was started).

I agree with posts above, that DAZ was a different company 3 years ago.

Best regards,

   Michael