When I started to use Poser 5 around 2003 I did not know that there were other figures to use.  I found Poser in a store and drawn to the trapeze figures shown on the box front.  I have been using computers for years and have been interested in CG since Cyber Paint came out for the Atari ST computers.  I have also upgraded to each new version of Poser as it came out, however it has always been a physical copy since until recently my internet has been dialup or capped.  Around version 8 I clicked on the Content Tab and was taken to Content Paradise where I saw some items that said for V4.  No clue what a V4 was and it took a lot of looking to find out that it came from DAZ.

I picked up a copy of V4 since it was free and some of the items that made me look to see what a V4 was.  In my experience V4 has the same problems with poke-through and bending that all Poser figures had.  And since I mainly do animations it is nothing special and in fact in some ways harder to work with then the native Poser figures.

With the last versions of Poser a lot issues with animation have been reduced, not in how to make them but in how the figures move and bend.  But it seems it comes down to a lack of content?  We are now at point where there seems to be two choices in which direction to head.  On the one side you have a group that wants a single set of vertices that can be made into anything and have cloths made to fit that set of vertices.  On the other side you have a group that is trying to allow whatever cloths fit whatever figure.

For the first group programming wise it is somewhat simple to keep one set of polygons away from another set (cloths from figure).  This is especially true when it is the same set of vertices used over and over.  This is basically what Wardrobe Wizard does is looks at a set of polygons (vertices) calculates out where they are in relationship to the donor figure and where they need to be moved to fit the target figure.

For the second group it more a matter of going to the local mass market clothing store and picking up a shirt and pants in roughly the proper size.  As has been demonstrated by several people in the past (Vilters in particular) the basic shape of most Poser figures is the same they are just scaled differently.  Which is the way it is in real life and why we can go to the store and pick up a shirt off the rack and have it fit fairly well.

Again as Vilters has shown it is fairly easy to take an clothing items obj file and run it through the cloth room and setup room (or Fitting room) and make something that was made for one figure fit another.  This makes it so that any figure can wear something and give people the chance to make a figure that is not bound by a set of rules that need to be followed in order to ensure cloths fit.  This method makes it so the end user has to have a little bit of skill in order to make it happen.  Not really a difficult skill to learn either.

The first group wishes to make it as easy to use as possible, mostly because in the past it has been hard to get things to work.  The big issue for the first group is that in order to pose anything it has to be rigged and that has been a hard part in the past.  Also a clothing items has to have all morphs built in or it will break if the underlying figure is changed into something the cloths do not support. This is still the case as this product talks about http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/sickle-super-clip-fixer-genesis/93993/   It is stiil recommended that the cloths be made as close the the final figure as possible to minimize issues.

Now it comes down to what the vendors wish to do.  On the one hand they can try to remain a custom tailor making cloths fit a single figure and in some cases that is what is needed, especially with fantasy armor that covers maybe 3% of the skin, and that no one in real life would/could wear without being arrested.  Or they can build cloths based on standard shapes and sizes and sell them so that the users can put them on any figure they wish. 

The problem is no matter which route they take the improvements in software will make the custom tailor or even mass market redundant.  So the only hope they have is making brand new totally different fashions and not recycling items from the last generation to the new.  The users now have the tools to take a pair of jeans and t-shirt and fit it to the figure themselves.  So if all you make is t-shirts and jeans how long can that last?  The people who rely on content for a living are going to have to keep making small changes to the figures to make user have to have a reason to upgrade to the newest version of the t-shirt and jeans, or the users use the tools to make last year’s jeans fit this year’s model.

So the real question isn’t that there is lack of content it is more a matter of how is that content being packaged and how hard is it to get too?  Using Poser most of the files are easy to open and are readable by humans, exceptions being picture files.  Not sure about Studio files, but the fact you need DSON to be able to use them suggests that they are not as simple to use.  So if vendors package the files in the old format then most people will be able to use them.  If not then we need to start jumping trough hoops.

Poser 5, 6, 7, 8, Poser Pro 9 (2012), 10 (2014), 11, 12, 13