Quote - I keep wondering why I even bother trying to learn new skills when there's no guarantee the content I want to use will be supported.

Support for characters has always been a crap shoot.

Not sure how learning new skills would be tied to a character or content. Programs support technology, characters can just use it.

Quote - I understand V4 is ancient tech.  From my perspective, on the surface, Genesis looks like a viable alternative, but everything I've read by more experienced users and content creators has said it's worse than V4.  Understanding why has been like trying to read Greek.

Last time I checked, all Poser/Daz characters are wireframes (or control cages). Yes there have been some new things added that can be applied to rigging, etc. But in reality not much has really changed under the hood so to speak. Genesis is not that old of a system, and has shown good progress. It can do a few things that V4 could never do. Such as the Genesis HD series, etc. If you see merit in Genesis, there must be for you. So feel free to substitute others realities for you own.

Quote - I also understand Dawn was supposed to be the ideal replacement for V4.

Seems to be part of the crap shoot doesn't it. I was under the impression that Dawn was going to be a character that worked in Studio and Poser with very similar results. I do not use Studio much, but Dawn appears to work more or less the same in both programs.

Quote - I feel stuck in the middle of a tug of war between my desire to use new tech, and a community who says the new tech sucks.  Meanwhile, vendors continue creating content for V4.

Load up an old character (V1, Posette, etc) and do a few renders, then judge for yourself is there are any imrovements or shortcomings in newer characters ot technology. Your opinion on it is more relavant to you, than anyone elses. It is your art, no someones that has a different opinion than you.

Vendors build for a few reasons, but top of the list is going to be what sells. Yes, what they are used to has a little to do with it. But in the end if it does not sell, that says a lot about the choice in what character to build for and the user base that actualy wants content for it. When V4 stuff stops selling, support will fall off. It seems to me that has not happened yet.

Quote - Is there any point in my continuing to use it for that purpose, or has the divide between the tech and community support widened too much to bother anymore?  I have much more enjoyable interests to spend my free time on that don't give me headaches.

I am not sure how anyone can answer that for you. If you have other interests that are far less stressful I would think you would already be doing that. I don't really see a divide between the users and the tech the same way as others might thou. If I need something for a render that I do not have I usually just make or correct it myself. Even thou Poser has had many things added to it over the years, it is still a text based system that doesn't really hide anything under the hood.

I still primarily use modified versions of V3. Yes I have Antonia, Cynthia, Kez, Koshini, Michelle, Miki 1-4, etc, etc, but even thou I have all of those I didn't really want to replace an entire V3 wardrobe for V4, then V5, then V6, etc.  When the next big character comes out (V7?) I doubt I will by a wardrobe for that one either. You don't  outgrow virtual clothes, and you can give them to other characters.

If you keep doing 3D art, chances are good that you will learn more and more about the internals of it. How far you go is entirely up to you. If you get to the point that you basically mastered a program, content support will be a moot point. You will have an entire wardrobe of clothes to use on any character you choose.

Do what you enjoy doing, and don't let anyone else tell you how much you enjoy it, or what to use.

---

Some things are easy to explain, other things are not........ <- Store ->   <-Freebies->