V4 renders pretty well and fast. I'm not crazy about supporting figures that have only a year and a half life cycle (at an inflated price to boot!). V7 looks nice but any additional character morphs and textures are very pricy. V6, well that was nice too, but life expectancy isn't going to be supported for too long. V5.... a ghost of years gone by. How often should we update our libraries with new content for a character that will last a year, to a year and a half? If I had the money I might support this model (and business model), I find it's like the argument to buy a new car every year. Better, faster, safer, more expensive, yet harder and more expensive to repair without going to dealership or specialized mechanics. 

V7 will last a year, maybe two. I do feel for the vendors who's work in supporting the yearly developed characters get tossed into "well if you didn't make money right away it's not our fault".  The Genesis template (which was pushed as being a huge deal) has been changed every year, or year and a half. Kind of breaks the whole sale point of it's versatility. So versatile we've redone it so you can buy it again at full price! I don't understand why (especially with a monthly subscription club) the other company doesn't give an upgrade discount for the base model. True the base G's have become free, but still.... full price for the signature morph each time (with minor pc club discount) is just silly.

*Stands on soapbox, looks around, not trolling, expressing what I've read and heard at many forum threads.

Not to mention the whole "doesn't work in competitor's software so eat it whiny babies" attitude that die hard supporters spout. I tire of the whole argument about the other company bending over backwards (apparently by giving away competing software with a value they couldn't get many people to really purchase when it was for sale) and using a 3rd party (2nd party?) python script to import which may or may not work but is certain to take more of your time (especially if it fails). Mind you the die hard supporters rewrite history as if one company never made money on the others technology either.....

*Steps down from soapbox

For most of my purposes working at this level (as a hobbyist), V4 is fine. Heck I even use and like TY2 (due to facial sculpt). I think if both companies would work together the two companies would both do much better business. As competitors one may eventually win but it's also possible the niche market will move on to another software program.

The dust settled, thinking "what a fine home, at least for now" not realizing that doom would soon be coming in the form of a vacuum cleaner.