AmbientShade posted at 7:47AM Tue, 20 October 2015 - #4234387

moriador posted at 4:42AM Tue, 20 October 2015 - #4234355

Now it's got to the point that customers like me aren't asking whether such and such a figure will continue to be supported, but whether the software itself has a future. [Edit: I think it does -- among those DIY'ers who like to kitbash, convert, and model their own stuff. But I don't have the same optimism about Poser content because, for obvious reasons, content was never strongly enough supported by the very people who like to boast that they make their own. It's the non-creators that get belittled so much in the community who mostly funded all that development you described. And now, I guess, too many of us are saying, "No."]

I was thinking pretty much the same thing while reading the first part of your post.

I think Poser itself will last for a while, among the die-hard fans that prefer it over all the other software available and are willing/able to customize the content they have to suit their needs, and those who learn how to make their own or are willing to pay someone what it costs to make it for them. But it does seem that the majority of content sales for it are dying out and there's a number of reasons for that. I do foresee a point where Poser is no longer being developed but still being used by the devotees. I do think there's still a fairly large market viability for environments though, and not very many people willing to to make them - maybe due to the time involved, or like with a lot of the female stuff, it's just easier to make a quick buck on another bikini that takes an hour or two to make than a house that takes weeks.

I've never been a big content buyer myself. I have bought some in the past when I came across things that I liked but most of that was in my earlier days of Posering. I've never had an interest in rendering pin-ups of scantily-clad females. The whole reason I started using Poser to begin with was because I wanted an easy way (lol) of creating visual representations of characters I was writing about, which were mostly male, and the more practical content, especially for males - just never existed or was usually of such low quality that I wasn't willing to spend money on it, or just didn't suit my needs. I have a personal philosophy that if I have to modify something I'm buying, beyond some retexturing or minor adjustments - then I might as well just build it myself from scratch. So I learned how to make things on my own. Over time that's grown into becoming a source of income for me by doing private commissions - the vast majority of which is for male characters because that's what I get the most requests for - you know, that content that never sells. ;)

These days if I buy anything it is either something I just don't have the patience or time to build myself, or - more commonly - a utility that makes my job of content creation easier or faster.

Agree. Even with environments, as chaecuna points out, Poser support is drying up. I expect that, over at Daz, the hassle of converting material shaders and making an additional set of promos, makes it not worth offering Poser support even for architectural props and such that might otherwise convert fairly easily. We could talk about why this is, but it would just turn into another "software war" thread.

I love Poser, for all the reasons Kobaltkween mentioned. But, me, I have enough content to do most anything I want. I can't imagine how a brand new user to Poser would see things, though.

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PoserPro 2014, PS CS5.5 Ext, Nikon D300. Win 8, i7-4770 @ 3.4 GHz, AMD Radeon 8570, 12 GB RAM.