drifterlee posted at 5:53AM Tue, 27 October 2015 - #4235241

I do not want Poser to die, and if everyone abandons V4 and other figures that work in Poser that is what will happen. I am worried about all the content being made of the latest batch of Daz-only characters. I don't even want to learn to use Daz. Studio. Long live Poser!!!!!!

And that is the issue that needs to be clubbed to death, buried in a tar pit, set ablaze, sown with salt, nuked from orbit til it glows then shot in the dark. -Then- we get serious. DAZ and its products are not Poser's life. It is, in fact, the other way around. There would be no such thing as DAZ Studios if not for Poser; it was a spin off from Zygote, they who make high priced, high quality medical meshes and contract work. They did Posette, the return was good, and the user base around P4 clamored for more. There are many reasons told as to why DAZ spun off from Zygote, including that Zygote didn't like the some of the backlash that the redheaded stepchild of CG was getting back then. Ancient history now.

What has happened in the past with the shedding of one group or another? Someone has come in and filled the void. There was the The Great Faery Purge (Eeew, its disguised kiddy pron!), and names like Thorne went bye bye. Other vendors and creators filled the void. When Menhdi went off and created Poser Pros, same thing happened; names went there, exclusively. New vendors filled the void. Anyone remember Dan Cortopassi? Dacort's stuff, while using P4 tech levels, was and is magnificent. No one has approached his mermaid tails to this day. No knees there; the tails flex like a fish's. Geometry switching on the tail itself. You turn off the figure's legs and conform the tail, and you have yourself a merperson. Add modern shaders to the old texture maps and you get an amazing look. Sixus has been as still makes Poser figures. Syyd is still creating her little black heart away over at RDNA. The problem isn't lack of content creators; its quite literally having a death grip on DAZ as some kind of holy provider. Or at least on its products as some holy grail. (and that sound you hear is arteries hardening as the forum fossils hears names from years agone, and realizes that Oh My God it -has- been that long.....)

I animate. Mesh is nothing but a resource to me. I work in Poser because I know it, it handles basic file formats that can be made to work in just about anything so swapping resources is much easier. I admittedly am doing more work in iClone now just because of the better animation controls; but its still a game engine based program with game engine trade offs. And the motions are ported right back into Poser where I can go straight to Vue 2015. I have no intention of not using the V4 resource; but I also use V3-2-1 and the Stephanies, Micheals, and all the other family members, Posette, all of Dacort's figures (Natalia 1 & 2, Natrixa, Mariko, the clothes, the tails, Echidna, etc), another 20 or so figure from the past and present, the creatures that Sixus 1 has done, Davo's dungeon packs (take a jackhammer dildo, put a weathered effect on it, put it half in a wall and hide the obviously phallic end in another protrusion, and you suddenly have a piece of hi tech engineering. It's called kit bashing, and the limits are your imagination), Dystopia, Stonemason's sets that I own, and I could go on and on for oh, 80 gigs at least.... :P

The creativity is out here, with us. Only a microscopic portion of any of the content we used was contracted. First and foremeost, nearly all of it is a labor of love, and it shows. I fully expect there to be an exodus of those who prefer the competition, or at least the competitions resources. And it will take time, but new users and content creators will come in, as its never really been about the $$$. It's been folks who wanted a challenge. People who wanted to get started in CG. Artists who tried their hand and liked it. Technicians who found a challenge (Metaform, anyone?). Even today, years after 'The Split' (would look much better with large gothic font, maybe a choral background), our little program is still the dirty secret of CG, as far too many pros and not pros use Poser because it plays well with other programs. Can take basic .obj's and turn them into dynamic cloth...and now softbody objects. And so on down the feature list. Our little swiss army knife isn't a machete.....but its a damned good swiss army knife.

And yeah, you qualify Robyn. Maybe not calcified all the way through, like those of us who remember PFO, but you are definitely kept in a drawer in a humidity controlled room. ;)