ssgbryan posted at 12:49PM Tue, 28 November 2017 - #4318716

prixat posted at 1:46AM Mon, 27 November 2017 - [#4318711](#msg4318711

Isn't that the different workflow in the programs that MartinX is pointing out?

As you say, in Poser, the program has become flexible to be able to handle multiple characters, while DS has made the figure flexible to be able handle multiple characters.

Each approach has it advantages and disadvantages

Is the poser approach really offering you more figures, or are you forced to use more figures because Poser can't morph them too far from their original shapes?

More figures, More features. If the new tech is in the figure, it can't be backported to earlier figures. With Poser, I can take the Poser 2 Low Res figure, weight map it, subdivide it. In this example, the Poser2 LoRes Female in all of it's glory - stock on the left, updated on the right.

And why hasn't SM done this with the content they supply? I have wished for ages at they would stop distributing the old content with its P4 materials and low-res .jpg textures. Instead, those could all be put somewhere online as optional content with a clear disclaimer as to why they are not part of the default content. And instead, updated versions of each should be released with each new version of Poser. When SSS was added to the mat room, the figures from version 2 on should have had their materials updated. When weight-mapping debuted in Poser, the figures from version 2 on should have been weight-mapped before the content was packaged. When bullet physics debuted, those figures should have all been set up for soft-body simulation. If I were a new user I either might never look at the older figures and see how they might still be useful, or I might look at them and misjudge how important the figure's level of modernization is to the final image and be left with a bad first impression of the program. Maybe the dream figure some people have been wanting is some ancient figure that's already out there but was never properly brought up to date with Poser itself.

And yes, I know that just like converting clothing from one figure to another this is something all of could each do ourselves. But why should so many community person hours need be eaten up by all of having to do these things when one person could do it and make the results available to everyone else? Every item of clothing could be retro-fitted to every character that the program ships with. It's great that the tools are finally there for us to do things ourselves, but that doesn't do any favors for the sizable percentage of users who do just expect to be able to drop something in and see it working as desired.