Text searching brings up too much by-catch. Please, here and in Daz3D etc, what cat models there are?, freestuff & with a price (naturalistic cats, and not cartoonish or aliens or manga or etc.)

For each model type, how well are they provided with:
Texture maps for various other fur patterns?
A kitten model that can take the same texture maps?

There is the Poser cat and there are some texture at http://www.lynescreations.com/lynesfree.htm, at least for the DAZ cat, check it out.

If the DAZ Millennium Cat is still available, be aware it loads in at a ridiculous scale, More like a big cat than yer average moggy. Not a bad model, though. ISTR some displacement maps to make the fur look more, erm, furry but I'm buggered if I can remember where to find them.

Anyhow, it's pretty good but you'll have to rescale it. Not that it's any great hardship, but it - to me, anyhow - showed a lack of care.

HiveWire has a nice cat, $30, and plenty of morphs (including a kitten morph available $12.95) and extra skin textures (usually about $6-7, and yes, the kitten share the same UV mapping as the adult cat, as does the 'Big Cat' morphs) HiveWire House Cat

The HiveWire housecat, kitten, and big cat are the best I've seen. They're better than the DAZ figures insofar as poseability. And they're constantly getting new texture options added.

Many of hivewire3d's items are available here at Renderosity https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/?uid=HiveWire3D

Bill

Ditto on the HIvewire cat. Even the skeleton is excellent. I've used it in my anatomy courseware.

Yeah the Hivewire cat is gorgeous as are ALL their animals and I have some. But until I can get the breed assortments and extra textures i am going to hold off on getting it. Depends on your intended use. If you are adding cat(s) as part of a whole bigger scene the DAZ MilCats are a good buy.m I still use the and work great. If closeup detail is going to be important get the Hivewire cat and stuff whatever is available (which may not be much yet) but it will look great as a CU.

The only fault I've noticed with the HW kitty is that it default loads with claws visible. In real life, cat's have their claws hidden unless they're using them :) That's how they keep them so nice and sharp :) But there IS a morph to hide claws :)

Not a particularly troublesome fault in my opinion. what really sucks is that it does not have enough follow-up stuff like breeds nd textures. At least DAZ released the MilCats and MilDogs as complete sets ready for prime time. YES....A BIG FAT YES!......Hivewire animals blow anything out there out of the water and I guess that takes longer to create and therefore release to the end user....uhhh!....US. But when it is FINALLY in our grubby, sweaty, greedy little, impatient Posing hands....as always....it will be worth the wait...if I live long enough to still appreciate it. Hey! I'm a Senior Citizen and how much time can I possibly have to wait already! ;)

I suspect one reason the Hivewire cat only has a rather limited range of breeds and colours so far is that they seem to only have a fairly small base of actual modellers and texturers. Given that the Hivewire team is currently working on a large and very varied range of animal models , all at the same times - dogs of all sorts, big cats, lions/tigers, house cats ( there's a WIP Siamese), horses, deer of all sorts, elephants, cattle and much much more, it's no wonder they get a bit behind with add-ons for already released models. But, the results are well worth waiting for :)

Amen to that freyfaxi!

Going to have to get the HW moggy at some point. My furry little bastar... erm, I mean, darlings are demanding it.

You won't be disappointed Sam.

Useful would be hairless cat and hairless kitten models, so that a user can add the fur in the hair room.

The "hair" is just texture maps. Useful as a base for dynamic hair. (Tiny made an add-on for the Milcat called Fluffy Cat. It uses dynamic hair over the DAZ texture maps. The product is still available at Hivewire.)

Or you could not use the texture maps, if you prefer.

The Hivewire cat poses very well, but I still prefer the old Milcat. The proportions of the head look more cat-like to me. The ears and forehead are too big on the Hivewire housecat, IMO.

I use fluffy cat, a nice set up. Hopefully someone will work out a set up for the HW cat for Poser (there is one for DAZ and the developer is working only for DAZ now as I have had this discussion with him). I'd like to see a set up for the Mil dog so we can have airedales, collies and other furry dogs that look more realistic. I also have the "wolf 2" from DAZ as far as fiber hair goes.

Now as for the original post. I believe there are 2 native cats in Poser. 1 that dates back to Poser 3 ... and another that came out around 5 or 6 ... it's good for atmosphere renders (in the background) but not for close up. I'm a bit of a crazy cat lady, so I pay attention. The HW in my opinion as well is by far the best cat model so far.

Useful would be hairless cat and hairless kitten models, so that a user can add the fur in the hair room.

In the cat models which I have, the mesh is at the level of the outside of the fur. Hairless cat (for example the image at this link ) look much thinner because of loss of the thickness of the fur. That would give room for the hair room to add fur with the fluffy look.

That seems like something that could be done with a breed morph. Maybe put in a request over at Hivewire?

If you need the various breeds and are in a hurry the DAZ cat bundle would be a good investment. I got t when first released many years ago and they are pretty good. Use them all the time and offer different textures and breed morphs and poses.Of course the HW cat is gorgeous and if doing closeup work optimum. But lacking in breed morphs and texture variations for reasons posed above.