"At a higher level, I really don’t think many folks here get Poser is about the tools, not the figures. I don’t have to replace my figures to get new tech, I can simply add it to my figure of choice. As much as I prefer newer figures, legacy figures (as far back as V1/M1) still make up a large portion of what I use. I need more than early 20 something Caucasians, so limiting myself to 1 or 2 figures is a non-starter for me. Over 95% of characters made are early 20’s Caucasians. It went from annoying to creepy a long, long time ago."

Interesting concept, and one I think the Poser "old guard", or should I say the current body of **vocal **users, seems to subscribe to. But, IMHO, this is not the same philosophy many users, and certainly many ex users subscribe too, including me. Now, I've always had a love/hate relationship with Poser. because I've always seen the potential that it has never quite lived up to. I'm still very interested in Poser, would like to see it succeed, and keep trying to find a valid reason to upgrade to Poser 11, but unfortunately it hasn't happened yet (I'm a lurker on the Poser forums here and else where a lot, but seldom offer and opinions as I know they are not welcome since I use other software). But, unlike the above sentiment, I also want software that has a viable, top quality, modern figure to use, along with features in the software that make me say "wow, that is awesome and innovative, this fits my needs better than anything else on the market". Unfortunately, Poser 11 fell short of that mark, and felt like it was rushed to market before it was really ready (no, I'm not going to pay to be a beta tester for software that is playing catch up and doesn't seem to have a clear direction ... just my opinion).

From images and comments posted in the forums, Superfly looks to be less than super. I want to use a PBR render engine with an interactive view-port, because they work better for me. With only a handful of users posting awesome Superfly images (and most other images not even living up to to good Firefly renders), it doesn't seem as if it is very easy to get great results from (or most image posters don't have a clue how to use it, which is equally disconcerting). Now, as an owner of Octane Render, I could purchase the Poser plugin at a decent price, but I have to ask myself what would that give me that DS and Carrara don't. Yes, there are a few nice features in Poser, but I have Poser Pro 2014 (and every version back to Poser 2), so no real need to invest in something that I won't use very often (if ever) when I already have the needed tool set(s). Yes, DS is missing bullet physics and dynamic hair, but if I need those I have Carrara or PP2014 (but there is no simple great alternative to the morph brush).

Dawn is a great figure, and has decent support, but to be honest, in my opinion, for me, she wouldn't be a full replacement for the Genesis figures I have. Again, this is my own opinion, but the other figure options available simply don't do anything for me. Project E looked very promising, and Ero did a great job on her, but she has already lost so much traction I doubt she will be a viable alternative :( . So even though in the sentiment quoted above, there seems to be a belief that the figures don't matter, for me, as an ex Poser user, that simply isn't true.

IMHO, the release of Pauline with Poser 11 was a negative, not a positive. Again, many Poser users were hoping that SM finally got it, and were going to release a great base figure with P11. I know I was excited about Poser finally having a top quality base figure. That excitement turned to disappointment very quickly as I read about all the issues she had, and realized that she would never compete with Genesis figures (i.e. great content and support).

So the two things I was most hoping for with P11, professional PBR integration, and either Genesis support or an equivalent included figure from SM, were both disappointments. Thus, I have not upgraded, and money that would have gone to the upgrade, went else where. The other tech in Poser is important to me, but there was little new tech in P11 that I needed, and chose to focus more on DS (even at the expense of using Carrara less - because Poser certainly wouldn't be able to fill that void, so I needed to learn how to do things better in DS).

Having a well supported, modern tech and quality figure is important to me (and other users too, judging by the number of long time Poser users now posting DS images in the galleries). Knowing that there will be vendor support to provide top quality figures, textures, and make improvements to the base figure is important to me. Being able to easily make great images (at least great to me) with an interactive PBR interface is important to me. Iray isn't perfect, and is lacking many features that Cycles or Octane Render have, but since I already own the DS and Carrara plugins for Octane, I can duplicate virtually every feature in P11 with my existing tool set.

So back to the subject about Poser Development being dead, I certainly hope it isn't, and all sign's seem to indicate it is still in active development. I'm hoping the next version of Poser will be a must have, with some great new and amazing features, figures, and a truly super.Superfly!!

__________________________________________________________

My Rendo Gallery ........ My DAZ3D Gallery ........... My DA Gallery ......