EClark1894 posted at 3:05PM Tue, 06 August 2019 - #4358818

Penguinisto posted at 6:19PM Mon, 05 August 2019 - #4358803

So, okay... which "other programs", specifically?

Poser's only direct competition right now is pretty much DAZ Studio and iClone... at least for software that costs less than $500 or so, and doesn't require a zillion plugins.**

There's a couple of other suites that come in between $500 and $1000, and after that, you'd better check your credit limits.

Not saying Poser should stand pat, but seriously? Trying to reach about and cover every conceivable base will destroy the application's efficiency, usefulness, and UI. If Poser can do all that DAZ Studio can do and maybe a bit more, then it's ahead of the game.

** I'm sure there are probably others, but they're likely too obscure, too specific/platform-dependent, or don't carry the same feature set.

Actually, the way I see it is that Studio can do everything that Poser can do. Yes, it can probably do it better. It has learned from Poser's missteps. Now, admittedly, I don't really use Studio, so I only have a passing familiarity with it, but basically what does Studio really do that Poser can't? And what it can do, it took a little time to catch up to.

Sorry, but one more and I'm gone. They are quite close now in terms of "features", and DS has finally caught up with integrated dynamic cloth that the user(s) can create (although there has been a script available here for years that let users create cloth for Optitex, and of course the VWD plugin). DS has also, sort-of, almost caught up with dynamic strand based hair. Any user can create and style strand based hair, but dynamic hair can only be created by DAZ PA's. Also, I think Posers morph brush is much better than the dform tool in DS (though the integration of DS and Hexagon give a free/cheap option for quick corrective morphs). Posers response to AutoFit, the Fitting Room, isn't quite as seamless and easy to use, though it may be easier for power users to get more out of it (I say Posers response, because it came out after Autofit, it may have been on the design table first, but it looked more like a response to Autofit to the general public).

Posers response to Iray is Superfly, and IMHO it really doesn't seem to really compete (this is coming from someone who doesn't own P11, so please correct me if I'm way off here). From what I gather, it doesn't have all of the features of cycles (which is a great render engine), requires a bit of hoop jumping too use HDRI's, and from images I've seen (with the exception of a handful of artists) the output really doesn't compete with Iray. IMHO, so far, Superfly has been a huge miss-step by Posers former owners. Bottom line, a software like Poser will be initially judged by the quality of it's output. If there are only a handful of users that are producing "Oh WOW" output that is as good as, or better than the competition, your first thought is that it must be really difficult to get images that compete with the competition. Now this may be a 100% wrong impression, but from viewing the galleries, that is the impression I get. I would expect Superfly to easily produce images as good as, or better than the images I've created in DS. If this were true, I would expect to see many more awesome images posted in the galleries. True, there are users that will never be able to produce awesome images unless we get a make art button, but, the Poser galleries seem to have a disproportionate number of almost P4 quality images to awesome images. True, there are a lot of uninspiring images in the DS galleries, but there are also a lot of really amazing images. Objectively, someone making the decision to go with DS or Poser (not really knowing anything about either one), with pick which one?? So while they are more or less equivalent in terms of features, the one with a greater number of awesome images will probably attract more new users.

So now, Poser has (maybe) a new flagship figure, Renderosity needs to make that figure as attractive to new (and possible old) users as possible (awesome images made by average users), and make the use of that figure as painless as possible for the end user (and as easy as possibly for Vendors to create for).

OK, off the soapbox and back into the shadows.

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