I stand behind every word I ever wrote about any mediocre Poser (and DAZ!) figure in the past.

And I think the state the marketplace is in vindicates me completely.

I'm not a G8 "fan". NOT AT ALL. She just happen to s*ck less than the alternatives.

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None of the "Vicky killers" I've seen in the past were any good.

Or at least good enough to fill the void that the loss of Vicky created.

Unless you actually think that it was my(?) critizism that prevented any of those figures from becoming a success.

I'm flatterened that you think I'm THAT powerful/influental/whatever, but I think it were rather the aesthetical / technical aspects of those figures that prevented their widespread acceptance by the community.

No, I won't help Bondware out of this mess.

(At least not for free. HeHe)

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But I happily give you my formula for a "perfect" Poser figure:

1. Scan a beautiful woman. (And a man, and some kids, and whatever else you want to add to the Poser family)

2. Scan her in various poses, too.

3. Re-topo that first scan. Forget about that stupid "All quads, only" paradigma and "HI-Res" morphs and use edgelooping instead to bring out the muscular and bone detail.

Just like Michael 1/2 did, but double the polygon count and the edgelooping so there is even more detail available.

The figure should be able to go from "totally ripped" to "Zombie" by just turning a dial.

4. Keep the UV mapping simple, so that everyone can modify textures who has a simple 2D paint software like Gimp.

5. Keep the rigging simple. I prefer additional buttock actors, but they are not a must have. No face chip rigging or "ghost bones" or whatever clever trick that has been used in the past. All those gimmicks will make modifications harder and the cr2 more suspectible to break in the worst moment.

The simplicity of the 2nd and 3rd Gen DAZ figures is pretty much my ideal, but I prefer "integrated" genital actors.

So actually Don & Judy are even better.

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Use bulge maps before you even think of adding a JCM.  It takes maybe longer but it is worth it.

Use the "posed" scans I mentioned above to create realistic joints and skin deformations.

If the mesh deformes exactly as the actual human does, the joints are correct.

NOW you can use JCMs to get that last ounce of realism.

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Do not add to or modify the default scanned shape "for artistic reasons" or because you want to make the final product "your own".

That can all be done later with morphs.

The default state of that figure should be that of a realistic human being. A beautiful one, of course, but realistic.

So that even those who can't sculpt can have a believeable, realistic human being out of the box.

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Add lots of morphs. Preferrably based on scans of real people, too.

The more versatile the figures are, the more people will use them.

There should be room for professional ZBrush market place sculpts AND freebie dial spins.

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Don't be afraid of Hi-Res meshes. Around 70K is ideal for the hero mesh, give or take a bit. This will allow sharp muscle definition without subdivision. Additional detail can then be added then with a Bump / Displacement map.

(I'm not completely against subdivision. But it is no magic wand to cover up problems)

A low res (20K) and super-low res (5K) version for background / clothed use would be very welcome.

I found the various M4/V4 "LOD" meshes to be extremely useful.

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So, yeah, basically my favorite option would be to license the DAZ Michael I / Stephanie I mesh from DAZ, double their edge looping, "vacuform" them over an actual 3D scan and create a native weighmap rig for Poser.

As Michael 2 was derived from the P4 Dork (Which originally was made by Zygote), and P5 Don was also derived from the P4 Dork, too, maybe it's even possible to turn P5 Don into that "miracle figure" I envision?

Not to mention that P5 Don features the same mapping as Michael 1/2 (As DAZ failed to copyright the mapping), so that would give a P5 Don derived figure access to a ton of M2/V2/V3/M3/V4/M4 textures.

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Of course one can build a figure completely from scratch, too.

Just don't try to re-invent the wheel and bee "too clever" for your own good.

Stick to what has turned out to be successful over the years.

The goal is to give hobyist users a versatile, robust and "easy access" figure.

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Probably won't happen anyway.

As I said, I'm good. I have everything I need.

And I will "Poser on" exactly the way I see fit.

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I'd be really happy to be proven wrong and Poser would one day become again "The premiere rendering and animation tool" it once was even without a set of new figures.

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But I somehow doubt that.