I really have trouble reading the parameter dial labels. In the previous version of poser they were much easier to read. Is there anyway to change the font the the parameter dials use? I would be more then willing to have a larger font for the labels on the dials even though that would mean less dials on the screen at one time. I admit I have my monitor at a fairly high res(1280x1024) on a 19" monitor, and I would hate to have to drop it down. If anyone has a solution to this, I'd love to hear it!

Yeah... May I thoroughly recommend opera glasses??? Seriously, though... this is a pain in the proverbial and may not be fixable as Poser does not use many standard Windows calls or functions in it's code. I was using 1600 X 1200 for ages until my partner pointed out that my nose was less than 3inches from the screen when using Poser! And it's a lovely flat 17" viewable! On a 19inch with 1280x1024 you should be OK? I've lowered my resolution to this and can sit back in my chair once again... maybe my monitor is better focussed than yours. I tried setting Windows to "Large fonts" but this just complicated the issue by messing up just about every app I use. Next please!

a little faurther back in the forum there was a discussion on using P3-P2 interface to save memory resourses. This might work for you, but I can't remember who was talking about it.

I wholeheartedly agree.. and I'm at 1024 X 768 on a 21" monitor. I realize that Curious Labs is going for a 'stylish' look.. but that is no place for a font like that. Even making the font pure white would probably help. Please create a 'fix' for this CL.

I'm working on a Mac, so I'm not sure what your font issue looks like, but MY gripe is that the longer names on the dials run UNDER the dial and I can't read them. Any ideas for fixing?

you can rename the morphs by double clicking on the name (not number) of the morph.

hogwarden

It's not the monitor that is out of focus, it's my eyes. :-) I'll try the large fonts and see if that helps. Either that, or it's going back to 800x600. Arrrrrghhh!

This has been brought up many times (by me too!) and it's something we gotta live with for now. Curious Labs obviously went for the cool GUI look, and pulled it off, but once you start to use it a lot, the fanciness hinders the usability. Frankly, I'd LOVE to see CL rethink the whole interface, and use more Windows' common, faster, and easier to read GUI element. There is so much that could be done in Poser, and hats off to CL for their great work.. I only wish someone would dump tons of money into the company to let the team make all the great enhancements we all want. If I were rich, I'd donate to em! Unfortunately for us all..I'm not rich :)

I use 1280 x 970 on a 19" monitor, but I really can't read the dials, I just know where most of the good ones are! It isn't just the tiny font, it is also the lack of contrast. If you knew were it was you could hex-edit the interface colors.

Actually, it wasn't Curious Labs that went for that GUI, it was Metacreations. CL just chose not to change it. I like the flexibility of the Poser interface. I like being able to move things around and whatnot. I just want the dial font color and face to be adjustable and the library pull-out drawer (VERY Painter classic, if anyone has used that program) to be more reasonable. I keep thinking about Pro Pack. 4 windows is nice. Python scripting is VERY nice (heck, I think I could even write some scripts without too much trouble. I can do perl and such.) But I can't justify the cost vs. the reasons I would use it. I don't care about figure setup or animation or Flash or any of that crap. Hopefully Poser 5 has Python scripting and a better interface.

This has been one of my pet peeves. Even if we could have a different color text, it would be an improvement. Light gray text on a slightly darker gray background is murder on the eyes. And some of the text overlaps, so you can't read the whole words on longer titles. I hope Poser 5 will fix this problem. I wear contact lenses (and bifocals when I'm not wearing my contacts), so I already have bad eyes (20/400 -- legally blind -- in the right eye), so I could really use a more readable font on the dials. Melanie

Mel: you CAN change the color, but not the contrast, unfortunately. Select the paint bucket and click on the background. Unfortunately, whether you choose purple or green, it will always be "dark color x with slightly lighter color x text." Really, really, REALLY annoying.

Someone mentioned that a while back, but what I really would like to see is a completely different color of text, or a much more distinct contrast between the text and the background. That should be added to the Poser 5 wish list. Melanie

Type PO2 to get the old interface which has the labels off to the side of the dial. The long ones still get cut off and they're still small, but somewhat easier to read. Type PO3 to go back to the 'new' interface. I imagine saving your preference will make the old one the default, if not, change the runtimeprefsposer.ini in a text editor. Change USE_META_UI 1 to USE_META_UI 0. Backup the file first just in case.

I'd bet a fair amount of money that not using the native windows UI features was a way to have more commonality between the Windows and Mac versions. Hopefully with Poser 5, they will have a better cross-platform framework. Having two seperate native GUI versions would mean longer development time, and require more maintenance resources. They'd probably do Windows first and Mac users would have to wait.

I aught to mention that Poser on Mac is also the only program that I've ever used that takes over the whole screen, and will not run in a window. You have to quit it to run another program, something I do in Windows all the time, it is so useful to go into Photoshop and change the texture or go into Max and change the mesh and then back into Poser to see what it looks like. Another nail in the Mac's coffin!

Oooh, Bad Mac Poser. At least they didn't save all the native OS incompatibility woes for Windows. Folks like Microsoft can afford two development teams for Mac and Windows, a luxury CL probably doesn't have. Lucky for them, there's no real price/performance competitor for either platform that has the native 'look and feel.'

On another topic, does anyone know what a QUATERNION is? It's an item in Poser.ini off by default (0). I looked it up and found references to fractals, 3d rotation and very high level math. Been afraid to try turning it on :-)

Richard - the following programs also take up the full Mac screen and cannot be minimized: Vue d'Esprit 4, Bryce 5, Amorphium 1.0, Amorphium Pro, Universe, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Melody Assistant, MusicShop, and Finale to name a few that I have worked with.

However, I do not find it an inconvenience because in Poser or in any of the other programs mentioned I can always press Command+Tab (the Open Apple or "cloverleaf" key plus the Tab key) to switch back to the Mac OS Finder and run another program from the Apple menu or whatever. This feature has been available on the Mac since OS 7.6.

(It's Jim, actually, Richard was the one married to Liz!) Gee, your right, I never noticed that on IMovie, the only one I have on your list. And if you swich between two full-screen ones it is actully pretty good, but between a full screen and a "normal" one it is pretty ugly, with the other app now in the background. No easy way to get to your Hard Drive unless it happened to be open, too. I hope this doen't become "mainstream", it is pretty lame.

Wait 'til the Linux version. They'll probably go back to a command line.