ok... I've got Carrara 1, and Poser Pro-Pack. With the exception of ppowellaa's recent caustic post, I've haven't read of anything that C2 does that I can't do right now. Granted, I'd have to go through an extra step, creating a model, then boning it in poser (that didn't sound too good); but I don't think that saving that step would be worth $200. So someone tell me, why should I upgrade? Other than bones, are C2's modelling capabilities that much better than C1's? It seems to me that I've got a decent (if somewhat quirky, at times) modeller, a way to make those models easily animatable and good rendering and texturing tools in Bryce and C1. So I'm leaning toward waiting until version 2.1 (or whatever) when a few more bugs have been worked out that users will invariably find. Comments and/or suggestions?

If you got Carrara studio that came with Amapi then no, as a modeler the subdivision surfaces are great, but you could do it in Amapi- if you have the old Meta C version patched to 1.1 then it is probably worth it to get amapi. As a rendering engine for rendering your poser figures, well the import and texturing quirks are being worked out (esp transmaps) but the global illumination, indirect lighting and caustics can save you a lot of time setting up light sets. "Famine" in the Carrara gallery has only 1 light, the sun, for that render as an example of the render. No post (the "grit" is the photon map enabled, otherwise it was very clear). Also PCMall.com has the upgrade for $119. If I was realy scraping for cash and did not have a need for the renderer yet I think I would go for one of the plugins from DigitalCarvers (anything Grooves/grows). Good luck!

How About: -Improved performace, better OpenGL -OSX Support (Mac Only) -Dual Processor Support (Mac 1.1 did not have this) -More Stable -Bones -Better Poser support -Wicked Better rendering with GI enabled. (Check out the Poser render with GI on at the Carrara forums at Yahoo!) -Easier time selecting objects -Caustics These are just reasons I can think of off the top of my head, there are many many new features and fixes. As for waiting for the 2.1 update, I am sure it will be a free update for all 2.0 users. So buy now or later, still the same price... Paul

Just a note about what appears to be the current environment. -Improved performace (appears to be Mac only) -better OpenGL (Mac only, busted on Wintel) -More Stable (Appears to be Mac only) It's a great Mac product but the Wintel stuff suffers some. I'm making a guess that Eovia made the move to the new MS C++ 7.0 compiler on Windows. Now we're paying for it. This is STRICTLY a guess on my part though. -Kix

thanks kix, ppowellaa. I AM running the 1.1 patched Meta C on a Windows PC, so a lot of the improvements don't apply. I'd like to check out amapi someday, and I really like the lighting effects I've seen on so far from C2. I'll have to find a way to convince my financial advisor (i.e. wife) that there is no way I can go on living without that upgrade. Maybe she'll realize that a funeral would be more expensive than a little program. But until then I suppose I'll have to stick with what I've got. Doesn't look like I'm missing TOOO much that I can't live without for a little while longer.

Oh Man I hope they are not using an MS Compiler, C++. I have 5.0 of VisualC and it makes increadibly bloated code. .NET (7.0) is even worse. I hope they use something better then MS dev tools. Maybe they use Borland or Code Warrior. That would actually make more sense, since the mac and win versions are identical. Many companies that have identical software for multiple platforms tend not to use MS dev tools as they create code that is not too cross platform friendly. As for my ticks about: -Improved performance: does work better for some windows folks then 1.1 did, so the problems people are facing on the Win side are not affecting everyone. same goes for OpenGL. _Paul

There is a LOT of new features, improved terrain editor, improved sky editor, a few tweaks all over the place..I think its worth the upgrade, and with ecost being so well priced...heck go for it, before it goes up. Brian Hinton Formula Designs http://free.hostdepartment.com/fdesigns/