(this was also posted in another thread below "Curios" about Siggraph): OK, just got back from the exhibition. Lots of cool things, but I know you guys are wanting to know about Poser. Well, compared to last year, Curious Lab's booth was a non-event. Last year they teamed up with Daz, had a large booth and lots of product demos. This year it was a VERY small booth with a VERY LARGE mock-up of the Poser 5 box (no pictures, sorry). They did not have any versions of Poser 5 that they were showing on the floor (although I hear they were showing it "behind closed doors". I did get the meet the very lovely and VERY GENEROUS Sydd Raven (THANKS!!!!!), and we chatted very briefly about P5. As you know she and her "team" - "Mr. Raven" have been involved in the development of P5 (textures, hair, figures). SHe stated that the rendering is beautiful, the cloth function works great, and that rendering times should not be too bad (however this is very subjective based on what all is being rendered and how it is being rendered). She mentioned the product should be out in "6-8 weeks", but I do not want to hold her to that, as I would rather the product be ready to go than released early, plus there are always delays in software delivery (plus CL has the final determination of when to let it go). I see most of you have seen the price for the new version. There WILL be a tiered price structure for people with P4 and/or P4 + Pro Pack. I was quoted a number for the upgrades by one of the individuals in the booth (not saying who), but I do not want to repeat as I do not know how "official" it is, although it was stated that those with the P4 + PP will have the cheapest price, one that I think is fair. In addition, there was a rep there from Reiss (I think I spelled that correctly) to talk about the upcoming plug-in for Maya. Now I know that most used of Poser most likely do not have a copy of Maya (at least legally) as they are (to date) targetted to different markets, but I find it nice that there is sincere interest from "the upper tier" products to link with the exceptional functionality that is in Poser. I wish them well. Sorry that there is not much else to say. You can ask questions, but I have already told you everything I know (except the numbers that I referred to above). On other matters, DAZ was nowhere to be seen, and I thought they were supposed to have a booth there. The Renderosity crew was there in full force, selling magazines, Tshirts, mugs, and a few other things. They had a great booth and it seemed to be busy all throughout the day. 3DCommune also had a booth, but the time I waled by there was noone there. There did have some handout regarding a "free subscription" to their magazine, so you guys may want to check it out. - Ray Yamka