Ok, here's the deal. I've got a Pentium 4 2.0 GHz computer with 1 GB of system memory, running Win98 SE. My understanding is that Win98 and Poser don't seem to handle that amount of memory very well. Excluding forking over a lot of money for some other version of Windoze, is there anything I can do to allow Poser to use as much memory as it needs? I have a couple of fairly large models, such as hmann's 3D Worlds package and the new DAZ dragon, and I can't actually render them in Poser. I've tried reducing the size of the texture maps, deleting the bump maps from the scene, and saving each figure as a seperate .PZ3 and reloading it just before I render, and 3D Worlds is still pretty much guaranteed to hang the machine. (I'm not picking on 3D Worlds, I actually like posing things in it a lot. I'd just like it a lot better if I could get my machine to stop glitching out and render it without crashing, hanging, or in one case, spontaneously rebooting.) Are there any memory management utilities I could use? Preferably ones that won't interfere with other software too much? (I also use this computer for games occaisionally, so I don't like memory resident programs that aren't absolutely necassary. Games don't usually share well with others where memory is concerned. At least the ones I have don't. :) "Upgrading" to a different version of Windows isn't an option. Win 2K and NT are specifically incompatible with some of my other programs, and I refuse to even consider getting Winows eXtra Puky until Microsoft finishes beta testing it properly. Thanks in advance Katoran

Windows 9x tops out at 512MB. Any RAM above that is essentially wasted. if you want to use the added RAM, you will need to upgrade to 2K/XP. In my experience, XP is the most stable Windows yet.

sorry katoran Nosfiratu is right join the rest of the herd & upgrade, win2k is the most compatible with older programs, but poser loves XP on my machine, my machine is 2.0Ghz with 1Gb too, xp runs like a dream for me. Rob

Windows 2K with 1.5 GIG of RAM runs pretty well with poser! The newer service pack for Windows 2K fixed a lot of old problems with windows 2K I love it, plus it don't has the stupid protection problems as XP has.

I've got 1Gb on XP and Poser refuses to render anything bigger than 1024x768, saying "out of memory". OK, so I never render finished stuff in Poser, but it can be an arse when I'm checking things.

Katoran; The others are right, the NT memory manager is far more robust than the 9x one. However, you do not have to give up the 98. 2k will run just fine on a FAT 32 formatted drive, and all you have to do is install the NT OS onto a second partition, and it will automatically set itself up as a dual boot. 2k for graphics, 98 for legacy support. best of both worlds. It does mean you would need to do the driver dance for both OS's, and keep your versions straight so you don't do something stupid like cross install drivers (but you will; every dula booter does, sooner or later), but the extra bit of hassle is very much worth it.

I'm running a gig of memory on XP Pro, and Poser runs like a dream. I switch back and forth between Poser and Photoshop simultaneously, which is great to be able to do when you're working on textures. I've run Poser on 98SE and 2K, and XP Pro is the best by far.

Win2K is basically the best operating system the planet has ever seen. But XP is really nice as well ... basically, you can't go wrong with an NT (aka "kickass") based kernal. Ditch 98 as soon as humanely possibly ... you'll be sad that you didn't do it two years ago.

Curious Labs offers a "Memory Upgrade" that solved my problems. Apparently Poser 4 (and PPP) couldn't handle installed memory larger than 512, which causes a problem with larger files that require more memory in order to load and render properly. Don't know if this will be an issue with P5 or not.