Forum Coordinators: RedPhantom
Poser - OFFICIAL F.A.Q (Last Updated: 2024 Nov 12 11:30 pm)
I have no problem with wish lists, or complaints, but are they all reasons not to buy the program? Or install it for that matter? everyone has the right to say, hey wait a minute, but not to smear a name because they didn't get something they wanted, or haven't even bought it. I agree with tim, we have to say what we want to make things better, I wish more people would actually base it on something than other's opinons.
Pariah... Here's a little real world advice for ya to help you decide. P5 is absolutely a lot more fun than P4! The hair,materials,face room,and rendering engine make it a really nice upgrade from P4. You'll love the stuff you can do with them. Now here's the real world problem you'll need to deal with: P5 needs a MONSTEROUS machine to run as fast as P4 currently does. The new stuff they added will piss you off if you try to use it on a low end machine. That's not Poser's fault. It needs what it needs. And you should be aware of it up front before you get let down from having to wait for things to happen. I currently use a 1Ghz. PIII with 128 meg ram and it takes a lot of patience to deal with the slowness. But it's still fun. I would recommend at least a 2Ghz processor and 256meg of ram as the bare minimun for P5 if you want it to respond like P4 does on slower machines. P5 is really great. But it's also a bit frustrating because a lot of us don't have enough Ummph to make it fly like it should. In two years 2ghz. machines will be the cheap low end system and Poser5 will come alive down the road as the world upgrades their machines to take advantage of the cool stuff they put in it. If you can get your hands on a decent computer system. I think you will really like it. ScottA
Have a 1.4 with 512 ram...It runs just as fast EXCEPT when I turn on render shadows in firefly. Ya I was thinking about the p4 with just a bunch of addons...it does include pro pack stuff(except the plugins) but just because third parties have contributed doesn't mean it isn't new. just a thought.
Actually, I'm gonna go with Greybro on this one. Don't instal it. Simple as that. I'm debating unistalling and waiting for the patches myself. It's a really nice program, but it needs some serious help. I was all for it the first 2 days I had it, but it was a touch-and-go two days. Now that I've worked with it, had it crash on me, found out the hair room isn't all it's cracked up to be, ect, I just find it too aggrivating to open anymore. I opened P4 yesterday and it was like finding a long lost friend. I dream of the day I can do that with P5. It just isn't today...
Scott - That's not Poser's fault Oh yes it is, and its a big fault as well. The resource management in P4 was dreadful, all the textures get loaded into memory. For a 32 bit application there's an upper limit (in Win32 and probably linux and MacOS as well) of 2GB usable by the program - this is an upper limit to memory both RAM and virtual. For most programs this is not a problem, but by its nature Poser requires a lot of texture mapping and those textures, when uncompressed can add up to a lot of memory use. Bear in mind that people who felt they needed 512 MB to run P4 well were already pushing the 25% mark and those who felt they needed a gigabyte were sailing close to the 50% maximum. I don't yet have P5 (still waiting here in the UK), but all the indications are that the memory use is even higher. If this is the case, I expect that within a year or so people are going to be pushing the 2Gig mark and P5 will crash and burn, regardless of their installed RAM or OS. It's a built in obselesence and one that a few people are probably already close to hitting. In this respect, I initially had great expectations of Firefly, based as it is (allegedly) on the Reyes rendering algorithm. If this had been implemented properly, it would not require more than a single material (and associated textures) in memory at one time, and load each material only once - which is a fundemental part of it design philosphy and one of the feature that makes it very a very fast and resource friendly render solution. As it stands, going by some of the reports, Firefly is slow resource hog, and it looks like CL fumbled the ball on this one. Still Waiting... Bill
Well, I had a look at my pigeon hole at work for the first time in months, and I found a letter from egi.sys, (in German :) presumbly telling me I had pre-ordered and could expect it presently, (I don't lassen Deutsch that well :) But I have to say, that surfing the forums, I think he may have a point. If CL are working on a patch, (according to Kupa) then I figure that P5 (once it arrives) can stay in it's box untill such time as it's ready. Meanwhile I can read an learn, as I don't want my experience of P5 to be blighted by needless annoyance & dissapointment. I've just bought some new fae to play with, so I shall continue to tweak with P4, at least when that dies I know how to fix it. later jb
Let me defend Poser. I too was somewhat disappointed, as I had to switch my screen resolution up (which now I'm used to), and the interface was not customized how I like it, and there is a LEARNING CURVE - and the app seems slow. BUT, consider this: 1. The interface is customizable, and I have customized it, and am now IN LOVE WITH IT! I can import and MAKE MORPHS SO EASY! I can delete them, REARRANGE THEM, and it is smooth! 2. Poser 5 is indeed slower than Poser 4 because it is more powerful, and of course, more powerful hardware is required. Most of the complaints are adjustment complaints because of the speed of Poser 4 versus 5, because they just switched on to Poser 5, thus enhancing the noticeable contrast. 3. This is the BIGGEST UPGRADE IN POSER HISTORY. Poser 4 wasn't even really an upgrade, in my opinion, over 3. The only thing that was different was that it could read Mike and Vicky, who basically sold me on Poser 4. Mike is the reason I got Poser 4. This new installment of Poser has SO MUCH NEW STUFF that adjusting to it may be hard, but as I am discovering the new features, and how they work, I'm in love with them!!!! The biggest features are: The CLOTH room, the HAIR room, and the Firefly engine, which can do things that the standard P4 can't, however, you might want to perceive Firefly like the Bryce engine, not through the lens of the traditional Poser Rendering Engine. I guarantee that in the end, the critics will be proved wrong. The only thing that can derail Poser, in my opinion, is if Daz3D stops their content support for the program. God bless, Ben
--BTW, real low blow casting doubts on someone's honesty just because they speak out negatively. It suprises how shitty the "big names" can get and still maintain the respectable status. --- Pariah, I'm the one who cast doubt, but I did it in the form of an open question which Greybro answered. It was not a "real low blow," but a fairly obvious question. No big deal. BTW, I'm not any kind of a "big name" here. And I sure as heck don't want anybody to think I'm respectable;-0 -jjsemp
alot of artwork in this place is pretty deceptive especially in the poser galleries . yu only need to ask some of the more popular artist here . about the amount of postwork they have to do This is a good point that no one seems to have brought up. If you took a poll of the all the "greatest" Poser artists, how many of them actually render the scene in Poser? ("The P4 render engine blows!") Yep, they would respond by saying that they make their figures in Poser and then export the scene to Lightwave, Vue, or 3D Studio Max... programs that have excellent render engines. This is the way these artists work. So, why did CL put so much time, energy, and money into a new render engine that isn't even close to Lightwave or Vue? Just something to think about. I've just bought some new fae to play with Just make sure that Fae is based on a P4 or Vicky character- as far as I can see, the P5 female doesn't have any full-body morphs. Maybe they are really there and I'm missing it, but it seems like Vicky 2 is much more advanced than the "upgraded" default Poser figure. I was actually hoping for the P5 figures to be comparable to Vicky & Mike 3. Oh, well. --John
VanishingPoint... Advanced 3D Modeling Solutions
timoteo1 and any others who are constantly making annoying repetitive noises,
My sole purpose in this forum is to help people learn poser..all versions of it. I don't moderate.
If you have solutions to a problem please feel free to post about them, otherwise take it elsewhere. You're not helping anyone by pounding at the negative.
-Jeff
I respect a lot of people here and at other places. I love Poser5 best upgrade yet. A EULA that has finally told me what I can do and given me the freedom to. Finally protected us people who pay for it and sticked it to the Warez kiddies who like to complain. Least buggy of my last 5 uprades of other apps. Do you want a list? For those of you who are little mice or, is that rats, following the pied pipers go ahead. Dont buy it or use it. Ron
Tirjasdyn: I believe people post periods and commas to bookmark the thread. For the "every program has bugs, doesn't wash with me comment" Not on this scale? And what scale is that? Again I ask for a list of these major bugs in the program, I've only seen one that pertains to everyone and its hardly major. If you don't actually have the program and are listening to the gripes of others who don't have the program, who are you to gripe? Uh, I made the comment you're referring to and I do have P5. If you haven't seen major bugs posted you haven't read back far enough. Go back to the first day it hit. You'll see screen shots and postings from several people. As far as promises, we were promised a "brand new" program "done right." We got an old program done half-a$$ed. ScottA: I have a monstrous machine and still have problems. Heck I even have dual Xeons...oops! Silly me! Oh, and I believe improved resourse management was another of the promises. TalmidBen: "Most of the complaints are adjustment complaints" What makes you say that? Keeping track or it's just your impression? Other P5 No-Matter-What Supporters claim it's because we didn't read the manual. And still others claim it's "inexperience." Which is it? To all I-Will-Defend-P5-No-Matter-Whatites: Please stop trying to pass this off as a normal software release. It isn't. I've never seen such an uproar over any other release in my 18 years dealing with software. Many people don't bich like this without a reason. I know I don't. And, actually much of it is not biching...it's trying to find help and answers. People waited three years while CL stalled with promises they didn't fulfill (including DOING IT RIGHT). And we're "whiners" or "inexperienced" when we point out problems and/or complain? To IronBear: Did you really meet The Duke when you were eight? What was it like?
"Yep, they would respond by saying that they make their figures in Poser and then export the scene to Lightwave, Vue, or 3D Studio Max... programs that have excellent render engines. This is the way these artists work. So, why did CL put so much time, energy, and money into a new render engine that isn't even close to Lightwave or Vue? Just something to think about." I read this and looked over to the Mrs. (who's on our graphics cruncher) and asked her a little question: Now that she's been testing the P5 renderer, if she were to take something made in Poser and wanted to render it for a real final "gonna sell this one" format, would she use the new P5 renderer? Her answer was "No." She would still use Bryce. Oh, and to anyone who wants to question my right to not be an ass-kissing sycophant to Poser, try and make me.
Ron The advantages of for CL of implementing the particular rendering engine technology (reyes) was that it is that on the performance/speed graph it stands head and shoulder above any other other rendering method, which is why it its become an industry standard over the last 15 years. The problem is that by all accounts they've made a dud implementation, and furthermore had it finished so late in the day that there little or no time to optimise or debug it. You want proof of what it can do, go and rent a Pixar movie, or Final Fantasy, or for that matter any other 3D animated feature that has been released in the last decade. All of them have used the Reyes rendering technique. BTW, regardless of the problems, and my criticism, I still intend to use P5 and to do what ever little I can to support it, simply because I am now extremely worried about the future of Poser. Since P5 initial announcement, CL has been stumbling from one PR disaster to another, and along with the big hit in pricing at the outset, I can only presume that their margins are now extremely thin. CL needed a successful product launch to ensure their future and regardless of what positive things can be found to say about the program, the general noise must be putting a hell of a lot of people off taking the risk of upgrading. Those people on this forum who think they are doing CL a favour by saying "If you don't like it don't buy it!" are probably doing the most harm. People are frustrated and disappointed, often for good reason. The best thing for CL (and Poser) is that the frustrations and disappointments are addressed in a positive, constructive way, at least for the benefit of those many people who are lurking out there trying to decide whether to go for it. Bill
Bill: Sorry, but as for your assessment of the resource management, you're wrong. P5 doesn't load textures until render. I'm not sure why people are having trouble with resource management ( if they are ) as my Celeron 600, 384 MB SDRAM, Win ME system is trucking along with not a single hang, wedge, or crash. So is my copy of Poser 5 different, or has every computer-literate person on earth been wrong about Celeron processors and Window ME? Hrm... Ron: Your brother cousin? Is that a Kentucky thing? =D Paul
Sorry Ron I compltely missed the refernce of that. My last post should really have been addressing MisterDog since I was really replying to his query about why CL implemented Firefly, you were just expanding on it. BTW at the start of the year I was working on a new render engine (Reyes again) plugin for ProPack and I had enough success with passing geometries through a Python interface into the compiled code to believe it was viable. I pretty much ditched the idea when P5 was announced, but now, after the (apparent) disapponitment of Firefly, I might just dust off the existing code and have another look at it, once I've finished my current project. Bill
Hmmm... I am probably going to get slammed for this, but what the hay... Out of all of the supporters for P5 here, the ones that impress me most is both Entropic and Legume, who have made done a good job at offering support as to why they feel that P5 is a good product, or one worth working with if you have it or ordered it. And I agree with Legume 100%, if you have it and you don't have any issues with the litature, go for it. Only by trying the program can you really make an informed decision!! JeffH... you were doing really good and made some great comments particularly in regard to the use of this forum to help learn Poser, well said!! But I fear that your "whiner" comment caused that well said comment to be overlooked. Ron... I am sorry bud. I know you mean well and want to support Curious Labs and Poser 5. But you're unfortunately harming that cause. No offense, but your comments as of late make you sound like a snake-oil salesman or a really cheap shill. Tone down some, express more using solid points instead of all heart. I know you mean well, but you are causing people to overlook your posts or what you say. ...Sorry... Well... might as well open myself up to some critism here too by posting my views... Poser 5, to me, is a expansion pack. Sort of like Diablo's HellFire expansion, or the SIMs Hot Date. The only difference being that with those games you need the "Core" to utilize the expansion... This is not the case with Poser 5. Full or Upgrade, it contains the core of Poser 4 in it. Yes, this may be disappointing to some, none-the-less, it contains a familiarity (interface) to it that many of you have grown accustomed too. However, Curious Labs, as mentioned already, has added 3rd Party software to the program and in doing so has added some interesting features that beg to be played with. Make no mistake, no matter that it uses the core of Poser 4, using Poser 5 IS NOT going to be as simple to learn as opening the program and tweaking a few dials. Those who are advanced in using Poser 4 or Poser Pro Pack are not going to be able to just open Poser 5 and create images or products at the same speed as they were in Poser 4... at least till they take the time to learn Poser 5. When I first opened Poser 5, I felt totally unprepared for what I had anticipated. My skill and knowledge with Poser 4 and Pro Pack, suddenly seemed as though I had been playing with completely different program and instantly I knew that tutorials were going to be needed. For the time I used Poser 5, I needed to learn how to setup materials, adjust the settings on them and define their uses. It took time, it took help from the other beta testers and in a couple of days I was able to learn. Same can be said about the Hair Room, the Face Room and Clothing Room. It is going to take time and patience to learn it all, and yes, you may be like me and end up feeling overwhelmed. Give it time, practice... if you truly want to use the powerful tools that Poser 5 has, be patient... If you want to just pick up, dabble or do images quickly and efficiantly and don't want to take allot of time relearning Poser... stick with Poser 4. It is still a valuable tool. As for bugs. Yes, Poser 5 has bugs. If anyone tells you differently then they are decieving you. Nor am I going to list them, they are there, even Steve Cooper admitted they're there. Will I be using Poser 5 or support it? Not just yet. For those of you that visit Poser Pros or read my other threads, my reasons are explained there. Maybe, in time, I will be able to comfortably use it. At this point, till the concerns that I have are satifactory met, I will be sticking with Poser 4 and Pro Pack and will fully support those applications and Curious Labs. And this is my point folks... Poser 5 may not be for everyone. It may not work the way you want it too, it may not be fast enough, professional enough or just to damn hard to learn... regardless, Poser 4, Pro Pack and ARE worth supporting. And also let me say this... even though I am disappointed in Poser 5 and wont be using it at this time, I respect the fact that Steve Cooper has come to the Community sites and said that there are still issues that need to be resolved. If you are uncertain about the purchase of Poser 5, then don't purchase it. Or wait till you are satisfied enough to do so. But still support Curious Labs for their other products in the meantime. Just like the life of Poser 3 didn't end when Poser 4 came out, or Poser 4 ended because Pro Pack came out, the life of other Curious Labs products WILL NOT END because Poser 5 has been released. Products will still be developed for them, not everyone will update right away... or ever. So don't throw the baby out with the bath water, just because you don't like the new version they came out with. Sorry for the length of this post... just felt it needed to be said. Jack
Jackson, the first "bug" reported was not a bug, but a problem where models with backfacing polys were removed in draft mode, easily fixed by unchecking "remove backfacing polygons" and it only happend in draft mode. I have been watching the forums closly before and after release. I have yet to see one problem that is repeated between users that A-cannot be fixed by changing your settings or B pertains to p5. Yes people are mad that they didn't change some things, and yes people are having some problems but from what I see it may not be poser directly. Sorry Jackson, but I have yet to see these bugs reported to mass populace. Perhaps CL will give us a update report when the release the patch to tell those of us with out problems (I will say so far) what they are fixing exactically. I agree with you Jack that P5 may not be for everyone. If you're looking for the next high end app...perhaps you should save your money, if your want to continue to use a nice character app with some new tools we didn't have before than by all means buy, but expect to spend some time learning. As for what people see in bryce over 3ds, or lightwave...the answer is price. Bryce is the best "affordable" renderer around.
Legume: "To start labeling a group that way is one of those cheap-ass maneuvers that I've seen pop up time and again on these forums" You mean like the label, "whiners?" I believe I've been seeing that label quite a while now. Including the one you started with the starving child. Talk about a cheap-ass maneuver. At least I was nice with my label, it's not insulting. I was going to use "The K.B.K." but decided against it. Tirjasdyn: " the first "bug" reported was not a bug, but a problem where models with backfacing polys were removed in draft mode" That's not a bug? Is the program supposed to do that? Just because there's a work-around for something doesn't mean it's not a bug. Oh, and for something to be a "bug" it has to effect everyone? I didn't know that, chalk it up to my inexperience. And by the way, the XML problem is HUGE and does effect everyone. People have gone as far as reinstalling XP to try and solve it.
Thanks for that mature dig at me Jeff. Really cool man. My concerns are totally legit by anyones standards. No need to call me a whiner for voicing them.
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tirjasdyn: i don't understand how can you ignore this many posts reporting bugs and troubles with p5 and it's interface. nobody is questioning what can p5 do, the new features, but it's handling. the interface causes more problems then it solves and there's undersandably a lot frustration involved. even kupa said that thea are some serious bugs in it, and that they are working on patches. considering the fact (also from kupa) that they didn't get payed for some months (and they need money like everyone) it is clear that cl used it's customers for a little financial refreshement and put a product that wasn't ready on the market. even though this causes some grievences in this community given a lot of personal connections between cl and customers, i'd wish that this discussion would be more of a civilized sort. vulgarity doesn't help much.
I've been a huge Joe Satriani fan since his first recording. And every time he releases a new CD I rush out and buy it because I'm expecting it to sound a certain way. And every single time without fail. I am initially disappointed because he created something way different than "Surfing with the Alien" and "Flying in a Blue dream". The strange thing is........After I listen to the new stuff a few times. I always end up liking it better than the previous stuff. P5 is kinda like that. It's not what you expected. And it's a let down at first. But the more you play with it for a while on a machine that can handle it. The more you see it's a much better product than P4. Humans don't like change. But change is good. :-) ScottA
Wolf Regarding the Reyes renderer you are very close to my point. The fact is that with this technology Poser users should have much higher expectations in terms of performance and quality. The fact is that CL screwed it up. A basic Reyes implementation - even without ray tracing, should have given us a much better quality and better performance than Firefly seems to achieve. Pixar don't actually use raytracing (except for a few frames in Bugs life) and don't use a lighting system that is any more sophisticated than Poser's. A lot of atmospheric effects are illusions created with solid geometry objects, and reflective surfaces are almost always implemented using environment mapping. Professional animators avoid raytracing like the plague, because at the end of the day (rendering) time is money and if you can fool people with a scan line render at a fraction of the cost, then that's sufficient. Tirjasdyn - I hate to break it to you, but the back face polygon culling problem is very definitely a bug. This routine is one of the simplest and most basic pieces of optimisation used in rendering. It requires a simple vector product calculation and test for the sign of the result. Back face polygon removal is very important for anyone who wants to optimise rendering speed and does not care about about reflected rays - especially animators. I have never seen any renderer fail to implement this correctly. When I was university it was one of the very first things I was taught abount 3D graphics. I find it almost inconceivable that CL could have screwed up the arithmetic in first place, let alone fail to spot it and correct it before release. Saying that a bug isn't a bug because users can disable the functionality leads naturally to the the concept that software bugs do not exist at all, where any software use is optional. Bill
"Thanks for that mature dig at me Jeff."
I suppose it's about as mature as posting a "public stance" on a piece of software. Who cares? Is it an ego problem?
"My concerns are totally legit by anyones standards."
You're right they are, but no more "legit" than anyone else's.
I've heard more nonsense than I can't stand is all. This is a really inexpensive piece of software, you don't have to mortgage your house or sell your car to get it.
There is no life effecting decision; this isn't brain surgery or cancer.
People complain like their limbs are being aputated or something.
Max, Lightwave, and C4D are all great apps - those that like them better please go to it and leave Poser behind for the rest of us.
I'm done.
-Jeff
I'm not ignore that people have problems, I am saying that I have not seen very many problems that happen cross platform to everyone, that is the only definition of bug that I am aware of.(besides the kind that crawl around) Bill as far as I am aware, it was a model problem. You explaination could be correct, but I don't know any more about it. I'll believe you and choc it up to two "bugs" according to the definition I was taught.
NO I absolutely will NOT "leave poser behind "for the rest of you the CG Humanoids,robotsand awesome free Dinosaurs( thanks!!) that are easily animated in poser are an important aspect of my CG work im not bashing poser5,as a mac user I dont have itand likely wont be buying it . not becuase of the "bugs" real or imagined but because ,for me poser4 pro provides all that i need from poser to bring CG figures easily into my main 3D applications. I hope CL fixes any actual BuGS IN THIS RELEASE and poser continues to thrive.
ron says: {Brent You can do the same thing in the face room on Vick or Mike with morph putty. } Except take a photograph and make a matching morph. That to me is the functionality of the Face Room that most people are after. To be fair, CL did state that it will only work on the P5 figures in these forums, but they don't state it in their sales literature. Based on what we saw of the cost of having a character made 'face room ready" ($30,000 per figure in case you missed it), I doubt that DAZ, DSI or any other modeler will be able to afford to do it for their figures. Jeff, says: {My sole purpose in this forum is to help people learn poser..all versions of it. I don't moderate.} Then why are you listed as a moderator of this forum? You can help people as a member. There isn't anything wrong with people expressing there concerns, even their gripes about Poser 5 in these forums. That's the purpose of these forums. Communication about the programs. Potential customers are free to make their own decisions based on what people are saying, good and bad. Most rational people are going to toss out comments by the rabid supporters AND the rabid detractors and listen to the people in the middle. Many of them will admit that there are things they like and things they don't like about the program. Don't assume that because someone expresses dissatisfaction that they are merely a whiner and are trying to bash Curious Labs. If everybody keeps silent, Curious Labs will think they have nothing to fix and then wonder why people aren't buying. It really is to their benefit to hear everything people are thinking. They couldn't ask for better market research. And it's free for them!
Please guys I agree with all of you, but buy the stupid upgrade and help these guys at CL. It's cost is a fraction of a decent plugin in 3DS Max and goes a whole lot further. Help support CL and just keep at their heels to fix the bugs. Reality dictates that it is all we can do. Besides what really competes with this simple and beautiful program. What other program could do so much in so little time with such little effort. Include Mimic, BVH files and a few DAZ utilities and its amazing what can be done with a program that costs under 400 bucks. Just think about it!!!!
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I have no problem with wish lists, or complaints, but are they all reasons not to buy the program? Or install it for that matter? everyone has the right to say, hey wait a minute, but not to smear a name because they didn't get something they wanted, or haven't even bought it. I agree with tim, we have to say what we want to make things better, I wish more people would actually base it on something than other's opinons.
Tirjasdyn