Hey Everyone... I just wanted to ut my two cents in about this whole P5 thing... When I first came to Renderosity not too long ago, It was great. Everyone loved the product with the exception of 2 or 3 and things were coming along great. Suddenly the P5 Hype came and everyone filled the forum with P5 questions and features and so forth...I was dying to get my hands on it but since buying 3DS Max I didn't have the money... But since it's shipment, I believe that about 85% of the people who have gotten it are totally dissatisfied...To be honest I'm freaked out... I finally have the money but am scared to jump forth and pay this kind of money which really isn't alot for upgrading but still leaves a bad taste when you know what coming...I mean more than half of you have a way better cpu than I and still have problems... So I just wanted to see how many, if had the chance would have not bought the program right on if they knew what happend and would have waited at least a couple of months until they fixed the enormous amount of bugs that it has... Don't get me wrong I love P4 and believe that if given the right amount of attention to the user, the guy/gal who really uses it that it has the potential to be the 3D Program of all time... So..how about it...how many Yay's and how many Nay's...for now anyways.... CAT

I think people who complain tend to be more vocal than people who are satisifed. I'm not saying that's wrong...it's a way to let off steam and share information on how to solve problems and it's a fact of life. I think most of my problem are due to (a) a lack of experience with 3D programs....Poser is the only one I've used to any degree, (b) a lack of experience with making adjustments to my computer (it scares me to tweak the settings back and forth), and (c) a lack of adequate memory or whatever it is that Poser needs to run properly. If I had it to do over again, I'd wait for the bugs to be eased out and buy a later version. I'm stuck with Poser 5 now and I hate using it because I never know when my computer will freeze or the program will crash because I didn't do something in a perfect sequence. I need more dummy proof software. On the other hand, some people are doing wonderful things with Poser 5. Tutorials are starting to come out and there is magic in some of the graphics. I think you need to decide for yourself if this is the time to jump in or not. I'm not sure polling is going to give you the answer you want.

Yay, if only for the Material Room, new renderer, and crosstalk fix. I'll give you a louder yay when it's sufficiently patched and stablized on my system to permanently replace Poser 4.

A little of both, cat3dgrafx. I think that CL released Poser 5 just a bit too soon to weed out all of the "stupid" problems and verify its stability on a wide variety of system configurations. On the other hand, the new renderer, better library handling, materials room, face room, cloth room, dynamic cloth, motion blur, and so forth make it a definite notch up from P4w/PP. With ambition must come some stumbling... The reason that there was harmony and singing angels before the release is that Poser 4 had been used and mastered by many while many bugs were eliminated by patches. So, by Poser 4.03, it was a stable app with tons of add-ons and support software. As with any new major version release, there are always problems, both unforeseen and unfixed. There is a patch for Poser 5 soon to be made available which will be the start of the stabilization. Also, users will start to acclimate to the new features and master it. Would I have pre-ordered knowing the problems to ensue? Oh, yes! Unless the thing was crashing on 95% of the user's systems and taking the OS with it, its current bugs are to be expected. Anyway, the only way for CL to stabilize Poser 5 is to have user feedback in the real world, making fixes by priority, which is exactly how they are going about it. If you must, hold out until the patch release and see what responses are made about its efficacy. Then you'll know if it is worth it. Kuroyume

85% seem kinda high to me. It has bugs, but it has not crashed or locked up me... and again I have not tried all of the features... but from my experience I think for the price of the upgrade it is "and is going to be one of the best purchase I have made. Hell, I have spent that much money on 3 or 4 good texture maps. I'm glad I have it, and when the patches comes out, it will be even better. Niles

I would have bought knowing what I do. I have not had the problems of others. Actually had very few problems. Also has given me a chance to learn many of the new features. Ron

Both. I'm hoping the update on Monday will help the issues I'm having with the program. The extra content is great and if the Material Room issues are fixed, I will be a seriously happy camper. Am I glad I jumped in instantly and bought immediately? Oh, yeah. Even though it's not working well on my system, I'm glad I did the gonzo rush. (I'm weird that way.) I've been able to poke around a bit between crashes, so I'm picking stuff up and I'm learning a lot from other people's posts. If I hadn't picked it up, I'd be stuck wondering if I would have been one of the lucky ones with no Poser issues and hating myself for not taking the plunge. Cheers!

very satisfied here... no regrets at all.

For me its inbetween but favoring heaven. Unlike others I won't name, I have not gone back to P4 since installing P5. In fact, I'm moving into animation and tons of fun with the hair, texture, and face rooms. the patch will fix some minor annoyances from what I can glean off the threads. If you are going to reach for the stars, then P5 is a star.

I'm happy too, not a single crash so far :)

I like many of the new features (face lab, material lab, hair lab), but have to admit that I haven't had a software actually completely crashing that much for quite some time. Windows keep being opened and cannot be get rid of, buttons don't react any more - I have sent bug reports to egisys already, but doubt that there will be a chance to see patches soon, it seems there is just so much to fix. Anyway I am not downgrading to P4 as I think Poser is now slowly becoming the App I wanted to have when buying Poser3...

I'm still on the fence. Here's my reason. AMD 300(Out of service) AMD 350(Out of service) AMD 400(Out of service) Celeron 400(Out of service) Pentium 450(Out of service) Duron 800(Out of service) Athlon 1.4Gig(Half in service) VIA C3 800(Fully in service) *All since Poser 4 came out and more changes to come... Poser 5 gives you three installations then you must ask CL for more. Does anyone know what CLs definition of excessive installations is going to be? I'm sure I'm the poster child for that! Hehehe... :)

Well the remaining 15% are using it to produce work like this.

I too am very happy with it, and I've pretty much tried everything out, except the setup room, which I only used a couple of times in propack - it's just not something I use. My computer does way exceed the specs that CL listed, so I'm sure that's helpful. In another post I saw someone put it this way - if you need or really want the extra features in P5 go ahead and get it, if not, then stick with what you've got and wait till some of the bugs are ironed out. PhilC - thanks for the great harem outfit!

I am very happy with P5. The material room, cloth, hair and face rooms are wonderful additions. I like the new libray systym and being able to access the Poser 4 content without having to move it. The new content is good. Am impatantly waiting for Content Paredise to Open. I think the new figuares have great potential. There are issues, so if software glitches big and small bother you, you may want to wait. Getting it early is giving me a chance to learn the new features. Even on my Win98 Celeron 466 with only 128MB Ram (update by Christmas, I hope)I am getting to play. (no major images yet) I know Curious will fix what's wrong. PhilC - thanks for the outfit and especially the tutorial on how to use it. Lynn

Well to be honest it is always best to wait a while before buying a new piece of software, as 99% of items come out with bugs and new bugs are found with all the different ranges of system setup that different people use. It is something I have basically come to expect - of course there is a limit on how many bugs/problems should occur in the real world. Cant wait to get my hands on my copy if it ever arrives!

I will never buy another program out of the shoot again...ever...once its been tested by the first responders, and a patch issued if needed, and that works, I'll buy...but never again prior to really knowing the condition of the product. Does that surprise any of you with that statement? I will say, I am working with CL to rectify my problems, and have agreed to by direct correspondence with them.

I'm really glad you asked the question. I'm also really grateful that you worded in a way to get such accrate response. I too have been wondering whether or not to invest in P5. Your post has really helped me in my decision making. Thanx for your clarity.

PhilC, Just clicked on the link to your page. That costume for Judy is amazing. Now THAT is a cool belly dancer costume. And Judy has the hips for a belly dancer. I really like the body proportions of Judy. She looks like a real woman.

Mine is working without any problems( crashes or so) And i think the new possiblities are great once i managed all the news. Only the handbook could be some more detailled.

no problems here and I'll never go back.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=247137

Check out the link for a great setting for her.

Y'know, I could be wrong (but I don't think I am) but there was a similar furor when P4 was released. In about a year, everyone had calmed down and were much happier and less angry and hateful. Me? Sure it's a bit buggy, but it's the first release. You've got to expect that. On the whole, I'm very happy with it.

I bought it because of the hype too. I have a great many specialized Vicky 2 characters which I render in a batch, and they won't even load in P5. Right now the only solution would be, to re-fit all cloth on Vicky again and store those 100+ characters again. Since I don't have the time to do it, I went back to P4. Would I buy it again? No.