Besides the stupid license policy (which triggered for me after 2 installations, not 3, but who wonders with all those capable programmers and QA engineers) and which forces me to beg for new installation permission (after having paid $330 I still can't do what I want with my property), P5 simply SUCKS! After installing the patch I get the C-exception whenever I start or load something, I still can't load my P4 stuff, even after I linked the runtime library, the hair looks like the guy needs Rogain and the rendering is way too slow. I am so sorry that I threw away all that money since I am working with P4 again now. Bevor I ever buy anything from CL again, I will be much, much more careful. Please don't stop to complain here and in other forums if you're having problems too. Only by applying public pressure can we expect to eventually receive a fair value for the money that we spend!

Depending on the C exception, it may be you bump maps for that figure (it was for mine) you may need to remove them from the figure and resave. this is what I did; http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=897449 and from what this guy had, it seemed to work for him as well. http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=898234

But watch what you say against this product or you could get banned! Shame on you for warning people. How dare you! The point many are missing is the software should work out of the box. A few bugs okay. But come on how much patience is a customer expected to have? The reason there is so much controversy is that this product has caused it! I'm glad for the dozen or so that post over and over and over again that everythings okay with Poser 5. I'm curious though why some feel it is there mission to say its great repeatedly everytime somone new comes to the sad realization, that for them, Poser 5 is a dog and posts there concerns. Look through the posts and you will easily see the pattern. I question the posts where some have said quit complaining and just send your problems to tech support. You miss the point that we are not the beta testers here nor should we be. I'm afraid if this keeps up that this company is going down the tubes and that would be sad. But then they mislead the public in the first place by knowingly releasing a product with bugs. Folks they knew that the program had faults when they released it, or have some of you forgotten this already. What does this say about CL? Can we trust them now? I personally can't wait for the DAZ option. The sooner the better. Competition would benefit the consumer in a big way.

Don't think you'll get something wonderful from Daz in Version 1 Lapis, they have made some really big foulups themselves in the recent past or have you forgotten about that? Not once in the 22 years I've used computers have I ever come across a program that has had no bugs at all, at least CL are fixing the bugs that people have found, most of the other companies I could mention would just tell you to sod off & wait for the next big version.

Being a writer/producer/sound designer for more years than I'd like to mention, I have used extreemly high end audio programs myself such as protools, etc with the odd little problem here and there, but so far Poser 5 has been laughable. I'm not talking about a few bugs but a regular cockroach festival. I currently have more than 100 software packages on my primary hard drive. Most run flawlessly. And games. I'll use Warcraft 3 as an example. Its a work of art. How software should run. The odd software I own shows a glitch here and there, but Poser 5 has been a bug bash...for me at least. I have been in contact with so many others that agree but incidently they are afraid to post here because of what happens when you do. I guess I've developed a thick skin over the years. I feel integrity is important so I post my honest feelings. About getting something wonderful from daz..I hope so.. I don't think it could get much worse. They did make Vic, Mike, and Steph and I think you'd agree these are leaps and bounds better than any CL offerings. Off topic circle..what are you doing up sooo late?

I agree most software I've got now works perfectly for me, Poser5 hasn't caused me any major problems like some I've seen mentioned, in fact the only bug I found before the patch was the transparencies in reflection bug, haven't seen anything bad since, but I might be looking in the wrong places. It's actually 11.50am here just north of London in the UK :)

It will be nice when I can say the same about Poser 5. I asked CL if they would trade software. P5 for P4. They flaty refused me. Not exactly great customer service. I have imaged some fairly high end clients here in Canada and if any pulled what I have seen so far with their latest product release, they'd be dead in the water. I believe if CL doesnt get things sorted out soon they will be also. In my opinion, I think CL is very fortunate that they do not currently have any competition. As I said before, I am not alone with my problems with this prematurely released software. I have dialogued with others who I won't mention because they are very credible, high profile artists and designers and they are also quite unhappy. It is an unfortunate situation that CL finds themselves in but to knowingly release something with that many bugs as proved by there quick patch release, and comments admitting their premature release by you know who, they have brought it on themselves. I recognize this as an Imaging nightmare. If they were my client it would be a real challange to set things strait. The only thing saving them now is there current monopoly. But I'll bet sells are dwindling as more negative feedback pours out along with unfavorable reviews. Its really too bad because its shaken the poser community wouldn't you agree? By the way it is just after 5am here in Western Canada. Have a nice day.

it's definately divided the community but not the way I thought it would, I thought it would be a straight Poser4/Poser5 split, instead it's more 3 way split Poser4/working Poser5/non working Poser5, I really hope they get all the problems fixed as soon as poss, then we can all get back to normal trading insults with the LW/Max only users. have a good one :)

I think that sums it up nicely. We found our common ground. You have a nice one also. Next time we talk I'm sure it will be more upbeat and positive. Bye for now

hrm, your still here lapis, if your theory were true, you'd have been banned long ago. Janice, did you print out your code? As long as you kept the code sent to you, you should be able to install as many times as you want, just choose manual when it asks you to register. Did you send the numbers after the c exception error to cL like they asked? I curious if anyone recieved a response from this yet.

I sent off a pz3 to CL that was consistently causing a c exception on render and they're currently working on it. I was using displacement maps, bump maps and P5 hair, and for me anyway this seems to cause problems. I tried again using the same props last night, but adding them again in a different order, and the addition of the hair was what finally caused the c exception during render. I'm on WinXP home, have an Althon 1.8 cpu, 1 gb ram, nVidia video card. So we'll have to see what they come up with next week - hopefully a solution.

I was going to purchase Poser5 and probably still will, but not at the moment, I'm going to wait. With all the posts about Poser 5, there seems to be more people having problems with it than the ones that are praising the program. My question is, why are a few people loving the program with no problems and everyone else is really bitching like hell about it? Something isn't right. CL should have never released the program with all the bugs they said it had. They knew it was going to be a problem and shold have fixed those before the release. Releasing the program with all the bugs they said it had isn't very good company business practice. OK, going back to lurking now.

Well, technically speaking it's impossible to write a program of more then five lines long that is bug free, (it's "corectness" is mathematically unprovable) but that said I do think this has been an unmitigated PR disaster. OK, so CL are a small company experiencing financial problems in the midst of a global ecconomic downturn, and I don't doubt for an instant, provided they're still here in 6 months, that they'll eventually sort it all out. But given that times are hard for many folks, not just CL, I would have thought that would have at least made a public appology for getting thier customers to effectively beta test for them. If only because it makes them look bad. I personally have no intention of removing any software from my system, (and certainly not my Antivirus software) if P5 can't hack it in my environment it's got no business being there. I'll stick with P4. I spent 1000+ Euros buying and upgrading, (memory) a new box to put it on, knowing it'd crawl on my laptop. I'll make any reasonable changes, I'll upgrade drivers, etc. But beyond that I expect it to work and be usable 90% of the time, everything else I've installed is. later jb

Actually, CL did make an apology on this forum for all the problems, so do give them credit for that. (You can ream them for not testing enough, etc., but they should get credit for the apology. Whether or not you feel that cancels out all the problems is a different matter entirely.) So far, knock on wood, the P5 patch has fixed things, though I'm still noticing some small weirdnesses. Since I got P5 at the upgrade price, it was worth it for me, but if you're buying a full, new version, I don't blame you for taking a wait and see approach. P5 really needed to stay in the oven at least 10 more minutes. ;-)

To all you people who paid $300+ for poser 5... Didn't you have legal versions of Poser 4?? The upgrade costs $129 Nuff said... mac

Poser 5 really scares me, I never had a program with so many problems. I'm not tech wise, and when a program has many problems,the fix has many problems, and they have to fix the fix, I get nervious. I know a number of you experts can figure out things, make workarounds, tinker, and proform your magic to get it running, I confess I can't do that. I think it is a reasonable expection that a software progam proform the functions it was designed/advertised, to do, without major adjustment or special handling. The best thing for me right now is to forget Poser5, wait a month or two, and hope they (CL), can manage to put together a working fix. I ordered Poser5 with overnight delivery(what a waste of money), so I could get to using it right away, and here I am waiting two months or more to use it. Everytime I check the forums there are more problems. I admit alot (if not all) is over my head. After all the hype, I gotta say I'm really disappointed. I also realize that CL is trying to fix things. Hopefully there will be a working P5 by Christmas (a nice Christmas present).

maclean, Um, there may be people who prefer to purchase full vs upgrade versions (such as myself), for whatever reason, plus those who did not own P4 and decided to try out P5. Your insinuation that those members of the community are or were illegal users is uncalled for. Nuff said...

Speaking of the license policy: sure you can reinstall it on the same harddrive! That's because they write some signature somewhere on the drive, which isn't very trustworthy either. But nevertheless, when you do it, the system contacts CL and checks with their server. My concern now is: What if CL closes for good one day? All I can do with my rightfully bought property is dump it, because there will be no more CL server on the web to authorize it. For me it's clear, I will never ever again by a product with this kind of copy protection regardless of high it is praised.

"Speaking of the license policy: sure you can reinstall it on the same harddrive! That's because they write some signature somewhere on the drive, which isn't very trustworthy either. But nevertheless, when you do it, the system contacts CL and checks with their server." Actually, that isn't how they do that. Your hard drive has a built in unique identifier fromt he manufacturere int he hardware. The Poser5 license seems to use that as one of the seeds for calculating the challenge.

"My concern now is: What if CL closes for good one day? All I can do with my rightfully bought property is dump it, because there will be no more CL server on the web to authorize it." CLs' had issued a "good faith" agreement in the forum that, if this should ever happen, they would make a universal reg code available.

Will the "universal reg code" work as good as P5 and the P5 fix?

I dunno. Have to try to pry that from the "horse's mouth" I guess. I have not seen nor heard if this "universal reg code" was placed in escrow somewhere to be released upon CLs' demise. That would be a definite plus in consumer confidence though.