Attached Link: Who needs firefly anyway....

Reading all the posts about complaints, bugs and whiners made me hesitate before jumping in. Now I tend to think the forum can serve as a good barometer for CL - that is, if 90% of people posting really have issues with P5, they won't be able to avoid facing the facts. I preordered P4 like so many others. I even received it on time. That was a month ago and I have been able to use it for an amazing total of 20 minutes since. Like many others, I went through registration hell. I even received a less than polite email from CL support questioning the validity of the P5 serial number I sent them when I had to register by email (suffice to say I had to *scan* the CD cover and send them the image to prove I was a legitimate user, along with my address, two serial numbers for P4 and P4Pro). My system has been freshly reinstalled just before getting P5. Brand new setup. Clean installation of widows XP. And yet, poser keeps crashing. I was glad to have switched to broadband when I found out the patch CL released was a nice 47Mo :) The patch didn't help. It stopped halfway with an error and screwed up P5 altogether. Now... I went back to P4Pro (which I did not uninstall fortunately) and I will wait another patch (or two maybe) and more favorable posts until I give it another try. This is too bad - I was really looking forward to finally reorganize my runtime libraries by categories and try the new materials. I really feel happy for those who have no problem with this release. You don't know how lucky you are. There... end of rant :)

I understand the hesitation about jumping in. :) My Poser 5 does not work well enough to use on a regular basis, and, frankly, I am afraid to try to install the patch after reading so many horror stories about it here. I am a little bummed by Poser 5's poor performance, but not devastated. I have a nice computer, and Poser 4 works just fine. I have a roof over my head, and the bills are paid. I won't let software problems ruin my sense of well-being. LOL Poser is a hobby for me, and an enjoyable one. When the fun stops, the hobby stops, so to heck with 5 until they create about a half dozen or so more patches. I am still having fun with Poser 4. :) This may not be a popular attitude, but it does keep my blood pressure down. :)

That's exactly how I feel about it, I've used P5 for a few hours, it crashed twice, stuff didn't work, and I got more frustrated the slower it got, as I added characters to the scene. Then I set it rendering for an hour, immediately saw something I wanted to change, and P5 crashed for the second time. I gave up, loaded the pz3 into poser4, where it was fast, stable and a lot more fun. Which for a hobbyist, is the way it should be. Yay! :)

I've had some trouble with it, too. And although I downloaded the patch I've become afeared to install it. Basically, I jump into it to play with the cloth room then I go back to Poser Pro. I agree with praxis and seamyst.

I have to admit the program was unusable for me before the patch. After the patch I'm able to use it sometimes but there are still many issues that make it a frustrating experience. I hope CL has enough money to fund further fixes and enhancements so I can actually get something out of this investment.

3 weeks late on delivery, effortless install, effortless registration - and no crashes for two days ;o) Firefly renders with 3 infinite lights (main, ambient, fill) look noticably better than P4, even in default Firefly settings. Face shot w/ Neftis classic P5 hair renders to 555x555 pixel window in 5 minutes. Remember how new releases of Vue, Bryce etc. behaved in the beginning? CL did well, people. DAZ may do well with their proposed app, too. Although I fervently hope CL and DAZ will join forces again, I'll probably be using both apps - but then again, I always have been a new-aholic. Just my 0.2