Wow. Have you considered that maybe "YOUR" firewall software is actually that which is chuffed?

Keith, The cheating is not the biggest issue here. There are inherent and definite problems with the current generation of nvidia cards that affect anti-aliased images. This is a stated fact. Even they have admitted to it. This does not have much, if any, impact on 3D previews, but definately comes into play with DirectX 9 games. Additionally, there is NO WAY that these cards can be used for hardware rendering. That is 100% absolutely performed by the computer CPU. There is NO WAY for any offloading to the graphics card. The only cards that do this cost in the multiple $1000.

Honestly, if you are using the card primarily for 3D graphics, you really won't lose out buying a product from either company (or their partners). The features that really set them apart are used 99.9% only by games, and mostly as marketing talking points. For 3D previews, cards from both companies will suit you well. Both have stable drivers (with ATI finally catching up to nVidia, more or less). The best decision is to get the best card that you can afford - each brand has many cards at various price points. Spend what you can and enjoy the card. If you plan on using it for games as well, I would lean a bit more to the ATI over nVidia. Otherwise, check them both out.

Let me back up what Thalaxis says re: Tom's Hardware. It is widely reported and PROVED that Tom's reviews can be bought and that he brings a specific bias to many of his reviews in favor of certain products/companies. Avoid his site at ALL costs, as the reviews are extremely questionable. Go to any tech site (Ars, HardOCP, nVnews, slashdot) and they all have stories/proof that you can find (with "search" of course).

Overall the Radeon is a "better" - notice, in quotes - card than the nVidia because of various rendering and anti-alias issues. This affects just the current generation of cards. Your system setup is pretty solid, so you should have no problems with what you have. Just FYI, the card will ONLY help with previewing the images in the viewport, and have nothing to do with the actual rendering of the final image. That is all processor/memory.

I am not trying to discourage you, but I stand by my original assertion. The Poser community is just not that tech savvy (no offense to everyone). It is a hobbyist product used primarily by those who like to play with the characters and make pictures. Besides hitting the reset button when their systems lock/blue screen, or accepting the relative simplicity of use of the Mac platform (the baseline skill level of most Poser users), there are not going to be enough people able and then willing to make time for a project like this. Good luck at the attempt, but I seriously doubt you will find enough people interested and able to participate.

Bizarro, The reality is that the Poser market is really and truly mostly a hobbyist platform. Yes there are many who use it for commercial purposes, but the VAST majority of users are more in the hobbyist category. By extension, most of that same category is not programming literate. You will face a BIG challenge in 1) getting enough people interested 2) getting enough skilled/tech people interested 3) pulling this off in any timeframe that makes it viable. You would be better served spending your efforts developing plugins to the higher end software packages (LW, Max, Maya) that fully utilize Poser content.

Just to reiterate... the graphics card has absolutely NOTHING to do with render times. Previews, yes, render, no.

To jump in here, esterau, with your last comment, I am in complete agreement. That is where things will probably move. However, for now, I believe the two peices of software should hae and be in separate forums. Although they use the same "character sets", there is substantial difference in teh operation of the two. Add to that the gee-whiz or the %$%^%#$ factor of the learning curve, and it is best we just handle the migration now, get it over with, and keep everything running smoothly.

Yes, in small amounts, but the inevitable "hey, how do you do this" or "are you getting this" type of posts will be coming in here, where it is not appropriate. If everyone using DS could just move over to the newer forum, we can all keep it on topic. As it is, this forum tends to be the "let's dump any old comment in here" forum, when there are others better suited for the comments. And yes, this tends to be the only forum I check every day, with perusing of the others on a "whenever" basis. It just makes things easier to get it done now, to keep things in general running smoothly.

Dirk, No, Daz didn't have to. This is a new/separate product. They expect to make sales off of it above and beyond M3. M3 never promised to provide this type of character. You were not cheated out of anything. In other words, no they do not owe you anything.

Yes Karen, there are, as you just proved yourself. You know, most of you in this post are playing holier-than-thou (the "cretin" or "dickhead" comemnts). The person posted an opinion. He/she is allowed to. Too many people on this board get hysterical when anything non-postive is posted about there picture, and come whining and crying into this forum. I am sorry if not everyone can post a kumbaya type response to every single picture in the galleries. I guess we should change the comments to read "Only post those comments that will offend noone or are unilaterally postive". Let's say I am an atheist, I guess I can go and post pictures (let's say a picture of Mike pisssing on a pictural representation of the Virgin Mary/Victoria), and then act offened if Catholics post shock and disdain regarding my picture. It is bound to happen, and I should expect over time at least some negative response. Same thing if I were to post a negative representation of George Bush (yes I am an American). Even though the picture would represent a fair point of view, I would at least expect some negative reaction from somewhere/sometime. Same thing if I posted a glowing representation of Bush. Life sucks sometimes. It cannot always be filtered for your viewing pleasure. Accept it as an observation, and move on. Pdxjims, please develop a bit thicker skin. Your work has always been of a very high quality. Take pride in that, and that the vast majority of people either actually enjoy your work and are ambivalent. Face it, not everyone thinks the Beatles were the greatest thing to ever happen to rock n roll (myself included). Play the martyr card, if you must, but by just ignoring it completely, it makes you better than all of the negative comments.

As one who has criticized these type of toon characters (specifically the female, bee-stung lip, big-breasted characters), I LOVE this. This is the type of diverse character that is severaly missing in the community, and I will definitely be buying this one. Looks awesome! MORE PICTURES!

DW - not criticizing your talent. Not one bit. Your skills more than show through on this project and your others (artwork,etc). I just think that the "market" for this type of character (female/quasi anime/...) has reached a saturation point. I would be a LOT more thrilled, personally, for a MALE version of the character, as Ichiro is about the only thing filling that niche. And before you ask, YES I would pay for it; it does not have to be free. My comment was on the plethora of smilar characters that are in the marketspace (free or otherwise). As I mentioned, it is a VERY generous gift, I just think a bit more variety would be better. All my opinion.

Oh joy... ANOTHER anime/-ini/big t1tted/wasp-stung-my-lip excuse for a character. Yes, it is great of Daz to release this, free, and unheralded. Yes they really DO take good care of us - a point I have made in many posts. But for #@^$-sake, aren't there enough of these out there? So, this is a big YEA! for those who like this kind of stuff, and for the rest of us, it is more crap to view in the galleries!!!! Daz - spend more effort on Daz Studio!