Check out my sig and you will see my current Mac specs. Here is some important tips -

First, make sure to get a LOT of RAM. New versions of Poser and other software will take advantage of more than 4GB, especially since they are moving eventually to 64 bit versions.

Second, do NOT ever run a VM machine to run Windows programs with that are as intensive as 3D applications like Poser. They are best suited for basic use like word processors, a camera or remote control application or generic non intensive use.

Third, if you want to install Windows, do so via Boot Camp only so you can run native with no slow down at all. Since you are going with an iMac, you will have to put it on your single internal drive. If you had a Mac Pro, you can easily setup dedicated hard drives for each OS you want to boot to on startup. I have a dedicated drive for each OS of: Leopard, Snow Leopard and Windows 7.

Fourth, don't skimp on the video card either no matter what model you go with. Get the best one they offer if you are doing 3D.

Keep in mind there is NO difference as far as a Mac or PC is concerned in terms of file formats that are application specific such as Poser, Daz, etc. They are in a format designed to be opened by that program regardless of the OS you are running. I wish others in the market place here would understand this and not confuse people.

Good luck in your shopping.

TrekkieGrrrl,

Thanks for letting me know. I thought it should work OK to use skin textures like that but was not sure. No, I do NOT plan to sell them, but I would like to make my own. Making a celebrity as you say can be hard. I have one I am working on and have seen others make some REALLY good ones from many different celebs that look very real. I plan to sculpt the head in another program, but need to make my own texture or maybe find one I have bought or could use that would be close match. I just wasn't sure if I could get the eyes or eye brows to look right though without making my own texture because I was told I could not. Also I was told that making your own texture was a must for a look alike model. As you say, you can't always get the photos you want but I was thinking as long as you got most of the face you can use photoshop to do the rest.

Can you suggest any good tutorials for making your own V4 skin textures using photoshop? I have never tried to make a custom skin texture before and thought there may be some good tutorials on it. Also, if I get the head done, I need a guide on how to make the rest of the body in photoshop to match the texture with the head part.

Thanks for the help.**
**

Quote - I still can't believe you all are falling this new scam upgrade policy without any resistance.  Let your money do the talking when it comes to this new maintenance plan scam.  Show E-on we won't put up with 6 month extortion charges to use buggy software. 

We Don't Want It!!!  Get rid of the incremental upgrade charges and maintenance plan.

We should get support (maintenance) upon purchase not because of a plan.

I know many users that share your sentiments and we do deserve better support at these prices. Other companies like Luxology, Maxon, etc. have better licenses and support service. But until e-on listens to their customers the only other option is the one you stated which is unfortunate.

Quote - > Quote - Well did my tips help? :)

Hi silverblade33

It helped more than I thought  by turning off DRAW BACKGROUND THREAD

I tried the same thing as you on the Mac version, but it did not help me any. The screenshot settings shows what e-on advised doing when I asked about 6 months ago. Others have said this does help at times for them, at least on the Windows version. For me, I can leave all this turned on under Windows 7 and not have the same issues as I do on the Mac most of the time (not all). I've seen random crashes when my resources are down to 30% and as high as 89% on the Mac so it's all over the map. Glad it has helped you.

Quote - I have frequent crashes in Vue still, too many to come and complain on here everytime, so I send Vue the crash report each and everytime.

My system is a Q6600 quad-core, 8GB ram, Geforce 9600GT, 3 hard drives about 2TB in total size, Windows 7 64 bit(Most stable windows I have ever used) . I never overclock, everything is updated so I really am at a loss as to why I get so many crashes.

To be honest crashes can happen for a million reasons, I can't say any other programs I have have crashed because they haven't so god knows what the problem is.

And yep I am completely confident in my PC skills lol, being half way through a degree in IT :) 

I have a feeling its related to OpenGL somewhere down the line but thats only a guess. However the crash on exit is still annoying, even though I am completely patched to the latest version of Complete.

The only thing I would say is everyones experience of Vue will be different, you can't complain if people moan about it because if its crashing for them then its annoying. Again if Vue doesn't crash for you then thats cool :) 

At the end of the day I have stopped complaining about the crashes and send off the bug reports in the hope that those issues are one day fixed.

Jon

I agree with most everything you said. For me, I have had good luck so far under Windows 7 64 bit, but certainly NOT the same for the Mac version. You can find a LOT of complaints about this over at the official e-on forums too.

Also, like yourself, I am more than confident in my Computer Science background and know that I have more knowledge than most people in that area in terms of programming, networking, etc. I am still learning 3D art, but my computer skills are quite well versed. Having said that, I too continue to do the same thing as you and submit reports to e-on and even sample files when it happens. However, there are a growing number of complaints as evidence at the e-on forums about them not giving any REAL support and only very basic or generic responses.

Many people over at e-on have said they are NOT going to invest in future versions until they work on fixing the issues they have now and there are many well documented ones. They want it to work and be improved BEFORE they even think about adding new features for another version.

Quote - But who play Sharon Stone's part :blink: Vicky isn't anatomical correct enough :lol:

Mazak

She can be with the V4 add ons out there. There are also a few V4 figures that have been sculpted to be anatomically correct too that accepts your own character morphs and textures you may have bought.

It does bring up a good point in that Daz should make V5 anatomically correct just like they did with M4. I mean people are artists after all, not kids playing with toy Barbie dolls. :)

Quote -  just downloading this one - i must have somehow missed it

Vue 7 xStream 7.4 Build 43993 Full Update

Yes, that is the build I am using too as it is the most current one. Because Vue is a "Universal Binary" still, it was designed to work on both Mac Power PC and Intel machines. However, I have been discussing this with several others and because Snow Leopard is Intel only there may well be issues with some programs like Vue that still contain the legacy code. While not Vue related, several have reported hit and miss issues with Adobe CS3 suite and other misc Universal Binary programs.

Still hoping Vue 8 on the Mac gets some MAJOR code revisions even if they don't have time for a full Coca re-write. Just eliminating the legacy Power PC code will help.

Quote -  Hi, so far no more crashes than before snow leopard, but vue seems faster for me in snowleopard in vue 7.4
I'm happy I installed snowleopard so far.
Love esther

That's good to hear, I hope to have some more tests done over the extended holiday weekend. Also, I have written several detailed posts in the link referenced above and cleared up some misconceptions a few people had.

One thing too is there is a REAL good review over at Ars Technica and also an article explaining the 64 and 32 bit confusion at TechMPH.com you may want to read.

The Macbreak Weekly podcast pointed out the same thing I did and some of the other tech articles picked up on too regarding possible conflicts with legacy Power PC code running on Snow Leopard. Since Vue is a "Universal Binary" that applies for it too. Some have found issues, others have not. It will be interesting to see how e-on addresses this as most like the podcast above say it's best to remove all support for Power PC code and move forward as that is what needs to be done since Snow Leopard is for Intel based Macs only now. I am REALLY hoping this is a wake up call for e-on to at least begin SERIOUS work on a full re-write in 64 bit Cocoa as Apple has been saying to do for years now.

Quote - Seems to be the opposite results as this thread:

Seems the only problem is with some plants not loading materials. Maybe you could check the thread and see if the other mac guys can help you out?

I looked into the thread you pointed to and please note the following.

First, it talks about Vue 7.5 on the Mac, not Vue 7.4 as noted in this thread here as I pointed out. So, there may indeed be a difference given they are not the same version.

Second, it was not at all conclusive and people seem to be getting mixed info even from e-on software on this, for example:

"I was just told by e-on software that Vue 7.5 infinite is NOT compatible with Snow Leopard, but some future version would be...now what??"

Third, there is a LOT of misinformation in that thread I will try to clear up for them. Many are confused about the whole 64 bit thing. This is NOT the case of any trouble reported as the OS is just like Windows 7. You can run applications that are 64 bit or 32 bit in the 64 bit OS. However, the application MUST be written in 64 bit to take advantage of the 64 bit kernel and memory. If talking about Vue, then ONLY the Windows 7 64 bit running Vue 64 bit will take full advantage of this. But, this does NOT mean Vue will not run as it always did on Mac, it will still be just a 32 bit application. There is further confusion about booting into a 32 bit kernel or 64 bit kernel on Snow Leopard OS and this has been outlined in several tech articles by now.

Fourth, some users mentioned "Rosetta" and that is NOT what you want to do. Mainly, Rosetta was only for applications that were NOT universal binary or ones that were written ONLY for the Power PC instead of the newer Mac Intel machines. It has nothing to do with if Vue will run or not properly in Snow Leopard as Vue on the Mac is a Universal Binary at this time meaning meaning it runs on BOTH the newer Intel Macs and older Power PC.

From e-on product page:
"Vue 7.5 Infinite is optimized for Power PC and Intel Macs, and for XP/Vista 32 and 64."

That is why I said I will have to do further testing to see about the kernel difference of 32 and 64 bit boots among other things. Also, there is a very good chance that because Snow Leopard no longer support ANY code for the Power PC and runs on newer Intel Macs ONLY, there may be code issues there due to Vue on Mac being a Universal Binary.

I am also going to see what, if any official word from e-on I can get. However I don't think it will be any real technical benefit judging from past answers given.

Hope this helps some.

Is this just going to be part of a render farm or a "render cow" or is it going to be used for actual Vue creation of scenes? If it is part of a node, not too bad but your RAM is still WAY too low.

On the other hand if you are getting this for a new PC for development, I would not do anything less than the specs I listed above except you could cut back on the SSD drives. Otherwise I do not think those are very good specs for primary PC development.

You did not mention a price limit, but I always build mine top of the line with no limits if it's a PC. However, the Mac Pro is great for duel-booting. You do not have to use Boot Camp on the same hard drive. It is possible to use two dedicated drives and simply select the OS you want on system boot.

If you are wanting PC only and not interested in the top line Nehalem CPUs that are only available right now on the Mac Pro then I would do:

1. Coolermaster ATCS 840 case.

2. Corsair HX 1000 Silencer Power Supply.

3. Corsair Dominator 12GB or more RAM.

4. i7 975 CPU.

5. LG Blu Ray Burner/DVD/CD.

6. Corsair H20 liquid cooling system.

7. Corsair 256GB SSD - 2X in Raid 0 configuration - 500GB for your OS and main apps.

8. 2 2TB Western Digital HD "Black edition". For data, photos, movies, etc.

9. EVGA nVidia 295 graphics card. or 2 nVidia 285 cards in SLI.

10. EVGA X58 SLI i7 motherboard.

11. Zalman high performance case cooling fans.

12. Windows 7 64 bit Professional or Ultimate.

13. Overclock to 4Ghz easily obtainable to be stable. Overclock graphics card. Custom heat sensors with external display in 5.25 drive bay, shrink tube and tidy wiring.

Quote - Volter -

Please realize many of us feel that this comment Quote - "It's always a smooth mesh."
Wow, the amount of fluff words from saleswoman was terrible.  Perhaps she should take a public speaking or presentation class.  Her charm and lack of speaking skill is not enough to fool me. Grade F." was not only rude but unacceptable and have commented previously how unacceptable it was. Just ignore people like that. There is always one in a crowd.

I taught a Photography as an Art Form free class at a local library. I was told by some regulars how gentle my comments were when I felt something could be improved. I have gotten hate mail from some  people who supposedly came to learn from my 40 years experience because I didn't think all their work was wonderful. They are no longer welcome in the class. It's sad that some people can be hateful.

You and Ami wrote a wonderful book, her tutorials are great, and just ignore ignorant comments even if it is hard. 

Agreed. However, it's not unique as I too have been attacked personally on this site by at least a few people. One user questioned my background because they did not like the way I came across to them on a personal level. But things like that happen because some people can not debate or acknowledge when they are wrong, you know more than them in a certain area, etc. and still others its just a conflict of personalities. It's a shame, but just part of it sometimes. Best to always stay professional and be true no matter what.

Quote - Ami's presentation was fine, particularly in that overwhelmingly hectic environment. I prefer a presentation by a real user to one by a slick PR/sales person. It was  informative  and useful.  I like her geekatplay tutorials too, its like learning from a friend.
I read some of her blog too -  another amazing woman who has to be a cross between an angel and a juggler. Not easy taking care of a family and having a career too, good thing women can multi-task so well :)
As for CobraEye's comment - I thought personal attacks are against TOS? perhaps something for a coordinator/moderator to act upon?

Agreed. I have ALWAYS said how much I LOVE the work and effort the guys at geekatplay.com do. Another great person I know is Peggy Walters that helped in editing their book for English corrections and technical detail. Both fine people it seems and very professional. As others, I have and use their video tutorials a lot and find them quite useful.

There are a few constructive tips I have though to help them some:

1. Slow down the mouse movements and speed. Sometimes they go too fast to get a good grasp.

2. Like on the shows videos with Ami, doing some audio edits would help such as normalizing and isolating the main voice and running a filter pass on the audio track to eliminate or heavily reduce the background noise. This can all be done by simply using an audio editor to turn them into tracks, running the filters and merging. I think it would help the quality a lot for some of them.

3. When doing a live event, either capture direct or use an HD camera that is zoomed on the screen or focus area. By using HD, you can do a lot of edits and have much greater detail and control, especially in software.

Keep up the good work, look forward to seeing them. :)

See my thread here and my results.

www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php

The latest 7.4 version did fix two issues for me I was having. At this time, I have no problems with crashes at all, especially on exit or with the "cloud layers" as before. Check my signature for system specs. If you have the latest Mac Leopard OS build 10.5.8 and the latest 7.4 patch, it should be fine.

Nice scene composition and render. Congrats on the POD at e-on. Just wondering, are those the Daz horses you used in your render or from some where else?

Happy rendering,