In addition, I'd REALLY like to see click-buttons to insert tags like bold, italic, etc. in the text of a post, like they have over at 3D-Arena. Having to do all that manually every time you make a post is a major paininnabutt!!! That, along with the ability to EDIT posts, should be at the top of the list!

Sorry, that's just the sound of 'frust' as I realize I still have to wait. "Soon" is one of those words I always hate to hear, because it almost always means 'longer than you really want to wait'. "Immediately" is much more to my liking, but usually the only time I hear THAT, is when somebody is telling me when I have to pay a bill. ;o) So, Rena, I'm definitely going to be 'lurking in the wings' ready to pounce on this one. I'll just pass the time planning scenes and (as we used to say when I lived in Hawaii) "broking my brain with skullduggerous calculations". You guys sure do great stuff. Thengkew in advance.

When you create a terrain to use as a mountain. Go into the Terrain editor - start at the default grid size of 128 and click a couple of times on the "slope noise" button, and a couple of times on the "erode" button above. Then change the grid size to 256 and repeat (hit the "smooth" button ONCE at this point), then adjust the grid to 512 and repeat the slope noise and erode process again. If your mountains are relatively close (scene-wise), or you want really good detail, change the grid size to the max of 1024 and do it one more time. This is the basic way to get realistic mountains - play around with it and experiment (more noise, less erode, vice versa, etc.), and soon you'll be able to do realistic mountains. When done, don't forget to raise the bottom 'cut off' a little so you don't have a square base to your mountain. The other important thing to mention is do NOT make your mountains small and close to the camera. Make them BIG and far away (Very big and Very far)- they'll look much more real. Check my gallery for examples of what I've been able to get with this technique - especially my recent pics like 'Wu Tien Shan' and 'Lungmen Jia'.

Actually, I just checked. Their site is www.deespona.com, but there they only sell the full CD of all their models for about $500. However, you can buy the junk, or any of their other models, individually from Turbosquid (also linked from the DeEspona site). Make sure you get the *.obj version if you are going to use it in Bryce.

I bought a very good one from DeEspona for only $20 - it's in the picture in my gallery called "Dawn at Wu Tien Shan". Search for DeEspona (or is it De Espona?) on the net. They do a whole lot of ship models - pretty much the best ones around.

WHEN? WHEN? WHEN? Since you skipped that question earlier.

Then you have to go back and delete the "item name" folder. When you've downloaded a dozen or more things, and have to do this whole rigamarole for each, it's a MAJOR paininnabutt!! I can't figure out how, or more importantly WHY, they do it this totally fucked-up way to begin with. Is it just that they want to know anybody who downloaded their stuff has to jump thru a bunch of pointless hoops, or what?

Well, I have to wait some time before I can afford to upgrade to a better computer and THEN I can try to upgrade to P5, but I'm not sure that I'm going to, now that I found out that the "best" new features like hair & cloth effects are NOT exportable to other programs, and I will always do my rendering in Bryce, where I can build scenes with far more options in materials, lighting, etc. Now I'm hearing from people who went ahead and got it that it's even more "buggy" than anyone expected. So far I haven't heard much of substance to impress me that it's a must-have one must get as soon as possible.

One thing I absolutely HATE is when people put up freestuff, or purchase items, and they somehow add the item name to the BEGINNING of the pathname in the zip file, - i.e., prop xxx has an install path in the zip file that says propxxxruntimelibraries.... which makes it absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to use the path at all when installing from the zip file - as the files will end up in Poser 4propxxxruntime.... NOT in Poser 4Runtime.... In these cases you have to manually put them in appropriate folders, so there is no point to having the paths in there, it's just a hindrance and inconvenience, and usually the stupid, frequently miles-long path has to be hacked out of the cr2, or pp2, or whatever anyway in order to get the damned thing to work at all. How Irritating! A while back I downloaded something that had a path 15 levels deep, starting at C:Program files etc. Really makes ya want to grab the turkey and 'beat him freely about the head and shoulders' with a small planet.

Since poser figures are only a part of my scenes, and I build all my scenes in Bryce, I don't expect I'll EVER render a scene in Poser, no matter what the version. I can understand those who only do nude vickies with some simple background are content to render in poser, but not people who do immensly complex scenes like I do - it just WON'T work. If hair and clothing effects can't be exported then they are utterly useless to the many folks like me. It's also very apparent that those who can't currently afford to upgrade or continue to use Poser 4 for whatever reason are to be distinctly 'second class citizens' around here from now on.

Looking good Howard. This will really help. Looking forward to this becoming available. Don't forget to add that ability to specify a different default texture path to your next version of Pboost. That's already a great program, but it needs this too.

[[Also, you missed a great big point - If people get disgusted with paying rent on their computer, they'll vote with their wallets and go get something better. Instead of whining about "oh, when will Linux do this/that", perhaps you ought to get off yer duff and help out a little? After all, Linux is about community, not about carping on some corporation to get things done for you. ]] HOW will they "vote with their wallets" if there is NO other operating system available for PC's that will run all the programs they want to use???? M$ is certainly working very hard to keep everyone out of the market so they can use their monopoly status to FORCE people to play it their way. It's been pretty obvious that their strategy is to 'slowly' shift to the pay-by-month approach, bit by bit by bit, so once it's fully in place, the 'general run' of users will be 'used to it' and won't realize what they've signed away until some month comes when they forget to pay on time and get cut off from all their own files, by which time it will be way too late to do anything about it except pay up - and once they've got everyone trapped into the system, you can absolutely COUNT on those monthly fees increasing quite regularly. As far as "getting off my duff" - I am NOT a programmer in ANY form. Since it is totally unrealistic to try to ditch all my other interests and work, and spend the next several years doing nothing but learning how to program - there's not a damn thing I CAN do to help except be ready to buy Linux-ported software IF and when it becomes available, and IF and when Linux comes in a form that laymen/non-programmers can use, be ready to instantly convert to it.

Very Good Question!

No software company will be FORCED into doing stuff like all the invasion and spyware in XP (and much much more in future versions). There are other ways to go that don't ASSUME that every single user is a likely thief. As I said, this particular protection scheme by CL is NOT the main reason people are unhappy - it's just a symptom of an overall trend that makes many people very VERY nervous. A trend that does not HAVE to happen, unless complacent people let it. I am among the many who will NEVER own a computer with XP on it, nor will I sign over full ownership of everything I ever create to some greedy software company just so I can access my own damn files.

This registration is relatively innocent and not that much of problem in and of itself. It is, however, just part of an overall trend toward which all computing is being steered. Before long, with the system that is the (already publicly admitted) GOAL of M$, you will HAVE to pay EVERY single month in order to use your operating system from M$ (probably around XP v3 or so). If you don't pay them EVERY month, you will be cut off, and totally unable to access any and all of your own files. If you have to pay somebody else to access your own work, who does it really belong to? A lot of the reaction to this protection "scheme" is really a reaction to the overall, rather scary trend toward propritary software manufacturers having complete control over YOU and me and everyone else. Lordy, when the HELL is the Linux community going to get it together so that some version of Linux will run ALL windows programs and people will actually have some choice again?? There are zillions of people who would drop Microslop like a red-hot turd if Linux systems that actually can run everything were available.