Think of what you see in the screen shot as a full-screen start menu: when you launch a program, it goes to the Windows 7 - style desktop interface. My Windows 8 desktop is exactly the same as it was in Windows 7.

I've only had it installed for a few days so I'm still finding new / improved feautres, but so far:

I routinely have to copy or move big chunks of data from my workstation PC to NAS devices across a 100 gb/s network and there are massive improvements here: not only is it a whole lot quicker, there's better feedback while it happens. 

A lot of the under-the-bonnet (under-the-hood) tools have received much needed attention, to the point where (for example) third-party de-fragging utilities aren't necessary.

I've seen in the other thread something about Win8 only lets you have 2 windows open at a time. That's nonsense.

The thing that smacks you in the face at startup is the Metro interface; it also appears when you hit the start button on the keyboard. It is highly configurable, potentially more useful than the old Start thing, and disappears when not needed. Yes, you'll look at the mainly tablet-related stuff in there, skim through the toys and then 'unpin' what you don't want.

So, apart from the obvious cosmetic changes, Windows 8 is just like Windows 7, but a bit faster and better thought out.

Edited to add screen shot.

Opinion is divided.

Having just upgraded from 7 to 8, I'd have to say that Windows 8 is a little better, noticeably faster for day-to-day stuff like copying and moving files, and makes no difference to Poser.

Now that I have the 'Metro' bit tamed and organised the way I want it, I quite like it: but if you really can't get on with it, there are 'fixes' (links in the thread).

The quick fix is to turn raytracing off for the stockings.

Or use Dimension3D's Add Deformers python script. A lot less hassle.

I just upgraded from Win7 Ultimate x64 to Win8 Pro x64 yesterday.

Having first backed up my Win7 system partition, I decided to install Win8 over Win7.

The Win8 Installer first checks your (Win7) system and prompts you to uninstall stuff that won't be compatible: I had 3 utilities to remove, nothing major.

Then the install process begins: it took over 2 hours for my system, but I have to say when I finally got to log in to my new OS, everything was where it should have been and everything worked. The upgrade didn't break anything. The only thing I had to do was to re-profile my monitors (this won't be an issue for most).

Windows 8 has shaved 2 minutes off my previously 5 minute startup time. Generally, everything seems to be quite brisk. It seems to make no difference to Poser (Pro 2012).

The 'Metro' bits aren't particularly intrusive; the biggest change is that the 'Start' button doesn't do what it used to, which took me about 5 minutes to get used to.

I'd find yourself a decent special offer and upgrade.

Possibly related to Volumetrics, an overhaul - or better yet, a rewrite - of Poser's Atmosphere system. In its current state it can do useful things, but the render times for something so mathematically simple are ridiculously long.

I'd say you were in a good position with the architectural stuff, there's not a huge amount of it about.

The market for outfits. hair and to a lesser extent characters has been fragmented because of Genesis' lack of compatibility with Poser - and even with the DSON stuff I don't think it's quite there yet.

Which leaves Poser users with their legacy Generation 4 characters, now beautifully updated with weight-mapped versions, and most such users will have a wealth of outfits in their runtimes. I'm looking more at stuff for Miki4. Tyler, Anastasia, Antonia etc. than Genesis at the moment.

Quote - I'm confused.

The trouble with the forums is that the 'gems' are buried in a huge amount of noise. First you have to know that there's a gem there to search for (and ideally who made it), then you have to use the search function, then see if the search results are what you hoped for.

Here's the link.

Quote - So, in truth, we would have Genesis in Poser with this (DSON and Installers)?

That's exactly what's in the images above.

Loaded Genesis, dialled in a child morph, applied an M4 texture, dialled in a pose / expression, then dragged-and-dropped (from the Poser library) some clothing items, hair and a prop onto the figure.

And hey presto! Everything snaps into place, more or less... just a tiny bit of poke-through on the left boot.

Then changed the body shape to a female, loaded a V4 texture, ran the DSON support > Transfer active morphs script. The only glitch was that the sword didn't behave itself: easily sorted by deleting it, selecting the figure and reloading.

So well done DAZ, this seems to work really well!

Quote - What am I missing here?

It's all guesswork unless you can post a screenshot or a small render.

Also pick one of the figures or props that's glowing and post a screenshot of its material setting.

It's probably something really simple.

Just for clarity:

the whole point of monitor calibration is to ensure that they are as close as possible to a standard: typically that standard will be sRGB, maybe AdobeRGB if you have a wider gamut monitor (you will have bought it for this ability).

Both sRGB and AdobeRGB standards specify a gamma of 2.2 and D65 (6500° Kelvin); the difference is in the RGB mapping (AdobeRGB has a wider gamut).

The calibration procedure involves (a) defining your target values within the calibration software and (b) with the measuring device in place, adjusting a variety of values via your monitor's OSD while watching the feedback provided by the software. The software prompts you through the process. It can be fiddly. Once you're as close as possible to your aim points, the software will measure a series of colour patches and the results will be encoded into an ICC monitor profile: this should be set as your system profile (by the software in most cases). This profile is used by both the Operating System and ICC-compliant software such as Photoshop to display colour accurately.

Fancier solutions such as i1Display Pro are able to manipulate your video card's LUTs (Look-Up Tables) to save the hassle of farting about in the OSD, but are about twice as much as entry-level packages.

At the top end, graphic arts monitors from NEC, Eizo etc. ship with their own calibration software which interfaces directly with hardware within the monitor, going through several iterations of measuring grey levels, white point, black point and colour values, adjusting them all, re-measuring, re-adjusting etc. until everything is within very tight tolerances: the adjustments are saved in the monitor's hardware. Then it does a quick series of measurements to create the system profile.

On my NEC monitor the calibration phase happens in a linear colour space. At any time I have the option to make the monitor emulate AdobeRGB, sRGB or anything else I might feel like. Lucky me.

randym77:

these monitor calibration instruments are colorimiters and are basically all the same. A pricier one might be a tiny bit more accurate, but 99% of the added value is in the drivers and software. A less expensive solution will be OK, just check that it has support for your OS and that you won't miss extra features, faster operation, simpler interface etc. Ideally it should generate ICC v4 profiles, but v2 will be perfectly OK. If you want super-accuracy you need a spectrophotometer, like this.

markschum:

whether your approach is better than nothing is debatable; if you're using a CRT or a really old LCD, this approach is worth pursuing.

If you have a recent LCD monitor, it isn't. Don't faff about with any of the controls except to adjust brightness to whatever's comfortable.

If you're using a CRT monitor, you MUST calibrate and profile it regularly, at least once a month. As it's likely to be quite old now, once a week is probably more like it. I do extremely colour-critical work; when I used CRTs I calibrated and profiled daily.

A hardware profiling solution (e.g. the Spyder mentioned above) is a must. Make sure to let the monitor run for at least 20 minutes to warm up and stabilise. Your target settings should be 2.2 gamma, D65, 120 to 160 cd/Msq; ignore whatever the software recommends, rubbish that gets posted by half-wits in forums or stuff that you once read in a 10 year old book.

These days I use LCD NEC Reference monitors which I calibrate and profile weekly. Your sample images are tagged with an sRGB profile so I'm getting an accurate idea of what the images look like. The only ones I can provide meaningful comments on are B and C: C looks right, B doesn't.