So what does all that mean Katherine? That Curious Labs are still in charge of Poser? Or is there better news than that?

Joerg. What would E-Frontiers want with Poser? It's not just a toy for hobby and amateur users. It's used in main industry (media, legal, medical) A better question would be. Why should they develop their own human based software or plugin (like 3DSMax) when they can buy one that has a large and diverse userbase and already does everything they need with human models? Better to buy it, clean it up, develop an import plugin or integrate it with Shade and hit all the markets with a highly capable modelling and animation package. Just speculation of course, but... seems more sensible than "buy it, kill it". Yes, unfortunately the price probably will go up. But considering how much many people claim to spend in the store here each month I don't think it's "out of reach" of too many users. If it is rather expensive then there's always the prospect of cough saving up for it? :)

Just one small thing BH because I agree with most of what you say. The programmers, owners and people working at CL were in the beginning and towards the end, the same people who worked on Poser at Metacreations. So, following that logic (as they're one and the same team) if Metacreations had kept it and advanced it to Poser 5, it would still be the same as it is now. Because the same people did it. Check the list of credits for Poser 3, 4 and then for Poser 5 as a comparison some time. You might be surprised how many names are recurring. Also, Steve Cooper and Weinberg at CL are the same Steve Cooper and Weinberg from Metacreations. Mr. Weinberg being the original programmer and owner of Poser (1 and 2) before Metacreations messed up Poser 3 and released 4 as a bug fix for 3. Not picking on you, but Metacreations weren't quite as innocent as they seem. Seperately, not to hijack the thread I see the buyout of CL by E-Frontiers as a good thing. Personally I am exstaticly happy that Poser is out of the hands of CL (or hopefully is) and that a company with at least some programming ability has got hold of it. Shade is an excellent modelling package. If (and it's a big if) they fix Poser and integrate that more closely with Shade - (and by proxy Vue d'Esprit) releasing US/European versions of Shade I won't be sorry at all. The chances that they'll incorporate daffy tools into Poser when they already have a modelling/rendering package is unlikely. The chances that they'll continue to develop and support Poser are very high. The future is bright. CL is dead. Time to party.

I confess I haven't recently checked out the preview site but there's a lot of kit on there for Mike. Several historical uniforms, suit, pants and other assorted items including an excellent western outfit that can be customised for casual wear. One thing to remember is that Mike 2 will wear Mike clothes. Only thing different is in the morphs and most clothing doesn't carry the morphs for these characters. Programs like The Tailor (Daz) will allow you to morph items to fit but it's not a perfect solution. Morphs on clothing unless there's sufficient mesh will result in the clothing and texture map stretching. Anyway, I honestly don't think you'll be disappointed with Poserworld, I certainly haven't been. Just as a quick example, I have 123 clothing items for mike in my Poserworld directory and a bunch on cd that I haven't unpacked. Allowing that some of these are related (right and left boot) there's probably around 65 single clothing items and another dozen or so that I've not unpacked yet. Steve has also been making things for V3/M3 and making "retro" items for the earlier models. So you won't run out of stuff because he's moving on. The guy's a workaholic so there'll always be something. As an added bonus he takes requests for items. Sometimes they get made, sometimes not. It depends on his schedule and what's in the pipeline. Also watch out for items from a vendor called Thip (Daz, PoserStyle and the store here). He makes a good few items for Mike and they're excellent quality. Oh, erm. The foot thing. Trust me, you don't want to spend too long near my feet, they have a government health warning on them. :) Seriously though, hope some of this is helpful.

Attached Link: http://www.poserworld.com

I'm going to bow out of this conversation because it was not my intention to start a "what if" argument or a witch hunt or get into a "but it's free" discussion. The mesh exported from the game is copyrighted - no matter what you do with it. Have a read, Answer 2 is quite relevant. http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html and http://www.copyright-laws.com/ On that note, I'm outta here. Do whatever you will. I just thought a heads up was worth while before anything went much further.

Not to start an argument lynnJonathan, but the answer is. Yes. It has happened in the past for less reason - although not "yet" to Poser users (as far as I know). Copyright is protected regardless of usage. Trademarks are defended rigorously and often vehemently. Did Star Trek fans profit from their sites? No, but Paramount closed them down and spent a fortune doing it - why? Usually because of grainy screen shots snapped from TV. No profit, no charge for access, nothing. Just a 'fan' saying "wow, I love this series". That's one example. Same with several other companies. Yeah it's easy to shrug and say "I made no money, what they gonna do?" Simple fact is, many often DO do something. Better safe than sorry, neh? Other examples of how people react when their textures, models and images are used against their wishes can be found on this very website. Here in the Poser forum and in the Copyright Forum. Might want to search and take a look. :)

Meriamus Wrote: Hmm Questor, I guess you're right --- Right or wrong is a moot point, I just thought you might want to look a bit closer at what you want to do in relation to the company and it's regulations. The funny thing about models like this is if (perhaps) you thought maybe other game owners might like them and loaded them up to freestuff, it would be more than game owners who download them. With the way things have been in the last 18 months they could end up anywhere from this store to another store somewhere else - with your name on it somewhere. Might not be healthy for you. :) Sorry if I seemed a tad heavy handed up there, that wasn't my intention. **** Pengy wrote loadsastuff: ----- Personal use I should imagine would be fine Pengy, it's the potential for redistribution that I thought Mariamus might need to investigate. It was the "need help to bone" that twigged, if you're altering mesh or changing textures, adding props there's not usually a need to bone anything. I've done the same thing with Counterstrike models and altered them for a "clown" mod a friend wrote. This didn't come over as an intention to write a mod, but rather to take them into Poser for other uses. Take Two are a 10.3 million dollar company and Max Payne is kind of a flagship for them at the mo, meaning they might be somewhat protective of it. My apologies if I implied something untoward and painted Mariamus for burning at the stake (far too much of that goes on around here). But, sometimes people do things with the best intentions and get themselves into a world of hurt. ***** odeathoflife wrote: well according to that statment he COULD do it but take 2 would own it ----- Yeah, that's pretty much how it read to me as well, indicating that they want total control over the goodies. This (to me anyway) implies strict protectionism and any other usage of the files/models may result in unpleasantness. Having seen the way some companies operate (Disney, Microsoft, Paramount, TSR, Games Workshop etc.) it seemed prudent to suggest caution. :)

Max Payne and Max Payne 2 are registered trademarks of Take Two Interactive, the characters and textures are copyrighted to the company and their respective authors. Are you sure you have permission to export these characters to another format, do things to them and send them to other people to "help you" work on them? I do realise that people create modules for games such as this but they are usually kept within a propietary format and useable only in the game itself. From their "Legal statement" Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar Games, Gathering of Developers, Gotham Games, TalonSoft, Jack of All Games and related logos are trademarks of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. "PlayStation" and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Nintendo, Nintendo 64, the "N" logo, Game Boy Color and the Official Seal are trademarks of Nintendo of America, Inc. MTV and related logo are trademarks of MTV Networks, a division of Viacom International, Inc. Xbox and related logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. PLEASE NOTE: Take-Two Interactive Software and its subsidiaries, Rockstar Games, Gathering, Gotham Games, and Global Star Software welcome input from the gaming community. However, any submissions to Take-Two Interactive Software of any nature whatsoever, whether through this site or otherwise, and whether via electronic or other means, become the sole and exclusive property of Take-Two Interactive Software, which shall have full right, title and interest thereto, including under copyright, in all media now existing or hereafter created, and without any obligation to account or make any payment to the submitter for any use thereof. No purported reservation of rights incorporated in or accompanying any submission shall have any force or effect. By making a submission to Take-Two Interactive Software, you hereby agree to all of the foregoing. 2003 Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Perhaps contacting them to check might be worthwhile? James Ankner Director of Corporate Communications Take-Two Interactive Software 622 Broadway New York, NY 10012 (646) 536-3006 ir@take2games.com

***Is it only me?? **** No Ceba, it's not only you. :) RDNA recently changed their DNS to point to a named domain as opposed to the older url they used. You'll need to clear your browser cache and then head off to www.runtimedna.com in order to access the site properly. The older bondware address is now disfunctional.

You're welcome, I hope you find the model useful.

Attached Link: T-800 for Poser4