I have a desktop with two 8800GTX cards in SLI, and a laptop with two 8700M GT cards in SLI, and I haven't noticed any issues with P7 (or so far with P8).

The IBL and Ambient Occlusion combined with large pixel dimensions will require lots of render time.  You may also be approaching the memory limits, in which case the render will bog down.

P8 is much faster than P7 when doing comparable P7-type renders (non-IDL), but when you engage IDL, it will take a long time to render.  On the other hand, I found that I was able to render a complex scene which had crashed P7, so P8 seems to manage memory better.  Further, the first update for P8 may improve the IDL render speed.

Long term, you are right that 64bit is the way to go with your next computer.  To duck Vista, simply wait until autumn, when Windows 7 will be out.  And you might consider an nVidia Quadro video card instead of the video game cards.  The Quadro is made for CGI work.  They are expensive.  When working on the 64bit machine with a Quadro, I can see how materials will tile in real time in preview, and I can see the scale of procedural materials in preview.

I love making animations!  I spend a lot of time getting cyclic motions to seamlessly loop, so I'll try this out.  Thank you for your work, ockham!

I'd like to learn how to compose Python utilities for Poser, myself.

If I understand the question correctly (how do you get a smooth edge), you bevel/chamfer the edges.  Press the B ball-shaped button and it will pop up a list of edge chamfering options.**

T**  opens your computer's list of fonts.

Q  (horizontal slider) controls the mesh resolution, i.e., low-poly to high polygon count.

E  (hor. slider) controls extrusion depth.

e  toggles to open/close a strip window which displays the text which you've entered, in the selected font.  I didn't have it open when I took the screenshot above.

B  opens a menu list of edge bevel (chamfer) options.

S  (hor. slider) scales the edge bevel.

F  opens the file save prompt box.

H  is for help, but if you mouse over a button to highlight it, you'll get it's name;  then press F1 to get a brief description of the button's function.

Some fonts are prone to causing "pokey things" than others.

Using the rounded corners chamfer option is the most likely to cause pokey things.

If you have a modeler, open the .dxf model, select the outlier edge/vertex and slide it back to where it should be.

If you don't have a modeler, you could try a different chamfer style (45 degree, e.g.) or a different font.

If you have your heart set on a particular font with the rounded corners and can't fix it, let me know the font you want and the text (numbers, in your case?) you want, and I'll see if I can make it presentable.

Attached Link: Vinyamar - trollfight scene, frame 113 - P8 IDL demo

     I'm still installing and moving existing content libraries to shared docs / public folders, but I have been experimenting a bit using my weakest machine (32bit WinXp, 4Gb RAM shared among quad cores).  I found that I was able to render a complex scene, one which had immediately crashed P7.  P8 renders it, fast.      If I engage P8's IDL it takes a long time to render, but I also don't have to make a dozen test renders to get the lighting right.  In P7, I had to pump in light with a fire hose to light the scene (16 spots, at %300 intensity);  in P8, I could eliminate most of them, and the remaining spots are now set to %100-%33 intensity.      In P7, I spent a lot of time correcting flashed-out areas here and near-black areas there.  P8 with IDL evens out the extremes;  it reminds me of the effect of an HDR photo.

     I had to work to crash P8;  the linked image (see above) is P8 IDl, with ray-traced shadows and 3D motion blur;  the same computer crashed in P7 trying to render this without IDL or 3D motion blur.  The fortress/palace set is big, and there are three choreographed dolls with lots of animation keyframes.  It's a pig of a pz3.

As it is now, I consider the IDL to be a final render option for making portraits/wallpapers, but too slow to be feasible for rendering animations.  If they improve this in SR1, it will be very much worthwhile.

Belatedly, I looked up Font to Mesh Express Converter.  It exports to .obj which is the easiest format for Poser to swallow.  Does anyone know if it offers options for chamfering the edges?

Attached Link: Open House at the Elvish Cottage

Drifting off topic, but you should also get the free ***Ivy Generator*** by Thomas Luft;  it is both useful and fun to use - you watch the ivy "grow'!  The link above goes to my gallery;  there are some images there which use the ivy, re-textured as raspberry vines and holly.

Ivy Generator:  http://graphics.uni-konstanz.de/~luft/ivy_generator/

Attached Link: Tink's Cafe - 3D text extrusion done in Elefont

I love ***Elefont***!  It creates a mesh in *.dxf* format.  Poser often chokes on that, so if you have a modeler, convert it to an *.obj* before importing to Poser.  Also, you'll sometimes get these "icicles" protruding from the mesh, as seen in the screenshot of the Elefont UI.  A modeler can nudge such outlying vertices back into position. Elefont gives options for chamfering the edges;  a nice touch. This gallery image linked above shows an Elefont extrusion, using Windows' included *Harlow* font, and setting Elefont to produce rounded edges.

Quote - BB,

Right now I am using Poser Pro simply because its 64 bit rendering engine allows access to over 4 GB RAM ( I typically need over 5 GB RAM to render my images)......Should I therefore hold back until Poser PRro II (?) is released (given that 64 bit render engine is a must for me)?
vxg

  I'll defer to BB of course, but I think you'll find what you need in this thread:    http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2778341 
      The offer is that you can get P8 now, then when Poser Pro 2010 is released you only pay the difference in price between Pro 2010 and P8.  :D

      Since you are like me in that you need RAM capacity, you will probably want to install P8 while leaving Poser Pro in place.  In your SM folder, you'll have both a Poser Pro folder and a Poser 8 folder. You will have two programs, and two serial numbers.
      In P8, add (by reference, not copy)  your Poser Pro libraries.

  Then, for a complex scene, try to render in Poser 8 first;  if it succeeds, you get the benefit of superior IDL lighting (and probably speed).  If the render fails due to 32bit RAM allocation limitation, then render in Poser Pro (using separate process, so as to engage the 64bit render engine).

I think the P8 dolls look believable as is, and for the first time the included Poser characters have built-in morphability to make them easier to adjust, if desired.

If comparing stock, out-of-the-box dolls, I think V4 looks like one of the supporting cast of Resident Evil.

What is new is that the Poser dolls have a wider reach of potential.

Quote - You have to unpack the installer, then put the other 2 content exe. within that folder.

That's useful info, Sharen;  thanks. :D
       It might be a few days before I have the content zips, though. =O
     Fortunately, I'm not terribly anxious about getting the download right now.  It will all get settled down in time.  ^o^

There won't necessarily be a linear constant between P7 renders and P8 renders.

I find that with simple to medium complexity scenes, my quad core 32bit is fast on P7, about equal to the quad core 64bit running Poser Pro.  But if the scene is complex, the 64bit will render in less than half the time the 32bit takes.  Once I get P8 installed, I already plan to do comparison renders and compare performance.

I didn't even know that 3D software (for the general public) existed until I happened upon an Amazon ad for Poser 6 about halfway through the P6 era.  Intrigued, I bought my first PC, bought P6, and so it began...

I'm not hardcore about having the latest version number;  I won't get a new version unless it offers something I want. 

P7's multi-thread rendering, material tiling and object duplication made it worthwhile for me.

P8's GI lighting, improved render engine, and far better exploitation of multiple cores are enough to sway me.  There also seems to be better memory management, according to some of the beta test postings.

Quote - Then open P8 and add a runtime (folder icon to the top right) and point towards PoserPro folder.

That hadn't occurred to me, though it's embarrassingly obvious. =0   Thank you for the help. :D

Quote - So now you can run Poser 8 and access all of your other content from PoserPro or whatever other Runtimes you've added. And you can also run PoserPro seperately as a stand alone without P8.

That's precisely what I want to do.  I will try to render complex scenes in P8, since the new GI will give superior results, but if the 32bit memory allocation is not enough, I want to be able to fall back on Poser Pro's 64bit FireFly.

Quote - If you do have some issues they mostly come from not updating your video drivers, but I personally have not had any problems to date.

  Both Galadriel (desktop) and Pixie (notebook) have had their video drivers updated recently, but I'll run an update check again.  Pixie came with an nVidia Quadro 3600M;  I retro-fitted an nVidia Quadro FX5800 into Galadriel.  Galadriel came with dual ATI Radeon 4870x2 cards in CrossFireX;  gorgeous video, but Poser Pro would just shut off like throwing a switch when I imported certain OBJs.  Maybe my modeling was quirky -I'm just learning- but the Quadro solved the problem.  As far as I can guess, Poser Pro was calling an OpenGL routine and not finding it.

Quote - I don't think the boxed version comes with printed manuals. Could be wrong.

Oh, OK,  I'll look for a reference on the web page as to whether it does or doesn't.  If it doesn't, I'll just add two d/l licenses since I already have the installer downloaded.

     I restarted d/l for the content zips.  If that gets me an intact zip, I'll just put the installer and content on a flash drive -along with a list of serials- and then install to each machine.
     I think the pokey d/l speeds exacerbate the risk of a corrupt zip - that may have been the problem.