A bit of both, but the E-mu was for the breakout box to do audio recording for the animations I was working on. Still have the card and software, so it may be going into another audio specific system in the future. Sound Blaster isn't the recommended, but at least I know the points of distortion. Currently have a 2 port M-audio with the laptop for portable recording (good enough for foley basics and speech, depending on the mic), and a Behringer 4 port for the office box. Still need to get my foam baffles to cover the echo points, but that is down the road a bit.

All the hardware I get -is- Linux capable; its been years, but the command line doesn't scare me like it does so many. But you have to admit that the development of a shell to run programs not Linux native is spotty at best. I despise the pay to play model as much as most geeks do, but until things change, its either minimize the threat or do without.

Retrowave posted at 6:54PM Thu, 02 January 2020 - #4375326

@Dale B - The solution is to not allow corporate-controlled abuse such as Windows 10 on your computer, because by doing so you agreed to allow Microsoft to do whatever it likes, whenever it likes, and completely without recourse!

What do you expect?

If you want or need to use specific programs, you pretty much have no choice. Although I make it a point to do a little registry surgery and port blocking to keep their damnable font security update nonsense under control, as well as using 3rd party firewalls to block the update phone home crapola. Once I get a stable install, I'll take care of it with no help from outside. I got caught in that first round of upgrade clusterfuckery that found so many people 'upgrading' against their wishes. Had a perfectly nice E-mu card and breakout box for the audio, and the two times I managed to get into 10 on the CG box it wouldn't run the software that enabled the sound card to function.

Linux would be nice and free, but the software available is limited. Yes, I know Blender is the swiss army knife of open source, but it still has the most counter intuitive screen/mouse/keyboard shortcut interface in the known cosmos.-Still-. There's also the fact that companies tend to treat Linux installs as exotic or premium product and charge accordingly.

Penguinisto posted at 4:11PM Thu, 02 January 2020 - #4375300

Once I get my bloody runtime reassembled (I salvaged most of it, but bloody Win 10 reassigned the texture files into win images and basically destroyed them in the borked update, so 30+ gigs to install and unzip once again) I'll get to play around with the changes they've already made and see how they work and how many issues they might correct.

eep - dude, that's why I keep whole backups on both removable and network disks (well, that and I have multiple 'runtimes', both Poser and DS-oriented.)

So did I.The backup was on an external USB hub, and was on when a power surge got the hub, which crashed the hard drive head and rendered the drive unreadable. Next go around is gonna be at least 4 backups, with isolation on at least one of them. I might see if it would be less stress to recreate the texture folder and slip it in the runtime backup I did salvage, but since it would require unzipping all that to begin with..... siiiigh.

Penguinisto posted at 11:37AM Thu, 02 January 2020 - #4375191

Dale B posted at 5:21PM Wed, 01 January 2020 - #4375160

Hey Peng, Long time no see! Of course I remember Dina; her and Natalia are near the top of my cattle call list just for the Non Vickie looks alone. Add the character morphing of some of the past masters and they work very well. I've probably got most of those figures, although I haven't mined ShareCG for awhile. Had a spate of surgeries for varying health concerns (most having to do with 35 years, 8 hours a day 6 days a week on a concrete sales floor), and horked CG box, so just now getting things straightened out again.

I know the feeling... I'm sitting here with a hernia patch freshly installed and a 3-year-old stent sitting in my chest keeping the artery in front of my heart open. This getting old crap sucks.

Amen to that. Two stents in the main coronary for me, and just came off the blood thinner this past Sept. Add an artificial right knee, a left knee on life support, partially paralyzed left (dominant) hand due to getting the ulnar nerve crushed supporting myself as the knees gave out, and radical prostatectomy and all the lymph nodes taken out of the pelvic floor. And yes, this getting not young crap is indeed the very definition of suckiness.

Apologies for the delay, but the missus was making a fresh batch of kimchi and unless I pitch in and help when she needs a hand, I don't get none of it, so...

An ecosystem is an interactive thing that grows and evolves. No one has the brainpower or the dinero to create such a thing and plop it in front of the world.

True - but you gotta kickstart one somehow... doubly so if you're about to change the entire paradigm from content-on-consignment to master-of-your-own-application...

Agreed on that, and hopefully they will bite the bullet and put a team together for just that purpose.

The P4 compatible market is dying, literally. Solidifying a new base program is a good first step to bringing a new paradigm into play. I just hope they remember that one of Poser' greatest strengths was it interoperability with other programs. Keep that and enhance things with a more capable figure set (and the full family; don't forget the kids, infants and oldsters), they have a good shot. DAZ has gone one way, and thats fine. They need to forge their own path.

Yep. They have a little bit of runway left to figure out where they're going to go, but not a whole lot... so I hope they do figure out what path they're going to make.

The hard part is waiting. If you look at what Poser has, it does have most of the goodies for the still market in place already, which means if they intend to court that market alone, most of the $$ will be going into ads and 'Try us, you'll like us!' types of promotion. There is more than enough stuff out there to hold up Poser as a good animation tool (the first three seasons of RWBY being one example. Yes, it improved a lot when they went fully to Maya in S4, but that doesn't take the shine of what the less complex program did with some python support), but they need to overhaul the UI and add or expose some missing features. Once I get my bloody runtime reassembled (I salvaged most of it, but bloody Win 10 reassigned the texture files into win images and basically destroyed them in the borked update, so 30+ gigs to install and unzip once again) I'll get to play around with the changes they've already made and see how they work and how many issues they might correct.

Azath posted at 12:46PM Wed, 01 January 2020 - #4375165

Poser figures to Blender with 2 klick's

Exactly the reason Poser still exists and seems to be in a lot of toolkits. As long as they maintain (and frankly expand) the ease of interoperability with other programs, Poser will have a future growth path.

Penguinisto posted at 8:26AM Wed, 01 January 2020 - #4375147

Dale B posted at 5:23PM Tue, 31 December 2019 - #4375146

Even if Bondware fields the perfect figures, they'll have to get the support for it from vendors or they will be yet another entry in the list of viable figures that didn't take off.

Egg, meet chicken. This has been an issue since Dina V came out ('member that one?), or Nude Young Woman (a DAZ production, ironically enough, which shows that they ain't immune to that rule either...) I have a buttload of insanely obscure figures that could be usable... if only they had more than a handful of clothes; Eroko, Alexa 2, Anime Doll, Neftoon Gal, Terai Yuki, Lo-Poly Girl... and a near-literal dozen more just like 'em - and sharecg-dot-com pops out yet another figure every month or so. Some figures like NearMe survive to this day (albeit procurable only by going to e-frontier's site to get one) because it has a buttload of clothing, hair, and texture maps (and folks even make new stuff for it today.)

Hey Peng, Long time no see! Of course I remember Dina; her and Natalia are near the top of my cattle call list just for the Non Vickie looks alone. Add the character morphing of some of the past masters and they work very well. I've probably got most of those figures, although I haven't mined ShareCG for awhile. Had a spate of surgeries for varying health concerns (most having to do with 35 years, 8 hours a day 6 days a week on a concrete sales floor), and horked CG box, so just now getting things straightened out again.

Apps like WW, Cross-Dresser, and similar does help make a dent in this issue, but that relies on someone with the will and the time to bother maintaining their application. But then again, it ain't just clothing, is it? Textures, hair, weight-mapping, genitals (admit it, you thought of that too), etc etc etc... all the things that the Vickies (and Mikes) have that makes life easier to make stuff with.

Genitalia? I? I just have all of Arduino's creations and Ghu only knows how many cranks and other assorted bits and bobs hidden in various archives. You can always spot a sexless hip section if you use dynamic skirts and pants, after all. Not so important when in conforming (although highly amusing when something pokes through with a mesh explosion). But the one thing about the analogy is that Once Upon A Time, Zygote presented to the world.... Poser Dude and Posette. They started in the technical basement and built from there. An ecosystem is an interactive thing that grows and evolves. No one has the brainpower or the dinero to create such a thing and plop it in front of the world.

(and to be honest, it's not just pretty chicks and studly dudes, y'all. How about some love for the robotic humanoids, a.k.a. Lolobot? That thing is cute as hell, and has a ton of potential... and fantasy creatures could use a bit of love as well.)

Tell me about it.

So yeah, an entire ecosystem is needed to support any new figure - not just clothing, or hair, or graftable boobs, or skins... all of it and more. Oh, and that figure has to be flexible and morphable enough to look like something entirely different than default, with no trace of having that default look.

Not as easy as it looked before, is it? Bondware is going to have to put a whole lot of 'oomph that I'm not sure it's prepared to pay for, just to fill in those content holes. Prolly why they're being real nice to Hivewire in recent times, methinks.

Well, it doesn't hurt to be nice to a vendor, until both sides get freaky about features and costs to support, which both SM and DAZ did. And in this instance Bondware now owns the program that they've been making content money off of for decades. The P4 compatible market is dying, literally. Solidifying a new base program is a good first step to bringing a new paradigm into play. I just hope they remember that one of Poser' greatest strengths was it interoperability with other programs. Keep that and enhance things with a more capable figure set (and the full family; don't forget the kids, infants and oldsters), they have a good shot. DAZ has gone one way, and thats fine. They need to forge their own path.

EClark1894 posted at 6:37PM Tue, 31 December 2019 - #4375138

Dale B posted at 4:57PM Tue, 31 December 2019 - #4375134

If one or two specific legacy meshes stands in the way, then either drop support for them or expand the tools to where they can be brought up to modern functionality. The weight mapping was a long overdue step there. If the logic supports both inverse and full kinematics, give us the controls to exploit them. But more than that, there would need to be a vanity project in tandem with any substantive upgrades in animation. Someone who can make a short that showcases the new. That has been Poser's bane for decades; a lack of demonstrating what it is capable of doing.

Poser's basic problem in the past has been one of dependence, which, ironically, is why getting involved with Genesis was both undesirable, and distasteful to them. Poser has always been a slave to a third party's figure. Renderosity itself used to sell a number of figures for use in Poser, but DAZ/Zygote had the advantage. When Poser did try to move forward and change the rigging on some of it's own included figures, it didn't catch on and they weren't usable in Studio.

And one of the problems there was too many folks were panting and grasping for a 'Vickie Killer', and the simple fact was that Zygote/DAZ had a multi year head start on the pack, which put their support head and shoulders above anyone else. I've got most of the figures sold or available, and from an animation standpoint they were all quite usable. Some were only viable as background characters due to lack of content and support, but they were still serviceable. And careful use of dynamic clothing expanded that usage considerably. Even if Bondware fields the perfect figures, they'll have to get the support for it from vendors or they will be yet another entry in the list of viable figures that didn't take off.

The problem with the rent forever model is when things go boom. Just to highlight the perfect example, anyone who used the CS-2 versions of Adobe products, or Audition 3, now have nothing more than disposable coasters. And if someone breaches the mighty Adobe system and wipes it, you have an entire market that has a maximum of 30 days to to finish their projects. Unless they have it all set up on the cloud, in which case there work may just vanish forever. After all the Cloud is Forever, right? Too many people seem to not understand that 'cloud' is code for 'distributed computing' which is code for 'All You Data Belong To Us!' Fortunately my After Effects was a CS-4 version and that activation server -seems- to be up and working.

But thanks to that, I have a handful of discs that are worthless, despite the fact that the progams on them are perfectly good and no more than I need atm. And its not like its impossible to do. Sonic Fire Pro manages quite handily; you can purchase and download one track at a time, or spring for a whole album and get physical media at your choice. When my CG box was horked due to a Win-10 upchuck, SFP-5 was the first program I had running due to the fact I had a stack of 23 discs of the albums I purchased over the years. It was the same with Iclone 5 and 3DXchange. Vue Infinite 15 took an email for a legacy activation key, but I at least can still use it. Adobe doesn't want my business, I have Hitfilm Express, Natron (after effects node type effects editor), Audacity, Gimp (but the learning curve looks about as steep as Blenders is, ouch), and those are just my current selections. An old version of Paint Shop Pro does enough to be quite useful.

The thing about the animation that I hope Bondware keeps in mind is that Poser is still the dirty little secret in a lot of animator's toolkit. We don't expect Maya from Poser.....and there are a lot of pros who use Poser for storyboarding, animatic and cinematics, and when they have a rush job and no time or funds to build, rig, and animate a custom figure. If the actual animation logic is more capable than it seems on the surface, then reconstructing the 'animation room' is more than logical. Adding, for example, the ability to create a persistent display dedicated to animation for those of us with dual or multiple monitors would be lovely. If one or two specific legacy meshes stands in the way, then either drop support for them or expand the tools to where they can be brought up to modern functionality. The weight mapping was a long overdue step there. If the logic supports both inverse and full kinematics, give us the controls to exploit them. But more than that, there would need to be a vanity project in tandem with any substantive upgrades in animation. Someone who can make a short that showcases the new. That has been Poser's bane for decades; a lack of demonstrating what it is capable of doing.

Penguinisto posted at 12:21PM Tue, 24 December 2019 - #4374204

Retrowave posted at 10:26AM Mon, 23 December 2019 - #4374195

It's just a sim that you stick in your smartphone, just like any other sim. The difference is that it turns your smartphone into a mobile broadband Wi-Fi router, so you just connect your computer to your phone (wirelessly), instead of connecting it to a modem or router.

Works exactly the same, easy as that!

Might not even need that much work...

I recently upgraded my smartphone this year to a Moto z4, and it came with Hotspot all enabled and ready to go on the phone, w/o issue. It came in handy at the in-laws' house, where they only have a metered Sat. Internet connection... I still had 3g-level connectivity, so I turned on the hotspot so my wife could go online. You might not need a special SIM to do this (I don't).... just check your phone - it might already be there if you have something fairly new (Mine runs Android 9, but I bet 8, 7, and even 6 could do it as well.) Also be sure your phone is unlocked (I buy my phones outright unlocked straight off of Amazon - screw the carrier subsidy jails.)

Note that you're still subject to whatever broadband limits your carrier provides, but it works pretty well for what it does (most times (4G level connectivity) it works just as well as my home rural DSL line does.)

I still use a Samsung S4, and it has the wireless hotspot app on it. Only thing you need to be wary of is your data plan and roaming charges. Depending on which options you choose, you can rack up a lot of $$$ on your bill due to roaming if you are out of your area. I've had laptop and Tab A online simultaneously, and the phone handled it well. Battery drains much faster, so having an external battery is a must for any significant length of time operating.

Yeah, Hitfilm is impressing me on the tests I've been doing, enough that I'm springing for the chroma key and particle effects plugins. Just the fact it imports numbered frames instead of being limited to the video file formats like a lot of the so called 'movie editors' are is a godsend.

I'd agree with most of that on the Poser animation front. If there were some way to do it though, I'd keep the legacy if there were enough interest in past figures, and have a switching arrangement to keep the new system isolated. My approach to the figures is that they are actors to me. Content. It's what I can do with them in the pipeline that matters to me, not the experimental nature of most of them. And there are certainly enough open source systems to implement, one stage at a time, for a reinvention of the animation tools. But there does need to be consistency with the figures; that was what put V4 into such a commanding position.

Almost as important is maintaining the Poser-Vue interconnection. Which once I get the ol rendergarden upgraded to load the Cows onto, I'll be cranking out fly throughs with various figures and whatnot to get back in the swing of that end of the pipeline. Very little can compare to Vue when it comes to end stage rendering involving large outdoor environments

Siiiiigh. The subscription stuff is really a pita, IMHO. And eep, their cloth sim hasn't advanced that badly? Brrr. Even if they are just going arch vis, curtain sims would still be a must.

I seem to have lucked out and managed to reactivate my CS4 of After Effects. However, I found a nifty NLVE called HitFilm Express that is freeware. It has a pay version with most features for 249 pounds. The free version is upgradeable through plugins that run from $10 to $50 (the top end is a particle system. Some of them should be included, but for $0.00, I can't really complain). It combines the basic functions of Premiere and AE, so you can edit and composite in the same program (and unlike a lot of 'movie editors that only accept actual video files, it imports stills perfectly). Once I get my rendergarden upgraded, I'll be running tests to see how well the composting compares. But there are several non linear video editors out there now that are free. You just have to read all the text to see what the gotcha's are.

I'd love to be in a position to snag the basic Optitrack system myself. Is there any specific reason you're shifting from Cinema to Lightwave, Wolf? I know that all in one move they made stopped a lot of people from getting into Cinema (myself included), but inquiring minds are curious.

That graph editor is what Poser needs, particularly since moving one axis will afffect the other two axis. I haven't opened Poser 11, so I didn't know about the new addition to the dope sheet. Have to play around with it and see if it is useful.

One thing you should always do is multi back up, particularly if you animate. That habit just saved me. Collecting all the DAZ exe's and zip files to begin rebuilding my runtime that was lost due to the (^^(^()&(&%^$^&*%^ Win 10 update, I found a backup from 2006. Only 19.2 gitgs, but its a good starting point.

BTW Wolf, what do you composite in?

gate posted at 7:37PM Thu, 19 December 2019 - #4373767

It probably depends what it is all about you sometimes just need something in addition to Poser to make things work so , just like one says to edit a CR2 take the Notepad++ it is just great to write scripts instead of doing it in Poser , but then if you say " Hey that is not the Forum for Notepad++ then there would be a problem to find out how and what could be used. and well even if it is to say " use iClone to make BHV action files that you can use in Poser then all should be just fine "

Heh. It would be if it were that simple. You can only import/export content out of Iclone if you also have the 3DXchange program. That is the one that translates the Iclone specific file formats to other standards and vice versa. It also requires you to at the least map out your characters movement path in the Poser scene and replicate it in Iclone. Then you have to mark off specific things you have to do in Poser, like facial expressions and visemes, tongue, finger and toe motions which don't have matching channels outside of Poser.

No matter how you slice it, animation is a time consuming, multi program process. And the more you want out of it, the more complex it gets.

Hi forester! Glad to see you again. I just got Vue 15 reinstalled after a Win 10 update horked my CG box so badly it wouldn't boot. Getting back into CG after a forced retirement (blown knees, one artificial now), a round of prostate cancer (caught early enough for surgical removal. So far so good), and a mild heart attack, and the recovery from all of the above. Going to take a bit to get back up to speed on things, but it should be fun!

Heh. Little Dragon did some wild things, didn't he?

The problem with Poser is that while dynamics, shaders, and other nifty things have been added, the animation controls are almost completely unchanged since Poser 4. The IK system is multiple generations behind what if considered current tech. Dreamworks also has custom coded bone and muscle systems that can emulate actual body behavior; that is something we still lack, even in a primitive format. They also have an armature system for the less than photorealistic figures. Not having to manipulate 5 or 6 dials to get accurate shoulder motion is a big plus. The muscle system also emulates flexion and contraction elasticity, as opposed to the simple quaternion interpolation that is Poser's most advanced interpolation algorithm. Which can also really screw up your animating, as it only accepts -180 to +180 degrees, at which point it will flip at least a full 360 degrees to reach a value it accepts again and we have no way to clamp that bugger down.