I'm using stable diffusion now.  Ken 1171 has created a plug-in that can export poses to something stable diffusion can use.

Is it a threat? Well, yeah.  This is what happens when the Poser userbase is reduced to those folks that make single image pin up art.

It is easier (and cheaper) to make pin up art in stable diffusion than it is in Poser (or that other program).

The (only) good news is that it is really difficult to do anything long form with SD.  The reality is that there is no "intelligence" in the AI.  Everything is being brute forced.

SD can't do what I do in Poser, so I don't see it as a threat - but if we are being honest since I don't do single still pin up art, I am no longer considered a "typical" Poser user.

That and a basic wardrobe and maybe we could start doing things with LF.

LH still needs help as well.

I will.  This is something that should have been taken care of before launch.

If a figure isn't supported by a large number of vendors (i.e. every poser figure launched after V4), then conversion programs & tutorials need to go out at launch.

For the love of Cthulhu, this is supposed to be the default figure for Poser 13.

Intel CPU/Nvidia GPU is going to cost you more than AMD CPU/Radeon GPU but I think it's worth it, I can't tell much about AMD since I only had a couple in the late 90s, and they weren't great at all back then. To me, AMD always felt like an overclocked Intel product. It always looked like the budget alternative to Intel. You can't afford an Intel, buy an AMD, bells and whistles comparison list, yeah yeah!

AMD has been cleaning Intel's clock since 2016 and the release of Ryzen CPUs.  Lots more performance for lots less money.  In addition, their platforms cover more CPU generations.

For example - in 2019, I built a gaming PC based with a Ryzen 7 2700 (Zen+, 8 cores/16 threads), using a B450 motherboard.

This year, I replaced the 2700 with a 5700 (Zen 3, 8 cores/16 threads) - 40% more performance for $179.  Didn't even need to replace the stock fan cooler.  Just update the bios & Bob's your uncle.

Most important - Move to Poser 13 - it will really cut your render times down because it uses multiple GPUs for rendering.

Always go with last generation tech.  It will give you the best bang for the buck. In my recommendations below, you save 50% of the cost, but only lose about 20% in performance over current generation - added bonus, you aren't a guinea pig.

I would recommend the following if you are DiYing it:

CPU: AMD 5700x ($180) - 8 cores, 16 threads - enough to run many poorly coded apps (cough, Adobe, Daz Studio, cough) at the same time.  More cores & threads cost more, but don't provide that much more performance.  I have this CPU and have been very pleased with it.

MB: Any X-570 motherboard (starting at $199 new) - you want two x16 slots.

HD1 - 1 2tb NVMe ($66); A PCIe 3 is fine, a PCIe 4 version is about 50% more, but you won't see 50% more performance.  (Mine is a Silicon Power)

HD2 - 1 4tb SSD SATA drive ($140) - you will need this for space. I have eight 2tb SATA SSDs - Poser 1, Poser 2, Daz Studio 1, Daz Studio 2, Stable Diffusion, and 1 spare. I went with multiple 2tb drives (and a PCIe Sata card) when the 4 tb drives had a $50 premium over two 2tb drives - the 4tb premium is now less than $10, and you won't need to purchase PCIe sata card, the X570 will have enough SATA ports.

Video card - Two RTX 3060 12Gb ($262 each);  - Opitx will use both, and it will cut your render times by about 50%.  Each of these have  over 3,500 CUDA Cores. These cards will be available for years - Nvidia is sitting on around 6 million low end Ampere cards. If you are willing to look at used cards - RTX 2080ti - same price as a new RTX 3060, but roughly 25% more CUDA cores.

Don't waste money on the RTX 40 series - the only one that provides a boost over the prior generation is the RTX 4090 & it starts at $1,600.

PSU - get a 750 watt 80 plus gold rated ($110 or so).  Don't skimp here.  A PSU that lets the magic smoke out will usually take other parts with it.

Case - A case is a box to hold your parts.  Avoid RGB.

Windows 10 - get an OEM key - run you about $15.

Total cost is about 1300 before tax, and will take between 30 minutes to an hour to assemble with a Philips head screwdriver.

ReggieKowalski posted at 10:05 AM Wed, 16 August 2023 - #4472674

Very good points and, quite possibly, the reason why I will stay put with what I've got. I'm just painfully aware that V4.2 is 2008 software and that digital graphics are forever evolving so maybe I'm just expecting the grass to be greener without actually checking to see whether it's fake turf...

I think if I'd had a lot of replies encouraging me to go for newer tech then I might be persuaded but the general feel is that there's nowt wrong with old if it still works so well.

The tools and instructions are right there.  It isn't difficult; plan a couple of hours to upgrade a base figure of your choice and save it.  You don't need that much time, but the time put in once pays for itself moving forward.

There are weight mapped M4s & V4s.  Facial chips are easy to add (and can go anywhere), etc.  You can bring the Grey Golum into Poser.  It is some work, but it is doable.

As far as the grass being greener - it is all astro-turf.  To reach rough feature parity with Poser, you are spending around $600USD.  That number was not picked out of a hat - it is what it cost me to attempt to move from Poser to DS and have roughly the same features - minus important ones like multiple GPU support in Opitx.

SamTherapy posted at 10:01 PM Fri, 11 August 2023 - #4472385

I have a bunch of stuff waiting to be finished that I'd put on sale as soon as they were all done.  My cancer treatment is playing merry hell with my energy levels and concentration, though. It's a set of guitar effects pedals.  I have the models all finished, rigged and textured.  They need packing, documenting and testing, plus promo images making.  

So far, I haven't been motivated to finish them off, but maybe one day I'll get to it.  

If it ain't chrome, it ain't got that tone!

Afrodite-Ohki posted at 3:13 PM Fri, 11 August 2023 - #4472361

"The reality is that most vendors are only interested in making stuff  that they are personally interested in - and that seems to be nothing but stuff for pin up art."

I can't talk about the other vendors, but this is VERY not true for me. I make stuff that I see a gap in the market for (like clothing basics for figures that lack them, characters with diversity, everyday hair etc) or things that seem to sell more (sexy stuff). If it were only about my personal intersts, I'd make nothing but fantasy all the time.

We still don't have that.

The other elephant in the room is dialing out the base look of LF or LH - it is as bad as the SM G2 figures.

Not at our level, in my lifetime.  I have been playing around with SD over the past few weeks - after all, it isn't like there is much going on in the Poserverse.

It is impossible to keep the exact same person in each image.

The thing is - there is so much that Poser & DS can do that SD simply can not do (nor do I think it will be able to do in the future).

You aren't doing graphic novels with SD, so I think that Poser & DS should lean into that.

No chance of the vendors doing that, but that would be helpful.

This is the end result of a positive feedback loop - as I predicted in the Poser 9 era, when Chris fumbled the Dawn launch.

The reality is that most vendors are only interested in making stuff  that they are personally interested in - and that seems to be nothing but stuff for pin up art.

The problem is that if people want to make single image stills for pin up art in 2023, they aren't using Poser or Daz Studio.

They are going all in with Stable Diffusion.

It is easier to use, cheaper to use, and gets better results than either Poser or DS.

Any CPU/GPU combination from the past half a dozen years will be fine.  I am running a Ryzen 7 2700/RTX 3060 (12gb) system right now.

One thing to remember is that Opitx will use as many GPUs as you can throw at it. 12Gb RTX 3060s are pretty cheap, both new and used.

My current gameplan is a CPU/MB replacement next month - I picked up a Ryzen 7 5700x and next month I'll pick up an X470 motherboard, and a 2nd RTX 3060.

Snark aside, you can still get a lot of DS content into Poser pretty easily via Ken1171's scripts and the G3 to Poser script still works, with a few extra steps, I believe.

Which is why I finally dumped Apple after 20+ years.

I have been through this before, and I have no interest in doing it again.

Good luck.

Nevertrumper posted at 10:51 AM Thu, 13 April 2023 - #4462029

(BTW: DAZ Studio is free and it includes a render engine, that costs about 300$, if you‘d buy it separately.

Poser costs 250$ and it includes a ripp off of a render engine that comes free with Blender.)

Am I really the only one here, who thinks, that Poser is milking his loyalists in an dishonest way?

To reach rough feature parity, you will drop around $600 dollars in 3rd party scripts. 

That number wasn't picked out of a hat btw, that is what I spent trying (unsuccessfully) trying to make DS my daily driver.

There are a number of things that are simply not possible with DS - like multi-GPU render support out of the box.

Then there are the initial design compromises that crippled DS from the very start.......