Mike 4 will be released in around 2 years... just when processor chips and RAM get up to V3 & M3's level allowing people to fully begin using them

Any of you stop to consider that it's less that 3 1/2 months until Daz has their X-Mas - End of Year sales?

what exactly is it about Mike 3 that is so superior to Mike 2 that people feel the need to spend hundreds today buying the character, morphs, textures, clothing & hair? Is there something specific about the character that people like or just the hype? It just seems to me that in most pictures you see done around here, the male is either a secondary character to the female or not in the picture at all.

The Universal Texture Converter is a brokered item that would be sold with or without Daz approval. They've just chosen to allow it to be sold though their store to make another buck or two.

I have Vicky 3 and like the character, I also know quite well how to use the INJ morphs and reduce the final size of the character files. Simple fact is that for a lot of people being able to put only 3 figures in a scene isn't good enough. Add to that what Daz is attempting to bring to Daz Studio and even more power will be required to get results. All things being equal I'd love to use V3 and M3 but fact is that computers aren't up to the level needed yet and won't be for a few more years (just in time for V4 & M4). A simple work-around would be to have Daz release a modified Vicky 2 that uses V3's joint paramiters and basic body shape that would allow people to continue buying clothing and other "new" items and use the older V2 version for the clothing they already have. Think of the new V2 as a low-rez V3. Daz won't do this though, they want you to buy the same clothing again.

Daz does not want to support Vicky 2 and they do not want you using Vicky 2. They will not release the manniquin because they want you to upgrade to Vicky 3 and rebuy everything you have purchased for Vicky 2. The same thing will apply in regards to Mike 3. Look at it this way though, if just Vicky 3 gives you problems, just wait until you try using Vicky 3 with Mike 3 inside the upcoming Daz Studio. Plan to have to have a bare minimum system of: Pentium 4 3.6GHz 4GB DDR RAM 200GB HardDrive 128MB DDR ATI Radeon

It sux when this happens but unfortunately you have to expect it if you try to sell anything like this on the web. Having said that I don't know why you'd quit selling stuff, the only person you are hurting by doing that is you. The people who are giving it out don't give a rats ass if you quit.

You could always burn them in all their proper directories so it would be easy to reload them if needed. I did that over a year ago, then found myself very relieved I had done so last week when I needed some specific Posette items ASAP.

is there different stuff at 3D Commune or are the sites mirrors of what would be found here?

I don't have him yet & have no plans to get him anytime soon. I only have 1GB RAM and that isn't really enough to put both a M3 and a V3 into a scene at the same time anyways.

I've been using a Vicky 2 character for online comics for the last 2 years. The character fully dressed is 17.7mb as I've created a unique body morph for her and only keep in necessary morphs for expressions and body movements in action scenes. I created a Vicky 3 version of the same character, created a unique body morph for her as well and removed all unnecessary body morphs as I had with Vicky 2. The character is 42.4mb in size. I can bring in 8 versions of the V2 character and have it render. I can bring in 2 versions of the V3 character and have it render. That makes V3 useless to me. Guess I'm waiting for Pentium 5 with 10GB RAM for less than $2000 before I can make the switch.

Steve: I always figured that Vicky 3 hadn't been seen in all her glory because the HARDWARE available (and affordable) to the masses wasn't up to speed... you're saying that the Daz Studio SOFTWARE will make it possible to bring in multiple Vicky 3's for every V3 that can currently be brought into Poser? So where in Poser I can currently bring in eight Vicky 2 characters but can only bring in two stripped down Vicky 3 characters.... In Daz Studio I'll be able to bring in six to eight Vicky 3's with the same hardware I have now? If that's possible then I'll gladly say I'm sorry, come down there and kiss your feet.

Another reason why I'm hoping for a modified Vicky 2. Might be easier to have a V2 altered to V3 joint paramiters and basic body shape than all the clothing. Still annoying though because there's at least 20-30 clothing items I'd love to buy but can't due to this. Maybe venders should ask Steve Shanks how he does it since he seems to be able to do it to multiple clothing items every week. Oh yeah, Xena... I've seen tutorials and a manniquin for changing V2 clothing to V3 in Tailor but is there a manniquin and tutorial for changing V3 clothing to V2? I haven't seen one if you could tell me where to look.

I said "most merchants", I'm aware that there are some who put in the effort and I'm glad for that. I've already bought your Ultra Morphs for Ultra Gloves and have several more of your clothing items on my "to buy" list, it's just that merchants like you are the exception, not the rule. Unfortunately Daz currently has me in a rather fowl mood with their tactics and it's probably spreading to my feeling for other venders as well.

I've started begging Burton to modify a Vicky 2 to fit Vicky 3's joint paramiters, clothing and basic body shape. I have Vicky 3, like Vicky 3 but she is simply too hi-rez to use for anything but portrait pictures (YAWN!). And since Daz has decided to kill all support for V2 and most merchants are far too lazy to spend a couple extra hours to fit their outfits to both (exception being PoserWorld, thank Gawd!) the only hope I have to keep spending my money on clothing is for someone to convert a V2. Same thing will of course apply to Mike 3, the difference being since I have experience with V3, I won't even bother buying the new Mike. Total waste of money.