Quote - However I prefer to work with Poser. I think Poser is missing the mark by not having the photoshop export to other versions like CS4.

Glad to hear you like Poser. First time Poser exported 3D to Photoshop was CS3 Extended (Poser 7 SR2). The blog post was about CS6 because it's available at no cost at the moment, and because it really does take 3D integration to the next level (in terms of performance & usability). CS4 reads COLLADA files exported from Poser fine, just not quite as well (it ignores axis orientation specified in the DAE for example, so you need to rotate the figure after importing it). Still very useful, give it a try.

You might want to take a look at this blog post as well.

Quote -  i wish they would've put a couple of thoughts into the suggestion, prolly completely dismissed.

Don't worry, it wasn't dismissed.

Speaking of missing... this should have been included in the manual, you'll probably find it helpful:

ValueOperation Methods

    DeleteKey :
        Deletes the key/value pair at the given index for a key valueOp. Returns 1 if the key was deleted, returns 0 if no key exists at the given index or the valueOp is not of type kValueOpTypeCodeKEY.
        DeleteKey( index)

    Delta :
        Get the delta value of a deltaAdd value operation. Returns 0 if the value operation is not of type kValueOpTypeCodeDELTAADD.
        Delta()

    GetKey :
        Returns a tuple containing the key and value at the given index for a key valueOp.
        (, ) GetKey( index)

    InsertKey :
        Inserts a key/value pair in this key valueOp. Returns 1 if the key was inserted, returns 0 if the valueOp is not of type kValueOpTypeCodeKEY.
        InsertKey( key, value)

    NumKeys :
        Get the number of keys of a key value operation. Returns -1 if the value operation is not of type kValueOpTypeCodeKEY.
        NumKeys()

    Parameter :
        Get the parameter associated with this valueOp.
        Parameter()

    SetDelta :
        Set the delta value of a deltaAdd value operation.
        SetDelta( delta)

    SetSourceParameter :
        Set the source paramater associated with this value operation.
        SetSourceParameter( source)

    SourceParameter :
        Get the source parameter associated with this valueOp.
        SourceParameter()

    Type :
        Get the type of the valueOp.
        Type()

Quote - Does that mean we can script ERC now? I have to investigate that. That would be "awesome".

That's the idea, yes. Let us know if anything is missing. Here are some quotes from the updated PoserPython manual to get you going:

ValueOp Codes

The constants below name types of value operations that can be attached to a parameter. The parameter then is either being set by a Python callback (kValueOpTypeCodePYTHONCALLBACK) or is being combined with another parameter through a mathematical operation (ERC) or a list of key/value pairs.

kValueOpTypeCodeDELTAADD
kValueOpTypeCodeDIVIDEBY
kValueOpTypeCodeDIVIDEINTO
kValueOpTypeCodeKEY
kValueOpTypeCodeMINUS
kValueOpTypeCodePLUS
kValueOpTypeCodePYTHONCALLBACK
kValueOpTypeCodeTIMES

AddValueOperation

Add a value operation of the specified type to this parameter. The source parm is a different parameter, that serves as key when valueOpType is kValueOpTypeCodeKEY or as operand in a math operation for kValueOpTypeCodeDELTAADD, kValueOpCodeADD, kValueOpTypeCodeDIVIDEINTO, kValueOpTypeCodeMINUS, kValueOpTypeCodePLUS and kValueOpTypeCodeTIMES.

AddValueOperation( valueOpType, sourceParm)

DeleteValueOperation

Deletes the value operation at the given index.

DeleteValueOperation( index)

NumValueOperations

Returns the number of value operations on this parameter. Return 0 if there are no value operations on this parameter.

NumValueOperations()

ValueOperations

Returns the list of value operations on this parameter. Return None if there are no value operations on this parameter.

ValueOperations()

Progressive JPEGs as textures seem to work just fine for me in Pro 2012 SR2. Could you provide tech support with a simple scene and a texture that reproduces the issue?

Quote - When installing I chose the middle option of backing up my preferences, does anyone know where these are backed up to? Failling that which is the quckest way to get back to somewhere close to where is was as in getting my interfact windows docked correctly.

The installer moves away your custom preferences if you select that option. They get renamed with a time stamp (time of installation). To get your prefs back, please do the following:

• Shut down Poser
• Go to  c:UsersAppDataRoamingPoser Pro  [1]
• Move away ‘9’ and rename the latest time stamped folder (e.g. ‘9_2012_04_11 6_06_06 AM’) to ‘9’
• Restart. Everything should look like before updating.

[1] For geeks: %AppData%Poser Pro, or %AppData%Poser if you're running Poser 9

Quote - Now about the dodgy drivers...I wonder why my Maya, Max or Vue doesn't have any problems.
Those being 64bit apps also.

Poser Pro (the previous one) doesn't have any problems with Ati and opengl nor has silo. Though those are 32bit applications.

How on earth have those developers managed to do it with the dodgy drivers?

Or maybe they're just not using opengl at all :/

This is not so much about 32 or 64-bit. There are many OpenGL features, few applications are using all of them. Different applications use certain features in different ways, or to achieve different things. Newer versions of the same application might use newer features, as older features become deprecated or poorly supported by hardware vendors. That's why one application might suffer from a driver issue, while others don't.

Don't worry, NVIDIA has just as many problems, they're just slightly different ones.

AMD actually shipped Catalyst 10.3 today.

I hear Catalyst 10.3, which is now available on AMD/ATI's website, resolves the ghosting issue. You should be able to switch back to OpenGL once you have that driver version installed.

You're not copying everything into the Poser Pro 2010 installation location, are you? This looks like Runtimeui was overwritten by older files.

It has to do a lot more work if you shut off texture filtering. The reason is that it can't efficiently cache texture tiles in RAM.

Instead of just pulling up the matching resolution tile from a MIP map (which requires filtering to create) that might very well be in memory already, it needs to read a lot more tiles, and that requires more hard disk access sooner or later. If you have several threads do that at the same time, CPU usage collapses and your render takes a lot longer.

This effect might be more or less pronounced, depending on what surface a given texture is on, and what resolution the original texture has.

Quote - I'm wondering if the reason is because PPro 2010 has fixed some IDL bugs. Those bugs were a real headache for me in P8. PPro 2010 IDL is better - not perfect yet like some other apps - but clearly fewer artifacts and inaccuracies. We may see some of these corrections in an SR for P8, and they may slow it down a bit.

Yes, some Indirect Light quality improvements in Poser Pro 2010 can increase render times slightly. I'd say that's CPU cycles well spent.

Even fancier way of computing: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=12.75+%2F+tan%2850+*+pi+%2F+360%29