I use both Photoshop 4 and Paint Shop pro 6 and both are useful for different things. What worries me is that if the rumours are true and Adobe are a potential buyer of Poser, Bryce and Painter (3d as well) how will the next releases fare. If, as Jim Burton suggests, that Adobe, in order to keep the "hype" going, have succumbed to market trends releasing new versions that should realy only be considered upgrades or additional feature releases (my interpretation of some of what he is saying), how would Metacreation's producs fare under their control? Would the trend of buggy, half-finished "we will fix it later" releases be continued as the norm? Perhaps it is time that the user or customer power - that is a growing element in software development and quality (largely as a result of web forums such as this) - is brought to bear on suppliers and developers. I don't think that any of us have yet realised the power and influnce that user forums such as this can bring to bear on product suppliers. Perhaps it is time we did! Perhaps it is time that we the users make the suppliers more accountable to us the people that spend the money and keep these companies afloat and use our democratic and financial muscle in this. All it requires are are a few e-mails and posts between the various graphic forums on the web. Has anyone yet realised the potential for all of us in this? Just a few thoughts for the Millennium. STORM

Millenium, MILLENNIUM, it must be all the Champagne I had earlier. Apologies (I hate bad spelling). STORM

Sameemeememe here in Ireland, just a few..ew.ewew seconds beyond you, me I, thou, it., us $?%%@@@.... Ahem! Clear the hard drive throat. Well everything is working fine here, so far, ....so long, a longer way to gooooooo.... Anyway lots of us good people on the island were real suspicious about the whole thing because of one of the Government millenium freebies to the Kats of the Celtic Tiger. This was a "Millenium Candle" which we were all supposed to light and place in our front windows on the night. Well they got it wrong from the beginning. Firstly the candle would not fit through any of the mail boxes. Then people started to get realy worrried when the main electricity supplier took radio adverts over the last week saying that the power supply was Y2K compliant and that it would function. Hmmmm got this candle from the Government and everyone is reassuring me? Hmmmmmm.... My local shop was out of matches by 5 p.m. There's confidence for you! Happy new millenium! STORM

To Wayneout and Larry you appear to be looking at the wrong issue of the magazine and this may have to do with the later arrivals of the magazine in the States and Canada. Computer Arts publish the Computer Arts Magazine and they also occasionally publish Computer Arts Specials. To make it more confusing they also publish extra issues of their regular Computer Arts Magazine. To hopefully explain: 1. The Current issue of the normal Computer Arts magazine is issue 38 (December 99) and has a Byrce render with a female model on the cover. On page 67 it lists a Truespace4 demo. As far a I can determine this is not on the CD and was not what I was posting about. 2. In addition to issue 38 (December) they have also just published issue 39 (Winter 99)of the Computer Arts Magazine which is in addition to the normal 12 calender month issues. This also is not the one my post was about. 3. I was talking about the SPECIALS which Computer Arts publish from time to time. The current one (no.6) contains the full version of Truespace3/SE. If you go to the 3D Applications Forum and my post of 12/17/99 you can see a pic of the mag's cover. Truespace3/SE is definatly on this one's CD as well as a Demo of Truespace4. I hope this clears up everything

Hi wayneout I had the same problem, it does not load up from the CD interface. I am on a PC with Windows 98 and this is how I loaded it. Put the CD in and once it autoruns exit Open "My Computer" on your Desktop Right click your CD drive letter. Use the "Explore" or preferably "Explore from here" option that pops up. You should see a folder called "ts3se" fourth down. Right click it and use the "Explore" or "Explore from here" option again. Double click the setup icon in the folder. This will load up an unrestricted version of Truespace3/Se. There is also a Demo of Truesapace4 on the CD. if you want this and the other demos instead of opening up the ts3se folder open up the "pcsoft" folder then the "featured" folder then the "Truespace4 demo" folder and double click the "setup" icon. This should do it for you.

Hi bloodsong Here, I hope, are the answers to your questions. I had the same problem as you with truespace2 and it is still sitting in its CD case somewhere so I am no more familiar with it than you. I checked the Computer Arts truespace3/SE giveaway and it does come with online help and some animated tutorials. Not the manual but better than nothing. In addition if you check out www.caligari.com there are a number of truespace3 tutorials posted there but also go to the links as some of these contain further tutorials and links to other tutorials and resources. There also appear to be number of published books on using truespace. At first glance the truespace community does not seem to be as prolific in terms of downloadable resources and tutorials as the Bryce or Poser ones, but more on a par with Ray Dream Studio, but I would be very glad to be corrected on this. Any truespace users out there that know better please share your links as they would be very welcome. As for ordering the Computer Arts Specials online it appears you can do this at www.computerarts.co.uk and they also offer a back issue sales service depending on stock levels. The Specials tend to get sold out fairly quickly. I hope this helps.

Thanks LilWolff I will. Up to now I was meerly a spectator and the forum was a house of goodies to be pillaged. But now, having found my voice and "spoken", the house is becoming more like home.

Hey Picnic Hi. Don't despair you have just created see-thru plastic clothing. I am sure someone can use it.

A Lurker finally emerges! Yea that's me all the way from Ireland. And I have been watching all of you great people over the trials and tribulations of the past few months, keeping my head down. Well finally time to say Hello. When I first read all the threads on Meta's crazy plan -it is crazy, who, but a lunatic, would throw away great 3D apps in the present when the world is screaming for them and qualified users?- it was doom and gloom but over the last 36 hours I have been thinking, very much along the lines of Freakachu and others. Who needs Meta, I have watched the most amazing things happen on this and the other forum. If it were not for these forums and the sheer determination of users I bet something like transmapped hair would not have happened until Poser 6 or 7. So Freakachu is right. Poser users have tossed out the dorks and plastic hair models. Poser users have taken this and other Meta programs way beyond what Meta thought was possible with the current versions. I bet that scared them. Amateurs pushing out the bounds always upsets corporate interests. So why not take the next Linux-type logical step. Stop worrying start making! Even if the products are sold it is going to be months before another company gets around to releasing a patch. If it never happens we have a great base on which to develope our own ideas. Whew, a lot for my first ever post anywhere. STORM