How about a morphing vagina that is Talk Designer ready?  Haven't seen one of those yet :)

Blizzard's meshes?  You mean World of Warcraft?  Really where Blizzard shines is their art department and the quality of the animations.  Only recently have they been creating more dense and detailed meshes but most of it hides behind the fantastic 2D art assets.  It has a fun style but I don't think an example of how far games can go.  It still runs on a fairly old engine, but that also gives an opportunity for a wider range of systems that can run it.

The difference between voxels and just using brushes to deform is that voxels really don't concern themselves with the mesh, it's more about the sculpting (the clay itself) rather than poly flow and the poly count.  You build the mesh later by retopology.

Tony, right now, yes you can use voxel-based modeling to create the meshes.  I don't know what it's called in ZBrush but I've played with it in 3D-Coat and it's very powerful.  I don't think it will replace all traditional modeling techniques but some things are SO much easier using voxel sculpting.  Again, I'm still learning but really enjoying it.

Quote - ZRemesher is the sh**.

Netherworks: Good to know about Cooper, maybe they'll release a video befofe the offer expires? I do like the idea of the add-on, don't get me wrong... it's just... Oh look, Poser 2015 Pro is here 2 months later, want to buy it? Oh yeah, want to buy the game dev version of that too?

No promises but I'll see what I can do on my own.  I'm just getting my system back in order and that usually takes a few days.  I replaced some faulty hardward and upgraded my system.  I do understand the frustration and the concerns.  I do like to play devil's advocate but I'm not trying to be an ass.

Traditionally, we haven't had an odd numbered 20xx release.  I expect a 2016/Poser 11 but I think we are a ways off yet.  I haven't heard anything concrete as a beta/amba.

@Shane: Personally I installed right over top of Poser Pro 2014.  I said no to "remove previous installation" and I used my existing preferences and core runtime location.

I don't think so.  You're basically building a sheath around the original object.  With Auto Topo, you can define the polygon flow using projected splines.  It's fairly neat.  However, I haven't had the program for too long so I can't claim to be an expert on it.

Yeah, the overall advantage in Poser would be retaining the UVs, the morphs and so forth.  I have faith that the feature set for the game dev will be improved.  Dropping a bug report (I think its possible via web form) would help expedite features folks would like to see (that's not directed to you, just a general thing).

Another thought for ZBrush.  Since the decimation is superior and you have several choices via plugins, does it support FBX?  One could go that route if so.  FBX out of Poser, use Zbrush decimation?

Thanks for the links! Those do look great :)

Yeah, I can re-topo in 3D Coat and certainly it would be the best way to go.  You can import for re-topo, do an automatic retopo, which is often good to decent but at times you still need to get in there and clean it up.

Now, if you guys have access to those tools via Z-brush, why be so concerned about the Polygon reduction aspect of Poser Game Dev?  It's obviously something you wouldn't need.  BTW, Isn't $40 a drop in the bucket compared to the price of Zbrush? (Though yes, you could have bought it long ago).  Even so, from what I saw, yes it could probably still use improvement (and symmetry for sure) but for an $8 tool if you divide the features, it's not bad.

BTW, I work from home and Poser is my main source of income as well and I do understand that the summer months can be brutal but still it's not all the money in the world and maybe it has things you might not need.

Also, I think Cooper might be playing catch up if he's back in the office.  He had an accident a few days before the Game Dev launch.  For all I know, it's caused delays elsewhere such as extra promoting and videos.

I haven't seen an "automatic" polygon reduction system thus far that does a miraculous job.  However, it's been several years since I've looked at them so if anyone has examples to post where you're going to get amazing results without re-topoing a mesh instead, please do.  I am honestly curious.

Except for Symmetry, which I do feel it should have, I think it does a decent job, considering the disadvantages of using poly reduction in the first place - careful placement and creation of a low poly object would be better from the start instead of expecting automated poly reduction to get it right.

I'd like to know what the lost lasting bugs are -- maybe I or others could help?  Apart from oddities or feature requests, which I agree more can be done there, the core program works here and isn't broken.

I've had a not very good day today, so if I posted this already, forgive me.

XBOX Kinect works if you install the 1.8 Kinect SDK from Microsoft (Windows 7 or higher only).  You do not get zoom ability but the Poser Kinect can change the elevation.  There is an accessory for a few bucks (Amazon it) that will change the zoom to require less distance.

The Game Dev only "officially" supports Kinect for Windows.  However, it works fine with the XBOX Kinect.  You need to install the 1.8 Kinect SDK.  If your Kinect for XBOX only has the orange plug, you need a power adapter, which comes with a USB converter.  Luckily I have a standalone version of Kinect for 360, which has the proper wazzit - at the time it was the new thing.

SDK is Windows 7 or higher. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40278

I can tell you that a modded Skyrim can use HDT Physics for cloth simulation.  Bascially it is weighted using specific names and done in a certain way and you get: dynamic skirts, dynamic hair (in terms of flowing and moving), physics applied to body parts (jiggle, etc).  That doesn't mean dynamic cloth sims are directly translated to a game engine but games have their own ways to simulate it.  You'd likely still need to use the creation kit for that game to pull off the designs.

Poser Game Dev isn't going to Re-topo, which is what you'd want to change the flow of polygons.  It will be able to convert something to low poly and keep the body part and material divisions.  For the most part its going to decimate what is already there.  I haven't worked extensively with it to give very exacting information.

There will be a lot of non-game uses for this as well.  Crowd scenes has been cited for figure combining.  Mocap via Kinect for Windows will be a great boon for animating (also Kinect for XBOX can be done but not "officially" - I've done it, no rocket science).  Decimation will have other uses, like reducing the size of objects (or figures) with massive polycounts, plus it keeps morphs (if you want) -- reduce that 500,000 polygon car model to something reasonable, for example.

I get what Tony is saying but I highly agree with cage.  I don't want to see anything so structured that we can't experiment or "accidentally" come up with new ideas.  Sure there are mistakes made, but part of the fun for me is the exploration, whether that is playing in the material room, scripting, building figures and trying new things and so on.  There should be "hand holding" but it should never take away from the discovery aspect.

Instead of a prevention with materials, maybe need more guidelines.  In the manual, which does a great job of explaining things, show an example of each node in use (hell, even include a tutorial folder with each example that could be loaded).  Why not useful tooltips when you mouse over a node?

Hopefully this isn't sounding too picky.  I'm only telling my own experiences.

I've never had slow Renders but it's subjective to what you are trying to render and what settings you are using to accomplish your rendering goals.  Are you cranking up settings without knowing the implications or using "ultra" style settings when carefully adjusting them would be better?

My renders usually are a few minutes, maybe 20 on a heavy scene.

Never had a slow UI issue (unless it was an addon in Poser 9+) and have not experienced unresponsiveness at all.  I've been using the Pro versions since Poser 7 though.

Content issues - as others have cited, its community issues and cross-support issues with "other program" (until quite recently viewing the history of it all).  Morphs still under Poses though.  Need morphs folder.  Fiddling with zips will always be an issue because not everyone has the same thought processes on how to structure (or build) content - there's a loose standard but still lots of variety within.

Can't speak for Wings (but I've read issues on occasion).  Maybe other 3D applications are better suited to the clothing building?  If it has trouble with grouping or setting materials or whatever, there are other tools that can do that so perhaps build there and optimize for clothing use elsewhere?  Seems like a problem with the modeler of choice rather than something the needs to be fixed in Poser.

Some of the solutions could be system-based (CPU, disk, graphics card, etc) and some might just be being more flexible with regards to choices (render settings, scene load, other applications).

I've been wowed 3 times in Poser's history.

I started on Poser 4 so I don't have the Poser 3 experience but Poser Pro Pack was a huge jump.  Goodbye rsr and BUM, Python support opened up a new world of possibilities, the Setup Room was a new thing.

Poser's 5 features didn't really seem to stabilize until the last SR and while Poser 6 did clean it all up, I felt that Poser 7 was the tightest implementation so had a lot of fun with that one - more specifically Poser Pro (the second coming).  Background rendering, Queue and so on.

Recently, I'd say Poser Pro 2012 (Poser 9) for certain.  Weight Maps = tons of fun.  SSS and IDL (from Poser 8).  Yes, please.  Oh and certainly from my point of view, wxPython - better ways to go, goobye tKinter and XML dialogs (of course Poser 8 introduced but the Poser 9 wx is better implemented).

But... I'm still having a blast and I'm using Poser Pro 2014 and certainly things to be excited about with it, so I'm not looking back to think there was a time what was better than now.  Living in the now and enjoying it.  Yeppers!  And the sky's the limit.  Sorry that I'm disgustingly optimistic ;)

wiz, sneak peek is here: http://poser.smithmicro.com/gamedev.html

I am on Windows 7 64 and using PP 2014.

Here, I only auto-download the vital windows updates, not the drivers like mouse or vid card.  I'd rather handle those things on my own.  I think turning off optional updates will do it that way.

Mouse specific:  I use a Microsoft Mouse 4000.  Using the Mouse Center software or whatnot.  No issues.  It is USB but I bought a powered HUB for $15-ish and have never regretted it.  Before the hub I had connectivity issues, which I feel was interference with other devices (or being in an apartment).  The hub seems to create a much more solid connection.  I would recommend trying it.

I can't recall having an issue specifically with Poser and the mouse.