Bobbie Boucher, I, for one, was not "picking on DAZ alone." Just for example, I have picked on Curious Labs a time or two. It's just that I have a slow dial-up connection, and it takes time to download updates. I'd prefer not to have to do it over and over.

Yeah, what Dave-So said. DAZ, get it all together, and when you're absolutely sure SR1, or whatever, is ready for primetime, send your M3 members an email about it. Okay?

Don't think you're allowed to give 'em away either, without their permission.

FYI: I just signed on and looked at my account. There do not appear to be any new downloads, there, but I did find them on the product pages. Also, as I'm a bit new to all this stuff, can anyone tell me if it is okay to apply the updates if one is in the middle of (and virtually finished with) a project using M3?, i.e., will there be any side-effects I should know about?

Dave-So: "The DAZ items cannot be resold." Is that right? I'd have to go back and look to be sure, but I thought I read once in the DAZ EULA something about "without permission." If so, might they not give their permission if you were selling out altogether, i.e., selling a business or something?

After a long hiatus, I upgraded from Poser2 to 5 without realizing 4 would have been a much better deal. Obviously, I should've hung around renderosity a while longer before making the purchase. Unfortunately, after making the purchase, circumstances kept me from messing around with 5 very much for a while, and by the time I got into it, it was too late to return it to the vendor for a refund. So, via email, I then asked CL if I could "downgrade" to 4. No response. I then asked them if I could get a very special price on 4 since I had already paid for 5. No response. So I am now trying to create art in 5, and it is without question the buggiest (by far) software I own, and the buggiest (by far) I have used in many years. I don't know about the rest of you (and as for what they call it, I could hardly care), but the very least CL OWES me is a FREE fix -- and not yet another service release that doesn't really fix very much of anything.

Thank you!!!!!!!!

Not bad at all. Thanks.

Thanks. I'll check it out.

Attached Link: Fantasy Novel

I only asked because I have spent so much money on Poser-related stuff in the last few months I can hardly believe it. I was almost debt free 6 months ago. If I don't stop it, I'll be headed for bankruptcy in 6 more. And I don't work on my writing or my programming projects anymore. And my social life is nonexistent. And I hardly ever visit any non-Poser related sites on the net anymore. And I'm a newbie by just about anyone's standards. I dread to think how bad I'll be if I ever get any good with this stuff.

Cybermonk: I am so far having trouble getting Wings3d to install. Will it not run under XP? Or maybe I just had a corrupted download or something ... Tomsde: I've heard good things about the book. Think I'll put that off a little bit though. It may be a while before I get around to doing much boning, but thanks for mentioning it. Again, if anyone has used more than one of these modeling packages enough to know the pros and cons when comparing features and such, I'd appreciate your further comments. Anyway, thanks to everyone for all the advice.

Thanks everybody for the input. I'm evaluating a lot of demos right now. (For about the next month, am evaluating, Amapi Designer, Amorphium, EI Universe, Rhino3D, Wings3D, ZBrush.) I'm still trying to figure out what's what, but I am beginning to think that, in addition to designing my own models, I might want something that would allow poser figures and props and such to be imported and then would let me create morph targets and such via the modeler (that could then be exported and usable in Poser of course). Which modelers allow that? Or is that capability not worth having? And thanks for all the replies. Please keep the discussion going. I've got a lot to learn and any pointers or suggestions about differences in capabilities and the significance thereof, while I'm evaluating the demos, would likely be very helpful.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. I am going to have to think for a while where to put my money, so to anyone who has any other thoughts, please don't be shy ... ;) One thing that bothers me, though, is how many (most?, all?) of those who sell these models make the license agreement non-transferable. If you decide to change careers, hobbies, or priorities, or sell your 'business,' you can usually sell your license for AutoCAD, for PhotoShop, for Vue, for Poser, for almost every digital product you have ever bought. But apparently you cannot sell or transfer your 3d model licenses? Even if you give up Poser and digital graphics altogether and spend all the rest of your life and free time and energy working as a janitor, drinking beer, or trading stocks or something? For a 'hobby' that can get pretty darn expensive, this nontransferable thing hardly seems like a very fair deal to me. But what do I know? I'm a newbie. So if you have any thoughts about all that, let's hear em. But, anyway, I guess all the expense and time invested will help keep me out of trouble. Thanks again for the comments and recommendations so far.

A big thanks for your thoughts.