Both are right, the statements are consistent. The problem is created by a combination of an erroneously limited path length for the shadow map temp files and from a sometimes less than optimal placement of those files. If your installation happens to be in a place with a long path name, it is rare, but not completely unlikely to hit the problem. Or, if your scene file is loaded from a location with a long name, is again possible to hit the problem. Most users stay within the limit, so they'll never see the problem. Some exceed the limit, and their shadow maps are gone.

First of all let me assure you that the Service Release 4 installer doesn't write anywhere else than the directory specified to update. Also, SR 4 does not add or modify any items in the registry (with one exception: the file extensions .pz3 and .pzz are registered with the new poser.exe executable). Yes, the initial version of Poser 5 was protected by InterLok, and yes, InterLok does low-lewel work to protect itself. But, since Service Release 2, InterLok is not used or accessed any more. If you install Poser 5 from the CD and apply SR4 (or SR3 or SR2) rightaway before launching for the first time, InterLok will not even be started and does nothing on your system. To reiterate, when launching after installing SR4, no low-level access takes place at all, the launch process is completely read-only (again with one exception: at the very first launch, a file caching the serial number entered is written to the Poser directory). That said, it is extremely unlikely that Poser 5 with Service Release 4 installed could do any damage to the operating system, and I can't even remotely imagine how such damage should be caused by Poser.

"If I remember correctly, it was stated be CL that only the texture names stay in the list, not the texture itself in memeory." Exactly, names & paths are cached by the texture manager, all bitmap data is removed from memory, unless you choose to use the respective texture again.

Yes, Don for Walk Designer.pwd is this the one to remove if there are no duplicated poses.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=1676582&Reply=1677059#27

Please go to RuntimelibrariesPoseWalkDesigner and check whether you have duplicated walk designer poses there (i.e. the same name, with .pz2 and .p2z extension). This can happen when unpacking the runtime with the Python scripts. If yes, remove the .pz2 files. If that doesn't help, remove the .pwd file (the Walk Designer cache) and try again.

hmatienzo, try to move away the .arp files from Runtime/plugins first before re-installing. Does it launch then?

The default behavior changed from Pro Pack to Poser 5 (initial release). An invisible Figure node can not be overridden any more. The difference is that the process you describe used to work with the figure and the body node in the hierarchy in Pro Pack. In Poser 5 it only works with the body node, still offering the desired behavior of quickly making everything invisible and then bringing back a larger part of the hierarchy by alt-clicking a body part. So essentially, Figure and Body react different. That is common though, for example on the parm palette, the Figure can't be selected individually at all, you have to do that elsewhere.

Hi d-larsen, this section from the SR4 readme might help you: Material Room ------------- - Corrected an erroneous condition where multiple, disconnected nodes were added to the background color node. As a result, the background color was not editable any more. This problem is fixed in SR4. However, if you still happen to have files where this condition is present, there are a couple simple steps you should take to correct them: 1. Open the problematic file 2. Go to the material room 3. From object menu select background. You'll recognize that there are duplicated nodes. 4. Select and cut/delete all duplicated nodes except for the "BG Color" node that was originally connected to the Background root node. 5. Save the scene. In case you have set to open new documents with your preferred state, the problem still will reproduce in files created by File->New. Please repeat the process described above after creating a new file and set the preferred state again.

This is a statement I made earlier on after the release of SR3: There are some content files which can be found both in the SR1 Figures Updater (respectively in the SR1 Full Updater) and in the SR3 Application Updater (they're needed for the Walk Designer fixes). Therefore, applying the SR1 Figures Updater after SR3 could result in unexpected behavior. This was the reason to provide a new Figures Updater as well, which allows to install the SR3s in arbitrary order. So you can either do that, or, if the download is too large for you, just use the SR1 Full or Figures updater before applying SR3.

Hi Dizzie, posing.zip does indeed contain the German version, whereas taop.zip contains the English one. Make you choice...

An even easier way is described in the Poser 5 Mac readme: "Poser 5 includes the ability to save compressed runtime files and scene files using "zlib compression". This compression will significantly reduce the size of your runtime directory and save valuable hard drive space. These compressed files will act identically to non-compressed runtime files when used in Poser 5. To enable file compression, select EDIT>GENERAL PREFERENCES and check the "Save Compressed Files" option. Poser 5 will open both compressed and non-compressed files, but writes compressed files using specific file extensions. Compressed Poser 5 files can be opened by users running Poser 4 with Pro Pack or later. Zlib compression is similar to gzip and zip compression methods, and can typically be uncompressed by any utility (such as StuffIt) that handles either of these formats. For more information on zlib, please refer to http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/zlib/. To uncompress a file, change the extension on the file you wish to access to .GZ, then run your decompression utility. Alternatively, you can use the included PoserPython decompression script by launching Poser and opening the Python Scripts window."

the Library folder I'm referring to can be found in the home directory of the current user, if anyone wonders...

Attached Link: http://www.curiouslabs.com/go/techsupport

Hi Gary, even if you rebuild from ground up, installing SR3 before launching Poser the first time does remove the need for registering online. Nevertheless, it is recommended for first time users to go to www.curiouslabs.com/go/register in order to be able to receive tech support.