One of the things I found out the hard way is that not all Lcd's are created equal. The first 3 I brought I wound up giving away to family members because the viewing angle was just to shallow. If I moved my head to far from side to side or up and down, the colors would change/brighten dim or whatever.

As someone that needed color fidelity as close as possible to photographic as I could get it, this was unacceptable. I need to know that the colors/shades I choose for my pics was/is true and not just an artifact of what angle I am looking at the screen from.

Eventually I learned about MVA and IPS LCd's and then eventually about Samsungs SPVA screens. Since I also am a Gamer, the best compromise of color and speed was an SPVA screen.

Right Now I am using a Gateway FPD2185W (widescreen) Its actually a rebadged Samsung screen since only they can make SPVA. There are a few small drawbacks to the technology, mainly that its a LOT more expensive than a plain TFT,  but The colors are so unbelievably awesome that you would not believe it without seeing it. People who have regular TFT'S and see my SPVA can't believe what they are looking at.

For those of you out there looking into going flatscreen, do yourself a favor and (unlike me) get it right the first time. If you also game and watch movies, MVA (viewsonic) and SPVA (Samsung) are the ones to watch. (keep in mind not all Samsungs and Viewsonics use this technology)

If Color fidelity as what you are all about then IPS (apple) Is the way to go, but your wallet will sob for mercy. These three LCD types are as close to a a high end regular monitor as you can get in a consumer LCD today.

Next year that will change, and I will be on the hunt again! :-)

Thank you very much! I have wanted these items for quite a while! :tt1:

Right this moment though, the download server is having an " 505 Internal server error" :sad:

Probably to many downloaders!  :sad:

After a few tries and a 5min pause it came through though! :b_drool:

Thanks Again!

if you are running win xp have you checked the system event logs for errors ?

Yah. Not a thing there except application hang: Poser7 etc.....
My  blank screen pretty much told me that though :-)

Has anyone figured out WHY it does that though? Having P7 simply decide to go Bye-Bye is now my biggest Poser pet peeve. Whats worse is that SP1 seems to have exacerbated the problem, rather than fixing it as I had hoped.

I like P7's ability to render scenes that would have frozen P6.....

But I am not sure that the program just randomly disappearing is any better a solution! (LoL!)

Anton, if you read this I just wanted to say thank you very much! I purchased AM when he first appeared and loved him right away. I played for a while, and just when I was about to go on a spending spree for clothes and things... POOF!

He was gone! :-(  

I could'nt believe such a beautiful character was gone forever, and I am glad he is not!
(I would have gladly paid cash money if you had come back in a commercial way, but this works too)

Anyway thank you very very much. AM shows the differance there can be between simply a commercial product, and a labor of love :-)

VERY good news.

I had brought AM and a few textures, and was just getting ready to get a a more extensive wardrobe for him when POOF!! It was all over. (Yikes! What the!?)

I loved the character and was well up on the learning curve with him. All he needed was some textures, clothing and etc which I was just about to buy (as more became available) when I was abruptly left flat footed with a BEAUTIFUL but "dead" character. :-(

I haunted various sites for MONTHS after that trying to find out who would still be supporting him but (Oh, well) it seemed it was all over.

I am very VERY happy he will be back, and making him free is VERY shrewd as I admit I would be a bit wary about jumping back into the pool and buying too quickly after having already been burned a bit.......

If he takes off, I would gladly go on a spending spree as long as there was good stuff for him. He IS the best Poser character I have ever seen.

Quote - Now it seems we are back to poor Poser depth-mapped shadows again. (Figures that appear to be floating above the ground, anyone?) AO takes care of that.

Yep lots of fun! :-)

I have gotton some interesting effects. In fact I should probably play with it a bit more, but I cant see it being for regular use right now. (to slow) :-)

Quote - "Now it seems we are back to poor Poser depth-mapped shadows again. (Figures that appear to be floating above the ground, anyone?)"

There are always the options of decreasing shadow bias, increasing shadow map sizes, reducing the shadow blur radius  and tweaking the shadow cams.

 

Yep. At one time or another (especially in my P4 days) I have played with all of that. But its always been an albatross for me. An extra couple of minutes tweaking and fiddling with something that should really work on its own. Like having to spend ten minutes tweaking the engine of your car before you can drive. Sure it can be done..... but....... (bleah) :-)

I was hoping that was all pretty much a dead issue with poser 6.

Oh well: I will cross my fingers and hope for a fix. Otherwise, I will be looking at P7 with an EXTREMELY wary eye.

I mean, really. Between P5 and P6 I have now spent a couple of hundred dollars on programs that seem unable to handle something even the absolutely free Daz studio seems to handle easily...

Not the end of the world. It's after all just a hobby, but I AM disappointed.

Quote - With ray traced lighting, firefly calculates shadows based on the first surface a light ray runs into, so if that first surface is trans mapped and the ray gets through the transparent part then running into other objects afterwards won't block the ray and create a shadow, even though it should. Until EF gets around to fixing the problem, we're all just going to have to go back to depth mapped shadows when transparency is involved I'm afraid.

Well.... thanks for finally clearing that up :-(

It really stinks for me though, since my major attraction to poser 5 and 6 was the realistic shadowing as opposed to the poor/inaccurate depth-mapped shadows in Poser. (Daz studio is MUCH better at this)

Now it seems we are back to poor Poser depth-mapped shadows again. (Figures that appear to be floating above the ground, anyone?)

 Great! :-(

Quote - "I think I just discovered the answer to my problem - depth mapped shadows instead of raytraced ones. Must be some kind of difficulty that Firefly has with raytracing and transparency."

I am gonna have to assume that too. I bumped into this same problem a while ago and posted a thread at a few sites, including here. The upshoot seems to be nobody knows why it happens. Occasionally somebody else will post a thread here(like yours) on the same issue. The threads I have seen have always ended inconclusivly. I will be overjoyed if you find a fix! :-) (heres hoping)

I have seen the problem before and posted it, both here and at Runtime Dna, since I first noticed it with Apollo Maximus hair, and incorrectly thought it was specific to that figure. Essentially I was told my settings must be wrong in some way, but nothing I have tried has gotton rid of the problem, including using the poser presets. I gave up and just ignore it, now :-)

I tried. I really, really tried to be sincerly sorry that the life of a fellow human was taken. I am still trying. But to my shame, my first reaction was laughter. I am still trying to stop chortling. Thats VERY sad. :-( Do I hate spam THAT much? And what does that say? I am still smiling............... Damn.

If you have Poser5, make sure you are using the Firefly renderer, then switch the Light properties to "Raytraced" and make sure raytracing is active as well in your render settings. That should fix the problem, but will also give you very sharp-edged (but correct) shadows. In Poser6 you can also use the shadow blur radius tool to soften shadow edges for an even more realistic effect. (hope that helps a bit)

Try Changing the max bucket size. That helped my render times a LOT

NO, Biggie, just a sign of the times,people. Also sign of the gradual and ongoing tightening of the rules here at Renderosity, which has now reached the point of self-caricature. Oh, well. Right now I am surfing the web, looking to buy some stock in us companys that make Burkhas. That should be a thriving business someday REAL soon!