lol you all are bitchin' about 2 minute waits? lol I called..I got a message that said "you have called during our regular staff meeting, please call back in an hour" ...I called back..same message.. I called back..same message 4 hours later, I called and actually got a "wait til next available rep" message... 20 minute later I got a new serial number lol..so rem. btw, the reason Bryce5 has metaballs is that it was necessary for the engineers to make trees. The trees are actually metaballs set to a path. They dont work the same, but thats what they are. To my understanding, originally, they werent gonna make them a menu item. I guess it was a "I want them" thing that got them there. and yes, on windows machines, bryce 5 renders from 115% - 7% slower. I have been working on "why". On my machine, the original file renders ~14% slower. I now have it to ~4%. This will be in the review I do shortly. To get the faster render times means doing things you SHOULD NOT have to do...but with the same settings on B4, you get no real difference (I tried it)..so it must do with "background" programming (just a guess) I am happy overall with B5, but like anything...it could be better (just dont say that to your wife!..lol) later BT

do you know how silly it is to say "they conspired" guys, you're being a little extreme arent you? why in the name of hell would a company do something like that? there are program differences between 4&5 and platform differences between mac and win. Did you know that bryce is a "patchwork" program? the code is not "ordered" as a normal program is. Its just patched together because of the additions to code without a solid rewrite. It was NEVER intended for what it is doing now. You, Me, We as the consumer have pushed it into realms it was never conceived of going. Additionally, I 'assume' that this was the same scene with same setup. Rem, b5 scenes are larger in resolution by default than b4 (odd how its ~10%). additionally, if you are going to declare a 10% difference, you dont say "seconds" you count "hours"..then give a percentage from that. I do have gripes about it, but IMHO..this upgrade IS the best upgrade bryce has ever received. It now supports network rendering..this alone means that it life will probably not ebb into inexistence...add trees, metaballs, and user categories and you have a big improvement. There are things that could still be improved. And render times will ALWAYS be one. But , to even hint that they deliberately made the difference between platform? come on... BT

see ron..there you go... another site I have not heard of! YOURS! lol BT

yeah ron...at least some kind of categorizing that would make it easier. I dont want to be misunderstood. I found some really great sites..and some great info. I saw poser doing things imagewise, that I just didnt really believe it could do. now if I could have seen this stuff as related to what I wanted..in say, < 1 week. I would now have 40 characters..not 20. but I do like a challenge..so I guess I really picked one this time huh? lol will be fun meeting all the folks whose sites I was on. Several images are still burnt into the back of my mind and I wont forget them...ever! lol BT

ok..I fully understand..heh I just searched for posertech.com and it was open so I got it...then I searched for posertech and low and behold I found a newsgroup that was called this. Well of course I checked it out immediately to see what it was. I do say that its very kewl. Real poser info and not so much of "I want to know that too" and "hi". The reason why I want to actually do a site like brycetech for poser (ie posertech) is that a few months ago I set out to start making posable characters for poser. The obvious sources of info are the pf here and 3dcommune..so I go check them out. A day later, I know almost no more about it. So I decide I'd have to do a site by site check..which I do and I started learning some info...but it was like crumbs spread over a wide area. A bit here, a bit there. Then I start making characters...and the interesting things are poser techniques I thought I had developed. I was using extra objects to break the poser hierarchy to stop the bad blends for instance. So, while Im doing this...I keep checking the various sites. 3 months later..I find a site that actually talks about doing this...3 MONTHS!!! well, that just made me scream. I thought I had been doing this alone... Now the fact it wasnt my technique is not the problem..it the fact that had I found this early in the character creation process, it would have saved me literally hundreds of hours of fighting the blend zone problems. (short of asking online) blend zones are like a "black hole". Almost no info about them..and this is one of the biggest most important areas for the creation of a character. So what all this is leading up to is that Im like 4 months later..got some great characters, but I was all over the internet getting the info..and then the other day I get to the newsgroup and start reading some about cr2 editing tricks. Again...info that could have saved me lotsa work...found 4 months after the process started. It should have all been in one place. I should not have had to go to 50 zillion sites to get a basic understanding of character creation (within poser or outside using modellers), explanations of some of the "gotta have" programs for this like 'uv mapper'..and the great things it does that is like a hidden secret to the world...and then things like material creation within poser itself. sigh...it just frustrated me. and if it did me, then others that want to do it would have to go thru this too. lol side note..Amapi (the modeller Im now using) also has this same problem related to info...and one of the biggest things I found about it (4 months later) is that the book clearly states the program cant do something...I found the other day by accident..that it can. again..sigh thanx anyhow.. see you around BT

its not an activex control its flash...if your firewall blocked it..something else did it...nothing special about the movie. BT

hi scott I just found your group yes..its different..and I would love it if you and I and jeff would join this venture. This is not poser as is..this is poser as it should be. your group is far above what I usually see..its real poser info. This is what it should be. I offer an open invitation. Are you interested in this? thanx BT