So sorry to hear :-(
My condolences.

~s 

No need to get THAT explicit, dear ;-)

~s 

Quote -
Boofy: Did you find a copy of the magazine yet??

Hi, 

i didn't see this until now, I don't come here all that much anymore. 
If this is the QnA-image you're talking about, 3D World's 6 month copyright has run out, and I could always post it on my website, if people are interested? 
The reference in the QnA is to Zahnn's Raging Seas/The summoning. 

~s

'k thx :-) I have to say there's a lot of hassle w this release: I just got a new system and I'm setting up general/generic applications, including P7. Apparently installing P7 on a different drive than PP7 still causes PP7 to not find library files, in effect rendering it a li'l bit useless. Reinstalling and a reboot helped, but still: That's time I could have spent doing other stuff. ~s

Don't know -maybe they're saving it for P8? ~s

http://market.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2739364 Could it be your issue is that they've apparently overhauled the Python parser? Not that it's an excuse, but it could be a why/what and that'd mean i.e Teyon or some of the other frequenters could file a bug-report? I have the same kit - It's late here, but I can check it out, see if I get the same issues? ~s

Probably depends on the lighting, Punto? I'm not a big fan of Poser's HDRI function, so I tend to stick the fake HDRI as I like the results better - in that respect I've seen some renders get somewhat brighter. What's your experience? Interesting Kupa hasn't dropped by to say hi ;-) His blog is at poserpro.net ->blogs->In Character For those wondering what we're talking about re: Collada - see enclosed img. ~s

Ghonma - maybe we're just coming from two different places of expectation - I see Kupa is back in the Poser spin saddle, so I have to admit, I am somewhat immune as to what gets passed off as new! fantastic! features! - Poser Pro 4 actually had features - at best, these are enhancements and optimisations, and I treat them as such. So in that respect - Yes, Gamma Correction is a whole new paradigm of understatement, but if it does help make renders look less shitty - fine. As for being thrown the same old stuff - Poser is in it's 13th year now, and way beyond the mannequin replacement app it was intended as. During those 13 years, Poser has had Fractal Design, MetaCreations, egi.sys (Curious Labs), E-frontier, and now Smith Micro as owners. And still the codebase has the same old bugs, and some of the same issues it started out with. I don't think it's likely they're going to rebuild the app from scratch - I think we're going to see the same stuff as always being thrown at the user-base, lots of big words actually giving very little. I think this was an enhancement release - and that SM are trying to figure out who/where their marketbase is with it. As for quadrupeds - the Mill-horse looks really bad, as do a lot of critters with Poser Collada. D|S handles it a bit more gracefully - also take a look at what you can with props and stuff - it's .. fascinating ;-) ~s

Quote - Well PPro's COLLADA export does seem a bit more capable and stable then that of D|S. I haven't done huge amounts of tests but so far i'v managed to export a few figures that would constantly crash D|S. Could just be some quirk of these figures of course, but that was worth the few hundred $$ for me. 64 bit support is also a good benefit.

Bipeds or quadrupeds? the bipeds work ok for me in either, but I get less f***kuppery with D|S' Collada into Max on fourlegged creatures. I agree the gamma correection probably is added fluff on a feature list - but at least it's one that make renders look less crap. I also think the marketing technique, without having any proof, is to let hobbyist users feel they're getting something higher end. I use Max almost exclusively for commercial work, and I really don't have all that much use for the new tools, even if I wanted to integrate into my pipeline; The only thing I was hoping would be handy was the Poser Fusion plugin, but I've seen better from GestureMax and Bodystudio - I never tried MeshFoot, but I heat it can do more too. I like the gamma correction feature solely because it does brighten up in-program renders. I never expected to be able to have MR controls in Poser, so I am ok w that. Network Rendering and bg rendering are fine too, but not spectacular. All in all, I think this is a money-driven release; as new purchasers of the codebase, SM probably needed a release, and fast - just like DAZ did w Carrara and Bryce when they got them. ~s

Connie - I've used Max since it was a DOS app - I know you have to bake separately, and I am aware of the imperfect pipeline functions across the board. Again - I was assuming (a great euphemism for "should have paid more attention"), but thanks for the help :-) having said that, and despite working in the software industry, there's always a small part of me that wants to believe the New! Shiny! Improved! until I get my fingers messy under the hood. I think that if you're buying PP7 as an upgrade from 5 or 6, there are some benefits, but as far as the interaction between applications go,I am somewhat underimpressed; I've seen plugins with better functionality, at least for Max, I cant speak for c4d or maya. I think my favourite thus far is the gamma correction and the memory optimisation - the app does run smoother. I am still trying to figure why PP goes belly up in a complex scene P7 manages to sloooooowly crunch itself through, but that could actually be a memory/garbage collection issue in the app. The HDR thing is also underimpressive - why export Poser lighting when you can run maxwell or Final Render or Mental Ray? ~s //lighting, not lights, although you can export those too in PF

Thanks, and fair enough - I assumed it'd take the nodemap and that it'd bake it into a generic b/w texture map, I've seen other apps do that, hence the assumption :-) ~s

Not sure I understand -How do you mean? ~s

Also -loading a scene into Max doesn't always give you the results you want: I can understand the hair not making into a Max scene, but it seems the displacement does, but only when it's a texturemap and not something native. I am assuming we have more Cinema than Maya users in this forum, but could anyone check if this is an issue for them as well: * Not all texture maps make it into the Poser Fusion export * Not all displacement makes it into the Poser Fusion export ~s

Here's the scene layout that crashes when I load the horse in PP7 ~s

Moving on from dead horses: Has anyone had issues in PP7 and the Mill horse + hair + displacement maps? I want to render out a beautyshot for something I'm doing for 3DW. Here's the setup: * 2xterrains I generated in Max * 2x 2048x2048 textures, jpg, mine * displacement using a single fbm node * Dark Anvil Fence * RDNA Park tree -or one of my own Onyx-generated oaks, it doesn't really matter, goes BOOM anyway * some slight displacement on the fence * Gamma correction set to ab 2 * Preview set to OpenGL/HW * 4-5 lights in scene - havent finished working w them * AO off for now. - Adding the mill nag sr1 to this scene sends it into conniptions, and it will autoclose at once - Loading the horse on it's own works fine - Loading the P4 one works fine - Bloodsongs HH works ok too - reducing terrain density and texturemap size has no effect - removing displacement and hair, ditto Current system is the one I got on Friday - XP, SP2 (not going near sp3 for a while) 4GB RAM (Yes, I know, but I don't like Vista, and have a dual boot to Ubuntu) and a 1 Gb XFX GeForce 9800GX2. P7 on a smaller system manages to crunch out the scene after a long wait, but PP7 has some serious issues here. Anyone experience similar issues? Anyone also notice that if you change light in a scene, the render will take longer, and not only because Poser reloads all the texture maps again? -also - anyone else find it annoying the poserfusion for max thing rotates the scene? ~s //changing pic in a sec - I think it got resized somewhere down the line