Thanks PhilC. You are the best. I wonder why 100% isnt 100%.

cakeone has a great tutorial on making the skin look realistic.  Its been around for years and has always been a staple for all my renders

yes, if you look for newbie tutorials there is one that has exactly what you are looking for.

ok got my answer. and lucipher in the dark was right on! 

You can put the model in a video game as long as the finished product does not allow the geometry to be extracted.

Well, I have not completely experimented.  But I would try one at maybe at 10-12k and maybe one at 4-5k.  Besides Poser4 lo, there are a few on turbo squid I am considering. In addition, I would like to have the character be easily modified so several characters can share the same skeleton. 

I did contact zygote and the sales person stated they did not own the old poser model and refered me to daz, claiming they own the rights.  I am not sure if he meant ef, or if he was correct in stating daz.

Angelouscuitry, it is the belief that low poly but well textured figures are better for real time renders then the high poly counterparts.  I understand that someone can make a 4 faced poly and make any system crawl (scripts, shaders, shadows ect) and polys are not the only factor, but it is a factor.  Other than that, I would use them in a heart beat.

Angelouscuitry I caught your post and hence my suggestion and rant to an open source figure. I need a low poly male figure though. I have had bad luck with trying to use programs to lower the poly count.  Still even with a good figure, I need too add a skeleton and animation and need to know if that is usable.

DustRider, I have checked out MakeHuman, thats why I referenced it.  The most current web page is the source forge page as the admin has changed. To be honest the Make Human figures currently have too many polys. If the project isnt abandoned, it will probably come in a much later release.

Lucipher, I agree with you but that does not mean we are correct. Nothing would make me happier then hearing, go ahead use any figure and re skin him as you wish just as long as you dont distribute the mesh in a usable form. But if you have the mesh in a game (encrypted or not) you still are distrubuting it. As you see by some posters, they interprete the EULA as saying thats not possible.

In the end, I will just email eF as they now own the rights to the program.

I have yet to do anything so I am playing by the rules.  Thats why I am asking in an open forum to clarify any rules. I understand none of you are lawyers, but that doesnt mean you dont have the knowledge I am looking for.

I realize the current EULA seems to forbid using the Poser meshes, but I, and as it appears others, dont recall the EULA of Poser 4 being so restrictive although this may be a misconception. I imagine that those who have been around after 2003 won't even remember the old EULA, so I am glad that some experienced posters replied. And as my poor memory serves me the reason Daz was able to take off the way it did, and created the D|S was because the EULA became so restrictive.

From my research on the net, P4-Lo models can get pretty close to 70 frames a second. Some gamers are taking those, creating derivatives, changing the format then using moledex to encrypt them. Ethically, that is only okay only if the Poser P4 EULA allows it, and that is in part what I am trying to determine.

Secondly, if an "open sourced" model existed, the community looking to expand and not necessarly make financial gains, people would be able to distribute the product Free and its add ons (much like the old P4 members did). Renderosity has been very nice to provide free add ons to retail products, I am surprised the same does not exist for an open source object.

Lastly, if I was able to create/ or even buy a model (in wings, 3dmax, obj ect) and import it to Poser, whats the legalities of using the base skeleton and exporting the bvh files. Afterall, isnt this what Daz does, create a model in LW and import it into Poser, add a skeleton and sell it? The drunken post above confuses me, as why would Poser even have an export for BVH if its not intended to be used!  One tutorial on Daz forums explictly state they had permission to use the skeleton and animations.

Now, if Poser can ONLY be used for 2d screens, as some had presented, and should never be used as a tool to pose for 3d projects, then I can respect that, but I also would not be surprised if Poser 7 is the last on the series as it has far out grown its need for this user. There are a number of open source programs that are limited but catching up to Posers power (for example make human).  With an open sourced competition coming, I would argue change is necessary.

For some reason I think the majority of users forget the prime function of Poser is a tool to "pose" figures. Outside of that, the orginal poser figures are pretty high quality.

Is there a male version?

I Load Head texture which was created using the face generator. It asks me if its P5 I say yes. I think click Apply figure. From there I hit the pose tab and render. I have experimented in making my own skin tones and they look ok but the face is extremely dark in the pose room. Where/when does it ask you this? If possible can you take a screen shot

i am confused. i will have this problem in a few weeks when i get my new pc. you like nested runtime files? I hate them! usually i have to unselect the keep subfolders and hand place them I only want one runtime. anmymore and its confusing. i was looking forward to organizing my folders. to start off all the daz stuff needs to go in a daz folder. figures, (daz), (people, clothing,hair) poses, (daz), (inj, rem, mat, poses) then in each of those subs organize again the character to whom it is designed for vic mic ect Is this a bad idea?

thought i replied guess not... is there anyway to reduce the polys down? How hard is it to re-bone the meshes and what is involved in translating it. I dont mind doing the work but currently i am clueless on how to get started. What about exporting into discreets gmax? Many games are made from 3dstudio max, if the poser model is entered into gmax can the skeleton model be transferred with it> Thanks for the reply

Ah what the heck. Why cant ppl just write the word Nudity on the thumbnail covering any would be areas. Personally, I dislike seeing any male nude even if its art ;)