hey all! i know that currently there's no pro-pack support for p5. but there might be soon, and p5 is cheap on amazon! so my question then: is it worth getting p5 and waiting for the propack to work with it? is there anything that p5 and the pro-p will be able to do, that p4 and the pro-p can't? not interested in hair or cloth. mainly character set-up and exporting animation to lightwave. would it be worth p5 and the pro-p just for the price of p5 being cheaper than p4? what are your thoughts on this? thanks! ren

"Poser 5 incorporates all the features of Pro Pack except for the plug-ins." SO I ANSWERED MY OWN QUESTION. BUT WILL THE PLUG-INS BE AVAILABLE BY PURCHASE, OR FOR FREE? PROBABLY HAVE TO SHELL OUT THE GREEN FOR THEM...

ive never used p4 pro pack.. what plug-ins doesn p5 not have that might be in a pro pack?

lightwave plugin i think...

Lightwave, Cinema 4d and 3D Studio Max plugins work with pro pack, but not P5. I'm guessing that they are going to charge for the plug ins, since they stated that a P5 Pro Pack was going to be available. Otherwise, they could have just said plug ins coming soon. Just my guess anyway.

what do these plugins do exactly?

my understanding is that they let you host an animation with the textures intact in these high end programs. poser 5 has all the features of the pro-pack w/o the plugin support. so if i have p5, then they make it work ;) then they have the plug-in or someone writes a plugin to make it work in lw, i'm set. that's my understanding. if i can have p5 with the setup room, etc, i can get it for 150. p4 plus the pro-pack is 318. i'd rather have it in one box, but the p5 failure issues still ring in my ears...

i can see how the pro-pack can be a big sale over p5 and its features then. buggy or not...

The bottom line is that even if they do offer a pro-pack that "works" with Poser 5, you still have Poser 5 as the foundation for it all. Regardless of the number of "service releases" they crank out, it is still Poser 5. And that is a concept I cannot accept. I currently use Poser 4+Pro Pack plus Cinema 4d and I also use Poser 4+Pro Pack with Vue d'Esprit. Very satisfied with those combinations. I am considering a move into Lightwave in the near future. If so, Poser 4+Pro Pack will be its partner.

Poser 5 is long ago history with me. History but not forgotten or forgiven.

Take care, be well, keep flying.

casamerica

you'll love lightwave. now even if they fix p5, you won't like it... but why? people usually say that they'd love it if it would work :) ren

you'll love lightwave.<<< I worked with a previous version many years ago while employed elsewhere. There have been a few projects where the client really thought LW was the ONLY way to get the job done until shown what C4d could do. But LW has always held a certain place in my heart. ;-) >>>now even if they fix p5, you won't like it... but why?<<< After being lied to, betrayed and stabbed in the back one generally does not return for seconds. Anyway, in my opinion and I stress that this is just MY opinion, I do not believe Poser 5 to be reparable... and neither do I believe is CL's reputation. Again, just my opinion. Take care, be well, keep flying. casamerica

yeah, i was torn between c4d r8 and lightwave. i went with lightwave because at the time, c4d didn't have any real hdri support, plus the cell shaders available for lw were way better. but i have a little history with c4d, and it's got a little spot in my 3d heart too. i think that, with p5's reputation, and daz|studio coming out, cl is going to either really shape up, or sink, and i'm willing to bet they shape up. however i also think that they're going to have to work awfully hard to gain trust again.

The Firefly rendering engine is the biggest improvement in the P5 package. It creates much more realistic renders, including ray tracing and reflections. If you animate the walk designer in P5 is still broken with no patch being immediately available for it. The way P5 handles textures is a lot more complicated than P4 w/PP, I personally don't like it as the documentation that came with it is poor. If you are used to working with shader nodes in other programs you may find it easy to pick up though. The P5 native figures have a lot more morphs, but I think they are ugly. Everyone around here seems to still be using Micheal and Victoria. The only plus is that using the face room you can map a picture of anyone's face to these figure and morph the face to look exactly like whomever you like.

i had p4 but never bought the propack. now i don't have it at all. that means i'll be buying either p4 plus the propack, or p5 and waiting for the plugin for lightwave. texturing i don't mind being odd, because of deep|paint 3d lightwave edition. i guess i'm looking for the best way to customize a poser figure to look like different characters. i guess my options are either p4 plus the propack for setup room features, or p5 alone. because of price i'm leaning toward p5 but, all the problems people have, they make me think twice. i guess the only reason i'm still considering p5 is that there are a few folks who don't have too many problems with it... hmmm...

Daz Studio holds a lot of promise, and at the the basic version of it will be free. Hopefully Daz has been listening to what people really want in such a application and their software will reflect that Had I know before hand what problems were going to be had with P5 and about Daz Studio, I probably would have stuck with P4 with PP.

i'm really looking forward to daz|studio, but at the same time, i need to get working on this project. i wish daz would put out a weekly update on studio, it would probably aid in my decision making on this subject. cause really, there are 3 options, and all are cool, and all have their drawbacks. it's really a shame i think that poser hasn't had any real competition. i'd love to have seen where it would be right now...