Curious about Poser 6? Now is your chance to make a difference in the future of Curious Labs software and win exciting prizes as well! Take our Poser General Survey and Poser 6 Feature Survey and get a chance to win an
iPod, software and more!! Curious Labs has been working hard on planning Poser 6 in the past few months, researching new technologies, reviewing customer service and technical support inquiries and reading the forums to try and figure out what you want. Based on that, we have compiled a comprehensive survey and are excited to get your input on what you want to see in the next version to help us refine your wishlist.

Thank you for your continued input and support of Poser. Rush over to http://www.curiouslabs.com/go/survey to enter and share your feedback today! Winners will be chosen at random.

I'm more Curious about SR4... is it still in the works?

I just took the survey. (I wonder how many people actually click "illegal copy" for the "where did you get your copy of Poser" question?) I told them to please, please, get rid of Content Paradise...

Attached Link: http://www.curiouslabs.com/go/survey

Clickable Link Below:

A well-designed survey, but clearly pays no attention at all to the needs and wants of animators. Choices relating to animation are not even available.... Perhaps we can read something about future directions of Poser by what isn't mentioned!

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Hi, This survey post was placed up on some of the forums before our newsletter was delivered. On SR 4, we're in the last round of test varification. I fairly certain it will be an end of February or start of March release. Of course as always, unless this last round of test provides a problem that will require more time. Kind regards, Katherine

They did have a comments section on the last page where I was able to mention my concerns as an animator.

Before they made me they broke the mold!
http://home.roadrunner.com/~kflach/

Just finished taking the survey. Improved animation and lighting are two of my most important "wants". Of course stability and speed are high on the list as well. ;)

I will fill out the survey, but I have to admit to being ultra-sceptical about the whole business. I remember only too well, the various surveys, wishing wells, et al, which preceded Poser 5. I don't think one blind bit of notice was taken of a single thing that was requested by the users, and I fail to see why it should be any different this time round. Have CL suddenly decided it's time to actually listen to the people who use the program? Well, I'll give them the benifit of the doubt and say 'Yes', but if so, it'll be a first. Up to now, I've seen no evidence whatsoever that CL cares one way or the other what we think. Katherine, Please don't take this personally. I certainly appreciate your effort to keep us up to date. It's just a case of 'once bitten, twice shy'. CL has let us down badly in the past, and as far as I'm concerned, they'll have to work twice as hard to regain my trust. mac

And please, I BEG you...... don't let me win an i-pod!!!! I can't imagine a worse punishment. LOL. mac (who doesn't use one)

I'm back again. No, I didn't take the survey. I began filling in the 1st page and halfway down, I looked at the rest of the page and realised that not one single question pertained to the program itself. All the questions are marketing-related. Now, maybe page 2 (the poser 6 part) has some sensible questions, but I didn't bother looking. If CL wants me to fill in a marketing survey, they should say so. As for what I use Poser for, how I found out about it and where I bought it, I wouldn't mind helping CL to target their advertising more effectively. But NOT under the pretence of asking my opinions on how they should fix their software. If CL come up with some kind of genuine survey asking what the users would like to see done to fix the program, I'll gladly fill it in. Just leave the marketing part out, or make it a separate survey. mac PS I see CL have actually realised that a lot of people use their product for porn. LOL.

Anything CL comes out with is going to be "too little too late" in my book. Sorry, but no thanks on the survey.

Hi Mac, The first portion of the survey that seems more on the marketing side just helps us to continue to understand the Poser use and nature. If you like, only fill out the Poser 6 portion. Filling out both is necessary to win the iPod, but since you prefer not to win, feel free to enter info on P6 only. Kind regards, Katherine

LOL. Thanks for the swift reply, katherine. If there's way to avoid winning the i-pod, I'm happy. And if the 2nd section actually contains sensible questions, I'm even happier. I'll go back now and fill it in. mac

It is never to late... but it can be too little... I still think Poser5 is a steal for the price, just hope we get SR4.

Niles, I can promise there will be an SR4. Kind regards, Katherine

Katherine Just filled out your survey. I see that you have several questions to rate on a scale of 1 to 5. With rateing systems a higher number MOST OFTEN denotes a better rateing. You guys have that completely backwards,where the lowest number denotes the best. Think your going to get a lot of false feedback. SWAMP

OK, so I took the survey, and am wondering what to do with that thing when I win it. LOL! - As usual, the survey seems to have been written by someone who knows almost nothing about the way Poser is actually used by many of us folks. It was almost like being in Wonderland where everything had a strong hint of fantasy and reeked of a marketing attempt to justify whatever they have already decided to do. Don't get me wrong, I love Poser 5 and would never go back to 4, but I wish to heaven that they would just fix the rendering and shading problems. If you can't render a scene without inverted shading, normals confusion, displacement errors and other artifacts, then all those great materials and that hair and clothing and walk-designer are fairly useless till someone figures a way to export it all..

I LIKE those little comment boxes. Here's how I used mine; "Suggest next time you do a survey, you start by doing a survey OF the survey. Unanimous responce on the forums I attend is that the questions asked had little to do with what the user base is talking about. Having read the survey, I now concur. A good half of your user base has shunned Poser 5 due to stability issues and a lack of workable features (the new cloth and hair have wonderful potential but one has to call the current implementation a Beta version). There is much more interest in a Poser 5.1 then there is in a Poser6. "As someone creating third-party content I rarely try to finish a work in Poser native. Personaly, my complaint is that Poser does not play well with others...non-standard winding orders, object sizes, orientation, an inability to recognize files (on Mac version) that have not been resource-hacked first... "The core technology is also aging. Poser's simple boning system makes it difficult to push the envelope of realistic human figures. If there were a truly revolutionary Poser 6, it would be a new take that integrated muscle massing and underlying bone structure, combined with a full dynamic environmental system." After all those questions about what I wanted added to Content Paradise, I thought I had to use strong words to make my feelings known. :)

"You guys have that completely backwards,where the lowest number denotes the best." Oops. I gave them a mirror image of my actual feelings, then. As for the iPod...I dunno, can they play MP3s? Or just that weird proprietary Apple format?

Katherine, I've thought of some more thing I think would be helpful. (especialy from a new-bee POV) Is there somewhere we can send suggestions. I'm sure you don't want us filling out the survey over and over :)

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Just finished answering the survey (and also completely reversed the answers on a 1-5 scale : 5 was best for me, while 1 was bad...). Keeps my fingers crossed to avoid winning the i-pod... By the way Katherine, there was once a hint that Poser5 buyers from the first months (who have suffered the worst of Poser5 initial botches) could get some sort of compensation. Any news ?

Hi,

While I didn't create the survey questions, I can explain that this is meant more as a round off of information. Meaning, we have also a great deal of very detailed input coming from many of the previous posts from the forums as well as direct inquiries from service and technical sides at CL.

Again, if this survey seems too general for some, please understand that it does not represent the complete picture. Just one part of the communication and input that is being reviewed while Poser is in future development. A whole database of more detailed input is also a very large part of this process.

With kind regards,
Katherine

Just took the survey, looks pretty good. My hope is that CL doesn't make the same mistake twice - filling it with huge heaps of new stuff that sort of almost works if you have lots of patience. My impression is that this time the focus is on making it streamlined first and keeping fancy stuff for later. Apart from anything else, that's a lot more reasonable thinking - easier to implement and chepaer to develop. And satisfied customers for sure. Stable, robust, logical, fast, durable. Powerful yes, but not at the expense of the other stuff. Wishlist: 1. OpenGL! 2. A popup that lets you do a quick 'search' for a missing obj or tex (like Sonic Foundry's apps) instead of dying on you. 3. Windows that don't disappear behind each other. Try exporting a render, have the wrong suffix on the filename by accident and see where that little window goes... Poser goes real dumb. 4. Stable memory handling, incl. rendering. 5. Smarter light setup 6. A button to delete ALL lights (yes I know there's a python for this) 7. A possiblilty to DECIDE what a saved pose should include, such as MT values, trans and rot but also scale and Body values!!! 8. A Libraries palette with multiple columns at once so one can see more than a few thumbs at a time. Say a button at the top that pops it out across the screen. 9. Copy figure or prop in scene directly. 10. After rendering, quick return to preview mode - not a 30 second wait (on a 2,5 GHz PC!) 11. And again, stability. :] Fish

whats an ipod for ???

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect......Chief Seattle, 1854

'whats an ipod for ???' For keeping i-peas in? mac

Thank you Fish,

Your impression is correct. With the amount of time Poser 4 was the current product when you consider Metacreations to then Curious Labs, the thought for 5 was that there HAD to be many new wow features. 6 will be the streamline focus. Then with Shade a part of our product mix, we will be working on compatibility (with Shade and with again focus on other 3D products). Then looking beyond will encompass plans that makes the best use of Poser and Shade technologies along side with what the artist and market need to keep expanding the type of 3D tool suites much needed.

Kind regards,
Katherine

I think the contest should be to win the next version of poser =)

Katherine. Can you give us a list of what's being fixed in SR4? For example, the multi channel magnet bug is a real annoyance. Here if you use a magnet on both a base figure and its clothes and save a pz3, when you reload the pz3, the magnet channels on the clothes get duplicated making the magnet effects duplicate. It happens on load, not on save or I'd write a small app to weed those out myself.

Hi Mason, I just tried to push for that yesterday, but - our Product Manager has asked that I wait until this last round of varification is finalized. I should have a post out hopefully within the next two weeks to list the SR 4 details. Kind regards, Katherine

Damn, I filled out the 1-5 stuff reversed also. :(

An ipod is a family of iwhales. (g) I ALMOST filled in the 1-5 questions backward, but luckily I actually read the question, where it said 1 was best. I think it's silly to even ask if stability is an important issue. Of course it is!!! It is the #1 complaint on every web board for every piece of software made anywhere. Why bother to ask? Just do it.

hee hee. Amazing what reading and paying attention does... Katherine, thanks for all your work to keep us informed. :)

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)

Hopefully the hair will be fixed so it doesn't go through the face? Marque

Okay, I just filled out the first page, clicked "OK" and was taken back to the first page with all my answers blanked out. It said at the top, "fields marked with a red * are required." There was a red * next to every question; and I had answered them all. This happened twice. Very annoying. And I don't know what an i-Pod is, either.

I filled out the survey, and in the comments added the things I thought were most important, since they were not even touched upon in the survey. Opengl or D3D graphic card support is a MUST I can think of no top notch 3D graphic applications that do not support graphic cards! Speed.. the poser interface is quite sluggish at times. 3d support would help, but the interface itself might be the cause. Re-arranging the interface is nice, but being able to create python script buttons (or have a drop down list) would be really nice. There should be a content browser of some sort built in, and there should also be the ability to delete associated content. In other words, if I want to delete a character, everything relating to that character should have a option for deletion. Runtime Bloat is one of the biggest poser problems, IMHO. Heck if they even supported "runtime zip files" that would be nice! get a new item.. drop the zip in a folder, and give poser the ability to extract the content, without spraying it in 100 different folders. rant off

Way too many people take way too many things way too seriously.

I filled out every field on the first page, then hit "OK", and it asked me to redo the entire first page. I did, then hit "OK". Again with every field with a need to fill in mark. I'll try one more time tomorrow. However, that said, I don't want a P6 until CL makes good on the promises they made on P5. Don't "streamline" the thing. Make it work for those of us who've already paid and put up with CL's broken promises. And to be honest, after over a year of wairing, even if SR4 makes the thing work perfectly, I'll still be very leary of buying anything from CL again. Gee, I wonder if I just ruined my chances to win... Well, lets see, considering the agrivation P5 has caused us all. we should all get a free i_Pod. Although I have no idea what I'd do with a family of whales...

It's essentially a firewire harddrive specially configured to make it easy to use as an mp3 player. In fact, it's marketed as an mp3 player that's also a firewire drive. You can store thousands of songs on it. You can also use it to store computer files (parts of "The Return Of The King" movie were transported via iPod during production of the movie). If any of you win this and don't want it, please contact me and I'll tell you how to send it my way - I'll even pay postage.

Before they made me they broke the mold!
http://home.roadrunner.com/~kflach/

33 degrees 30 minutes, 17 seconds latitude by 40 degrees 12 minutes 8 seconds longitude..now where does that put me..Oh!, that kind of survey..heck, I still haven't learned Poser III yet..;) but don't let that stop yas..

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)

I find it very odd that where it asks what other programs we use with Poser it omitts programs every Poser user actually uses all the time, such as UV Mapper, Correct Reference, Mimic, PBoost, etc, And also fails to ask anything about utilities such as The Tailer, Morph Manager, etc. All these programs are specifically made for Poser, yet your survey ignores them totally. Maybe you should have a survey about what other programs and add-ons we use, and see from those results what Poser is lacking that had to be provided by add-on utilities and programs. It would be nice, for instance, if UV Mapper was intergrated into Poser to have real time previews of texture changes in Poser.

Just and FYI, I was getting bounced back to a cleared first page of the survey until I disabled Internet Security; possibly something about Norton's firewall or add blocker was responsible, as things worked fine after that.

... gimme a Linux version and I'll be more than happy to buy it. Even something as dog-slow as P5 can be greatly improved if the underlying OS runs more efficiently than 'doze or OSX. /P

Uh, I don't think so. Not the way CL programs!

Good to see CL asking for feedback. I've filled out the survey. And, yes, I would be happy to receive an IPod. Thanks.

Something To Do At 3:00AM 

No worries, pdx - I used Mozilla, and I didn;t have to disable anything. (in case I didn't say it before - gimme the Linux port!) HTH, /P

"A whole database of more detailed input is also a very large part of this process." Will any of us iPeons get a chance to provide any of that input, or will it be only from the iPrivileged few?

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Dear Katherine: The topic line says it all, I disabled content paradise to speed up Poser. I'd like that to be an easier task, and to have SR 4 not bounce because of it. Other than that, fix the site links, add sixus1 and some other sites and I'm happy. As it is, I'm pretty happy.

"The topic line says it all, I disabled content paradise to speed up Poser. I'd like that to be an easier task, and to have SR 4 not bounce because of it." Ack. Am I going to have put Content Parasite back in order to install SR 4? Please, no!

Lightwave Poser 5 plugin no option no nada, had to write it into the comments section. grumble grumble.

The trouble with adding lots of wow features to Poser 4, is that it's like an engineer taking charge of a crumbling building, and deciding to add three new storeys instead of patching up the foundations. I wouldn't employ an engineer like that.

Attached Link: http://www.apple.com/ipod/

An iPod as a prize is fantastic.

That "weird proprietary Apple format", Apple uses is AAC; AAC is the audio codec for MP4 and is as open as they come, although it is true that the digital rights management Apple is using is not. The recording industry insisted on that. The iPod also supports MP3 and WAV.

Still, it's a little unfair to lambast AAC as closed and proprietary as opposed to MP3, given that none of Apple's competitors sell music in the MP3 format; they all use Microsoft's WMA, which is a closed and proprietary beast.

Just because more players support the WMA format doesn't make it "open,"; it just means that Apple's the only digital music player manufacturer who hasn't had to buckle to Microsoft's monopoly and pay its licensing fees.

Even in its first incarnation, the iPod held music and data, acting as an ultraportable FireWire hard drive, and its hidden Breakout game hinted at its potential to do a lot more than just play Night Ranger's Greatest Hits. Before long, Apple added contacts and calendar functions, an alarm clock, a notes feature, two more games, and the ability (via third-party hardware add-ons) to record voice memos and offload digital photos in the field. Now that shiny white gadget really is a pod, storing all sorts of stuff you throw at it. (With its highly-polished back, it also serves as a handy makeshift mirror-- and, when placed in the toe of a sock, it becomes a surprisingly effective impromptu Whirling Implement of Pummeling.)

In the event you win an iPod and you really don't want it, please let me know. I'll pay postage AND insurance.

 Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things!  ; )

Elfwine, if I win an iPod you can have it for brightening up my day with the "Whirling Implement of Pummeling".

Good to hear that CL is thinking about P6. They are not gone. I filled out the survey. Don't think so much about content. You should make the program stable and straighten the workflow. A good modular concept with easy to implement plugin modules would be great. Think of all the 'features' like injection morphs, bodyhandles, JMC and so on the community found during the years. If this could be brought in as regular feature, it would be great. Don't think too much about backward compatibility, but provide a new system with external converters or plugins. Programs that run around with their history are always heavy and slow. Just my 2cents. Thanks for the update - Walter

Well, I don't use WMA, either. I was, alas, an "early adopter" when it came to MP3 players. (Paid $300 for a Diamond Rio with 64 Mb RAM. Groan!) But I spent a lot of time converting my entire CD collection to MP3, and I'm not switching to another format now. Especially since my video editing program doesn't accept ACC.

Hello Katherine , I wish to talk about the hair room. I like the base...but the results we obtain in poser 5 are really not that good. I wish a more kind of Sasquatch approach to it.(plugin for lw)WAYyyyyyyy faster, and much more belivable results, and the dynamic in LW is just great! So my wish for the next poser edition are these, MORE DYNAMICS!! everywhere...Soft material, clothes, hair...and why not a real physique engine? If you can pull this off it will be just WOW! Thanks to take the time to read this post. Neftis

I filled out the survey, but it erased all my answers and wanted me to fill it out again, so I gave up.

..Just watching and waiting to find out what SR4 is going to fix..or not fix...or do....or doesn't do.

"A well-designed survey, but clearly pays no attention at all to the needs and wants of animators. Choices relating to animation are not even available...." HUH????? I guess some of you didn't read the survey questions. Options from the first page questions... 3) Animations in motion picture films inspire me and want to create them, too: 4) Movies/animations: Export animations/figures into other programs: 5) Moviemaking: Previsualization/Storyboard: Options from the second page include: 5c) Improved Figure Bending: 5d) Improved Walk Designer: 5f) Layered Animation: Just because it wasn't the primary focus of the survey doesn't mean that it was forgotten or our needs overlooked. The survey has to balance out the entire user community, not just a select few. Carolly

Dang Machineclaw.. I forgot to bitch about Lightwave support! I think it's what overdue for Poser 5 now by a year and a half?? And why should other companies have to write utilities to get poser to play nice with other programs? Some of the utilities out there should also be aquired, and bundled with Poser 6.. UVmapper pro, Morph Nanager, P3DO explorer, quickconform, to name a few.

Way too many people take way too many things way too seriously.

How about something like removal of files...let's say you didn't want something in the library any longer or weren't going to use it...if you delete that item, it would also give you the option to delete poses, textures, lights, obj files, etc. for that item instead of leaving all that stuff behind. Would make cleaning up the Poser library easier. Oh, I did post that on the survey.

Umm... poser 5 as one of the prizes? I think you should actually promise the winners a copy of P6... They may well be the only people to use it :P

Silke

...Do you want to continue looking for texture map.... no... no,... uh no ... NO...No! ... *%#! NO!!!

I'd like to see stronger libary management systems in place, as well as easier content import (I know, unzip to your base director or just buy DAZ and let them do it, but you know what I mean). On the other hand, I think it is a great sign that they are in a development cycle and asking for input. Any clues on what SR 4 will include?

randym77, You can play mp3s. The AAC compression is only on the ones you download from iTunes.

Before they made me they broke the mold!
http://home.roadrunner.com/~kflach/

I can't do the survey. I finished the first part, pushed ok to move to the second and it jumped back to the begining. (Is this another beta test?)

My survey was accepted after I disabled Norton's firewall (thanks to Dale B for the tip).

"You can play mp3s." Good. As long as I don't have to install any Apple software to get the MP3s onto the iPod (which I assume I wouldn't, if it's just a Firewire harddrive), it sounds like it would be very cool. (I agree with whoever said Quicktime is the spawn of Satan. You can't get rid of it once you install it. Then you end up getting weird "qttask.exe" errors ever after. Based on that, I'm avoiding Apple software like the plague.)

Hi, I just wanted to add in a note about animation this survey. Please don't assume that the limited depth of questions on animation means that is the focus plans for Poser 6. This survey covers areas that we have very little input collected on. Again, a much greater volume of input has continuosly been collected from direct inquiries into CL and from forum posts. Animation is a significant part of development for Poser. With kind regards, Katherine

DAMN IT DAMN IT DAMN IT I also didn't read properly ( I am doing this a lot latly) and filled out the survay backwards...I am truly happy with 'most' of poser 5 but now my answers do not reflect that. MAy I take the survay again? You can forget my 1st one. Please let me know.

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Regarding my earlier post about programs like UV Mapper, Correct Reference, etc. Any chance of a survey to find out which utilities and programs we actually use? Your survey asked about Body Paint (or one of those texturing programs), but how many of us use that, and how many of us use UV Mapper? And don't Curious Labs think that it is strange that I need a program like Correct Reference to make my Poser run smoothly? Couldn't something like that be built into the program, that checks for and corrects references.

Poser 6 needs at least three things: First, multiple levels of undo. Second, a plug-in that works like this, only more seemlessly: http://market.renderosity.com/softgood.ez?ViewSoftgood=25982 A pose/figure/etc. package so people can tell that the P6 figures are at least on par with V3/M3 (I suspect P5 is, but there is no where near the same support -- I'd buy textures and such for P5 male and female models like I buy other textures and character faces, but I don't see them for sale the same way).

"And don't Curious Labs think that it is strange that I need a program like Correct Reference to make my Poser run smoothly? Couldn't something like that be built into the program, that checks for and corrects references. " (numanoid) Oddly enough, Correct refreence is only needed for the products that Curious Labs supports (and is responsible for) when the end user moves things around from their default install locations after install. The rest of the time, it's use is for either fixing things you've moved, or fixing things that were pathed improperly by the creator (far more common). Having been guilty of poor pathing myself (and recieving a rather interesting set of emails regarding it), I think it seems a tad unfair to ask them to be responsible for the errors of others. but then, I am crazy....

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)

What about the new Lightwave plugins that were promised?

"Second, a plug-in that works like this, only more seemlessly"(Ethesis) "I find it very odd that where it asks what other programs we use with Poser it omitts programs every Poser user actually uses all the time, such as UV Mapper, Correct Reference, Mimic, PBoost, etc, And also fails to ask anything about utilities such as The Tailer, Morph Manager, etc." (numanoid) UV Mapping would be nice. Oddly enough, it's already there in part, under the group editor (assign materials) in P4, PP, and P5. Unless you mean as it is used to create and map models for Poser, in which case you are talking about a tool to model, not one to use them. Poser is designed to use models that are already made. It is not a modelling tool. Mimic is an interesting tool, although I'm not sure it's fair to say that "everyone" uses it. I'd like to see features similar incorporated into Poser directly as well, but only so long as it doesn't increase the cost of the program (since they would either have to develop or license -- pay for -- an engine to do). Pboost is a content control system -- exactly what everyone has been asking for (and, oddly enough, something only needed now that the 3rd party creators have really kicked it up a notch. In a lot of ways, that dead time where nothing was done on developing Poser was a godsend to the community itself). The Tailor, Morph Manager, and Clothing Convertor are all awesome tools. The shifting of morphs from one figure to another, being able to adjust clothing more easily to fit, and so forth would all be wonderful. One of the benefits of dynamic cloth is that you can do exactly that, but dynamic cloth isn't the only type of clothing used. In fact, thus far, it's still the least used type. Although I'm not so sure the developers of those tools would be thrilled, lol. and still crazy...

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)

One would assume the lightwave plugins are still in development -- there was no timetable actually given.

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)

Ynsaen, I agree that it is not Curious Labs responsibility to fix the errors of others, but the fact that Poser crashes when not finding a texture IS the resposibility of Curious Labs, and correct reference is the one program that stops that crash happening. If something like that was incorporated into the program, then Poser would not crash as often. A similar thing that would check the references for *.obj files would also be handy.
Don't get me wrong, I love Poser and think it is amazing, and I would love to have an improved version, and yes, I will buy Poser 6. I just think that some utilities we use should actually be part of the program.
For instance, having to manually hack a python button file to make another python script a permanent addition to your python scripts should not be neccesary. There should be a way from inside poser to permanently add python scripts.
I just think the more suggestions we have, the more choice Curious Labs will have as to what to fix, what to include, and what to improve.

Amen to that, hon. And that file search thing is I think top of a lot of wishlists! And yeah -- a python script drop down would be great! (although if they fix the lights, that'll knock out a few of my scripts I use a lot, lol) I know you love poser. Hell, everyone who has posted here does. They might be mighty pissed at it, but they do love it. And, like I said, More or the morphing tools would be mighty nice. Right now though, my top priorities are file search, memory, lights, and content management. Get those working, make it nice and neat and working smooth. Then go to town for P7. I see a lot of cool stuff being wished for. And I still remember the P4 wishlist stuff that was tossed at metacreations. A lot of the P4 wishlist appeared in P5. Folks forget that. Takes time to do this stuff when you aren't the size of IBM or don't have the money of a Time Warner or Microsoft. Point lights! Point Lights! (lol, yeah, I'm crazy, hee hee)

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)

Hi Odeathoflife -- go ahead and take the survey over. Numanoid, maybe a new forum thread on these topics would be a solution. We will definitely capture the answers from the input. Kind regards, Katherine

And since CL is reading here I'll mention it. The fact that not all Poser 5's work with Vue. Someone at Eon insinuated that the pre-ordered P5's have somethng that will not allow Vue to import pz3's.

...... Kendra

I completed the first page of the survey.....got an ok and then it was suppose to take me to a second page. Got the same damned page.....completed it again thinking maybe I had missed something. Hit ok....got the same page again!!!!!!!!! No second page where I could provide my comments. Just 29 questions that I answered twice! I don't know if it took or not. Probably not. So.....since I didn't get a second page, I guess that means I spent my time answering all your marketing questions, but don't qualify for the prizes or get to give you my opinion!! Sounds like a typical CL move! I don't get it.....it seems like you guys can't even get a survey right. BTW: notice your prizes are all Mac's.....is Poser 6 only going to work on a Mac? I still haven't installed the 3rd patch.....too afraid to. Do I have to install the 3rd one to get the 4th one to work? Kendra: Not all P5's work with Vue???? If you find out which patch creates that anomily, please let me know. That's about the only reason I'm still using P5! Mine now works fine with Vue after doing the last Vue update. Guess I'll quit updating everything!! Geez! Oh please lord let DAZ Studio be ready soon!! If you can figure out a way that I can complete the survey without disabling my Norton Security stuff, I'll take it again....if not....well you figure out what you can do with your survey and prizes. Sorry if I sound a bit out of sorts, but my time is valuable and I've wasted too much of it trying to complete a survey form that apparently is set up without any regard to the growing need people have for protecting their computers from invasion and their sanity from those stupid popup ads. I also have a very low tolerance for incompetance

um, giggle... incompetence. bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha (PS -- install sr3 -- it does good stuff)

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)

ROFL! Fortunately for you guys my "incompetent" spelling doesn't have a big price tag attached to it or take up hours of your time :) It's amazing I didn't spell something else wrong as ticked as I was! As for SR3, I looked at the "read me" on their site ynsaen and I didn't see anything (other than a bit faster load time) that would seem to be of much benefit given I only use it for hobby work. I really am afraid to update any of this stuff, for fear something will stop working. Right now I can use it....I know all of it's little nuances and how to deal with them and I can import the .pz3 files into Vue. The more important improvements were made with SR2, which I added (along with the first patch) when I first got P5 :) When they come up with a fix that will tell it to comply when you say "No...do not continue to look for textures!", then I'll consider updating it :)

I think it would be very smart of CL to design a sort of Room Plugin structure that would allow 3rd parties to create things like PBoost, UVMapper, The Tailor, etc... but write them in a way that they can be installed in their own "Rooms" inside Poser6. This would greatly expand Poser's power while letting CL define a structure that those utilities conform to so they can share a similar user interface and so people don't have to run all sorts of outside programs. Since they would be plugins, people could pick and choose which ones they want to add to their installation. Some of the types of cryptic python scripts people make now could actually be written at a higher level (in C or C++), with better user interfaces and still link directly into the scene being edited. Programmers could, for example, create a gravity room, a particle room, they could even write a modeler room or paint room. And CL doesn't have to write all of that. Just the core structure that lets those programmers plug utilities in.

Service releases always fix a lot of small things that they don't list in the readme. SR3 is quite stable and well worth installing.

It would be nice if there was more cross-platform compatibility with the things people create - I'd love to see a Mac equivalent of The Tailer built into P6.

Before they made me they broke the mold!
http://home.roadrunner.com/~kflach/

In actuallity when Poser 5 was initially released it was stated that the ProPack plugins would be updated and that they were a priority. Reseestudios (spelling) put out a Max and a Maya and were working on Cinema 4d. Lightwave plugins from CuriousLabs or any of their partners has not come. In the survey Lightwave was mentioned 1 time in a list of applications, yet others were mentioned. I don't care about Poser animation, I have a $1200 animation package with lightwave that I was told, thought was coming and had to add to the comments section of the survey as it was not even mentioned in any questions. very sad.

Sorry sandoppe, lol, I just couldn't resist... ;) I don't blame you for not updating! I hate it when I get used to something and it stops doing what I expect. Probably why I've never gotten far in photoshop -- just no need to learn beyond what I've done so far. Daverj -- that plug-ins idea is an awesome one! That would really rock. Duh! And since D|S is extensible in the same way, the smart folks out there could (hopefully, lol) spend a bit less time adapting -- not that I'm expecting them to use the same structure, but it would be cool to keep things equal among both. And it would show a mighty strong support for the community -- if it ain't there now, someone can always build it! Mac users have needed a tailor and a few other tools for a long time. They are a small market that's important but ignored. MC - IIRC, CL never said they were doing the development in-house on the plug-ins. It likely is a priority, although it's probably been harder to find someone willing to program for it. But, in any case, all bets were off after the housecleaning there. Also, do note that the survey is ONLY for those things that CL doesn't already have info on. Katherine said it like twice above. I know for a fact they troll through the forums here, RDNA, at PPros, at DAZ now, and others. And they do pay attention. The fact that they don't ask much about it could be a good sign (and likely is) that they are trying. It's sorta like with D|S -- you KNOW they'll have an LW plugin, probably right off the bat on final release or very shortly thereafter. But will they have the obj export one? you know, this really is the best of times for Poser folk. There is just sooo much possibility now that there hasn't been in a few years...

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)

"I don't care about Poser animation, I have a $1200 animation package with lightwave" Just curious but why dont you you rig your poser figures in Lightwave and animate them there?? I own Lightwave 3D 7.5(Mac OSX) and cinema4DXL 8.2 BUT I still keep an installation of the propack4 and an old eat of cinema4DXL7.3 on another internal hardrive for the purposes of importing my animated poser figures into properly lit Cinema scenes to render. if you Dont do any character animation you can import poser meshes into LW to render still images without a special plugin.

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Need the plugin to host scenes in lightwave. Without a Lightwave plugin exporting OBJ files and importing into lightwave is a pain. Setting up all the material settings in lightwave based on an imported OBJ becomes a pain. one or 2 models exported as obj and imported into lightwave, yes not that much of a pain, but a scene with multiple props, textures, models becomes a nightmare to setup in lightwave manually. A plugin like the one with Poser 4 ProPack makes life MUCH easier even if the poser scene is not a animation but a still. so why don't I just use ProPack lightwave plugin and be done? Because I bought Poser 5 and do not have Poser4 and ProPack. When I purchased Poser 5 the box and web page said Poser 5 had the ProPack functionality, I assumed that ment plugins, I was wrong. When I asked I was told repeatedly that the Poser 5 ProPack plugins were a major priority for CL and that they would be comeing soon. year and a half later we have CL and RS Max and Maya 3rd party plugins for Poser 5, yet no Lightwave. Greenstudios lightwave set of plugins have come out however I have never heard if CL endorces them, if RStudios is working on Lightwave plugin with CL etc. no news at all. I own Poser 5, I own Lightwave and for over a year I've been waiting and waiting.

I have my box right here. Dinnae say it has plug-ins for Lightwave. Nowhere on the box or in the manual does it say that. And I have the initial info from pre-release, as well, in the same folder -- printed them out. They say specifically that P5 does not have the lightwave plug-ins. I'm confused. But, the good news is this is a natural state for me :) As for rigging characters in lightwave: primal scream Thank you for the mention but no. I fell into Lightwave after hearing all the great words about it, and I have no doubt that it can do wonderful things. And someday I'll have the year or so to learn how to use it. Right now, though, it sits there taunting me. Ease of use and short learning curve are not words associated with lightwave, lol. I ended up with Carrara 2, which is a little more my speed, lol. Ah well...

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)

I'm straying from the topic of the survey a bit here but... I do not understand CL partnering with other companies to sell 3d applications such as Carrara, Truespace as examples and sell and do special pricing when there are no plugins to get poser files into these applications. I feel for anybody that buys a bundle from CL of Poser 5 and Truespace 6 say, and then finds out that they do not talk together. My hope is that CL is seriously working on fixing that and offering more support for their partnered products.

BTW the Poser 5 box and literature said All the functionality of ProPack and I never did see plugins included or not included, it was only stated after Poser 5 came out that the plugins for Max and lightwave had to be updated and that they were a priority but that they would be released later on (no time or date stated). that's what I was illuding to when I mentioned waiting 1.5 year for lightwave plugin. BTW the people stating these things ain't at CL no more so there ya are.

personnaly I would NOT waste my time waiting for CL to produce ANY new LW, MAX or C4DXL plugins. they have left that to "Reiss studio" and others. and OH yeah..dont bother with the greenbriar plugins :-) after a thorough investigation [where i virtually had to threaten users with bodily harm :-) ] some of them reluctantly admitted that it is NOT a straight poser to lightwave,C4DXL solution but a promiising "half step" that still requires additional weightmapping in the high end application. so im still maintaining installations of my older version of C4DXl7.3 and poser propack for rendering my poser scenes in a real program. :-/

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but, but, but, Poser is a "real Program".....

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)

wolf - yep, very promising but at $125 for a set of tools that are a half step shrug I'm not waiting on CL for anything, just voicing my frustration. I'm still hunting ebay for used Poser 4 and Propack cheap for my plugin solution. I'm just still frustrated that a year and a half and I'm still ranting about the limitation where others have made out (Max, and Maya). I use Poser 5 don't get me wrong, just no where near as much as I would like to, hopefully SR4 will make a differnece and hopefully CL really will listen to users for Poser 6.

"but, but, but, Poser is a "real Program"..... " ---------------------------------------------------------------- In many unique ways but..... but for rendering in C4DXL I have true radiosity true caustics true volumetric lighting spot/region render,batch rendering, particle effects, liquid simulation,openGL inlimted undos, real copy an paste of any scene element,procedural shaders, render tags to include or exclude ANYscene element from the render. etc etc. But Poser offers incredibly easy to use /animate figures of all typewhich is why its my character animation plugin for Cinema4DXl :-) @ machineclaw: I feel your pain bro :-( I hope you can find a decent priced copy of the propack to get your content into LW with minimal hassle

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*that should read: 'UNLIMITED UNDO'S" edit post feature........ please!!!!!!

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MachineClaw, At MacWorld I watched as Poser figures walked around in Carrara3... including stairs. (I think it will be in the next upgrade... a few weeks?) I made a report in this Forum right after the show. Working with other companies does mean integration of tools, not simply packaging and promotions. You guys can rant and claw the air all you want... I'd rather talk with the programmers and see what they are really up to... and give them a spot of encouragement and praise. Carolly

I'm all for giving the programmers praise and hearing what they have to say. I just wish CL would send one of them here,instead of constantly bombading us with their marketing crap. I can actually afford to be a bit more fogiving......I never owned Poser 5 when it first came out and didn't have to go through the problems created by their ridiculous protection scheme, etc., etc. Damned good thing too or I suspect I would have been banned from here by now! :)

"At MacWorld I watched as Poser figures walked around in Carrara3... including stairs. (I think it will be in the next upgrade... a few weeks?) I made a report in this Forum right after the show. Working with other companies does mean integration of tools, not simply packaging and promotions." Some of us dont care to spend yet another $400 to buy and learn yet another entire program that claims to import poser scenes/animations. I suggest any lightwave/poser users watch "Riess studio' and DAZ closely.as they both have stated that that lightwave import plugins are their next priority :-)

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Sandoppe, Their programmers used to come here... and got treated pretty damned shabbily. It was especially mortifying to see the crowd applaud and congratulate themselves everytime one of the people who actually made the program we rely upon got chased out. Marketing folks have thicker skins (or flak jackets). We were spoiled. Nobody from Adobe or Corel ever came in here, and people from Eon, etc.. basically drop by only to make an announcement and then scuttle back into obscurity. Carolly

You're probably right Carolly......seems to be the nature of the "Rendo Beast" :) CL seems to bring out the worst in people. I think they're a bit like the boy who cried wolf.....too many times......noone believes them anymore.

I do. But then, I have three reasons for it: 1 - I remember vividly when Poser 4 came out how nasty everyone was about it. I remember becuase I had just started to become familiar with Poser 3, and was trying to get the hang of things by reading here religiously, and the flames that went on were easily as bad as those for Poser 5 -- I'd daresay worse in some cases. 2 - I know what it's like to go through what CL's been through as a company. Not fun. A lot of the "broken promises" are repeats of what someone else once said they had thought they heard would be in the next version, or were made by Metacreations -- who made a lot of big, huge promises about three months before dismantling everything -- and tying much of the stuff with some programs, including poser, up in court. 3 - I lack mental capacity for rational thought. hee hee hee hee hee hee hee

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)

Don't make promises your not going to keep. pretty simple. SR4 announcement was jan feb 04, now it's been pushed back to feb march 04. yet again getting peoples hopes up and then dashing them. Cl is not the only ones doing it. it's become a business practice that I really hate. Daz Mimic 2 update planned Dec 03, it' mid Feb and no info. Newtek lightwave 8 4th quarter 03, now it's coming out when its done, no release date. LucasArts announces Full Throttle 2 then scraps the whole thing. I'm just tired of companies dashing my hopes. I would much rather CL just say they are working on something and not put a release date and then keep coming back saying they are working on it get closer than have hopes dashed when release dates are passed by and forgotten about. If a release is missed by a week it's one thing, but missing releases by a month, sometimes a full quarter makes me wonder if that company doesn't need to invest in MS Project and work on thier milestones a bit better.

Well, if nothing else, the reason for the delay is clear enough: they want to make sure it works very well. And given the fire they've recieved over the last year or so, they aren't going to let anyone know what's in it until they just gotta do it. They know they won't make everyone happy -- heckfire, look at the list above and note how much of it is incompatible with the price point we're talking here. 300 bucks ain't chicken feed, but it's a damn site better than 1000 -- but they are trying to get fixd some things that are important to them -- doubly important since this is supposed to be the last SR. lol -- not sure ms project is the system I'd want to use for software folks, lol, but the point is very well made. And it's not a new development -- been that way in computer software for the last 15 years. That's not merely a practice -- that's simply how it's done. Gettin one's hopes up isn't something someone else does, btw... ;-) (huggs, hon -- mine are up there too)

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)

"the reason for the delay is clear enough: they want to make sure it works very well. That's the same excuse we heard for P5 taking so long (4 years). And of course they couldn't fix the P4 bugs because they were working so "hard" on P5. "but they are trying to get fixd some things that are important to them" Yep. Too bad they won't work on things that are important to US.

Hi, Thank you all very much for the feedback. There are some very good points throughout - both could be seen as good and bad - and well taken from within CL. Just a point or two. The date of release expectation as it relates to a companys communication externally. Most companies prefer not to communicate too many date expectations but rather prefer to wait until all of the development and business pieces are properly put together. Working within forums however, more details are desired. I believe in this thread earlier, the mention that there are many mainstream companies such as Adobe who refrain from posting and interacting within forums. Mostly because it is conversational with very visible and often conflicting expectations from the various forum or product users. The date expectation of SR4 release for example. I think any company would prefer not to announce an expected date, but rather to just say we're working on it. But as many of you feel and/or have read from other posts, it can be unacceptable to not have a bench mark of expected date from a company that interacts within a forum. CL has tried to post dates only when it can be trusted to be accurate by at lease 90%. With in software development, not to state this too simplistic, but programming and testing and fixing bugs can be a bit like a puzzle. You know the focus, you see the end picture you need to put together and you know how a puzzle works, but can not always be certain of how long it will take to complete. With SR4, we first through Jan/Feb04 was that 90% benchmark, but quickly after re-announced a winter expectation due to the additional time needed during this verification/test period. With the plug in development; weve been working with 3rd party companies to help develop the plug in products whether it be working with e-on or Eovia while they develop plug in support, or through Reiss Studio who has been handling the 3rd party plug in for Maya, 3D Studio Max, upcoming Cinema 4D or Lightwave. With this, its impossible for CL to set a date of expectation because the development is not happening solely in house as it is with Poser. Many have commented on Lightwave. All I can say is that this is due out this year. Its work in progress. There will be times with dates that no matter what we try to offer in communication, that it will cause a certain % of people frustration. I wish that wasnt the case, but hopefully if CL can stick to offering only whats 90% certain, and notify when and if there are any delays, our hope is that most will understand. Thank you again for all of the valuable feedback both in this thread and the other 2 threads started by Numanoid for associated program use and phython use. With appreciation, Katherine

Personally Katherine, I have low expectations where dates are concerned. I would much prefer you "get it right", and especially that you continue to support the import of .pz3's to Vue :) I finally did finish that blasted survey BTW.....after disabling my firewall. That really is something I don't like to do. I realize the structure of your website may not be a top priority right now, but please pass on to the web folks that they should design the site with software firewalls in mind. I'm sure Norton and others would provide them with the information they need to ensure that your site is not viewed as a "pop up ad" or a Trojan Horse :)