I have had Poser 3&4 for 6-7 years now and am thinking of getting back into using it again, I like to do still artwork using Truespace/Poser and Bryce and Post Process in Corel Photopaint.

I am wondering whether to spend $100 upgrading to Poser 5 or spend a similar amount at DAZ on better models for Poser 4.

My instinct is to go for the greater power of Poser 5 with its supposedly better clothing features - I can spend hours on P4 trying to get conforming garments to conform all over. However I note that the Victoria/Michael models are much more detailed than even the P5 default humans. I also read somewhere that P5 renders much slower than P4 with the DAZ models.

According to DAZ themselves their models are optimized for P4 and are not fully supported by P5, so the path of upgrading and later adding a DAZ model or two may not be sensible.

I would appreciate guidance from forum members on the pros/cons of each option and personal experiences with P5 and Victoria/Michael.

Cheers

Just my opinion:
Go for P5.
You get Judy and Don (they're not great, but they're OK) plus you get lots extra to play with.
By the time you've finished playing with the cloth room and the materials room etc, you may have saved up enough to buy V3..:-))

(BTW - hope you have a reasonably hi-spec PC: P5 is a memory/disk hog.)

Cheers,
Diolma

Message edited on: 11/28/2004 17:38

I also read somewhere that P5 renders much slower than P4 with the DAZ models. P5 experiences no significant reduction in render speed with the DAZ models. But they are higher-resolution than older figures, thereby requiring more system resources, etc. DAZ's injection morphs will take forever to apply in P5, unless you install the deltas in P5's default Runtime folders.

I couldn't imagine not having my DAZ figures. I love them! Clothes are a bit of a problem but you can morph them model skinnier to fit, and also some clothes have morphs. You can use magnets on the clothes too. I have poser 5 now but I don't use many of the features. the cloth room is good, but I would get the nice figures first then save for poser 5 and by the time you can afford P5 there will be a P6 out and you'll be glad you waited. Love esther PS DAZ figures work fine in P5.

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Some things do take a lot longer to render in poser 5, but it has so many good new features that they help to make up for the occasional slow render.

I've got both, and find myself using P4 more than P5 by a large margin. On the other hand, I mostly use it for laying out animations; If you are looking for TRULY realistic cloth, P5 is incredible. The dynamic hair still needs work. So. if you use Poser for the same reason most people use poser, get P5. I still wish they would provide a different interface for the dials, though.

P5, no question about it. You can find good free figures to use with it. MayaDoll, Her, MDP-F202, even Aiko at Daz if you hurry. You should see how good lower rez figures look in P5. I can't go back to P4 now, I only have P4 on my drive to test my own stuff.

Well contrary to the other suggestions I say DO NOT buy P5. CL has already announced they will be releasing 6 (and 7 eventually) so you'll just be spending that money to upgrade, and in a few months be upset that you didn't wait for 6 which will no doubt feature all sorts of things you really want. ;) I just purchased 5 myself and am seriously regretting it. Sure some of the room options are nice but it has the worst downward compatability I've ever seen in 3D software.(or just about any other sort) If I were to convert everything I have for P4 (about 18 CDs full) to work as well in P5, I would be elderly long before I finished.

I am bowled over by the great responses. Unfortunately I am still not sure which way to go - but lots to think about. Thanks for all your feedback and of course any more thoughts are very welcome. I need to make my mind up by the end of November as DAZ have an offer on until then. Thanks again.

Neither. Stick with P4 if you're happy with it. P5 has extra bells and whistles, and some are quite nice, but if money is tight, P4 works pretty darn good. And P5 does require more resourses and a faster machine to work really well. You also should consider downloading the Daz Studio beta. A lot of people like it, and it's FREE. For some weird reason, I can't get it to work on my machine, but I think that's a problem with how I've got Windows set up, and I'm too lazy to investigate. M3, V3, David, SP3 are all great figures, but you'll then have to start the clothing purchases. It goes on and on and on. You might consider getting the reduced resolution versions. Your best bang for the buck would be a Poserworld subscription. They have tons of P4 content, very nicely textured. They have cloths there for just about everyone, so if you did get the reduced res versions of the Daz people, the Poserworld clothing would work just fine with it.

Although Poserworld doesn't seem to be issuing any new stuff for the P4 figures. I'd say it rather depends on the sort of thing you are wanting to do. If you want better renders or complex scenes, the best thing to do would be to keep P4 and buy Bryce or Vue to work with it. If you want to do close-ups of faces you need the Daz figures and a few decent textures. And so on. P5 is a luxury rather than a must-have.

I agree with above two posts.

Let me also point out that not buying P5 in hopes of upgrading to P6 could mean a prolonged wait - and even lets face it: considering the history of CL and P5, P6 outdates your computer (you'll be spending 1500+ bucks for new hardware) and there is no guarantee it performs any better than early releases of P5 (which are generally regarded here as early betas and not production stable software).

You might also want to check out DOdger's Posette 3 at PoserPros (cheaper than Daz Mill stuff and much better than basic P4 stuff - and supposedly P4 clothes conform to Posette 3).

Message edited on: 11/29/2004 07:20

I love P5, but if I had to choose between P5 and the DAZ figures, I'd pick the DAZ figures. There's so much stuff available for them, free and for sale. Dynamic cloth is really cool, but it's not the solution to all your clothing problems.

Besides, all DAZ originals are on sale right now. 35% off. Sale ends tomorrow, so if you're going to buy them, do it soon.

I don't see an exact parallel between Poser 5 and the DAZ figures. Don & Judy are the new default Poser 5 figures, but there is next to nothing to support them. And they just don't look right "out of the box." When I still used Poser 4, I couldn't wait to get the DAZ Millennium figures. They remain my favorites, and they have a tremendous amount of support. Now that I've been using Poser 5, I've deleted Poser 4 off my computer. Poser 4 is just too darned much work. You have to convert all those bump maps to BUM, etc etc. In my simplistic mind, Poser 5 does not "equal" the DAZ figures. It's "apples and oranges." If you want the most bang for your buck, and have limited funds, consider buying the DAZ Millennium figures, then look for deals such as the DAZ Platinum club, or Poserworld (pay one subscription fee, and you get everything they ever made!)

Aren't Mike, Vicky, and other DAZ Products on sale now for 35% off? I would grab them first, then wait for a sale on P5.

Look for the deals. It's great if you can combine a Platinum Club membership with a sale on all DAZ original stuff. Heck, you could end up saving a bundle.

Thanks for all input I did buy Victoria, her head and body morphs and the fantasy morphing dress. Haven't done much yet - so not sure I did the right thing yet, but I did join the platinum club and got lots of discount - so I need to start playing some more to get my money's worth. Cheers

Oh, you got the right combination. There's lots of great stuff, for $1.99 in the Platinum Club. Now there is a sale for 35% off all brokered merchandise. Lately, everytime I turn around DAZ has another sale.