Hi all, I haven't been around in awhile and when I popped back in, to my surprise I see Poser 6 is coming. And being the hardcore Poser user I am, I have already pre-ordered it. But you know (and forgive me if this has been discussed before), it doesn't really seem like they have changed that much. The first thing I was hoping for is an entirely new UI, but was dissapointed to see it's pretty much the same. OpenGL is a welcome addition as is the new lighting options. But this really seems like it should be a Poser 5.5 release instead of 6. Anyone agree?

I see what you're saying but I still think it maybe a bit early to judge as CL keep showing bits at a time to whet our appetites. I'm like you and have ordered it anyway, let's just hope there's enough new there to justify it, I'm sure there will be!

No one at the moment (except CL & their beta testers) knows what all will be in Poser 6.... Seems like the 'poser world' loves this secret's unveiled stuff, so you'll have to wait for many more weeks before you'll know what all will be in Poser 6. Good luck with the patience! I've just decided not to buy it, for a number of reasons, so I don't care about it anymore.

I have to admit I'm a shadow junkie, so that was reason enough for me to upgrade. The fact that Shade 7 LE has been tossed in made it an offer I couldn't refuse. I still haven't scratched the surface of Poser 5's capabilities, so I'm a bit relieved to see the familiar interface. Poser 5 has been a great program for me and I'm looking forward to opening the Poser 6 box.:)

I know, it's pretty pathetic, I would probably buy Poser 5 again if they put it in a pretty new box labeled Poser 6. (Well maybe not that bad) For now I'll be happy if it works a little smoother with OpenGL, but I'm not holding my breath!

This striptease that CL is doing is interesting and annoying by turns. I WANT SEE! NOW!

Sounds like there are new figures included. That alone justifies a full version, I think. If only so we aren't stuck saying, "the Poser 5.5 people." ;-)

For under $80, they can label Poser whatever version number they want. I ordered it in case I need it in the future with my other 3D apps that may get patched for Poser 6 importing and for (any) competitive upgrades that may come. I never liked the FireFly renderer in Poser 5 which lit up the insides of eyeballs, nostrils, and ears. Poser 6's rendering is now current with most 3D apps (Bryce is still behind the curve). I'm ok with the Poser 5 user interface. I wasn't one of the many doomsayers when Poser 5 needed fixing soon after its release. The fact that Curious Labs worked on service release updates to improve Poser 5 and return its registration method back to a normal one shows that they are working for us and not against us. I've been using Poser since version 2 and history has shown that vendors always use whatever the current version of Poser is.

• "I've been using Poser since version 2 and history has shown that vendors always use whatever the current version of Poser is." Not true. Too many venders don't/won't have anything to do with P5. Look at quite a bit of Daz stuff and the attitude of many of the merchants there. I'm not singling out Daz, take a look at many stores, same thing. Maybe with P6, more venders will embrace it and we won't have to rebuild/fix their stuff to get it to work right.

Hmm I doubt it. Poser 4 set a standard that is difficult to move from. The interesting thing about Poser 6 to me is the Shade bundling. An integration of these two might be the way ahead.

"Poser 6's rendering is now current with most 3D apps (Bryce is still behind the curve)." Perhaps in it's capability, but performance may still be an issue. When I say performance, I'm talking specifically about memory handling, g-buffer output, shadow map creation (which is several degrees slower than most other apps), and raytracing in particular. All REYES renderers, like Firefly in P5, are notoriously slow at raytracing anyway, so that's pretty much a given. Hopefully the shadow map speed can be improved though. It's the one thing I dread when making any kind of animations in Poser. I realize it uses more advanced shadow maps than many other apps, but still it's painfully slow at creating them by comparison, and there's no way to simplify them other than reducing quality. Running a seperate shadow pass with "shadowcatcher" might help. All in all, I'm looking forward to the new release, and I think the features mentioned so far definitely qualify for a full point upgrade, when you consider even the "major" apps often only add one or two more features and call it a new version.