I 3 spent days trying to d/l the P5 content on a dialup. It kept dropping out, once at 95%, once at 81%. I was using GetRight, but if it dropped to 0 it would resume. After 3 times, you have to start over.
I contacted them and Mary Tobias reset my download counter twice so I could get the file (giving me 6 chances to resume). It took almost 12 hours. And I got the entire 152 MB file.
That's what I call Customer Support!

BillyGoat (with a 28800 connection)

I haven't bought P6 yet. Going to wait for the patch, but I gotta say I think CL is doing a great job. If Poser was a $1,000 plus app then I would expect more in the way of customer service. But, as inexpensive as Poser is (any version) I can't bring myself to complain about it even when I stumble into some warts.

More excuses for warts, Tunesy. Why are some people so easily satisfied? Your defintion of great is not mine. I expected much more especially in the character department.

...you're expecting a Rolls Royce at a Yugo price. I run a successful business and probably look at things a bit differently than you. CL has to sell a LOT of product to pay for just one programmer. Forget 'profit'. Think about it. Do the math. As a business man when I look at Poser I think, "how the heck do they deliver the tool set they do so inexpensively?" When you say you "expected much more" I have to say 'then buy something else', but what else? Nobody has put up a good alternative to Poser so far. It's interesting that Poser has been around for such a long time and during that time not one solid alternative has been developed. (D|S can't even be considered yet. Perhaps in the future.)

I don't understand how being practical or even logical translates to some people as being "easily satisfied". Here, here. I'm with Tunesy.

Some people just refuse to be satisfied. That way they can sit back and wait for these threads so they can make pot shots. That "is" there art. I don't jump into all the Poser hater threads and rant about how much I like Poser. Reminds me of this software pirate, crank addict brother of a friend of mine. He would come over and install all these pirated plugins on my friends system and screw up his whole computer (that I would end up fixing). He didn't even know how to use the software, he just had the pirated plugins. FYI: This is not pointing at anyone in particular. Just an observation. :)

Well, after reading my own post I realized that I'm kind of pointing at the software pirate, crank addict. Oh well... He deserves it. ;)

I started with 2.0, which had solid hands. I think the price was about the same then too.

If you figure the price of (for example) P4, the PP upgrade, then P5 upgrade, then P6 "upgrade," this is not a cheap piece of software. My idea of "great custumer help" would have been for them to simply post the update on the regular CL website and not limiting the download attempts to start with. Of course, then they might not have had as many people "enjoying" all the CP advertising.

Even though I was out of my mind to try to d/l that file, the support people treated me well. I was quite surprised at how willing they were to help me. But then, I was very polite in asking for help (twice).

...well, if you 'figure the price' of Maya 1,2,3, etc you could buy a house )) Poser is cheap by any yardstick.

Been looking at the "foundation" version of Softimage XSI. It's ~$500, less than I have in poser versions... (And they have a demo version, they don't ask you to buy it before you try it. Now that's customer service.)

Now "that" is "not" customer service. Do you honestly think that they were thinking about YOU the PERSON when they put together the demo? They were thinking of you the "money pouch" when they put together the demo. Don't think you are getting something for nothing with XSI.

This is my first time with Content Paradise, and I gotta tell ya: I dont see what the issue is, guys. It's a store, like every other store out there. You either buy from them or you dont. Big whoop either way.

It's a reason for people to bitch. That's all. Now you'll here a big rant (like all the others on this topic) about how there choices are taken away because they didn't CHOOSE to have CP in Poser. Also how it has a big tab in the interface. Blah blah blah... That and the memory bug are the flavor of the month for stuff to bitch about. I tell you, if that's all they could find to REALLY moan about, CL is doing pretty good.

They were thinking of you the "money pouch" when they put together the demo. The customer is the "money pouch." And what Softimage (and other companies who provide demos) were thinking is "We have a great product. Let's give folks a chance to try it out so they'll know exactly what they're getting" as opposed to "Let's hype this thing up so people will buy it sight unseen. Once we have their money, then we'll worry about making it work right."

You you tried, for example, creating a walk cycle in XSI? Well, strap on your helmet ;))

Message edited on: 04/29/2005 14:44

You you tried, for example, creating a walk cycle in XSI? Well, strap on your helmet ;)) Not yet. No doubt it's more challenging to use than poser, it's made for a lot more than just animating pre-made models. Having fun so far though. Just playing with the character rigging shows a heckuva lot more potential though. IMHO, rigging is by far and away Poser's biggest weakness.

yp6: Weren't you the one that was returning Poser 6? It sounds like you have XSI. I'm wondering what is stripped out in order to make it a lower price? Does it have cloth and hair? Does it have advanced lighting? The price sounds enticing but I'm just wondering how much is missing.

Attached Link: http://www.softimage.com/products/Xsi/v4/comparison/default.asp

*yp6: Weren't you the one that was returning Poser 6?* Haven't yet... Still have time to return it, and still curious about SR1 (when, if, and what.) Have to admit, another couple of (hi rez) characters that could use the face room would be great. *It sounds like you have XSI. I'm wondering what is stripped out in order to make it a lower price? Does it have cloth and hair? Does it have advanced lighting?* Downloaded the demo version, and will buy it once tax-return arrives. ;) There's a version comparison at the link. The biggest things "Foundation" leaves out from my perspective is rigid-body dynamics and hair. It still has soft-body dynamics, much superior rigging, cloth, "mental ray" rendering, IBL, particles, fluids, and quite a few other features that I don't have the ability to correctly describe. They do use different terms for similar functions in poser. I'd strongly suggest anyone interested download the trial. Free time is at a premium right now, so haven't had nearly as much time to "play" as I'd like...