Thor opened this issue on Dec 20, 2006 · 4 posts
Thor posted Wed, 20 December 2006 at 7:19 AM
I've been using Poser since v 1.0, and although I've had every version (except PP), I'd like to know how P7 (Mac) is working on the Mac before I take the plunge.
Poser 3 was arguably the last "decent" Mac version of Poser (performance/stability-wise), and we've had to contend with Poser being ported to the PC, changing hands a couple of times, and the shift to Mac OS X as well. Poser 5/6 is when the stability of the app started slipping.
Has anyone done render/performance benchmarks on the Mac? They are claiming "Native Intel Mac support generates a 300% performance boost on the latest Apple hardware compared to Poser 6. "--- but what about multiprocessor PowerPC systems? Any improvements?
Have stability/interface bugs been addressed in the latest release?
For instance:
Why on earth does the render window/interface disappear when I switch to a different program, so that I have no clue as to the progress of my background renders?
Why can I not click on the Poser interface background to switch back to Poser most of the time, having to click on the dock icon to get back to Poser? and what's with the bizarre minimize behavior?
Why can I not save external morph targets without Poser 6 crashing, causing me to lose the ability to open these .pz3 files without crashing Poser on launch?
Why is Poser 6 the ONLY program that can totally lock up my system, forcing a hard reboot?
Why are there 2 and a half year old(!!) .psd files in the Poser 6 ui folder, some of which are not even being used by the program?!? (see "Poser 6/Runtime/ui/renderOptionsDlog.psd")
Why does an area render include an outline in the image, making this functionality useless for tweaking and saving final renders without re-rendering the entire image?
Why does Poser ignore the Mac UI guidelines and NOT use command-h to hide the app? (or at least give us a way to change that key-binding?)
Why does the program still use Mac OS 9 Finder icons?
Has Larry Weinberg stopped using Macs altogether? Say it ain't so!
How do I become an eFrontier beta tester?
Please don't misunderstand... I love Poser and will no doubt continue to buy and use it... I've always been a huge supporter of the program and the developers, and I've NEVER been one to rant about such things-- I'm just of the opinion that new versions of programs should be better than previous versions.
shrug... perhaps my expectations are too high for my beloved Poser?
I really don't want to get into platform contention here, but I've seen this kind of thing before. Bryce 2.0 for the Mac was a flawless app. Bryce 2.0 Win was an unusable abomination. In an effort to appeal to the masses (which I can understand), Bryce 3D was re-written and the Mac version was never the same again (although I spose there's much to like about Bryce v6.0).
Decides to shut up and render
Miss Nancy posted Wed, 20 December 2006 at 8:02 PM
there's a thread in the mac forum, but nobody has posted any images yet, which would at least be proof that the average x user can get the same results that xp users are getting. my plan is to wait until at least sr2 before buying it. send them an e-mail with yer rezumay and portfolio, if ya wanna be a tester. the ones I know who are testers are also all software developers, merchants, and have been using poser and other apps for many years. larry was not involved in mundane p5 or p6 coding tasks AFAIK.
LaVonne posted Wed, 20 December 2006 at 9:40 PM
In the Mac forum I posted two pics and gave some very non-technical info about Poser 7 on a Mac...
Thor posted Fri, 22 December 2006 at 2:19 AM
Thanx for the replies. :)
I decided to submit to the inevitable and grabbed P7. :tongue1:
Here is what I've found so far:
I am extremely pleased. :biggrin:
Quote - Has anyone done render/performance benchmarks on the Mac? They are claiming "Native Intel Mac support generates a 300% performance boost on the latest Apple hardware compared to Poser 6. "--- but what about multiprocessor PowerPC systems? Any improvements?
The render speeds on my dual G5 are pretty amazing so far.
Quote - Have stability/interface bugs been addressed in the latest release?
Yes! :biggrin:
Quote - Why on earth does the render window/interface disappear when I switch to a different program, so that I have no clue as to the progress of my background renders?
Fixed.. finally! :biggrin::woot::biggrin:
I can see the renders whilst in other apps, and the dock icon render progress bar is a nice touch, too.
Quote - Why can I not click on the Poser interface background to switch back to Poser most of the time, having to click on the dock icon to get back to Poser? and what's with the bizarre minimize behavior?
Still not 100% of the time, but much improved.
Quote - Why can I not save external morph targets without Poser 6 crashing, causing me to lose the ability to open these .pz3 files without crashing Poser on launch?
Haven't tested this fully in P7, yet.
Quote - Why is Poser 6 the ONLY program that can totally lock up my system, forcing a hard reboot?
So far P7 seems pretty stable. We'll see what happens when I start messing with huge files, and a massive runtime.
Quote - Why are there 2 and a half year old(!!) .psd files in the Poser 6 ui folder, some of which are not even being used by the program?!? (see "Poser 6/Runtime/ui/renderOptionsDlog.psd")
They've re-written P7 so that the app is a proper bundle. The Poser folder is finally nice and clean-- we no longer have to look at .dll files. 
Although the ui folder still has lots of files, it looks like they may have gotten rid of the unused ones, and at least the ui files have new modification dates. (and no sign of "Poser 7/Runtime/ui/renderOptionsDlog.psd")
Quote - Why does an area render include an outline in the image, making this functionality useless for tweaking and saving final renders without re-rendering the entire image?
When I saw that the area render marquee had changed, I was hopeful on this one... but the area render outlines remain. =/
Quote - Why does the program still use Mac OS 9 Finder icons?
Finally fixed. Yay!
Quote - ***...I'm just of the opinion that new versions of programs should be better than previous versions.
shrug... perhaps my expectations are too high for my beloved Poser?***
Heheh... P7 feels like what P4 should have been.
The included content is incredible. The new figures are quite nice. 
Quote - Decides to shut up and render
Goes to play