Hi: I have seen some comments on PS CS3 and 3D. I have CS2. I do not understand what Adobe means about importing 3d into Photoshop. I use CS3 all the time for my Poser renders. What's so great about CS3?

The 3D aspect of CS3 is an additional plug in unless the buy the bells and whistles CS3, I've only just bought CS2 and am awaiting a free upgrade to CS3 as a late buyer but it doesn't include the 3D plug in!
You may be better asking in the Photoshop forum!

Quote - I've only just bought CS2 and am awaiting a free upgrade to CS3 as a late buyer but it doesn't include the 3D plug in!

gasp  I'm sooo jealous now!  I bought my CS2 a while ago and haven't decided to shell out money for the upgrade yet... :crying:
Have fun with it :)
It cracks me up, Adobe keeps sending me registered users poll to give them opinions on CS3, but they didn't notice I haven't upgraded yet. 
Go figure :blink:

Frankly the new CS3 3d import is not really hugely useful to poser users as far as creating renders, you are far better off rendering your 3D object in poser and importing the render and compositing that, the reason being that the Poser renderer provides a lot more quality and features compared to the CS3 3D renderer, which is rudimentry at best(think OpenGL render). the CS3 3D features are primarily useful for photoshop users who don't have access to a decent quality 3D rendering solution. A texture artist may find the new features useful though, it doesnt take the place of a true 3d paint program becouse you can't actually paint right on the 3D model, but the benifit of being able to check a texture on the model instantly as you are working on the flat texture in photoshop seems useful, though I have heard from one user that photoshop has a tendancey to drop detail on export, I cannot confirm or deny this as I have not yet purchased a copy of CS3 Extended.

there's no benefit to anybody with a 3D renderer having a "texture reload" button IMVHO. there is a big benefit to somebody with no 3D app, however.

Quote - there's no benefit to anybody with a 3D renderer having a "texture reload" button IMVHO. there is a big benefit to somebody with no 3D app, however.

I agree with you miss nancy, the only reason I wrote the part about texture artists was becouse I have heard a few texture artists saying it looks useful.

They want around $400. US for an upgrade for the extended version. Too much money. They are trying to make photoshop a "do-all" app, a big mistake I think.

As has been mentioned in some other threads, there are plug-ins on the way to give CS3E's 3D aspects greater functionality.  But of course: doing so involves spending more cash.

http://www.highend3d.com/news/Plug-In-Provides-Feature-Film-Quality-Rendering-for-Adobe-259.html

I now have CS3E.  But if I had been in the position of a brand-new Photoshop purchaser: then I probably wouldn't have considered CS3E's $1000 price tag to be worth the additional expense over plain-vanilla CS3.  As a $349 upgrade from CS -- it wasn't too bad.  Yeah -- I'd probably balk over shelling out $1000 for CS3E in its current form.  The program would need to offer some big advantages over plain CS3 to be worth that kind of extra money.  The way things look right now, those "big advantages" will only become available to a CS3E user when that user is willing to spend some more cash for plug-ins.

Quote - They want around $400. US for an upgrade for the extended version. Too much money. They are trying to make photoshop a "do-all" app, a big mistake I think.

Oh, if Adobe would combine Illustrator and Photoshop into one program -- then the resulting functionality might be worth $1000.  As things stand now, if you want vector graphics -- then you'll need to cough up an additional $599 over the cost of Photoshop for the privilege.  Unless if you purchase one of the Creative Suite packages......in which case you get the individual programs a little cheaper than you do by purchasing all of them separately.  But $1,199 to $1,799 is still a fair amount of outlay for a hobbyist to have to justify 'investing' to their spouse. 

It's worth that kind of price to a pro -- especially if they can get their employer to buy it for them.

I got the extended upgrade but to be honest haven't done more than install it so far. Will be checking it out after this weekend.

do-all app? isn't that Blender?..;)
Well, there's always the Gimp if you don't want to shell out the money.