Its been a long time since I have done 3D. I have Poser 4, I now found out that DAZ has their own product for free called DAZ studio that kind of look like Poser. NoW a company called Smith Micro Software ( I think) Owns Poser and it is in its 8 VERSION. What are the differences ? Can I still upgrade from Curious Labs P4 to this new company product, will my characters be compatible with Poser 8? What are the improvements over my old version. The real ones not the compnay hype. Why DAZ Studios when their characters are Poser??

Thanks for your help.

Andres

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=3533173
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=2363770
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=2782208

and so on... if you use the search, you'll find many threads on this subject.

Oh lordy, yet another....

;o)

What Kaibach said. This has been gone over many, many, many, many times ;o).

Laurie

Well, as I said it has been a long time, so Lordy I will read the links. Thanks Kaibach. My search found lots od products for sale :)

Quote - Its been a long time since I have done 3D. I have Poser 4, I now found out that DAZ has their own product for free called DAZ studio that kind of look like Poser. NoW a company called Smith Micro Software ( I think) Owns Poser and it is in its 8 VERSION. What are the differences ? Can I still upgrade from Curious Labs P4 to this new company product, will my characters be compatible with Poser 8? What are the improvements over my old version. The real ones not the compnay hype. Why DAZ Studios when their characters are Poser??

You could upgrade P4 to P7, I bet you still can upgrade to P8

neither P8 nor DS should have too many problems with old stuff.

Since P4 Poser has got the Firefly render engine, indirect lighting capability, cloth room, multi-undo, some more womens (Judy, Jessi, Sydney, Alyson)

It's not the tool used, it's the tool using it

Run, run...runaway! :lol:

Thanks guys! Run ,why?

Nothing against you Goido.
These threads usually end up in a flame war, "Poser sucks, DAZ sucks, blah, blah, blah..."

Oh, ok I have read aenough to know that I can use both if I wan t to. How good is the new Poser 8?It is a big departure from Poser 7?

 Well, since you're still on Poser 4 you have missed a lot. Poser 8 and D|S 3 both have advanced rendering engines with much more lighting options, much more complex materials and multi-CPU support. We have Ray Tracing for reflections and better shadows and dynamic cloth.

You have a lot to learn. Attached image is a Vicky 4 with a real skin shader, indirect IDL lighting and dynamic hair. Looks better then what P4 could produce, but it will take some time to learn. Both D|S and Poser 8 are much more complex then Poser 4.

A ship in port is safe; but that is not what ships are built for.
Sail out to sea and do new things.
-"Amazing Grace" Hopper

Avatar image of me done by Chidori. 

Thanks Uwe, I have watch your gallery before, very nice! Do you use both? Have they improved the bending of the joins? Does anybody import the figures into Bryce anymore?

I use both Studio and Poser, but for different things. Rigging and importing Morphs is better in D|S, but I usually render my images in Poser, since I know Firefly better then 3Delight. Both programs have their pros and cons - you will find them in the other threads, without doubt. If I would have to choose, I would use Poser. But that's me, I think that some other people would choose DAZ, and produce images in a compareable quality.

Well, people used to render with Bryce because Poser could not do reflections. Or, of course, because they needed the landscape as a background. Bryce is still arround, you can find it at DAZ3d if you look for it. A lot of people use Vue for rendering Poser isn't enough. Vue has landscape and plants and can handle really big scenes - and it can import Poser figures directly if you have a compatible Poser version on the same computer. And then, there is Carrara too, if you need another renderer. 

My images are done with Firefly, usually without postwork. I have and use Vue too, so I have little use for Bryce, but you can still use it to render Poser scenes. But you won't need it that often, if you learn Firefly or the DAZ Studio renderer. 

A ship in port is safe; but that is not what ships are built for.
Sail out to sea and do new things.
-"Amazing Grace" Hopper

Avatar image of me done by Chidori. 

Thanks, there is a big buzz on Bryce 7

Thanks, there is a big buzz on Bryce 7

it appears Bryce 7 will have some new features and improvements for sure. There is beta going on now.

I just purchased Poser 8 and like it a lot. The lighting is really good now. I doubt you could go wrong in purchasing it. There are a lot figures that come with it and a lot of other props, etc. A real cool feature is the inclusion of Philc's Wardrobe Wizard which allows you to convert clothes for one figure to work on another. Saves a lot of cash :)

Joints...i think that goes with the figure more than the actual program. still problems but the figures overall are much improved. You will note the textures look much more realistic now, if realism is your focus.

I've tried Daz Studio a bit, and really need to learn it, but always found Poser easier to use. Of course this is where the arguments start coming on, as a lot of people like the way Daz Studio works. I've always like the Bryce , Poser, Carrara --the Kai developed interfaces.

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect......Chief Seattle, 1854

From what I've seen of Poser 8's interface, given that you're familiar with the P4 interface, that will have an easier learning curve than switching to D|S, as the basics of the Poser interface haven't changed much over the years.

D|S, OTOH, will require you to learn an entirely new interface, as it's practically nothing like Poser's.

Also, while the majority of content available now is compatible with either program, some items won't be, such as Dynamic cloth, some Material setups, and some light sets.

________________________________________________________________

If you're joking that's just cruel, but if you're being sarcastic, that's even worse.

Well, Poser 8 is looking very good now, they have it for $200 dollars now, I will ask them if they take Poser 4 as an upgrade.

good news for you ...from the Smith Micro product page

Poser 8 Paid Upgrade - English Only

Upgrade from Poser v4 or later or Poser Pro to Poser 8 English- $129.99 (plus S&H where applicable)

Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together.
All things connect......Chief Seattle, 1854

I got poser 8 and love it but like everyone says ultimately it's a matter of preference you can try the free version of ds and see if you like its interface and if not just get p8. Which personally I highly recommened.

The Bryce 7 beta is for users of Bryce 6 and up...

I wish I'd said that.. The Staircase Wit

anahl nathrak uth vas betude doth yel dyenvey..;)

One other thing you might consider is Carrara. It does have some significant benefits over DAZ Studio and Poser, and is another DAZ product. It has a built-in modeller, which neither of the others has. Makes it very easy to throw together a prop and UV map it while you're working on a scene. It also uses all the Poser content like the other two apps, though in some cases you need to do some minor materials/shaders tweaks. It also has some built in sky/terrain/vegetation/fire/particle/water generation features. As far as rendering, in my view is is MUCH faster than DAZ Studio, and signficantly faster than Poser (though I haven't done any real testing).

In my view, the one area where Poser is head and shoulders above the other two is the dynamic cloth feature. It's very well done in Poser, and Carrara has nothing like it. DAZ Studio has a very limited cloth feature, where you can't make your own dynamic cloth, you need to buy it.

Another downside of Carrara is that it doesn't allow you to do Poser-type rigging, if that's your thing. It has it's own rigging that's not compatible. As mentioned before, I think DAZ Studio is the generally winner in the Poser rigging department, especially when teamed up with the Hexagon modeller and the bridge between the two.

I'm a convert from DAZ Studio/Poser/ Lightwave to Carrara. I've found it to be much more intuitive, with most of the functions I need, and just fun to use. And when it finally gets a good dynamic cloth I'll probably erase Poser from my harddrive.