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THX Certification.  Everyone got together and agreed that George Lucas knows cinema.  Sound, lights, cameras, speakers...he knows what things need to look and sound like.

So, audio/visual product creators submitted their stuff to Lucas's Team for the right to declare their stuff THX certified.  This would be proudly displayed on their packaging.

Actually this is only half the truth. THX started as a certification for cinemas, not for components. At the time the component manufacturers started to put that THX label on their displays and speakers, they were already pretty sure that because of the widely known THX certification for cinemas, their efforts because of the additional advertising effect was to be rewarded with higher sales.

The THX certification for cinemas, on the other hand, was probably much like what it is that you are requesting right now; Lucas and friends decided to create a certification for cinemas to make them play their movies in the way that they wanted them to. So Lucas went to the cinemas and and told them: "Hey, get this certification from me, so you will have many more customers, because the customers know me and rather want to go to a cinema with my THX logo on it than anywhere else.". Of course, at that time Lucas and friends were not exactly sure if that would pay off, but they were willing to take the risk of putting much work into it without any reward (had the cinemas declined this offer).

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We have, basically, the same process here at RO (and elsewhere) whereby a product is submitted and tested.  However, the standards are pretty liberal.  If it works, it's in (basically...let's not argue minutae.)

What we need is an independant 3rd party who is regarded as an expert in what it takes to get the most out of poser with the latest advancements.  That person, and their team, would independantly check items before they were submitted to RO Marketplace (and elsewhere?) for the best uses of shaders, lights, render settings (may even supply an empty pz3 to distribute with product to ensure all that stuff is in place.)

Basically, i agree, but i (like others it seems) have my doubts if this could be indeed be accomplished by an independent party. As for the case with THX; those who make the standard are the ones that give away the certificate; and they are the same who need to check it (i.e. initially put some work into it with unknown reward). So this should either be the vendors themselves (difficult, because they seem to be scattered around the world and never talk to each other), or it can be you (just come up with a logo "WTB-certified", and offer it to vendors, hope it will get wide acceptance, and later get some compensation out of it). Does not need to be made by anyone alone of course. Depending on what that certification actually has in it, i personally would probably accept to pay some higher price for items with the logo.

Quote - ...No, thanks.  This forum often reminds me of why the world simply does not function in any measurably sane way.  (Define "Function"  Define "Sane"  Define "World" define "Often" define "Forum"  Define "This")

I guess what wolf359 is saying here is: to get a wide acceptance for your certificate, you essentially have two options: either get famous, so that people blindly accept your logo just based on your good name (like George Lucas did), or you have to explain what your certificate actually includes, and that includes explaining what is behind e.g. "best use of shaders". This does not necessarily mean, that you have to be an expert in that area, but you need to have a feeling for how specific you want it to have, without risking that nobody understands the meaning your certificate. In any case there is some real work involved, perhaps it is indeed easier, to just start with simple reviews of e.g. similar items (like v4-characters), applying similar criteria, and try to get the reviewed vendors to include a link to the review in the product description for a start.

Not just whiners, some of us had our intelligence besmirched flat out of the stalls just because we don't believe that BB "knows everything"! No offence to Ted, I know he knows more about math and shaders than I do, but what about his certificate qualifications in other Poser areas? What about modeling, morphing or editing CR2's on the fly? Some of us have been doing this a few years longer than BB and might just know a little more than we've been given credit for. And some of us have been here long enough to see this dead horse laying in the stalls on several occasions already!

Ready t render products.  Where have I heard that before?  Oh, yeah.  Way back when in the DAZ press release announcing DAZ Studio where you too can render beautiful art with just a few clicks of the mouse.

Remember?  DAZ Studio was supposed to come with pre-done scenes that you could load and render to create art in two clicks of a mouse.

How exactly does one define ready to render?  What is ready to render in Poser 9 is not ready to render in Poser 6. 

I find the whole idea of some badge slapped on a product page or promo as annoying as those stupid "rendered in DAZ Studio" and "rendered in Reality" logos.  Of course rendered in Reality is wrong since Reality doesn't render.  It's just a bridge to Lux but no one seems to notice.

Unsubscribed... this discussion is about egos and hurt feelings. :glare: Sheesh... really forward thinking.

Quote - Of course rendered in Reality is wrong since Reality doesn't render.  It's just a bridge to Lux but no one seems to notice.

I've noticed and it absolutely drives me up the goddamn wall. :)

As to what SteveJax said: I don't think WTB meant for BB to certify EVERY facet of a product for sale, but only that which he has expertise. I would assume he had in mind a team of the bests in the field each judging things according to their specialty. I'm not sure how any of them would possibly have the time for that, but it's nice to think about ;). I'd be happy just to have some sort of quality control (proper modeling, no flood fills for textures, etc).

Laurie

I don't even mean a team, Laurie, not really. 

I suppose I'm saying that lighting and nodes and render settings are what seperates a great render from a crappy render. 

The same prop can look one way in the hands of a n00b or can look like reality in the hands of a BB or others.  The difference?  They knew how to set up the shaders, they knew how to set up the lights, and what kind, and they knew what they had to set firefly to do. 

It's why I make the THX comparison; we're almost talking about the same thing.  

See, when you buy a prop, for example, it comes into poser loaded with whatever settings the creator gave it.  More often than not, the creator set it crappy for whatever reason. 

Further, there might be great nodes in there but if the end user doesn't know how to set up his render options it's not going to go as well as it could. 

It is only in this area where I feel expert certification is a valid and necessary void that could be filled. 

Having had some time AFK today, there are other ways that could/would ultimately be more lucrative for the expert with less work.

Well.. I'm going to stop this now. I can only see this going down hill from here.