Considering upgrading to PP11 from PP12 and wondering if the Xeon Z400 workstation can handle it. The processor is Intel Xeon quad-core, 3.20GhHz, but that's an i3, not i7 (I think). The graphics card is a NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800. It renders great for PP12, but is it good enough for either of the Poser 11 programs? I have Win7 Pro, 8GB RAM, and plenty of space. It's all I can afford now and it's been great for PP12, but the specs are kind of on-the-edge of some of the recommendations, so I really need advice before purchasing. I looked for a trial version and couldn't find one.

Also, have they come any farther with the Hair Room since PP12? Thanks!

The Hair Room hasn't really changed since Poser 5, although they've tweaked how the hair dynamics handle repeatedly, over the years. I believe they switched to handling the hair dynamics with the Bullet physics engine for Poser 10/Pro 2014, but I may be mistaken about that. The Hair Room itself still has the same design tools. You can now grow guide hairs directly on a figure's geometry, however. I guess that's a big change. The old skullcaps are no longer strictly necessary, although they may be useful for something like controlling the hair placement with a modified polygon flow on the cap.

I've been using the same computer since 2011, with Poser Pro 2012, Poser Pro 2014, and Poser 11 Pro. All of these versions have handled decently for me on the same system. Changes to the rendering engine since Pro12 days should give you some rendering speed improvements, whether your device is a powerhouse or not. Firefly got a bit faster with each upgrade, in my experience.

Superfly seems to be the main attraction for most Poser 11 Pro users, but someone else will have to comment on how well it might work with your system. I haven't used it much.

Dunno if it helps, but for reference, here is my system information, according to Speccy:

Operating System: MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1

CPU: Intel Core i5 2400S @ 2.50GHz Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology

RAM: 6.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 665MHz (9-9-9-24)

Motherboard: PEGATRON CORPORATION 2AC2 (CPU 1)

Graphics: VA2226w (1680x1050@59Hz) 1023MB GeForce GT 520 (Unknown)

Thank you, Cage. I think your graphics card is a little above mine, but this sounds like it will work.

The processor, video card, and RAM are OK, but be aware that P11 and P11Pro require Win7 (or newer). I don't know the Mac requirement offhand.

Your graphics card isn't the greatest for Superfly and I feel that for all points and purposes, not your gfx card, but your cpu will be used for rendering as the gfx has less than a gig of memory and most of your scenes are likely going to exceed that. As long as you don't mind really slow renders, everything else should be ok.

Laurie

Running Win7 Pro. The graphics card is definitely base level for this and the CPU has to carry the renders. I have upgraded and it's working pretty well. Lighting feels different in the new "dome" setup.

See Video 5 and 6 on my YouTube channel ( tonyvilters ) about the new "dome" possibilities. Have fun using PP11.

@ tonyvilters: I have watched those, and they're great, but how can I use textures from Textures.com, etc? The area is apparently too large or something and it gets really distorted. Do you UVmap it?

I ran Poser Pro 11 and Poser 11 Standard with only 4 GB's memory on Intel i3 that I no longer use. It wasn't lightning fast, but it worked if the scene wasn't too large.

I have used it with my 8 GB Intel i3 and it is adequate if the scene has no more than four characters in it, but even then it can be slow to load and work with. I currently use it on my i7 with 16 GB memory and it is much faster. Both of my computers are laptops and limited as far as upgrading memory so I'm stuck with what I have.

If you can, I would go for an Intel i7 and stay away from AMD's because my experience with AMD in the past has not been pleasant. I think my i3 has an HP graphics card and it is an Intel Core i3-6100U CPU at 2.30 GHz. I don't know what the i7 speed is, but it has a Nvidia GE Force graphics card.

Currently I don't even use either Poser 11/Pro because Poser Pro 2014 is much faster and easier for me to work with. If Poser 10 had been available in 64 bit I never would have bought Poser Pro 2014.