Might be interesting to know some statistics about the usage of Poser. Knowing what poser version(s) individuals are using and why they use that version. Most interesting would be to know from Creators what Poser version suits them best ( And Why ) for there creations that are released in public or sold. Naturally also from end users as they give the support for the creators.

You may also mention if you consider buying Poser 13 in the near future ( And Why ) 

I think it is a Important question as a creator like my self to know where the main Interest is laying .

This thread is "not meant to be a Debate" rather a little statistic, so try not to start conversations that lead off the theme. Even if there might not be many that participate in these forums it might give a little Idea

I use Poser 12.  Initially I didn't want to switch from Poser 11 because of all the python scripts I used but since there have been many that came out for P12 and mainly because of Optix rendering I've gone full Poser 12.   Optix has cut down render times to such an incredible degree that I cannot bring myself to go back to Firefly or even CPU Superfly.  I will be moving on to Poser 13.

My workhorse is Poser 11. I still use a lot of Python scripts that don't work in Poser 12. I hate Superfly, so the main advantage of Poser 12, faster Superfly rendering, isn't something that matters to me.

I own Poser 12, but rarely use it. I plan to buy Poser 13, just to support Poser development. I probably won't use it, either, unless there's something game-changing in it that has not been signaled so far.

I use Poser 12 mainly for Superfly which I think renders much better than Firefly and it is certainly faster.

Fully intend to upgrade to Poser 13 as long as finances allow.

I use Poser 12 (been using it since P4,6,7,9,2012,11) for the improved Cycles and Superfly - and it's been quite interesting. 

I'm hesitant about upgrading to 13, as I'm still in the dark about what they'll be offering - hoping for a game-changer - we'll see.

 I still have Poser 11 just in case, but most of the time I'm using Poser 12, and eagerly waiting for Poser 13

Still using Poser 11, mostly for VWD.  I don't render inside Poser, and 12 didn't seem to offer much above 11 if you don't care about Cycles/Superfly.  Waiting to see what 13 looks like, might be upgrading but the loss of unimesh support is a ding in the negative column because again...no unimesh support is what I already have in 11.

Mainly 12. I go to 11 at times when I need to test something specific in products or the rare occasions when I need old scripts.

I use Poser 12. Even just CPU rendering on Superfly is faster for me than Firefly. Since I can use Optix, it's a no-brainer. I use Poser 11 when I need a script that I don't have an equivalent on 12 or to test or do renders for products. I want to update to Poser 13. I'll have to see if I can swing it.

I have both new version of Poser (11 & 12) on my system. I was a wee bit disappointed when the legacy scripts no longer work in P12. Keeping P11 even if P13 comes out with the latest and greatest bells & whistle. I must be getting old. The learning curve for Superfly is a bit steeper than Firefly but then again, I have a library of Firefly settings. Still trying to work out the boinks with Superfly.

Poser 12, because that was the most recent version when I returned to the Poserverse.

11.

There wasn't really anything added to 12, other than the Principled node and a small tweak to the comic preview options, that piqued my interest. Also quite a few scripts I use don't seem to have comparable substitutes.

I went from 8 to 11 after being away from the Poser world for a few years, using Carrara mostly. I switched to windows when my old mac died and bought 11 cheaply. Both version 8 and 11 seemed like watershed releases, 8 with IDL and the dependency editor, 11 with Superfly and a host of content creation automations. I'll be purchasing 13... just because... not because there seems to be anything comparable to the steps forward that 8 and 11 made. I was looking forward to full unimesh and what avenues that might open up, or at least a new toy to play with.

Poser 11 because of the old scripts and P12 because of Optix. I will keep 11 and most likely replace 12 with version 13.

11

Since I tested for shaderworks, I have every product he released and there is no replacement for them.  LM2 and Advanced IDL studio are used with every project I work on.

Bill

I use Poser 12. No reason other than I want the latest greatest. It is still a very good software for what it is intended to do.  I think it is better suited to creators then casual dabblers in digital art. It is better for still portraits than animations, although the latter is still do-able. I do wish the cameras had more functions such as types of lenses. As long as the content created using Poser can be transferred to other software for downstream pipeline, I think it remains a relevant software for its price-performance, and most users in this market segment would be hobbyists. Realistically, though, casual hobbyists can easily obtain some type of results similar to Poser renders, if they use AI art generators, nowadays. So unless the intended use of such images excludes AI-generated art, they will need to use software like Poser to create. 

I use the latest version I can.   I have Poser 5-12 on my computer and except for Poser 8 which won't run due to Windows updates that killed several of the IE features (due to security)  I have used most of them in the past year.  Mostly to see what has changed and at which version.  I can run 8 on an older PC that still has windows 7 when I really want to.  The problem is when I run that computer I realize just how slow it and the programs were.  I like SuperFly because it is easier to use and make materials for.  I am waiting for Poser 13 with the newest Cycles engine to really speed up SuperFly.  

Poser 11 for the scripts.

I Mainly use Poser 11 Pro , it is essential for my work as for figure creation it is offering it's best so that these can be used without issues in prior and future versions. I am not a Texturing specialist, each artist has he's strength's so I specialized my self making standalone rigged models. Poser 11 comes with loads of python addons that are essential for creators especially when it comes on building fully articulated models from scratch.

Were I a texturing Spezialist then I guess I would have to make an upgrade and stay on the newest version to be able to offer the adequate product as mainly the upgrades on newer versions are basically concentrating on materials and rendering, not on the creation of the base models it self.

In some occasions I use Poser 2014 as for new created Master and Easy Pose dials are compatible with DS, PP11 is causing an issue so that these newly created Morphs an do not work properly when Importing a cr2 in DS.

I have Poser 12 but just using it to check once in a while if the model is loading in a correct way. I guess I will not be able to upgrade the next level since all the necessary pythons do not work and never will be upgraded it will not be of any use for me. 

I already only make " Unimesh " single skinning models since 2016 for Poser so the announced upgrade to Unimesh will not really be a change for my creations as it is already a Part of Poser. If one Day Poser would come out with an upgrade that is really worth to Improve Articulated Poser models then I sure will have to upgrade to be able to offer the newest standards.     

Poser 12 mostly ... with Poser 11 periodically for features that were lost in P12.  Am planning to upgrade to P13. 

vopehov506 posted at 12:38 PM Tue, 28 February 2023 - #4457217

I Mainly use Poser 11 Pro , it is essential for my work as for figure creation it is offering it's best so that these can be used without issues in prior and future versions. I am not a Texturing specialist, each artist has he's strength's so I specialized my self making standalone rigged models. Poser 11 comes with loads of python addons that are essential for creators especially when it comes on building fully articulated models from scratch.

Were I a texturing Spezialist then I guess I would have to make an upgrade and stay on the newest version to be able to offer the adequate product as mainly the upgrades on newer versions are basically concentrating on materials and rendering, not on the creation of the base models it self.

In some occasions I use Poser 2014 as for new created Master and Easy Pose dials are compatible with DS, PP11 is causing an issue so that these newly created Morphs an do not work properly when Importing a cr2 in DS.

I have Poser 12 but just using it to check once in a while if the model is loading in a correct way. I guess I will not be able to upgrade the next level since all the necessary pythons do not work and never will be upgraded it will not be of any use for me. 

I already only make " Unimesh " single skinning models since 2016 for Poser so the announced upgrade to Unimesh will not really be a change for my creations as it is already a Part of Poser. If one Day Poser would come out with an upgrade that is really worth to Improve Articulated Poser models then I sure will have to upgrade to be able to offer the newest standards.     

I realize this is a bit off topic, but OP mentions his rigging a lot in relation to Unimesh.

vopehov506 posted at 12:38 PM Tue, 28 February 2023 - #4457217

I Mainly use Poser 11 Pro , it is essential for my work as for figure creation it is offering it's best so that these can be used without issues in prior and future versions. I am not a Texturing specialist, each artist has he's strength's so I specialized my self making standalone rigged models. Poser 11 comes with loads of python addons that are essential for creators especially when it comes on building fully articulated models from scratch.

Were I a texturing Spezialist then I guess I would have to make an upgrade and stay on the newest version to be able to offer the adequate product as mainly the upgrades on newer versions are basically concentrating on materials and rendering, not on the creation of the base models it self.

In some occasions I use Poser 2014 as for new created Master and Easy Pose dials are compatible with DS, PP11 is causing an issue so that these newly created Morphs an do not work properly when Importing a cr2 in DS.

I have Poser 12 but just using it to check once in a while if the model is loading in a correct way. I guess I will not be able to upgrade the next level since all the necessary pythons do not work and never will be upgraded it will not be of any use for me. 

I already only make " Unimesh " single skinning models since 2016 for Poser so the announced upgrade to Unimesh will not really be a change for my creations as it is already a Part of Poser. If one Day Poser would come out with an upgrade that is really worth to Improve Articulated Poser models then I sure will have to upgrade to be able to offer the newest standards.     

Would you care to expound on your rigging process, in broad strokes? No need to explain your use of EPU or it's ERC master stuff, that's after the fact. You're rigging your models outside of Poser, correct ?

I realize this is a bit off topic, but OP mentions his rigging a lot in relation to Unimesh.

Hi AmbientShade.

There's no question about Vopehov506 being correct or incorrect. Nor was there any plan to debate. I know his work, I think. But that wasn't the point, I was just curious about his process.

You can explain it in another thread if you feel you know his process, sure. Kinda wanted to hear a summary from OP himself. Nothing sinister.

I don't know his process but you can do it all within Poser. As far back as P9/2012 I think, not sure on that as I don't have anything older than 11 installed.

I was more interested in what he was using prior to getting into Poser, if my theory and memory serves correct.

You know though, now that you mention it, if you were to start a thread about single skin (if we're on the same page or I'm even in the right chapter) it would be interesting to not only me I'd wager, and might actually be helpful to clearing up the confusion maybe. I don't have much experience with it other than some export tests that were a bit confusing... the topic is very vague to me, other than collecting xps dae and Blender figures, naturally I'm interested. If that's even related, hence some of the question.

If not maybe it wouldn't trouble him too much. He seems a forthcoming and talkative fellow. It's his thread. Who knows?

Charles Taylor should make a brief thread about the topic, he's mentioned it a lot in the past, it seems important to him. Not that he should feel compelled or even obliged, just seems he's gotten quiet about it.

But now I'm actually derailing, I digress. Apologies. 

I use poser 12 and 11 for the scripts.I will purchase 13, but hope the current lack of market place support will improve.

Off Topic:

I can understand that such a topic might derive a little. Still it makes me happy to see that quiet a few are participating. I think it is important as this way each Individual is heard without questioning. For me it is personally important to find out in what directions poser is leading, not in the tech, but on where the individual interests really are without masses of arguments that might lead to bad blood. Not just for me but also might be very important for other 3D modelers and creators. I have not made any new models since almost 3 month due some larger projects. So this little statistic might give me a little idea on how to proceed in the near future and might also help others in some way .

It is not meant to request any better software or ask for changes it is meant to see the present and see a little on how and why the individual artists use Poser. It is not just for me but also for other Artists, to listen to others, Take notes, and to think a moment. Just for once, really listen what artists have to say and get to know what they really do with Poser.

Thank you again for taking your time to participate :)

You can also make more comments about your self and what you use Poser for, sometimes we realize just after a while what is really happening and " Ohh I forgot to mention " or you realize that you actually wanted to give a little more of your self, telling others what and why you really use poser for  without the fear that anyone will question your doing, just listen to you no matter what you use it for and witch version you are using.

I have been using P12 since it was released. I have not cried a tear for the old poser versions. Admittedly, the fact that the old Python scripts no longer work was a bitter pill, but in the meantime I have built the scripts I need for my purposes myself. But the Superfly renderer is just faster than Firefly, and the materials are easier to create. Let's see where Poser 13 takes us.

Greetings

Poser 11, but have 2014 if needed, and on an older G5 I have Poser 7.

Couldn't get P12 to work so I shall wait and see what P13 looks like.

i still use PP2014.

i've no real interest in Superfly. and my husband had both P11 & P12, and we did a little testing...

turns out, for me, the Firefly engine results in P2014 look best to my eyes when compared to FF in subsequent versions...

so i'll say i use what i use due to personal preference visually speaking...

or i suppose that i could also say i just love retro things ;)

primorge posted at 3:26 PM Tue, 28 February 2023 - #4457245

I was more interested in what he was using prior to getting into Poser, if my theory and memory serves correct.

You know though, now that you mention it, if you were to start a thread about single skin (if we're on the same page or I'm even in the right chapter) it would be interesting to not only me I'd wager, and might actually be helpful to clearing up the confusion maybe. I don't have much experience with it other than some export tests that were a bit confusing... the topic is very vague to me, other than collecting xps dae and Blender figures, naturally I'm interested. If that's even related, hence some of the question.

If not maybe it wouldn't trouble him too much. He seems a forthcoming and talkative fellow. It's his thread. Who knows?

But if you can rig a face with ghost bones and control props then you can rig a whole single mesh figure. The down side - which I just discovered - is that scaling seems to be screwed. Everything else appears to work just fine from jcms to fbms, etc., can even rig conforming clothing for it. But if you want to scale anything then that would require a semi-elaborate morph system to accomplish. And smooth translations also seem to be bork'd. I'm not sure about match centers for FBMs cause I didn't get that far.

btw, I use P11 and P12. Mostly 12, cause it seems much more polished with the various features and rendering is light years faster, even on my cpu (cause my gpu is ancient so I don't even bother).

I still use Poser Pro 2014 periodically.  I was a Poser 11 beta tester and I bought v11.2, but I've never really used them.  Why?  Superfly doesn't interest me at all, and none of the other whizwhams have impressed me enough to overcome my resistance to being forced to keep my computer online.  I sort of think Poser actually ended for me around the Dimension3D died.  But, you know.  I'm an old crank whose hobbies now include running Linux on old Chromebooks and strangling puppies, and I don't adapt to change very well nowadays.

I've always been more of a Posertechie and not much of a Pretty Render Person.  When I use Poser, I end up working on weight-mapping, building and revising figures, Python scripting, and editing cr2 files.  I think Poser has been moving away from the range of possibilities that enabled the Posertechie focus, moving now toward imposing a specific way of doing things on the user.  A bunch of you can probably tell me that I'm wrong about that.  Oh well.

I'm running P_11 plus a Network Render 'Box'. After returning from a decade out due a multiple HDD mega-crash that killed a lot of my back-ups' back-ups, I finally installed the #7 I'd bought prior, then a budget #10. Discount-upgraded that to #11_Pro, now #11.3. I've many 'points' towards #12 or, now, #13, but neither seem to offer much benefit. #12 apparently changed the material room unto 'complex' with epi-cycles within cycles --And no 'finder map' !!-- with #13 still too early to say. This CAD-tower's twin GPU cards are now too old to really benefit from #13's drivers.  'Box' is VGA-only, but its 16 cores render rapidly in queue's CPU-only mode.....

FWIW, I recently spent a chunk of my upgrade fund on Truebones' ($$) 'PMX to FBX' converter. At present it only dies rigging and hues, textures must be hand-loaded. Update perhaps pending. And, as of an hour ago, I finally figured how to export clad + rigged DS figures to an FBX format Poser likes. Freebie Kalea Rogue (# 7), exported as FBX_2012, is currently rendering on 'Box'...

Latest version of Poser 11. Will continue to stick with it for the foreseeable future. I've been with Poser since version 4 and have built up a huge library of content. I have played with La Femme and there is just nothing there to replace what I already have for V4 M4. She's got a horse face that seems to come through every morph I've purchased and half the outfits fit like burlap sacks. Started  using Poser and still do use it for it's original purpose. Setting up a model for reference in painting and sculpture. But it has grown into it's own art form over the years. I've invested a bunch of time in using and understanding the material room for firefly and enjoy tweaking materials to get just the look I want. I tried, but half the time Superfly is just a lot of gobbledygook for me at the moment and I'm just not able to get to look I want out of it. Probably just and old dog sticking with old tricks. The only content I'm purchasing these days for Poser is animals, environments and architecture. It will be a wait and see on 13.

I just uploaded a picture to my gallery that pretty much sums up what I enjoy most doing in Poser:

Creating my own sculpts, preferrably using old and obsolete figures.

It also exemplifies the level of realism I'm happy with.

Poser 11 allows me full control over the look and the way my sculpts move.

Firefly allows me great flexibility in how my renders look.

I don't like the way Superfly looks, and I don't like how slow it is.

(To those who say it is faster than Firefly, that's because many Firefly products use unecessary complicated shaders that bog Poser down. If you know how to optimize Firefly, it gets lightning fast. The Firefly renderer also allows a much nicer looking preview, if you know how to build your shaders right)

And if I wanted to truly achive photorealism, I wouldn't use Poser anyway.

So, for the foreseeable future, I'll very likely stay with Poser 11, having installed PP 2014 still as a backup plan, should something happen to the Poser 11 license server.

I might try out Poser 13, but unless:

a. I get a new laptop with a GTR card to make Superfly fast enough to compete with my optimized Firefly...

b. Supefly can do displacement maps so it won't need meshes that were subdivided into a gazillion polygon ...

c. It gets as easy and reliably to use as Firefly with a nice preview...

d. ...or Poser 13 suddenly adds any other MUST HAVE feature it suddenly find I can't live without...

... I doubt I'll upgrade.

I'd happily pay $1000 for a "perfect" Poser that gives me all the features I truly need, but it looks Poser is going into a direction that is not mine anymore. 

New tech is good, but only if it serves an actual purpose.

I use mostly Poser 12. It renders really faster on my system. My scripts are also working only with Poser 12. If Poser 13 will increase render speed and brings some improvement on clothing creation I will definitely upgrade to it.

Poser Pro 2014

Why?  It just proved very stable upon the machine I bought around 2010 running Windows 7.  I kept with it until my PC started to :show its age" in the Fall of '21.  I was eventually forced to purchase a new machine by the end of the year because began to 'choke" nearly every task, not just Poser, even NotePad!  However, I had to prioritize expenses somewhere because the company for whom i worked nearly 30 years "outsourced" my department (when I say "my", I just mean where I worked; I was not a manager) and all the employees for that section were "let go".  When I discovered my version of Poser worked well enough upon the replacement Windows 11 box, I saw no need to upgrade.  I'm trying to be VERY frugal with my expenses  as I'm currently living on mt "savings".  I've all but stopped buying assets, instead searching for items I can download for free.

Poser 11, because 1) I use scripts that don't work in 12 every single render (most frequently Genesis 2 poses), and 2) I have no use for Superfly. I almost certainly will not buy Poser 13 because, for my purposes, it will be much less capable than Poser 11.

I used Poser 6 through Poser 2014 and then when the upgrade path was confusing (I had JUST upgraded to 2014, will I get a break on P11? was unclear, or I missed the window or something) I made the very hard slog to DAZ Studio, but now love DAZ after conquering the learning curve.  Recently Afrodite-Ohki's Anuli figure made me FINALLY cave in (not exaggerating - that ONE character made it seem worthwhile to me!) and buy P11 (on sale for $50!) only to find out Poser 13 was six weeks away. <sigh>  I prefer Superfly and am rocking an Nvidia RTX3090 so feel pretty under-utilized with P11.  I'll be upgrading to P13 (if the P11-P13 upgrade seems worth the cost) and consider Poser to be ONE of the tools in my graphics toolbox, not the ONLY tool.  I'm excited about the improvements.

I think the comment about Poser 13 being a Renderosity "complete code re-write" is far, far understated.  That's a HUGE deal!   

For me, Superfly was revolutionary. Once I learned how the materials work and optimized them for use in the new render engine, I found that I needed far less light to achieve pleasing results, and using the GPU, renders are far faster than with Firefly. For that reason, I use P12 Superfly exclusively for rendering and animating. I'd kept P11 because of the python script issue -- as a few others here have pointed out -- but mainly for VWD, which is no longer working after a recent video driver update.

I don't know about P13. None of the things I want in the program have been changed. It's still using the antiquated cloth room. I hate most of Poser's hair textures, but can't figure out how to fix them. The new opening page will be useless to me. In my mind, I'm not sure that P13 represents enough of an improvement to justify the expense.

Technically, I'm not really using Poser right now, although I do have a poser 12 beta version downloaded on  my computer. My last bought and paid for Poser was Poser 11, but my last computer crashed, and I really don't have much of my old stuff on this computer yet.

11 because I have an old computer and can't afford to upgrade, it does what I need for the times I use it and I'm not really bothered about the extra features.

Most of the time I use it to render my own creations, which I will hopefully get back to selling once my health has the all clear.

I should have listened to my own advice, but maybe you could buy a used computer that's not as old as the one you have now Sam.

I should have listened to my own advice, but maybe you could buy a used computer that's not as old as the one you have now Sam.

I used Poser 11, until I was enough stupid to change from the SM Poser to the Bondware Poser. The phone call is a no go for me.

Fortunately, I kept Poser 10 installed on my comp and will continue with it. The day my computer will end its life, I won't jump again to install my Poser 11 version. Not everyone wants to connect even a second on internet to start a program which was legally bought and installed. For me, the phone call is the company making the program not trusting its customers. That the phone call comes the first time the program is installed on a machine to check it's a legal one, yes plenty programs do that, but to ask each time you turn on your machine and your program? NO.

And no, I won't run to ask to Bondware for not having the phone call for a certain amount of time. Good old Poser 10 works, that's good for me.

Poser 13, for speed of SF rendering and the easy IBL backgrounds. The updated legacy figures made me re-look at these assets.

I keep Poser 11 standby on a retired rig in a corner just in case I needed some old scripts but I cannot remember when I last fired it up.  

Poser 12 is still installed on my day-to-day system but I hardly use it. Whenever I do it just strikes me render is so slooooooow.

Poser 13, for speed of SF rendering and the easy IBL backgrounds. The updated legacy figures made me re-look at these assets.

I keep Poser 11 standby on a retired rig in a corner just in case I needed some old scripts but I cannot remember when I last fired it up.  

Poser 12 is still installed on my day-to-day system but I hardly use it. Whenever I do it just strikes me render is so slooooooow.

I use Poser 12. Even just CPU rendering on Superfly is faster for me than Firefly. Since I can use Optix, it's a no-brainer. I use Poser 11 when I need a script that I don't have an equivalent on 12 or to test or do renders for products. I want to update to Poser 13. I'll have to see if I can swing it.

I use Poser11 I downloaded 13 trial but for what I use it for not worth the amount of money (with the exchange rate) to go to Poser13...I uninstalled it...

I also see the prices they are asking for the main figures matches Daz prices...but at least the main Daz program is free...getting way too old to do more than dabble now so not worth the money to me!