I was just sitting here daydreaming about poser5, and I suddenly thought, will we be able to unload textures from memory? If you're anything like me with poser, you start with one idea then it mutates into something totally different, the only problem is the textures sit there till you shut poser down. It's not a major headache with fairly simple scenes but when you have several figures and dozens of props you get loads of textures, delete a figure and the textures are still there clogging up memory. If the CL guys have already thought of this, thank you thank you :) Rob

don't all shout at me if it's already in poser4 & I haven't found it yet. :) Rob

No its not in p4 :-)) Only way that helps: save you scene,close poser,open poser and load the scene. Unused textured will not be loaded again. What really interest me, what the new renderengine can handle? Glas? Water? Mirrors?

proper reflections in poser no more cheating? wonderful I hope it happens soon I can't sleep properly lost my appetite too thanks for the info :) never thought to do that Rob

Just recovering from a bout of gastric flu, so I almost missed the P5 preview [too much information?].

The new render engine is now being described by Steve Cooper as similar to a Reyes type renderer, ie. a scan line renderer similar to that used in the Pixar films, not a renderman compliant ray-tracing engine which was orginally mentioned in February.

As you may have noticed from the Toy Story films, it is possible for scan line renderers to generate reflection approximations (good enough for shiny floors), although not as naturally as Ray Tracers can handle it. Mention of reflections was I noticed absent from Kupa's feature descriptions.

In Bug's Life, a few scenes used ray tracing to create glass effects (caustics and refraction). The implication being that the Reyes algorithm isn't well suited to these effects.

My guess is that refraction and caustics won't appear and full reflections are looking unlikely (but if they give me a strong enough Python interface this time you never know).

BTW it looked to me as if all the renders generated to demonstrate collision detection and hair features were still using the P4 scan line render engine (possibly enhanced to handle the hair procedurals). I also noticed that the surround light effects were still being generated by multiple spotlights.

I'm sure there's some talented person here who will find a way round it & make it possible if it's not built in, we'll just have to play wait & see for now. Damn I hate that game. Rob