As a balance for all the "complaint" messages, here are my experiences with Poser 5: Note: I installed it on my Sony VAIO Laptop, 1.2Ghz Athon, 16Ghard drive partition (drive D), 512M memory, Win XP Home. The only other things on that drive are Photoshop and Lightwave. Windows, Office, and Visual Basic are on the C drive.

• First, I love the nested Runtime folders. It's nice to see them as "folders"... but it's very nice to see that they kept the "pull-down" arrow so you can press a key to move in the menu. (Meaning- pressing "m" jumps to the "M-" poses!)
• Second, the "doesn't have focus" problem is still around: I delete a figure and the "Are you sure you want to delete?" dialog box comes up. I hit Enter to close the box, but the "focus" is on the main window- the objects become "blocks" and the dialog box is still there. I hit Enter a few times and it gets the idea and the dialog box closes. I wish Curious Labs changed this and used the standard Windows dialog box!
• And while I'm on the subject- the "Windows Standard" is for the OK/ Yes/ Go button to be on the left and the Cancel button to be on the right. Why do companies insist on switching the placement of these standard buttons?
• Is there any way to put the Parameter dials into the background? I'm using a 1024 screen and the dials block the Library palette.
• The "nested" (and color-coded) parameter dials are nice... I know, they've been around since Pro Pack, but they're nice. The ability to move the individual dials is also cool.
• Switching between the Pose room and Face room: a big, gray box pops-up... oh, wait, that's a "help" screen. :) I can adjust the face! Cool!
• Switching back to the Pose room- face doesn't quite come out the way I like, but I'll figure it out soon. (No crash or lock.)
• I switch to the Hair room and try playing with the hair settings. I give up after a few minutes... this is too complicated. :-) I switch back to the Pose room. (No crash or lock.)
• I render Don with the Firefly render engine- Draft Mode. No black or missing polygons... of course, the "Remove backfacing polygons" is unchecked.
• I render Don in Production mode- it takes a few minutes... longer than P4, but considering the new features, it's not bad.
• I remove Don and add Judy. In my opinion, she has an "odd" body shape when compared to Posette, Vicky, and Steph. I don't know if it's more "realistic" or not. She's not "big", but she does looks like she has more "body fat" than the earlier figures.
• Are there supposed to be morph targets on Don and Judy's body parts? I don't see any... but I'll have to keep looking.
• I add a "dynamics hair" to Judy and try rendering again... it takes 15 minutes. This is using the default light set, the default Judy texture, and the default render settings.
• I "point" to my old Poser 4 Runtime folder and that works without a hitch. I use a Vicky MAT pose on Judy and it works... sure, the seams are showing slightly, but it's not bad.
• I load my "Tabby" character (based on Vicky), use a Vicky pose, and render with the Firefly (production) engine. It takes a few minutes longer than the P4 renderer and the results don't seem as impressive. However, I'm not using any materials that take advantage of reflections or ray-tracing or the other advanced features.
• I am a little disappointed that my Judy or Don don't do the "eye-blink" animation that other people keep getting. :)
• But, I've been using Poser 5 for about an hour and a half and no crashing, no locking, and everything is running fine. --John

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