We have been having some problems. This will be used to produce 30 minute commercial animation, not hobby project. Created /modified model in Poser, failed to import into RDS 5.0. Got RDS 5.02 patch, import worked but file failed to reopen. Problem stopped happening once drives defragged, but since problem is an intermittent this is no guaranteed solution. Options are: 1) keep defragging and performing "save as incremental backups 2) upgrade to RDS 5.5 and do same 3) Purchase Light wave and move on 4) Issue confounded by tight schedule, so learning curve time for light wave, as well as no experience with know bugs is problematic. I would really appreciate opinions on each of these options if you have experience with them.

okay, the first thing is, what version of poser are you using? if you are trying to import a poser 4 figure into ray dream, it's not going to happen. The poser import plugin doesn't work for poser 4. But it sounds like you are using poser3. if this is the case, i'd suggest upgrading to poser 4, and doing in poser4 what you needed ray dream to do. (that is, of course unless it involves animated textures, volumetric effects, or lighting effects. although there are ways around those, too.) purchasing lightwave is always a good idea, if you have the funds, but I've played around with it, and i think it'll take quite a while to get the hang of. Another option is to have someone else import the figure for you, and then send you the rds file... but it's hard for me to give any more advice than that without knowing what it is you're trying to do... are you importing the poser figure as an obj, or a pz3? How much ram do you have? maybe the poser figure is using up more vitrual memory than your scratch disk can handle... is this the only instance where this happens, or do you have to defrag a lot to get other programs to work right as well? if so, you may need a new hard drive.... Hope I've been of some help, TheBrain

I think that you should move to lightwave. Many of the problems that you are having are alleviated with a simple change in solutions. I have lightwave 5.0 and I have used Raydream, just purchased Carrara, I have 3D studio max and I bought Poser 3 in 1998. Lightwave 5.0, the version I have, as dated as it is still outperforms all of the titles I previously mentioned. Lightwave is a solid and complete package that has excellent support, groups, and has a great history in mass media. Lightwave however is not as user friendly as these other titles, but it is far more user friendly than 3D studio max; it has tons more to offer for the money as well. Furthermore as for animation in Poser from Lightwave, I have done that and you will find that by setting up your own object skeleton in your complete figures exported from Poser or figures you created yourself is far better than poser as you can more easily correct the linking mistakes that exist in the Poser solutions. Raydream is a good solution, but lightwave is just lightyears better and far more stable and you will be able to do more with it whether you are doing analog or digital productions.