Hi !
 
It's been a long, long time, but I've begun collecting Poser stuff again. Unfortunately, a grim combination of multiple PC failures, multiple HDD crashes and sundry domestic crises put an end to my 3D work.

Well, I did do some creative stuff; I wrote a novel (unpublished), and a bunch of short stories. Some, I'll post here.
Others are up on DA...
http://the-nik-files.deviantart.com/gallery/

I've found my *unopened* Poser 7 box, hope to upgrade it to #11.
I'm planning a new CAD PC with quad cores, 16+GB and a twin-DVI graphics card.
I've found my old Maxtor USB drive with hundreds of zipped freebie Poser & 3DS/OBJ  downloads from 2004~~2007...

Big snag: the utility programs I used were mostly written for XP. Many won't run under this Browser_PC's Win8, and the new CAD_PC would be Win10, which is even more fussy...

Going to be several months before I can do much, but I'll pop in from time to time.

Glad to be back !!

Nik

Hi Nik

Good to see you back
You'll find this place has become a bit quiet, but contrary to a lot of other sites we still exist, at least .
I myself am stuck on Poser 7 / Win 7, and didn't do much. Problems with my health and lot of other RW issues are keeping me off. Poser world seems to be going down all in all. The old people are gone (most of them got bored, I think)
and there are no newbies. It's cause there's no real beginner prog. If you have to face Poser 11 as a newbie i. e. you'll be completely confused and simply give up soon. We had Poser 3 and 4 way back. Much simpler to use and beginner friendly...

Well, Posetteforever is up, still. Tormie pays the rent and I keep the lighthouse clean.
Welcome back Nik

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I've my unopened Poser 7, and SM have just released Poser 11, with upgrade from 5+ at $99 ~£ 75 UKP.

Questions:

Given my modest skills, is #11 worth the hassle over #7 ?

Are there any 'Must Have' tools etc in #10/#11 beyond the issue that too many on-line freebies expect #9+ ??

Would #7 work under Win 8.1u1 (Home, x64) ?
Or Win 10 (Home, x64) ??

I'm currently browsing Renderosity's freebies, sorted new --> old, have got to p60 ~2012. To put it politely, there are not many 'regulars'.

Looks like a lot of folk do a 3D Arts course, post their work then vanish. Still, there's some fun stuff, plus several old friends from #4, re-posted...

Uh, what would it take to make a hollow tree conform to eg Posette dressed as a cute Dryad ??

Hi Nik,

Nice to see you (hugs).

I've had a spell away from Poser myself, usually take a month or so off each year, though I got carried away this time.

With regards to comparing Poser 11 to the old, I'd say look here:
http://www.stellareco.com/Poser/Jack%27sPoserManual.pdf

It was a surprise to me to return, and see G3, and Poser 11, and Daz3d+RDNA merging.

My understanding is Poser 11 has the Blender type cycles render engine called SuperFly, as opposed to FireFly.

So the Poser 11, is a breakaway from the traditional renders of previous Poser versions, though a badly done render will look no better than a good one in Poser 5.

I'm holding off from Poser 11, only because it needs to be activated online, and I think every 6 months thereafter (online). For which there is a method for an offline machine to save a file to USB, to be transferred to an online machine, for the USB to then be re-transferred to the offline machine, for the Poser 11 to be authenticated. As I would use it offline, I'm inclined not to buy it in case SM left the arena, or if Poser was bought out by a company that had no interest in continuing with it. If I buy it I want to keep it. I bought Poser Pro 2014 Game Dev, and discovered it required activation online. Apparently it's so only one licensed copy is running on a machine at a time, you would need to deactivate the install from one machine prior to installing and activating on another. That's fine in its' self, I just want to know ahead of purchase so I can decide if I want to play along.

See manual below for information on Poser 11:
https://bw-1651cf0d2f737d7adeab84d3...os/File9985.pdf

(Sorry if my typing is broken and rushed, because I am).

Getting back to Poser 7, that is probably the best version to "keep", as it's not reliant on a browser to view the content library (or browser/OS restricted like Poser 8 for example). Also it's pretty stable from my experience.

For some reason the later versions of Windows (and Windows updates), and the IE built in have given issues to Poser versions above Poser 8. There are always "work arounds" that fix these issues that catch the unweary.

If you install Poser 11, also install Poser 7 (as your safety net). There are plenty of people who will install the latest Poser, and still keep Poser 7.

I'm using Poser 6 (it's my comfort zone), would I benefit from Poser 7/8/9/10/11, yes I would. Posette, would look much better in Poser 11, if I learned it.

You can compare Poser features here:
http://my.smithmicro.com/docs/Poser...ison-Matrix.pdf

Of course those are in built features as we know with python we can add more features, and for example Poser 9, can also perform subdivision on a figure. Which is one of the reasons I like my Poser 6 set up, as I have added features.

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I've found that to do well with any figure you really need to have a passion for that figure,

...and I hope you develop that passion for yours.

Thank you !

Getting that new CAD_PC has now been pushed back several months because I realised my 'dream spec' was actually rather minimal. Moore's Law, redux...

So, next PC will get an x64 AMD 8-core AM3+ and 32 GB RAM. Those should give the system ample 'headroom' for big scenes.

While I'm saving up for that beast, I thought to re-install my old turboCAD 9 (Pro) to tweak my arch & door files. It installed happily under Win8.1 as x32, then tried to 'phone home' to register. You guessed it, 404. The registration system has changed, the destination has gone HTTPS. Worse, the company are not interested in supporting such legacy software.

But, but, but it's not a 'home' turboCAD 2D/3D el-cheapo, it's a full 9.2 PRO !! With an actual hard-copy manual !!

Tough.

Could I upgrade at a discount ? No, v9 is much, much too old to qualify. Gotta buy new. But, besides being outrageous over-kill, a full, new 'turboCAD Pro' would totally blow my software budget, hold me to Poser rather than Poser_Pro...

After spittin' a flock of turkey feathers, I hit Amazon for a 'recent' turboCAD 2D/3D v20. With postage, $15. Yep, $15. Works or not, it is worth a try. Worst case, it qualifies for that discounted upgrade...

Huh.

I'll certainly do as you suggest, installing both P7 and P_Pro_11. As for browsers, I gave up on IE several years back. Chrome has issues, but IE is       ...

One up-side to the delay is that I'll get to try the turboCAD 2D/3D v20 suite of architectural tools. They were primitive & clunky in v9, are now (reportedly) rather slick.

With luck, I'll be able to use them instead of the FloorPlan v10 I ran beside P4. Sadly, that x32 FP suffered from version bloat to extent that FPv10 choked on my massive Medieval-ish plans. Then, FP switched to turboFlooPlan, which had new core-code but was NOT back-compatible. Us FP users were repeatedly promised a conversion utility, but it didn't appear. Worse, tFP was strictly rationed for floor levels. I'd have to buy the premium Pro-level package to get enough floors.

Yep, better to try turboCAD's tools and nigh-unlimited layers...

If you've not committed to a PC yet, then I shall shamelessly plug a used IT server/workstation.

They usually are on a three year lease, and just sit around gathering dust.

The IT guys don't abuse them either.

Google the HP Z800 series, or the Dell equivalent workstations like T5400 etc.

They are superior to consumer grade too, and last much longer.

____________
I've found that to do well with any figure you really need to have a passion for that figure,

...and I hope you develop that passion for yours.