Some thoughts on Poser 6
May. 4th, 2005 01:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maximkovalenko(For those of you who are not interested in computer graphics software, please feel free to ignore this post.)
For the entire lifespan of "Requiem" all of the people who walk through it's dysfunctonal universe have been created with a program called "Poser". "Poser" is just about the only program made that is dedicated to designing people in an artistic setting. IThink of it as "Identi-Kit" except with much better lighting. Overall version 5 (which I was using) was pretty damn good. Occasionally it would freak out on things, there would be problems with getting clothing to show up properly on people instead of having the skin poke through in odd spots, and some lighting issues here and there.
About a month ago, I made the plunge and upgraded to the just released version 6.
I am still trying to deal with it.
There are some great things that have been added to it here and there that lead me to believe that when the bugs are worked out it will be a hell of a moving unit. Complicated render settings (aka stuff with a lot of reflections) render faster...the computer actually seems to be using it's resources more efficiently. Heck, I've ran P6 with a 1.25gig swap file going and still been able to use other programs on my computer pretty good. Overall, I like it.
But there is a catch...and yes it is a hell of a big one. There is a major bug in it that has to do with how much memory gets allocated for files in it. Suddenly, a file that you have done in P5 is now unusable in P6 because you don't have enough memory. Right now, I am using a gig of ram in my PC...RAM should not be a problem, The good thing is that the makers of Poser know about this bug and are working on fixing it. The problem is that I have a schedule that must be kept.
7 comics a week, 21 panels total of Requiem, plus the weekly Renderosity strip, plus (hopefully) another issue of "Pryce" before I die or grow fucking senile.
And this bug just shows up and doesn't give any warning before it pops up the error message...and in the process sometimes burns hours of work.
So for now, I am back on P5 and waiting for the bug fixes for P6...It makes me sad really, P6 is so close to being perfect.
Oh and examples...the Vance Greylock section starting at http://erech.keenspace.com/d/20050328.html is all Bryce 5 and Poser 6
The Arthur/Leah section at http://erech.keenspace.com/d/20050323.html is all Poser 5 (and is a section I cannot do in P6)
And April 2 http://erech.keenspace.com/d/20050402.html until http://erech.keenspace.com/d/20050413.html is all Poser 6...until I found out that I damn near couldn't render out two chicks standing in front of a mother fucking car.
(There wull also be a few more P6 examples on DEVART tonight as well)
At any rate...if you are interested in Poser, my advice to you is to buy a copy of P5 (which with P6 out now) should save you some $...then when the first set of major bug fixes come out buy the upgrade to P6. When the bugs are fixed P6 will be wonderful...but as it stands now, I cannot recommend it from a reliable production standpoint..
For the entire lifespan of "Requiem" all of the people who walk through it's dysfunctonal universe have been created with a program called "Poser". "Poser" is just about the only program made that is dedicated to designing people in an artistic setting. IThink of it as "Identi-Kit" except with much better lighting. Overall version 5 (which I was using) was pretty damn good. Occasionally it would freak out on things, there would be problems with getting clothing to show up properly on people instead of having the skin poke through in odd spots, and some lighting issues here and there.
About a month ago, I made the plunge and upgraded to the just released version 6.
I am still trying to deal with it.
There are some great things that have been added to it here and there that lead me to believe that when the bugs are worked out it will be a hell of a moving unit. Complicated render settings (aka stuff with a lot of reflections) render faster...the computer actually seems to be using it's resources more efficiently. Heck, I've ran P6 with a 1.25gig swap file going and still been able to use other programs on my computer pretty good. Overall, I like it.
But there is a catch...and yes it is a hell of a big one. There is a major bug in it that has to do with how much memory gets allocated for files in it. Suddenly, a file that you have done in P5 is now unusable in P6 because you don't have enough memory. Right now, I am using a gig of ram in my PC...RAM should not be a problem, The good thing is that the makers of Poser know about this bug and are working on fixing it. The problem is that I have a schedule that must be kept.
7 comics a week, 21 panels total of Requiem, plus the weekly Renderosity strip, plus (hopefully) another issue of "Pryce" before I die or grow fucking senile.
And this bug just shows up and doesn't give any warning before it pops up the error message...and in the process sometimes burns hours of work.
So for now, I am back on P5 and waiting for the bug fixes for P6...It makes me sad really, P6 is so close to being perfect.
Oh and examples...the Vance Greylock section starting at http://erech.keenspace.com/d/20050328.html is all Bryce 5 and Poser 6
The Arthur/Leah section at http://erech.keenspace.com/d/20050323.html is all Poser 5 (and is a section I cannot do in P6)
And April 2 http://erech.keenspace.com/d/20050402.html until http://erech.keenspace.com/d/20050413.html is all Poser 6...until I found out that I damn near couldn't render out two chicks standing in front of a mother fucking car.
(There wull also be a few more P6 examples on DEVART tonight as well)
At any rate...if you are interested in Poser, my advice to you is to buy a copy of P5 (which with P6 out now) should save you some $...then when the first set of major bug fixes come out buy the upgrade to P6. When the bugs are fixed P6 will be wonderful...but as it stands now, I cannot recommend it from a reliable production standpoint..
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-04 03:08 pm (UTC)Speaking of which, have you read the stuff on Bryce 5.5? Sounds interesting.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-04 03:31 pm (UTC)As for Bryce 5.5...I have heard a number of things that indicate that is actully slower on older Bryce files.
Check out his thread in DAZ BRyce talk for just some of the details..
http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=18960
http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=18808
In addition allow me to quote something from the forums for those who don't have an account there:
From a member named Benjamin:
I was really shocked when installing Bryce 5.5 when finding out that D/S is needed for Bryce 5.5 to even work.
Of course I've chosen to say no to the D/S installation. But somehow still the basic stuff is installed and from Bryce 5.5 I can start D/S even though I choose not to install it!
I don't want D/S on my pc, I want Bryce 5.5. I can't stand D/S and it's rediculous that it needs to be installed for Bryce 5.5 to operate.
Can you please tell me how to get rid of D/S (I can't even find it anywhere on my HD) and if it's integrated then please provide a patch to disintegrate it again. I'm not happy that you force applications on user that they haven't asked for at all. Even though it's free, I don't want it.
From what I have been able to tell here they are using D/S to handle the import functions..instead of writing PZ3 support into the newest Bryce, they bundle D/S into the code in order to handle it. Now I know of some people who have been having a hi-ho time with D/S...for me how ever it is about as stable a nitro in a cuisinart. Poser imports just seem to take for ever. Plus there have been serious problems with importing textures and having imported Poser objects just disappear at times.
As of right now I am seriously thinking about not buying it. I have been doing some test runs with the preview copy of Vue 5 and I have found out that even the preview copy will flawlessly import a Poser figure. It get's the colors right and even handles strand based hair effectively.
The interface is close enough to Bryce that I don't have to be a damn engineer to use it....(shares some similarities with Carrara as well) However, the only thing that makes me feel sick to my stomach right now is the fact that I have so much stuff built into my install of Bryce and there doesn't seem to be anyway to make Vue read/import a Bryce file.
Sigh, rock and a fucking hard place man I'll tell ya.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-04 03:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-04 03:55 pm (UTC)http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/15162170/ to do so.
At this point though, I may have to catch up with Bryce around v6 and see if it has improved any. One thing I do know is that there is a world of difference between designing plugins and building models than there is in taking over the code for a very well established program.