Which Poser version is best at this point in time?

[Rick]

Hi everyone!

I had reinstall windows a couple months back (Win 7) I own both Poser 11 Pro and the previous version PP2014.

I am not sure which version I want to install? When poser 11 pro first came out, there were so many issues. Would you recommend installing PP2014 or Poser Pro 11?

I know there have been a number of updates. My concern is mainly with the way the lights work in Poser 11 Pro & the content preview. I heard many people were having issues with the new way it previews your content. Many people seemed to have issues with library disappearing and size of the preview images in the libraries. Something about not being compatible with IE11?

How do people find the super fly renderer. Is there really enough of a difference between firefly & superfly realism to warrant using it?

I have the titan X video card with 12 gigs of memory.

I have owned Poser 11 Pro since it came out, just never installed it yet.

Suggestions would really be appreciated. Thank you in advance

 

[Miss B]

Hey Rick, good to see you. As far as which you should install, why not install both? That way you can work with PP2014, which you're used to, and play with PP11 until you feel comfortable with it. I still have my Poser 9 installed, along with PP11.

Oh, and there have been updates since the original Poser 11 came out, and we're up to SR4.x. SM has been getting out updates pretty quickly, certainly a lot quicker than they did with earlier versions.

 

[Mythocentric]

I have PP11 installed and apart from a few little quirks (It wouldn't be Poser without them, would it?) it does the job with finesse. Superfly and Firefly have their pro's and con's so I usually run final renders with both and choose the one I like best. A cop-out I know but it works for me! Regards!

Edit: Forgot to mention. There are a few Tutorials over on Rendo which help get the best out of Superfly

 

[Lorraine]

Hey Rick, good to see you

 

[Rick]

Thank you so much Miss B and Mythocentric, I really appreciate it!

Hi there Lorraine! Its always great to see you!

 

[Satira Capriccio]

Hiya Rick! So good to see you again!

Though I have Poser 11 Pro, I still use Poser Pro 2014.

 

[Rick]

Hi Satira! Great to see you again too!

 

[RAMWolff]

HEY Rick. Long time man! I gave in and upgraded to Poser 11 Pro. ZERO regrets and I'm a DS user! Needed Poser for content creation but was surprised at all the improvements. Lots of GOOD improvements. Not a regular user so don't have much to compare it to in the way of quirks or bugs.

 

[Gadget Girl]

I agree with Miss B, install them both. I mostly use PP11 and I generally like it better, but I still go back and use 2014 from time to time.

How do people find the super fly renderer. Is there really enough of a difference between firefly & superfly realism to warrant using it?

If you're going for photo realistic, I'd say SuperFly is definitely the way to go. Firefly is great for lots of things, but SuperFly is much better at realism. That being said, you do have to learn it, and not all materials you have will just work in SuperFly, so EZSkin3 for instance is a must have. But once you learn it, you can do wonderful stuff.

 

[Glitterati3D]

I love Poser 11 for rendering - both Firefly and Superfly are hugely improved over PP2014.

I do, however, still rig in PP2014. First, because I don't have the pro version of P11, but mostly because I have tested for folks rigging in P11 and have found issues that resulted on a complete re-rig in PP2014. Even with the latest updates, I believe there are still backward compatibility issues with P11 rigging.

 

[Pendraia]

Welcome back Rick...I haven't got Poser 11 yet. It's on my wish list though...

 

[Darryl]

Poser's on sale half price till Monday. Upgrade is only $125 for Pro. I'm sorely tempted.

 

[Glitterati3D]

Poser's on sale half price till Monday. Upgrade is only $125 for Pro. I'm sorely tempted.

I upgraded to Pro yesterday. Wooooooooooooooooooot!

 

[Lorraine]

Good for you, Traci! That should make your life easier

 

[Satira Capriccio]

Yay Traci!

 

[Miss B]

Congrats Traci! That's a really good price. Unfortunately, I think it's only for those who already own a Pro version, as I looked at the Sidegrade from a non-Pro version price, and it's $175, which is still a bit steep for some folks.

 

[Glitterati3D]

Congrats Traci! That's a really good price. Unfortunately, I think it's only for those who already own a Pro version, as I looked at the Sidegrade from a non-Pro version price, and it's $175, which is still a bit steep for some folks.

Yeah, I upgraded my PP2014 version.

 

[RAMWolff]

Congrats on the upgrades. I've always bought Pro versions as it's got more tools so my upgrade was about that...

 

[Pendraia]

Thanks for the heads up...is that also at Rendo? I don't like buying through Content Paradise.

Just checked and it was so I've picked it up...Yay!

 

[Ken1171]

For content creation I have tried staying with PP2014 for as long as I could, for like you said, the earlier PP11 release had a lot of issues. I frankly believe it was released before it was ready. But it was said above, SMS has been working really HARD on splatting bugs, and even adding some new features, like the new Rotation brush in the Morph Tool. Personally, I am not a fan on the new HTML5 library, and it still has some issues, but after working with it for months, I am getting used to it.

All in all, I think PP11 is a much superior tool for content creation and general rendering than PP2014. As for the new rendering engine, I like what SMS did with the materials comparing to what DAZ did with iRay. In Poser we can use the same shader nodes in both Firefly and Superfly, while we have to create 2 separate sets of materials for 3Delight and iRay. There is also the multiple root nodes in the Material Room, which allows us to create a single material with multiple versions, and Poser automatically picks the right one depending on what rendering engine you use. Let's also remember that Superfly is a physically-based renderer (PBR). while Firefly is still old school "light faking" that is bound to unrealistic results. Creating lighting and materials with PBR is much more predictable because it's based on how real light works in the real world.

I still have PP2014 installed, but after PP11 SR-4, I have never used it again.