Heads up - Poser on sale now also at Rendo

[Willowisp]

SM recently put the upgrade price to PP11 to a whopping $49.95, and I was tempted to finally upgrade - until I realized that the price for Europeans was actually 55 euros, which equates to $65, which changed the price from 'affordable xmas present for myself' to 'too much for a hobby'.

But now they are offering the same price at Renderosity, which means I pay exactly what is advertized, and with the added bonus of render rewards!

Too good to pass! So now I can finally try Superfly

(oh and just move the thread if it's in the wrong section)

 

[eclark1894]

Seriously, you think $65 is too much for a hobby? I think it depends on what you're buying. For specific pieces like content, I'll go along with you. But when you look at the average cost of software, $65 means they're practically giving it away. That's why I balk at somethings like hair, props, even some stuff like Stonemason sets. I don't care who the vendor is, $20 or more makes my price alert go off. I had to wait until Dawn and Dusk and Harry all went on sale to buy them. I might have them in my wishlist for months, but I just can't pull that trigger. But I hope, and pray that an upgrade to Poser 12 will cost $100 or less.

 

[tparo]

Seriously, you think $65 is too much for a hobby? I think it depends on what you're buying. For specific pieces like content, I'll go along with you. But when you look at the average cost of software, $65 means they're practically giving it away. That's why I balk at somethings like hair, props, even some stuff like Stonemason sets. I don't care who the vendor is, $20 or more makes my price alert go off. I had to wait until Dawn and Dusk and Harry all went on sale to buy them. I might have them in my wishlist for months, but I just can't pull that trigger. But I hope, and pray that an upgrade to Poser 12 will cost $100 or less.

It also depends on an individual's budget, what is easily affordable to one person can be out of price range for another, besides that it all ways stings to know you are paying more for something than another person just because of your location.

 

[Willowisp]

Seriously, you think $65 is too much for a hobby? I think it depends on what you're buying. For specific pieces like content, I'll go along with you. But when you look at the average cost of software, $65 means they're practically giving it away. That's why I balk at somethings like hair, props, even some stuff like Stonemason sets. I don't care who the vendor is, $20 or more makes my price alert go off. I had to wait until Dawn and Dusk and Harry all went on sale to buy them. I might have them in my wishlist for months, but I just can't pull that trigger. But I hope, and pray that an upgrade to Poser 12 will cost $100 or less.

Good, you do you. Some of us are not blessed with steady income. And like tparo says, not getting the price as advertised because of location, reduces the goodwill.

 

[Hornet3d]

There is also a physiological aspect to this in that when most people see a sale price they want the product at that price. I put the Poser 11 upgrade in my basket some months ago when it was on sale, I cannot remember the price but I do know that the price went up because I was using UK pounds. In the checkout the price went up again when Value Added Tax was applied the end price was very much more than I had expected to pay, end result I never purchased the upgrade. It was still a good price as this is, but the final price pushed it over the edge to what I was prepared to pay at the time particularly when it is not a complete win situation as some of the scripts I run everyday will not run in Poser 11.

This is indeed a great price but for me personally I have to either pay the higher price or use a marketplace I have vowed not to use, so once again I will take a pass on the upgrade.

 

[Hornet3d]

OK, it is that time of year and so I had a change of heart and upgraded. I paid the higher price at SM but also got the Poser 11 video tutorial included and so I am happy with the price.

 

[eclark1894]

Good, you do you. Some of us are not blessed with steady income. And like tparo says, not getting the price as advertised because of location, reduces the goodwill.

Location is not always under the control of the company. So if the economics (taxes, exchange rates, transportation, etc.) of a location cause you to have to pay more for a product, why do you hold that against the company? And I do consider budget and income, which is why my price alarm goes off above $20. Hope you have a Merry Christmas.

 

[Bonnie2001]

Too good to pass! So now I can finally try Superfly

To be sure, it's very good but annoyingly slow. I'm experiencing 2.5 hours to render scenes in Superfly that render in like 4 minutes in Octane. Plus the fact that I can use HDRI lighting in Octane without having to jump through hoops.

 

[eclark1894]

To be sure, it's very good but annoyingly slow. I'm experiencing 2.5 hours to render scenes in Superfly that render in like 4 minutes in Octane. Plus the fact that I can use HDRI lighting in Octane without having to jump through hoops.

You don't have to jump through hoops in Poser either. I didn't know how to use HDRI in Poser until 2 years ago and i asked in a thread over in the SM forum. They not only told me how to do it, but wmvd even posted a screen shot of his set up. Here's the link:
How to load an HDRI image file in Poser? Hope it helps, and have a Merry Christmas, Bonnie.

 

[Hornet3d]

To be sure, it's very good but annoyingly slow. I'm experiencing 2.5 hours to render scenes in Superfly that render in like 4 minutes in Octane. Plus the fact that I can use HDRI lighting in Octane without having to jump through hoops.

Well it is a stunning price so I have finally upgraded but I doubt I will use Superfly much and will drop back to Reality/Luxrender if I feel the need, the ability to suspend a render and restart it at a later date is a big plus for me.

 

[Willowisp]

Yea, been testing out superfly, and with my ancient cpu and AMD gpu, it is now back to glacial render times. Lol, seems like I'll stick to mostly firefly still.

 

[Miss B]

Yes, this puppy's 5 years old, and I only have a CPU, so SF renders do take quite a bit longer. Of course, sometimes I'll try it out anyway, because the scene is simple, so not as bad as a full scene rendered with SF.

 

[eclark1894]

Yes, this puppy's 5 years old, and I only have a CPU, so SF renders do take quite a bit longer. Of course, sometimes I'll try it out anyway, because the scene is simple, so not as bad as a full scene rendered with SF.

Well, if your mind's made up, I won't bother trying to convince you otherwise except to say that I only have CPU as well, and if you experiment and find your CPU's sweet spot with the render settings, it's not too bad. I usually just render with the High quality preset myself. But remember that any PBR engine is going to take longer if you have a lot of reflective or refractive surfaces in the scene, because PBR render engines are all about how light bounces off surfaces in a scene.
Have a Merry Christmas, Miss B.

 

[Hornet3d]

OK, having put my hand in my pocket I had to have a play so here is my base Dawn Character rendered in Superfly after being passed through Ezyskin3.

First thoughts are that I prefer the Firefly renders but then that could be because that is what I have gotten used to and it could be the lighting. I don't like the eyes in particular so I would have to work on that. That said I am not sure I would use Superfly for portraits anyway but more for scenes where figures will be far less prominent and thus the skin tones would have much less impact. It could be that this would be good enough to work in such cases. So I guess it shows promise and I need to put in a lot more work.

 

[Hornet3d]

So I tried a Superfly render of a scene with just using my default Dawn materials run through Ezyskin 3 but it is really and not change to the scene materials. I result is not good but I cannot show the output because, despite the fact it shows a render Poser will not export the image, well it will but as a png it is blank and as a jpg it is black. Anyway further work required and the biggest area is the reflection in the eyes which are massively overblown. Trial two is better but still needs work.

 

[Willowisp]

Doing some experimenting myself, I find that while I prefer using ezskin settings for skin, I use bopperthis' ezskin cycles plugin for the eyes. I tried the cycles plugin for the skin, but the result was too 'noisy' for my taste.

 

[Miss B]

I have Bopper's cycles plugin for the yes, but haven't played with it yet. I'm definitely going to have to try it out.

 

[Hornet3d]

Well Poser 11 is not being a good experience for me. First of all the auto updates appear to be random rather than based upon the time set. Now I have had to do a reinstall as I lost the library and on launch I had an Ezymat window showing that could not be closed. Going back to factory default did not work nor did deleting the ini file. I had this in the past with Poser 2014 but it has not happen for well over a year, really sad to find I have the problem back

 

[Willowisp]

Testing skin

Render took 1 hour 50 min, mostly because of the hair as much as I love Biscuits hair, they are murder on render times lol

Lights from Ghostships free lightset at ShareCG, skin with ezskin 3 settings, eyes with bopper's cycles plugin, rendersettings from bopper's cycles plugin

 

[Willowisp]

Same scene, but ditched the hair. Took about an hour.
Used cycles plugin on everything