Performance
One of the big new improvements in Poser’s performance is that it will now support up to 4 times faster processing power on multi-thread and multi-processor machines. As such, it worked very well with our test machine for this review, which was outfitted with a 1.86 Ghz Core2 Duo processor, 3 Gigs of RAM, and an nVidia Quadro FX 1500 graphics card.
Despite the improved overall speed on multi-processor machines, I did run into an inordinate number of crashes with Poser 7, even after all the service packs were installed. As such, I would like to see some extra time spent overhauling Poser’s core engine to improve it’s stability. (Additionally, its interaction with Python Scripting could stand to be accelerated, especially since some of the more popular add-on script creators are using some pretty intensive Python Scripts.)
However, the biggest impediment to performance Poser 7 has is not due to instability or Python integration, rather it is due to organization. Ironically, one of the greatest causes of this disorganization is the huge user base it has and because it allows the use of so many different types of files, keeping track of models, upgrades, and clothing sets becomes a nightmare. And unfortunately, the ability to re-organize things inside of Poser is virtually non-existent.
The closest thing to keeping things orderly they have in use is a separate “Download” folder which is kept distinct from your main “Runtime” folder. You can install add-on components here directly through Poser, but it won’t allow you to create additional folders. (I tried this and had Poser crash on me in retaliation! A simple, “This operation is not allowed” warning would have sufficed.) While there are seven main categories that all properly created add-ons will migrate to (Characters, Poses, Hands, Hair, Expressions, Props, Lights, or Cameras), the specific locations any of this content will show up in these folders can vary radically based on whatever means of categorizing the artist who created the content chose. Even companies like Runtime DNA and DAZ, who create official content for Poser put their content in locations that don’t gel with those used by E-frontier for their Posercontent. Obviously, when you get into the gargantuan library of user-created offerings things get completely out of hand.
In order to have any control currently over where additional content is placed, you must go into the Poser Runtime file Library in your Program Files after you install additional content and rearrange folders internally. Most users will find this rather involved process to be annoying as well as worrisome, as it is quite conceivable that you could break links between necessary components when you’re moving files around in the Runtime folder.
There are three things that I would really like to see implemented in Poser 8 to take care of these problems. The first is the most obvious which is just to give the ability to add, rename, and shift the contents of folders inside the Poser environment. This would be much easier than going into the internal Runtime folder outside of the program and have far less chance of breaking links.
Second, I would love to have Poser put a small tagging system for items, clothes, skins, and morphs that work with different models. Currently, there’s no tagging on any of these items to identify who they are intended to be used for, which gets to be a problem if you can’t remember all the designated targets for all of your content. Most of these items are already interpreted by Poser to either work or not work with a specific model, so you can’t put a skin for Jesse on Victoria 4. I would just like to see a little graphical tag indicating this information in the Poser library to alert us of this information.
Finally, the way Posercurrently allows you to import downloaded content could be optimized. To start with, it will currently only import .Zip files, which means that you have to manually activate and install the .EXE files that DAZ uses for Poser content and the .RAR files that most of the European creators encode content with. Having the ability to choose one of these three popular file formats would help. From here, it would be nice if the Importer would allow you to choose what folder you would like to have the content you’re downloading show up in, at least for Advanced users. Last, if possible, it would be great to see a program verify that all the contents in the file you are about to download are present and accounted for before you install additional content files. As Poser can already tell you when it can’t find the correct components after you’ve already installed additional content, it would be very helpful to just have pre-screen check make sure that all the necessary content is in the file you’re about to install before you actually authorize its installation.
All of these would take a lot of programming time to implement, and they aren’t as snappy as additional models or added animations. However, utilizing even part of these ideas would streamline user’s performance of this product immensely!
