SLA Industries: Out with a BANG!

First session of new SLA Industries campaign, fun had by all.

Squad Name:  Out With a BANG!
Squad Roster:

• Grundy - 313 Malice Sector Ranger (Bob)
• Cpt Morrigan - Frother Death Squad (Ian)
• Fairamay - Brain Waster I&I (Nikki)
• Hunter - Wraith Raider KMS (Brandon)
• Kr'nsh - Shaktar KMS (Ryan)
• Dr Feelgood - Frother Medic (Zach)

BPNs ran during this session:

• Blue - TrafficSLOps
• Red - Sniper Hunt
• Yellow - Let Them Eat Cake

Thrown together by bureaucratic process, the new Operatives were given a Blue BPN per standard procedure.

The mission was simple:  Head downtown to target location and assist SHIVER unit with traffic control until lights can be repaired.

Problem was, there were two rival street gangs shooting at each other with the SHIVERs caught in the crossfire.

While the squad was planning on what to do, Grundy stepped forward and was able to talk down the gangs.  The Manic Mongoose gang took off leaving the Kobra Khan gang to fend for themselves against the Operative squad.

Kobra Khan members were allowed to retrieve a couple of trapped gang members and leave.

Other than minor disturbances from civilians upset for being in traffic so long, nothing major happened until after the repair crew finished up and the traffic was flowing again.

While the squad was speaking with the SHIVER sergeant his head exploded in a red mist, and the squad was assigned a Red BPN to eliminate the DN Sniper team reported in the area.  These two events happened at almost the exact same time.

Realizing where the shot came from, the Wraith, Shaktar and both Frothers start heading for the fire escape on the side of the building to get to the sniper, the 'Waster and Stormer head for the front of the building.

The Wraith takes a shot in the back, obviously not from the sniper they are headed for, and the Shaktar turns towards the building on the other side of the street. Fairamay and Grundy happen to spot the other sniper after Kr'nsh reports what happened.

The two frothers and the Wraith continue up the fire escape while Grundy and Kr'nsh provide cover fire against the other sniper.  The second sniper goes down and Fairamay reports two more DN Operatives on the second roof.  Kr'nsh and Fairamay start heading for the fire escape on that building while Grundy moves to a position where he can see the front entrance.

Meanwhile, two-thirds of the way up the first building, a DN Operative drops a blast grenade down the fire escape, the Wraith jumps and rolls avoiding any serious injury, the Medic dives through a window and the Death Squad jumps to a ledge as the grenade goes off mangling the upper level of the fire escape.

The 3-man sniper team on the first building starts to run back through the interior stairwell, only to be met with fire from the Medics FEN AR, as the Death Squad makes it to the roof.

The second DN team seems to fair a bit better, after losing the sniper they immediately began retreating through the buildings stairwell, the 'Waster and Shaktar giving chase.  Upon reaching the ground floor, they come face to barrel with Grundy's assault rifle, and surrender.

The first team, at this point, has surrendered to the squad in the stairwell.  The Wraith grabs one by the throat for dropping the grenade and the Medic pulls out his claymore and starts hacking at one of the other two.

A concussive force leaves them all a bit woozy as the DN Operative held by the Wraith drops another concussion grenade, the Wraith drops him but manages to stay conscious, the two Frothers manage to stay on their feet easily with the combat drugs pumping through them.

The Medic takes one prisoner, the Death Squad kills another and the Wraith has an idea...

Back in with the second DN team, Grundy has them at gunpoint as Fairamay walks up behind them from the stairwell...BAM!  A single point-blank shot to the back of the DN Ops head takes him down, his team mate panics and runs, quickly taken down by the Shaktar and Grundy.

Feelgood comes in with the live DN Operative and shoots him up with Honesty so they can get information regarding any DN contacts they may have, Fairaway questions him and they get a name 'Billy,' a time and place where the team was supposed to report back before he dies from his wounds and the shock from the Shaktar torturing him.

Grundy calls in the information hoping to get a follow-up BPN, and the squad moves back to the street for SHIVER retrieval of the evidence.

Just in time to see the Death Squad and Wraith Raider throw the remaining DN Operative off the roof, who proceeds to explode in mid-air, raining a bit of blood and gore onto the street.

Feeling mighty good about their first BPN together, the squad heads to the Pit for a quick drink and decides to grab another BPN before calling it a day.

After working their way through the lines, filling out paperwork and waiting for an hour or two inside Slayers Crib, the Operatives are approached by a man in a suit, a low-ranking financier trying to get started.

He offers them up on a Yellow, retrieval of a Welfare Distribution Vehicle that went missing on its way to an orphanage, somewhat close to their earlier BPN location.

The squad accepts and heads quickly to the last known location of the truck.

They find two bodies, riddled with bullet holes and picked clean.  Luckily, they also find tracks in the refuse and grim showing the way the vehicle went.

Moving down the street towards a warehouse district the squad encounters some members of the Manic Mongoose gang, who uncooperatively tell them to bug off if they cannot pay for information.

So Grundy talks to one of the homeless in the area, trading his SLA Industries issues contraceptives and Klippo lighter for information.

After finding out the location of the truck, 3rd Eye is called in to observe the raid on the warehouse that the thieves are held up in.

Fairamay sneaks in through a sidedoor, Kr'nsh and Hunter head for the roof, Feelgood and Morrigan setup around the back with Grundy and the Media operative at the front.

Inside the warehouse, Fairamay reports the location of the vehicle, 4 DN Armoured people and 3 SHIVERs with a SHIVER APC.

Grundy pounds on the warehouse door and the thieves head for the APC and start closing the door, Fairamay tosses a grenade, too far to have any impact, Kr'nsh rappels in with his KK30 barking, Hunter moves to get in position, Feelgood and Morrigan come in through the back door rolling a grenade under the APC.

The grenade has no effect due to the APC's armour, Fairamay moves to secure  the truck, Grundy kicks open the door, the APC starts up, Kr'nsh lands on top of the APC, Feelgood and Morrigan start heading for the sides of the vehicle.

Grundy moves to jump onto the back of the welfare vehicle, with the plan to get a good shot at the APC, and misses the roof, landing in a pile of food in the back of the truck.  He quickly recovers and moves out the drivers side to assist with the APC.

Kr'nsh, realizing that he can not do much good on top of the APC with his Power Disc moves towards the drivers hatch, Feelgood and Morrigan manage to get on top of the APC and Grundy is just fast enough to grab onto the back.

Grundy manages to rip open the rear hatch as Morrigan tears open the top hatch and the thieves inside are met with a hail of rounds from Grundy's 603 and Feelgoods FEN AR.

As the driver exits the hail of ricocheting bullets inside the APC Kr'nsh removes his unarmoured head with one swipe from his powerdisc.

Fairamy moves through the open back hatch with her chainaxe as Kr'nsh moves in through the drivers hatch.  The two of them finish off the dying thieves.

BPN complete, they call in to have SHIVERs retrieve their missing APC and remove the bodies.  The squad returns the Welfare truck to its distribution center and a short 60 second spot of the squad rescuing the food and money that was meant for an orphanage from the evils of DarkNight subversives greats them as they get home.

Not bad for the first session.

Talislanta: Prologue

This will cover the first two sessions of the current campaign, mainly because it really did not get interesting until the game tonight.

First session:
Pretty simple start, Danuvian Virago and Zandir duelist have been hired by a Hadjin merchant to protect his carriage on the way north to Maruk to broker a deal for a large amount of Ogront dung.  While under attack from a Za raiding party, an Orgovian trader joins in the fight and is later hired on to fill one of the positions now left open from a dead guard.

Once in Maruk, the Hadjin merchant, proceeded by his Mandalan slaves (who are spritzing perfume on him) and his Hadjan attache', goes to broker a deal with a Marukan dung merchant.  Feeling slighted by the insults from the Marukan he leaves the Citystate, and our intrepid heroes, behind.

That ended the first session, mainly just to setup a little combat and get the PC's together in one place.

Second session:
Left in Maruk by the Hadjin, the Orgovian mentions that he has obtained a map to some treasure on the north side of the Marukan mountain range.  As the PC's discuss options, the Danuvian heads off to do...something (player was unable to make it due to illness) and they end up speaking with a Dhuna Warlock (player that was unable to make the first session) who is staying in the same inn.

The Zandir, completely uncomfortable with everything in Maruk because of the dung trade, wants to head off to Akmir to get supplies for the trip, the group agrees and heads south.

After resupplying in Akmir, the group again heads north, planning to bypass Maruk and get to some treasure-hunting!

On their way up the road they encounter a recently deceased Cymrillian, a quick exploration of the countryside via spyglass and they notice a cart being chased by Beastmen.  Again, they act heroically, running off the Beastmen and saving a Cymrillian woman.

As it turns out, the dead Cymrillian from before was her husband and they were on their way to Maruk to setup a home on land purchased in that area.

The PC's accompany the Cymrillian to the land her husband purchased.  To her dismay, the home is in ruins and the land looks fairly unusable for homesteading.  Realizing she has no way to homestead on her own, she agrees to trade the land for 2 Equs and supplies to the Orgovian.

Feeling pretty good about his trade, the Orgovian starts planning out what to do with the land and reads the deed...finding out that it is infested with Raknid!

After a brief discussion with the Zandir, mainly regarding how silly it was to trade two perfectly good equs and adventuring supplies for land in "poop-town," he concedes that it will provide them with a place to work from.

The Dhuna heads into town to find out what he can about the Marukan curse, with plans to remove it, and the Orgovian and Zandir start brain-storming about what to do with the Raknids.  They come to the conclusion that there has to be something beneficial to having Raknids around, and decide to turn the area into a ranch to raise Raknid for either material components...or food.

Stay tuned!

Adventures in ZBrush

So, picked up a copy of ZBrush (thanks to my wonderful wife), and have been spending every possible moment trying to learn this thing.

It...is...AWESOME!

At least in the right hands, and right now, my hands are not the 'right hands.' That is where the hard work will come in.

ZBrush is extremely powerful, and although it LOOKS very user-unfriendly, it seems to just be a matter of learning what does what.

I have gone through sooo many tutorials in the past few days, the more the merrier!  I do find it interesting to note, that sometimes it seems the most basic tutorials may have that nugget of information that makes you slam your head on the desk thinking, "that is so much easier, faster and intuitive than the last tutorial."  (example: I spent about 2 hours trying to get a cylinder to become a tube last night after watching a tutorial on dynamesh subtract...just to watch a tutorial today showing how you just change the inner diameter...)

The features to speed up the modeling and texturing process are great.  ZSpheres are excellent for setting up limbs, chains, ropes etc and with the skinning feature change the form made of them into a polymesh.

For example, the following image started as ZSpheres and then I used the above method to make the base form, changed brushes as needed in order to shape and sculpt a bit, then just colored things in.  All within the same program!

ZSpheres, radial symmetry, sculpting...all in one program!

Plus, I have the GoZ functionality from DAZ Studio which allows me to bring in models directly from Studio to sculpt on or model around, and then I can zip them back into Studio without having to worry about getting the scaling correct (because it already is!).

Still have a lot to learn, but this is the first thing I have done in ZBrush that I feel is remotely worth sharing.

Expect more in the coming weeks, I am seriously going to love this program once I get things all figured out, the possibilities are just driving me nuts!

Also, I have seen a tutorial posted for taking items out of Marvelous Designer (which is great for clothes) and using the retopology tools within ZBrush to clean them up for use in other programs - have not watched it yet, but you can bet I will!

Sheriffs

Considering my recent foray into the Old West, and those things that come with it, it stood to reason that at some point I would do a couple of badges.

The sheriffs badge was the first, due to prominence.  Easy enough to model, challenging to texture.  The filigree and text were done in GIMP after UV mapping the star, the points are merely small spheres that I stuck on the model.

About 30 minutes overall modeling time and an hour for textures, render was about an hour or so (hard to tell, I hit 'render' and went to bed after NUMEROUS text renders to get the lighting where I wanted it and bright enough for impact.

Took me a bit to get it right but this is what I ended up with:

Sheriffs badge, love the way it turned out!

Due to the lighting, it actually took a long time to render.

With the current political climate, and the amount of 'like' I had for the way the render turned out, I went online for a search of 'notable quotables' from sheriffs around the country.

I learned quite a bit, found some really good quotes (not included) from not only sheriffs, but other lawmen, outlaws, sideshow performers, statesmen, marshals, etc

I picked the most relevant for today's issues, and took the image back into GIMP to add text.

Final result:

Final image, feel free to share.

I do believe this is my best render yet, inclusively.

Looking for the next thing, still have a few more badges, but I think I can wait for those and focus more on the less 'popular' items like wagons and buildings, I have focused on the small things, time to get a little bigger.

All of these items are for a series of renders for a game I'm wanting to run, so I have a pretty good idea of what types of characters would be involved, just a matter of modeling the various props for them.

Playing cards, weapons, clothing, buildings, barrels (the wood kind), bows, knives, whiskey bottles, hats, lariats, spurs, etc.

Once I get to a point where I am about ready to run the game, I will shoot off some renders of the various character types.

It's not Deadlands, but it will be a type of 'Wierd West.'

3D Update: 1800s Inspiration

Not quite sure where it came from, but it started with this:

Got the inspiration from someone at work when they were talking about "Telegraph Day" (they have a list of strange 'holidays')

Interesting time and it really made me delve into the texturing in Blender, along with brushing up on basic modeling techniques and getting familiar with the Blender interface again.

My second foray into the 1800s was in response to a conversation I had with a friend regarding translating a fantasy RPG into a Wild West RPG.  Friend asked if he could have a 'buffalo rifle,' so I looked one up with a quick Google search and produced this:

Of course, if you do a Google images search for that particular rifle, you will get pics of OTHER rifles and firearms from that timer period.

Which brings me to my latest model, an "1892 Mare's Leg."  Which, from further reading and research, never really existed until 1958, where it was seen in the tv show 'Wanted: Dead or Alive' with Steve McQueen.

Not to be outdone, firearms manufacturers have since blessed us with many different versions of this lever action pistol.  It was also shown in Brisco County Jr and Firefly.

A bit expensive for the heavier calibres, but definitely ranks high on the "I want my character to have THIS!" chart.

Needs a bit of reworking (shells are expelled from the top, the side port shown is for loading); but that would just be a quick extrude.

Will probably be exporting as obj files for the express purpose of making them Poser props at some time.

We will see what comes next as I continue...maybe an old revolver, the 1800's just has such awesome toys!

Gearing Up to Game

I miss the weekly gaming session, but with an upcoming schedule change, I believe I can work one out.

In order to run a game, I like to "Gear Up."  Simple process really.

Skim the books of the game I am wanting to run, then grab some interesting thing I find and jam that square plot peg into the round setting hole.

This can be the hardest part for some, running the scenario you want to run in a setting that it does not 'fit' in at first glance.

In order to 'Gear Up,' I try and spend some time re-familiarizing myself with the setting, grabbing the books, skimming the system info, reading the important parts of the setting, etc.

The hardest part for me is always settling upon a system.  There are many that I just love: d6 from WEG, Omni/Talislanta from Morrigan Press, SLA Industries from Nightfall games...ok, there are really just a couple that I honestly like.

After that, it is just a matter of setting.  what do the PLAYERS want, fantasy?  Sci-Fi?  Pulp?  Modern?  This can be hard to sort through also, as until you know, you are kind of stuck in what you want to do, and there is a good chance that every player will have a different answer.

When this sort of challenge rears its sick-toothed grin, you have to get everyone to agree on the basics first, of which, I only consider there to be three:  Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Modern

My breakdown is fairly simple...powered body armor or space travel?  Sci-Fi.  Sword and sorcery?  Fantasy.  iPhone and Jaguar?  Modern.  Galleon and parrot?  Historical.

That is the basic breakdown you want from your players, after that, it starts to get a little convoluted as you start to leave the basic genre and start heading for the niche.

Subgenres.  I have talked to people in the past that basically stated I was wrong in this, that so matter what you do with a basic genre, it is always that particular style: fantasy is fantasy, sci-fi is sci-fi, etc.

Looking at the trash spilling from Hollywood, that is obviously wholly misguided.

Sci-Fi genre + gangster subgenre + fantasy races trope = a high powered setting with space travel and organized crime gangs run by malevolent beings (demons, orcs, devils, etc).  Wait...was that "The Fifth Element?"  I believe it was

Fantasy genre + gangster sub + fantasy races trope = as above, but no space travel, no powered armor or lasers.  Maybe one of the crime bosses is a sorcerer of some ability, or an Elf that has a very charming ring...magic is everywhere, and can be used as currency.

Modern genre + gangster sub + fantasy races = Shadowrun...without the magic.  Or add in the magic trope of fantasy and VOILA!  Full on Shadowrun campaign!

Basics

Sci-Fi

• Advanced science (weapons, vehicles, space travel, etc)
• Plots centered around daily life
• Usually some background of how we can overcome our differences and work together
• There is no Good or Evil, only shades of gray
• Usually skillset based: Pilot, Mercenary, Diplomat, Scientist, Military
• Examples:  Star Trek, Alien, Blade Runner

Fantasy

• Primitive items (torches, swords, metal armor)
• Plots usually involve some epic adventure (killing a dragon, routing an Orc horde)
• Magic, fantasy has some sort of magic, or religion
• Good vs Evil - black and white, orcs bad, elfs good
• Usually class-based: Fighter, Magic, Rogue, Healer types
• Examples:  Star Wars, Beastmaster, Dragonslayer

Modern

• Player gear can usually be purchased in the real world
• Real world companies exist
• Usually some sort of survival plot
• Characters can be anything found currently in the world
• Usually skill-based progression
• Examples:  Ghostbusters, CSI, Jericho

Historical

• Some point in our past history is the stage for the game:  Old West, Victorian Europe, Pirate-infested Caribbean, Cold War era, etc
• Historical figures are alive and well, familiarity is not exactly needed
• Loosely based off of history, normally, historical campaigns only present the Hollywood adaptation of the world at that time
• Usually skill or skillset based: Gunslinger, Gambler, Gladiator, Spy
• Examples:  James Bond, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Untouchables

Those are the basic Genres that I use.  After that, it becomes a matter of tropes, or dressing.  Some favorites used in many games include the following:

• Alien Races
• Monsters
• Horror
• Comedy
• Fantasy Races
• Large Empire vs Rebellion
• Romance
• Superheroes

Everything else is just a matter of mixing and matching until you get what you want, sometimes you do not even plan for something - Comedy and Romance can crop up anywhere without warning.

After getting the setting and dressings down, the stage is set.  Time for choosing a system.

More to come...

DAZ|Studio 4 PRO and Poser Pro 2012 - a comparison

Okay, first off, I have only spent about 4 or 5 hours using Poser Pro 2012 and 6 years using DAZ|Studio.

Within this post I am going to touch on the following, because they are important to me:

• Cost
• Documentation
• User Interface
• Included Content
• Content Management
• Scene Composition
• Lighting
• Rendering
• Content Creation

Please keep in mind, I am not a professional, this is purely from a hobbyist perspective, everyone has their own way of doing things and you may not agree with my opinion, this is NOT a flame towards either program.

COST

Cost, for the hobbyist, can make or break a decision.  Luckily the folks at DAZ run some pretty crazy specials and for a long time was available for free, at this moment DAZ|Studio 4 Pro is $429.99.  PoserPro2012, on the other is not free, and has a regular price of $499.99, that is a big difference, especially for a hobbyist who does not make any, or much, money from his hobby.

So, the Cost category goes to DAZ|Studio 4 Pro, because it saves you $70.00 for the program.  (The basic version of studio is still free at the time of this post)

Documentation

DAZ|Studio has all their documentation available online in wiki format.  That is great, as long as you have internet available.  Unfortunately, wiki seems to have some really big holes in the information.  All the cool features that would get you to normally purchase the software (content creation tools, auto-fit tool, etc) have very little information available and you will either have to ask a lot of questions, twiddle until it is right, or search the great interwebiverse for the information.  There are also some video tutorials on the DAZ YouTube channel with up-to-date information.  Searching the internet will bring up tutorials but, due to interface and scripting changes, may not be as informative as you hope if they are for an older version.

PoserPro2012 comes with documentation in a 812 page .pdf format, in addition to a plethora of up-to-date/barely changed tutorials on the SmithMicro site, RuntimeDNA and a large amount of other 3D sites.  Some of these tutorials also go way back to earlier versions, but in every case I have seen, they are still accurate and helpful.

PoserPro2012 wins the documentation category, hands down.

User Interface

For me, this is a HUGE factor in my preference.  The UI for any program does not need to be "intuitive," it needs to be "intuitive to YOU."

With that in mind, I always preferred Studio over Poser.  The past 6 years I have used Studio 1, 2, 3, 4 and every incarnation since 0.8.  My Poser experience was limited to Poser 5 for that entire time and it was just clumsy for me where Studio 0-3 were intuitive.

With Studio 4, as with every major upgrade it seemed, there was an overhaul of the UI, nothing really major, until version 3.  It hurt a bit going from v2 to v3, but my experience with Poser5 did help some making the change.  The version 4 interface seems to have removed all of the goodness that I grew to love in version 3, although, it is still very easy to use once you get used to it.  More customization (ahem, like in version 3) would be wonderful.

The PoserPro2012 interface, remember I come from Poser5, is a wonderful change.  The layout is easy to navigate, Poser5 made me feel a little claustrophobic, PoserPro2012 has come leaps and bounds in my opinion with the interface.

As for now, this is a hard choice.  While the UI for Poser is more mature in its implementation and when you open up the program it does not feel like some child's toy, Studio still seems to feel like it is geared for 10-15 year olds (no offense intended to our younger artists).

Since this is a comparison between Studio4 Pro and PoserPro2012, Poser is going to take home the interface overall because it feels less like a video game and more like a 3D application.

Included Content

Content, for those who do not know, refers to the models that you can load and go with.

Studio4 comes with:

• Genesis - a triax weight mapped androgynous character with morphs for male and female
• The Millenium Dragon
• Male and Female clothing for Genesis
• 2 load and go scenes with accompanying tutorials (which can be downloaded for free)
• Content Creation Tools - to make your figures animatable
• Advanced shader creation
• Auto-fit tool - just in case you have been using the DAZ figures for the past few years and have a backlog of clothing, this tool allows you to fit Generation 4 figure clothes to the Genesis figure (specifically, Micheal and Victoria 4 clothing - but you can purchase additional capabilities for the older figures)

PoserPro2012 comes with:

•  Human figures: 74, thats right 74! Human figures of varying resolution and quality dating back to Poser (original), also, the newer figures are weight mapped.
• Cartoon figures: 3 Superheroes (Alphaman, Betaboy and Gammagirl) + 13 other toon figures
• 34 Animals: pets, sealife, dinosaurs, etc
• 4 Anatomy figures: 2 musculature, 2 skeletal (1 male, 1 female of each)
• 3 stick figures, 8 other skeletons, 5 mannequins, 2 heads and 4 hands
• a few robots, a plushie, a zeppelin, a few vehicles
• Advanced shader room
• Dynamic Cloth
• Dynamic Hair
• Content Creation Tools
• Multitude of poses, lights, etc

With the above list, Poser does seem to come with more actual content.  Something that should be kept in mind though, the DAZ figures Micheal and Victoria have more overall content created for them both for sale and as freebies, they are also in poser format, and Studio does read the Poser format natively.  Poser does not read DAZ native formats (.daz, .dsf, etc).

Both programs, however use different forms of weight mapping and are not actually compatible.  You can get the figures to work...but not as well as they will work in their program.

While Genesis is 'neat,' (look it up on YouTube) I will have to side with Poser on the content side, makes up for that $70.00 difference easily (most base human figures will be anywhere from $20-$40.00).

Content Management

With content, you have to learn how to manage it or you will spend hours looking for that particular hair you want or texture, or pose even.

StudioPro has a built in management system that has the ability to only bring up what you have for a particular figure - at the moment, for older content, you have to learn how to set this up.  This is called "Smart Content."  You select Genesis, click on the Smart Content tab and you get to see everything available for Genesis that you have installed "metadata" for (not to worry, the new stuff comes with installers for it).

Other than that, the interface at this point becomes clumsy as you go through tree after tree in your content folder(s) looking for things.

Poser used to have it even worse, in Poser5 you have a thin drawer that you get to search through, this has changed with PoserPro2012!  Your content library actually opens in a different window with quick-clickable icons for Figures, Poses, Faces, Hair, Hands, Props, Lights, Cameras, Materials and Scenes.  Underneath the icons is a drop down menu "Show Library" which allows you to view all of your selected content (according to current icon) across all folders or a particular folder that you choose!  You also have the ability to further customize the look of the library window.

While both programs have searchable content, PoserPro2012 makes the library so easy to navigate, unless you have a LOT of content you will not use it often.  PP2012 also has a "Favorites" tab in the library window so for the figures and items that you use a lot, you will not have to go far.

PoserPro2012 takes the gold for Content Management.

Scene Composition

Scene Composition, putting things where you want them, is a major concern.  If you have to struggle with the interface to put things where you want them the experience will be less than fun.

Moving and placing items within a scene in Studio is easy and quick, thanks to the manipulator style that is used, just grab the arrow and move, rotate or scale.  In addition, the manipulator is similar to many other programs, such as Hexagon, Carrara and Blender.

PoserPro2012 on the other hand seems to make it just a bit harder.  You can noodle with the translation with the 'body' of a figure selected to move an entire figure.  I have not found a way to make it similar to other programs and a quick run through the preferences sheds no visible light on this.

Studio excels in this category just because of the manipulators, but I also want to mention that while Studio seems great for a large encompassing scene, PP2012 excels at smaller scenes.

Lighting

Both programs have their pros and cons here.

PP2012's pro is the light controls that Studio does not have, while Studio's pro is being able to setup the lights with a "view through" as you would a camera.

Studio and Poser both have some good light controls, a skilled person will be able to make magic happen.

I would consider this a "tie."  Neither program has superior lighting, just different styles of lighting.

Rendering

DAZ|Studio uses the 3Delight render engine based off of Renderman and PoserPro2012 uses the Firefly render engine.

The controls for both render engines in each program are fairly the same at the advanced level, with a few more options in Poser than in Studio.

As with the lighting, the style of render you are going for will play a large part of which program you prefer.  Studio seems a little less "real" in the final product.

The main concern here is, while you can set your scene or character up in Poser, save and load into Studio, you cannot do the reverse without a lot more work (setting pose files for positions for everything).  If you start your scene in Studio, you will not be able to take it into Poser to render.

Content Creation

For those that want to do this, I strongly suggest Studio for posepacks, Poser for materials, and either is fine for rigging - although Poser has the rigging documentation.

In addition, any poses done in Studio that you want to share with Poser users will require the Poser Format Exporter from DAZ3d.com, overall it is easy to use.

This area of concern is my main reason for getting PP2012.  Although I do my posing in Studio, my prop creation is more comfortable with a modeling app -> Poser workflow, no export needed, just import model, set materials and save to library.

Also, Poser is considered a sort of "industry standard."  Poser files load natively into many different platforms, such as Carrara, or with cheap/free updates from the developer, like Mojoworld.

Studio files load natively into...Studio.  I have heard rumours that the new .dson format is going to fix some issues with Carrara, but I have not seen much success come out of importing daz files into any program.

Dynamic cloth and hair,  Poser has it natively, Studio does not. This has been an ongoing sore-spot since Optitex decided not to allow people to create dynamic clothing in Studio, and was the main reason I used Poser5 still.

Poser is a must for content creation.

 Overall

 Everything considered, even with my bias towards Studio, PP2012 scored higher overall.

DAZ|Studio 4 Pro : 4
PoserPro 2012 : 7

Main points that Studio lost out on are: Documentation, Content and overall exportability for Content Creation.

I still love, and use Studio, but in order for content creation and overall usage, I feel as though I have been forced into using PP2012.

Thank you, Smith-Micro, for improving the interface, that alone made the purchase worth it to me.