I’ve been using a Chromebook as my main computer for nearly four years now, and I absolutely love it. It does just about everything I need better, or as good, as a Windows system can. However, I do still have an old Windows notebook for some tasks, one of which is render art.
In August, Bondware announced PoserPlay, a browser-based version of their render software. I was thrilled with the announcement. However, having worked with PoserPlay for several months now, I can say that it still has a ways to go in terms of replacing my base version of Poser on Windows.
Mechanically speaking, PoserPlay is a good first-step, but many features that digital artists would expect are missing. The lack of library asset inclusion from the Renderosity (Poser’s parent company) marketplace, along with some unfortunate glitches, mean it’s not a truly viable replacement – or even compliment – to the base version of the software at this time.
Opening up PoserPlay for the first time you will need to register for an account. This account is, sadly, not linked to your Renderosity account, meaning you cannot access content you may have purchased on that platform.
Inside the “studio” proper, you have several menus which can load content. Controls are simple. Holding the left mouse button allows you to spin the camera around your focal point, while holding the right mouse button allows you to pan and strafe. Finally, the mouse wheel zooms in and out. It’s not as accurate or seamless as the base program, but you can get where you’re going with a little practice and patience – most of the time.
PoserPlay is free to register for, though only a few objects and backgrounds can be accessed with a free account. La Femme 2 and La Homme 2 models are available, as is a small selection of clothing and hair. Andy makes an appearance too, along with a few creatures like a low poly dragon. There are also a few background images and props, like rpublishing’s Mushroom House, and basic furniture like a sofa. It’s hardly enough to build a comprehensive scene from, but for messing around and getting used to the pose controls, it’s suitable.
Controls for posing are relegated to a menu at the top of the screen, with a dropdown menu allowing users to select the character or prop they want, then the specific prop or body part, and finally the X, Y, and Z parameters. It’s slightly more tedious than the base version, and unfortunately the free version of PoserPlay has no poses available for use, meaning you’ll have to manually pose every part of your character – a lengthy process.
There are no options for texture reassignment or lighting controls either, though lighting is set to match background images. Rendering options are extremely limited as well. There are no filters available, nor can users opt to tweak details like textures or incorporate ray tracing. It’s simply a screenshot function of exactly what you see on screen. The base landscape grid is treated as an object when rendering too (not a transparent PNG layer), meaning it shows up in your renders as it does on screen in the studio).
After dabbling with PoserPlay for several weeks on a free account, I upgraded to a monthly membership, allowing me to upload .glb models and utilize the AI background generator. The background generator worked fine, though a bit of knowhow on how to get most out of an AI prompt is certainly a prerequisite. It’s a shame you can’t upload your own images for use as background images as well.
As mentioned prior, there are no lighting controls in PoserPlay, but when you load in a backdrop the lighting will change appropriately. For instance, I imported an Egyptian city model and prompted a blue sky backdrop, which then automatically painted the scene in a pristine midday glow. It’s a shame there aren’t manual controls for controlling the light, but at least it’s a feature available in some capacity.
When using outside .glb models I ran into several issues with both control and parameter changes. When attempting to change the scale or position of an object, I would have to click off of the object in the dropdown menu, reselect it, and then move the next parameter. This made the process of scaling and transitioning objects incredibly slow.
Worse, however, was the fact that the mouse camera tools (pan, zoom, etc.) would often cease functioning if working with larger models. The more complex scenes I attempted to render always ran into this issue, making it impossible to frame and arrange my models as intended. The only choice was to quit and start again, though the glitch always reappeared at some point.
Glitches aside, the program works well in a desktop browser (I used Chrome). I haven’t tried the program on a mobile device, but it could theoretically be a nice outlet for the render artist on the go.
For the illustrator looking to create a reference image, PoserPlay could provide some value, though the process of getting your characters posed will likely leave you wishing you had the full version of Poser available to you instead. While uploading and organizing your own content works fine, again, it’s a shame more content from the Renderosity marketplace, or the base version Poser, isn’t included.
There were about ten to fifteen users online every 24 hours when I was using it this fall, though those numbers seem to have dropped dramatically. $5 per month isn’t an unfair price for the features added, but the program simply needs to become more functionally reliable, and more robust with its content options. I’ll continue messing around with PoserPlay, though mostly for novelty’s sake. It’s not close to replacing my full version of Poser, but if they can continue to add features and squash bugs, PoserPlay could, one day, be the render software that finally makes me leave my Windows system behind for good.