That's the thing though. After doing the beta for so long I really expected much, much more from C8.5. I just find it imposable to believe the crew that worked on C8.5 is the same one that gave us a 64bit carrara. In 2 years the only thing that changed in the beta was the light icons and DUF compatibility. After all that time the release version of C8.5 didn't work as well as the last beta release, that was released what, 8 months before the final release. In 8 months time all they accomplished was making DAZ's DR.. I mean CMS mandatory?

To me a .5 release is to finish unfinished or flawed features. Tweaks and polish to existing features, possibly the intro of new yet still in beta features. C8.5 did have some of that but it seems most of that 2 years was spent shoehorning a buggy autofit in to carrara to work with a buggy figure; genesis. Which I have said has added no value to carrara. Maybe if autofit and genesis worked as well as advertised or as well as the cheerleaders say it does, my opinion might be different.

Carrara should be the stepping stone app between entry level apps like Studio and Poser, and advanced apps like C4D and 3DS. But right now it feels like a weak, wobbly step that could collapse at any time.