Trying to figure out how to use poser, found out from tech support that there IS no way to assign an object as a light source, file allocation is a bloody mess. Back to POVray? or is blowing it out of the computer a common occurrance?

To be honest, the program might be useful if the docs didn't remind me of the doc that comes with windoze, "Here's how to install it, for another $999.99 plus tax, we'll disclose the basics."

Give it time. Slow learning curve, but you may find it's better than POV-Ray for character animation.

Animation is the least of my concerns, the bloody thing won't let me put a light, as in a kerosene lamp sitting on a table, and the object itself furnishes the illumination. I need spherical illumination from a source that I can designate, give an xyz location to, and control the light falloff. Is there any other program besided POVRay that will do that?

Have you tried any of the omnidirectional lights with Poser? Scarab

Attached Link: http://user.txcyber.com/~sgalls/

Put one inside a building without knocking out a wall then tell me how you did it. It seems a small flaw, but it's a fatal one. the spotlight inside a kerosene lamp looks worse than no light and a pitch black interior. Had I known that there was no way of putting a point source of light and assigning it to an object, I would have saved my money and bought something that would.

Thanx for the PoseRay tip, I'll give it a shot, but was kinda hoping to be able to get away from manually writing a scene file.

Check out the poser tutorials here, there's a couple on lighting. Nerd3D has one on volumetric lighting using Poser 5. you can fiddle around with ambient colors of objects to make them appear to glow, turn off their ability to cast shadows in order to make them appear as a light source. Spot lights can be XYZ positioned and aimed within Poser. I would try using multiple aimed spotlights outside and around the light source of your oil lamp, with the simulated light source object having a bright ambient color. "Global Illumination" in Poser isn't what you're used to. This effect is being simulated by placing a sphere of multiple, low-intensity infinite lights around the scene (sometimes as many as 20 or 30 lights). The "global illumination" light sets for sale at DAZ3D use this technique. The "ultimate fire" package in the market place is based on simulating a light source using aimed and positioned spot lights and works rather well. Every program has it's learning curve. Some just take more fiddling around time than others. :)

You can come quite close by using two spotlights at the same position, both with an opening angle of 180 degrees.

Great job stewer! I'm glad we have the forums.

Hey Stewer, that's a N E A T trick! Thanks for the idea!

Yes, but it's ludicrous to have to resort to such patches. It's best to think of the Poser renderer as a quick preview tool only, and rely on exporting Poser figures to a proper rendering program.

Attached Link: http://www.romanceworks.com/FIRE/Freebie.htm

This is why I only use poser to set up the scene and then render it in another application - one that has better lights.

Hmmmmm. Using multiple programs to come up with a throwaway illustration for a flyer doesn't really appeal to me. Fortunately, I don't often need people, so maybe sticking with POV makes the most sense, even though the hand typed part of the latest is now 1800 lines plus long. Three weeks, probably 2500 lines before I'm done, and five minutes of glory and "what's next". If anyone has noticed, a real kerosene lamp will throw a bright ring on the ceiling of the room it is in, and I've finally gotten that to come out too. Life is a roach when you remember too many little details. Richard