"...NEXT logical big trend will be INSTANT Renders using technology like DX 9..." Um, second through fourth words involve an oxymoron. Trends are not logical. They are a socioemotional response to common environmental factors. Trends also have a backlash factor. Also, The game engines are not instant renders. They are displays that more or less require motion, and that motion is already fairly well predetermined by the game engine itself. I've seen a lot of really pretty game shots of late, and very few of them are actual game play screen caps -- they are stills rendered using a software renderer or caps from a film sequence created using a software renderer. For stills -- the bulk of what you see done around here, lol -- these engines don't have the capability to produce the level of clarity you see unless the back end elements are created and assembled by someone with skill and knowledge -- so what you end up with is a lot of stuff that will look far worse than even some of the really bad artwork here. That's not gonna generate a trend that "Poser, DAZ, etc better take note- I think their technologies are going to be increasingly NARROW, NICHE market renders and their market base will rapidly shrink when all this new 64 bit stuff really hits the FAN next year... " would apply to. Lastly, as briefly noted by Dale_B, these things are also going to require something that is NOT and advantage and comprises an increasingly small niche market itself: high end video cards. THe overwhelming majority of folks using computers today do not have video subsystems capable of displaying all the fancy tricks and beautiful elements, and the greatest number of users don't know how to properly code the mathematical formulas that produce this stuff -- nor is is something that can easily be changed to a parametric system for use in a gui. and, lastly, you do forget something very interesting as well: Designer Ego. the folks that design these engines are proud of them, and very protective of them. Don't look for them to shift any of this to this realm anytime soon.

thou and I, my friend, can, in the most flunkey world, make, each of us, one non-flunkey, one hero, if we like: that will be two heroes to begin with. (Carlyle)