It is evident by the highlights on the skulls that the two main lights are placed in a different position. Not just slightly different: decidedly different. In the Vue scene the direct lighting stops at exactly half the skull, creating what is basically a backlight ("silhouette") situation. In the Lightwave scene, the direct light stops at 2/3rds of the skull, thus enlightening most of it. At least 80% of the difference between the scenes is just that. The rest is certainly how you did set up the parameters.