Attached Link: http://www.hdri.at/en/hdri_en.htm

The link above will explain the difference between HDRI and LDRI (LDRI being "low dynamic range image"), which Poser 6 uses for it's IBL. Near the bottom of the page you'll see a link to the comparison renders for each method. The main difference being, HDRI maintains a much greater range of brightness and color value, which can be much more realistic on reflective surfaces, for instance.

"It gott me wondering if it was some how possible to btain this look without using a huge 40 light set or Ambient Occlusion. Is there a "cheap" way to use standard lights with IBL to fake the AO?"

If you mean "cheap" as in the render times, then not really. There's no cheap way I've ever heard of to get the same kind of results you can get with raytraced AO without lots of standard lights. Usually, to get a clean result, you'd need more than just 40 lights in your dome, otherwise you end up with what's known as "shadow banding"... or the obvious display of distinct shadows in a "fan-like" pattern on flat surfaces, such as your ground plane. The more lights you use, the cleaner the result will be, but obviously the more expensive to render time. It depends on what you're trying to achieve. If you can get away with less than 40 lights, then definitely do it, but be aware it probably won't work in all scene situations.

You might be able to get away with 40 lights or less on some still images, if you use a lot of shadow bluring, or blur out the banding in post, but usually it will be quite evident if the ground plane is visible. I know shadow maps in Poser seem to take a long time to generate, so 40 lights is usually the maximum anyone would be willing to tolerate. However, in some other apps I use, like 3dsmax, I'll create a dome of 90+ spotlights with soft shadows to reproduce the AO effect It's still faster than actual GI most of the time, and the results are very similar.

Message edited on: 10/10/2005 21:42

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Tools :  3dsmax 2015, Daz Studio 4.6, PoserPro 2012, Blender v2.74

System: Pentium QuadCore i7, under Win 8, GeForce GTX 780 / 2GB GPU.