"How can that be? Don't you need a special file format (.hdr likely) for a light probe?"

thefixer is correct. Poser uses low dynamic range images in it's IBL. It can support jpg, bmp, tiff, or whatever kind of standard image format as a light source. The image needs to be formatted in as a "probe" in order for Poser's diffuse IBL light to correctly distribute the colors of the image over the scene in 360 degrees. The fact that it looks like an hdr light probe is really just how the diffuse IBL light reads and distributes the colors in the image. It takes the colors from different "zones" of the probe, and uses them to light the top, sides, back, and bottom of the scene. There have been several people both here and on RDNA who have given out good templates that show how the probe's zones are laid out.

HDRI stands for "high dynamic range image". The .hdr format is capable of holding more color range information than a standard jpg or bmp format, which allows for greater accuracy and brightness in the lighting solution. HDRI is very process-intensive, and usually takes a while to render. Poser does NOT use HDRI lighting, only LDR (low dynamic range). In order to use an .hdr format light probe in Poser, you'd need to convert it to a jpg, bmp, or low-dynamic tiff image. Message edited on: 11/14/2005 14:53

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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.