eecir, it sounds to me that perhaps Poser will never offer you all the features that you're looking for. I have been very lucky that I have not experienced many of the problems that have popped up here in the community. On the flip side, I am amazed by the forward thinking advances that the community has produced, for a program that is marketed towards "hobbyists". To state what has already been stated: Although one can do much to optimize Poser scenes, the fact is that it's core DOES need a rewrite to accomodate heavier poly characters (Poser with NURBS suppport - hmm- Firefly IS Renderman compliant) and to crash less often. Radiosity is beautiful, but could you imagine rendering a three second long radiosity animation with a few Mil3s, props, dynamic clothing and an environment - in Poser? I'm pretty sure it'd be adding objects for days. So I decided to move to one of the big four, and after almost a year of trying to paint weights on a V3, I've almost given up - until I downloaded a demo of Carrara 5 Pro. I'm really going back and forth about that one. My first 3D prog was Ray Dream Studio, so I feel like I have come full circle. It has many of the features that you're looking for, renders out of the box are on par with Vue Infinite and renders wicked fast (until one adds GI, which it's still relatively fast). IBL in it sucks IMHO but - this is the part that kills me - it handles Poser stuff better than Poser itself. I will purchase P7 as a curiosity but I will not use it until it "makes my jaw drop".

Message edited on: 01/29/2006 23:06