Right. I have been playing around with renders for a while, usually of the same object. But lately Something has gone wrong. I do not remember changing the settings, except the lighting. Even then I'm just clicking presets. Which I have also used before with no problems.
But now, all of a sudden I can't seem to get rid of those bloody black splotches from all over my renders. They just appeared one day. Yes, I know the polygons are casting their own shadows because my Shadow Min Bias is set too low, but I have changed them around to try and fix them, going from between 0.220 - 5, and it shows no difference whatsoever. I try different lights, and it shows no difference. There was one light set I could use for a while which didn't do it, but now it's suddenly started doing it too! Without changing anything! What's going on here!?

Hi Sonita,

I'm having difficulty visualising what you're experiencing. Could you upload an example? And maybe a screenshot of your render settings?

Also what version of Poser are you using, 6 or 7?
And am I reading right this is happening on ALL your renders?

have you "unchecked" -texture filtering- when in the render options window. (it's usually his fault)

also just clicking preset lights in P6, can give strange results sometimes as some are ambient lights, which kinda need a bit of working with to actually make them work right, some skins come out terrible with ambient lights.

You can also try going through each light and turning it off to see which one(s) is/are showing the problem...

Perhaps return to factory settings would help? In preferences (I think)
Just a guess.

I don't have texture filtering turned on, (apparently I have not enough memory) and I am using Poser 6. As for ALL of my renders, it's just most of them. A couple of times it has just "decided" to work, then after one good render it returns to being naughty again.
Anyway, here is a screenie of my render settings. I have used the exact one for quite a while, with no problems.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i266/Sonita_Bonita/Pics_for_teh_webs/RenderSettings.jpg

And a render in one light set.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i266/Sonita_Bonita/Pics_for_teh_webs/Seriously.jpg

The same thing in another.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i266/Sonita_Bonita/Pics_for_teh_webs/Seriously2.jpg

What was that show like 10-15 yrs back that had the blotchy aliens?  Was it called Aliens?  Anyway that's what your character looks like - maybe you can run with that ; )

What happens when you un-check Use Displacement Maps?
What happens with Poser's default lights?
What happens when you manually add lights one at a time?
What happens with a default figure with no materials/textures applied?

That looks like a problem with the mapping to me...does this happen to every object you render, or just to this character?

Id go with the testing of no displacement map and no materials/textures one at a time on this particular character like Pjz suggested and see what happens

perhaps the texture is larger than the settings allow.

Ohhh... I have seen this before but HELL if I can remember what caused it... I'll keep wracking my brains...

Do you save your pz3 files of completed scenes? Do you have one that you know rendered okay, that you could open up and render again? If there is a problem with that, then something has gone amiss in your poser settings and a return to factory settings would hopefully take care of that. On the other hand, if it renders okay, then it is probably a setting in your lighting or render settings which is to blame.

if it's not the displacement map thing, i would guess that one of your lights has an image attached to it, to cast shadows of a pattern, i think i remember a RDNA light set that had bats attached to a light set, so maybe you've got something like that, check your lights in the material room to see if there is an image attached to one of them.

AS for your memory issues, make sure you have at least the Sr2 update, then what i always do is slide the auto bar to the top, then click "Manual settings" and just uncheck "texture filtering" i manage to render just about anything like that, usually a 3000px + no problem.

anyway hope you fix it as that looks like a nice character under dem spots.

Check your lights in the parameter dial window(properties part),as one of those lights has got "ray trace shadows" checked i'd guess, now the one with ray trace shadows must of had the "shadow min bias" set to zero on it for that to happen, if you set it to 0.8000etc problem gone.

image is what happens when "shadow min bias" is zeroed.

Hope it helps ya.