I have Vue 6 Esprit with the LightTune module, but I am unable to activate the 'softness quality' in the light editor > shadows tab.

i've tried it on spot light, point light, directional light, and sun light, but it won't show no matter what i try.

Attached is the render settings i was sent.

Look on the aspect panel when the light or sun is selected (upper right corner of the display).  You need to set the softness there.  Be careful - too many soft lights will really increase the render time!

Ohhhh ok. Thank you very much :D more questions incoming by the way.

vexiphne - If you need to set the shadow softness quality on your own light, ie spot, point etc, you will have to set the softness degree first in the light tab as Peggy says. This will then open up the option of choosing the softness quality in the light editor. Yes, this will increase render times but it's generally a better effect. As a rule you will also need to render with higher AA to compensate for any grain you may have because of it.
Also, just to add, the softness value in the light tab increases the spread of the shadow.

 Ok, how do i adjust the amount of AA? I noticed with the softness enabled it GREATLY degraded my render. 

Also, not quite on topic, how can i enable "AO"? I'm a veteran poser user who's reached their limit with that program's abilities and I want to expand.

OK, when you're ready to do your final render you'll be best off using your own render settings. If you're not comfortable with this yet then just go with 'Final' until you get used to what's what.

Here's a pic to show you where to go in your render settings. Don't take much notice of my high AA settings, you'll more than likely not need this. For tests keep the subrays per pixel down to a respectable degree as render times rocket with these settings higher. If you think your image needs a bit more AA then adjust the slider accordingly.

Regarding AO. If you choose an atmosphere that already uses AO then it will automatically be selected. To change the AO settings or to choose it from a different atmosphere just go into the atmosphere editor under the Atmosphere tab at the top of the screen.

 sweet thank you very much!! :D

Ok 1 thing - you have 'texture anti-aliasing' option. That doesn't exist in Esprit version i guess ( least not mine )

Was that a module or are you using a better version ?

Sorry, I should have asked what version you were using. I use Vue 6 Infinite, I couldn't remember if this was available in Esprit. If it's not, don't worry as you'll be OK with general object AA. I'm not sure what module upgrade would give you this option.

Just a few points from my experience, which I hope will help:
IMHO, Stormchaser's render settings are a bit extreme and will probably lead to big render times, not necessarily increasing proportionally the quality of the rendered image. I would recommend this below but feel free to ignore me, of course:
a) Blurred reflections and blurred transparency increase render time very much. Only use materials with those if you really must. I never use blurred materials, I always simulate blur with bump. And, of course, I never check the corresponding options in the render settings.
b) The minimum subrays per pixel can safely be between 4 and 8. This can have a dramatic effect in render times. Only very rarely you need to go over this.
c) The maximum subrays per pixel can be about 10, if you don't have soft lights nor complex clouds, and maybe about 16 if you do. I very rarely go over 16. Some plants also require higher values.
d) The quality in AA can normally be in 80%. If you have soft lights or complex clouds I would recommend 95% or above. Only once or twice I needed 100%, it's not very common.
e) Texture antialiasing is very rarely necessary. I think I only used it once. In fact, its use can change the look of textures in unwanted ways. I would recommend to only use it if you see artifacts, typically moiré patterns in the horizon or caused by very thin texture lines.
f) Finally, not in the render settings but rather in the quality slider of the light tab of the atmosphere settings, I would recommend that you experiment with negative numbers (-1) and only if this is not acceptable (grain or blotches) you should increase it.

Regarding your question about AO, Vue works in a completely different way from Poser in this aspect. In the atmospheric settings, lihgt tab, it's where you define your lighting model. Here you have AO as an option but mind you that this is not the best. You can also use GI or GR (increasingly better but more demanding from the render engine).

Have fun! :-)

One more note, about AA:
There are several AA strategies. The default is Crisp (which was the best in previous Vue versions) but Vue 6 also has Sharp. I always use Sharp. There are also other options. You should experiment to see what you like best.

Rutra is generally correct in what he says there. You may find yourself experimenting with several setups before you find what you need.
Regarding my AA setup, I did state in my previous post that you wouldn't need my settings there. The settings you see there were from my last work, I only brought my previous user settings up to show an example of what the settings parameters looked like.  My last piece did more or less need those high settings (I probably didn't need texture AA so high) because I was using very high quality volumetric lights & hair. Yes, I know I could probably have gotten away with less but long render times are generally not an issue with me. I will wait for that extra touch in render quality.
I'm not going to argue with anyone who chooses their own AA settings, but I will say I have seen  renders from a personal perspective that I know the AA wasn't high enough. People will find what they are happy with.

AO in Vue is also kinda tricky...  Unlike other programs (not Poser) it doesn't have any options other than size.  So you'll have to tweak the other options in other ways, otherwise you're looking at horrific render times for complex scenes with lots of Ecosystem instances and such.

I generally render out an AO pass with no textures, so it's just the light and dark values, then use that pass in composition.  Works really well, too!  It's both faster to render two images this way and also in Photoshop you can adjust the AO's strength afterwards as a separate layer...