I am using procedural SSS, no maps. But if you have maps, VSS will use them.

I haven't yet explained anything about VSS. It's a system I've devised, using made-up nodes. Poser doesn't know anything about these made-up nodes. It is my VSS python script that knows what they mean.

You load a figure, and you load a VSS prop. The VSS prop contains all the rules for how to apply shaders to a figure or prop, or perhaps even to dozens of figures or props. You do not render the VSS prop - it is just a bag of rules and shaders that the VSS script interprets when you click "Synchronize". The rules are expressed as shader trees using my made-up nodes.

You also have real shaders on the VSS prop, but they are not for the prop. They are "template" shaders for your actual figures or props that you plan to shade and render.

My "Generic Figure" VSS prop has material zones called:

Template Skin
Template Eyewhite
Template Iris
Template Cornea
 etc.

Basically there is a template material zone for each part of a human that needs to be handled a different way. But, unlike figures such as V3 and V4, you don't have to keep REPEATING these shaders for every stupid zone, such as face, head, neck, torso, etc. Those are all skin and you usually want them to be using the same skin shader.

So there is a special zone called "Shader Rules". This zone consists of "Rule" nodes and "Copy" nodes. For example:

Rule face <- Copy Template Skin
Rule body <- Copy Template Skin

etc.

Each Rule node links to a copy node. But you can link a bunch of rule nodes to the same copy node. Thus you capture the fact that all those skin zones are the same. And if you edit the "Template Skin" shader, then you're automatically editing all those different skin zones. One-click!

Now within a shader there are going to be various image maps. You have color maps, and bump maps, of course. But I also define specular maps, reflection maps, displacement maps, hair maps, tan maps, lipgloss maps, eyeliner maps, tatoo maps, bruise maps, ... an nearly endless list of potential maps.

When I make a template shader, I don't actually fill in any files for these maps. I just put named Image_Map nodes to indicate where such and such file is supposed to go in the shader. When you click "Synchronize", VSS examines the target figure, zone by zone, decides which shader template to use, copies the template over, and sets the map names according to what it found on the figure already. So to set the maps, all you do is load somebody else's MAT-Pose file first, then click Synchronize. VSS will learn all the maps from the figure itself, and plug them into the shader templates.

But what if you don't have a particular map. Suppose you have no Specular Map on the figure. Well VSS looks at the shader to see what is plugged into the Image_Map's background input channel. Whatever is there, it will be used INSTEAD of using a map. So, for example, if you have no Bump Map, I have a Turbulence node plugged into the template Bump Map Background. Without a Bump Map on your figure, I'll just use procedural bump mapping instead, according to the rules for that template shader.

Neat huh? So if you design an SSS Map and load it on your figure, my shader will detect it and use that instead. Failing that, it will use a procedural approach to determine how much SSS to apply at each pixel.

All this magic is probably over the heads of most people, and they can safely ignore it. I plan to release the buttons and features over time. For now, you'll get a one-click solution. I will provide alternative template shaders which you can load onto your VSS prop, so you have some control without having to know how to "program" the shader template.

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Regarding the ray-traced shadows... I find they work really well. Go look at the Shut the Door picture. Examine the shadows closely. I used ray-traced shadows as well as material AO. You get all that free, too, because I'm including ready-to-use light sets with VSS.

I don't know if Poser 6 is equal to Poser 7 with ray-trace shadows. I used to think they were grainy, but now I know how to configure them well, and I like them a lot. I even get perfect, and I mean perfect, shadows from eyelashes, instead of those clumpy aweful depth-mapped shadows.

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As for what Poser Pro really is - it is indeed loaded with features to support collaboration with other applications. However, the one new rendering feature is the only thing I care about. Neverthless, now that I know what the problem is, I've included exactly the same solution, only I built it with nodes in my shader templates. So even Poser 6 and Poser 7 users will have the benefit of these superior shaders.

I bet they'll move that feature into Poser 7 anyway. We'll see.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)