Ever since I was a tiny tyke I rendered with the P4 engine in P5. My P5 died and I am unable to replace it so I took the plunge and bought P7. But I still want to render with P4 engine. Problem is, my first renders look awful. I have the anti-alias checked. Is there something I'm doing wrong? 

The P4 engine in 6 and 7 is not really the same as the real P4 renderer.

For one thing, it's fussy about normals.... if you're seeing some black areas,
check the 'Normals Forward' box in the appropriate material.  The lighting
will also be different, so you'll have to readjust some lights.

In other words, you'll have to do some work to approach the original,
and it won't look like the original anyway... so you might as well take
the big leap and try out the Firefly system.   You'll find it has a lot more
flexibility after you get used to it.  :)

Why you don´t try Firefly? It´s a very good  render-mashine with much better results than the Poser4 render. Poser7 is made for the use of firefly and the old rendermashine is only there for old files. Try out, you will love it!!

Hi Shortebus!

Does the picture look bad when you save it as a *.jpg? Try saving as *.png instead.

Or is is something else? Maybe you can post a "awful" picture and show us.

Regards / Jonny

That's a good point.  The JPG export has also changed, defaulting to the
worst possible quality.

By default, Poser will try to use the shader node information even when using the P4 Renderer. For best results go to Render Settings, click on the Poser 4 tab, and make sure to check the option for "Ignore shader trees". This will also speed up the rendering.
After all, if you want to use the shader nodes, just use the FireFly renderer.

Quote - Why you don´t try Firefly? It´s a very good  render-mashine with much better results than the Poser4 render.

I tend not to use the FireFly Renderer unless I need to, basically because a number of my characters and materials were "tuned" to the P4 Renderer and they don't look the same using FireFly. My Tabby character uses a combination of Object Color, Ambient Color, Ambient Value, and a specific set of lights to get just the look that I want. The FireFly Renderer reads the Ambient Color and Ambient Value differently and the character looks washed out.
I've tried numerous adjustments since P5, but the P4 Renderer is still the easiest option.

Thanks to all for the responses. JHoagland, I'll try your suggestion. Thanks!