Many people here have said they set up a scene in Poser and then render it in other 3d  programs. What programs do you use and how do you do it? I've tried exporting it as a .obj and importing it into 3dsmax and bryce and endeed up having to redo all the textures, even when it's just a imagemap. I've also tried loading it in daz studio and importing it into bryce from there and that was a bigger mess. What should I do differently?

Poserpro works great with 3ds and Maya importing a scene as well as VUE 6 and 7 work fantastic...

Poser works best as a destination, rather than as a source...;)

That being said, Vue is the one most commonly used for Poser content. There are other programs that can accept Poser scenes, but Vue is the biggie.

That being said, there's the blessing/curse of 'postwork'...but that's a whole 'nuther can of worms...;)

If you want to import into Bryce, there's 2 avenues: use Daz Studio (heresy!...;) which is 'integrated' into later versions of Bryce, or, look for a freebie program called 'grouper', which will keep track of textures exporting from Poser to Bryce (was written for older versions, so mileage may vary...;) Grouper is in our freebies here at 'rosity. (mods- is that cool?)

I use Vue6Infinite, soon to be 7 hopefully!!
The reason being because the lighting and render engine is far superior to Poser IMO and you just can't beat it if you want an outdoor scene!!

I too am using Vue 6 Infinite to render my models (some of which are Poser format.).Vue has some problems on my system and can take a while to render (depending on the complexity of the scene) but the results might be worth the pain, I guess.  

My current render has 40 hours remaining...

I render in Vue, it's vastly superior to Poser's render and capabilities :)

Latest Vue render, note Michael 4 and 3 as main points ;) the baskets are from DAZ's cannon pack, by the way. Can't recall if that's a Poser cart in the back or not. I save Poser stuff, once set up correclty, as Vue objects in my Vue object library so I can re-use at need.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1778138

My signature has my tutorial on how ot best setup Poser imports in Vue (also applies some what to Bryce etc)

:)

Thanks everyone. Sounds like Vue is the way to go, if I want to render outside of poser. Maybe a possiblity with Chrismas coming, depending on price. Question is which Vue? Vue Pioneer,Vue Esprit, Vue Pro Studio, Vue Complete, Vue Infinate? And who makes/sells it?

Vue:  www.e-onsoftware.com/     Although it costs a lot less than some of the 3D applications out there, Vue isn't a trivial purchase (xStream lives up to its name in that respect).   I think that there is still an upgrade path from the basic packages to the ones with the wider range of features, e.g. Infinite, so that you can expand the capabilities of Vue over time.

Vue7 Infinite here

If you are really serious about art, Infinite is the way to go, but it's a lot of moolah.
it has a lot of nice touches you appreciate over time. :)

Thanks again...For $895, hope Santa is feeling generous. May have to save up a while. But thanks again.

I'd suggest rendering your characters in Poser and backgrounds in Vue and then compositing the two in Photoshop or GIMP. This way, you can purchase one of the lower-cost versions of Vue or even Bryce and as long as you're matching the camera angle/FOV and the lighting as closely as you can, then you can be able to seamlessly composit the images together.

Compositing gives you a lot more control over your image without the headaches of trying to get programs to share data--as you have already discovered.

Bryce and Carrara will import objs textured with image maps BUT you either need to collect all the image maps in the same folder as the obj OR you need to edit the .mtl file and change the file names to include the full path.  Daz studio will do the gather for you if you tick the box on export.

If you have 3ds max then I dont see any reason to buy vue. Just get poser pro and use poser fusion to import into 3ds max. Max should render far superior to vue.

most of the time i have no trouble at all using daz studio link into bryce. i love that feature.

I used to use Poser 7, but haven't touched it since I started using Carrara pro 6.  I got it in the DAZ economic stimulus package at a very good price (a small fraction of Vue).  The render engine is so much faster and I have had no problems importing all my runtimes of DAZ and Poser content.  Lights are much better.  I find poser easier to use for, well, posing but other than that, Carrara is hands down better.  Pretty funny considering I paid 2 to 3 times as much for Poser when i bought it.  Once you render in Carrara, I don't see how you could go back to firefly.

Carrara also produces beautiful landscapes and skies almost effortlessly.  No more confining sky domes or funky backgroud props.

Klebnor

Man, just when I thought i had a unanimous answer, more ppl chame in. Harder on my brain, but perhaps easier on my wallet. Maybe, I'll get lucky and win the holiday contest coming up. They usually offer some sort of 3d software as a prize...Yeah and then I can  watch the pigs flying around my house.