Can anyone tell me what the most photo realistic rendering engine that is poser compatible might be these days? I have tried Miya and Lightwave but there out of price range and i have an old version of max, but i'm looking for something a bit simpler that does a good job.    I am getting fustrated with the fire fly renderer.  I do allot of compositing , combining 3D and photography so i am trying to find the best photo realistic rendering program.

Thanks,
Gabe

Try Kerkythea
http://www.kerkythea.net/joomla/
but you'll have to rebuild all the materials although you'd have to do that no matter what render engine you used pretty much

Kerkythea is free.  You would have to export your scene as an .obj and set up/tweak your textures in it, and of course, procedural shaders will not transfer over.  It is a low cost(no cost) option, and the few times I have used it, it does a good job.

Vue7

Quote - Vue7

yep

I was going for the cheap option :) But yeah - Vue 7 will do you very well

Or 6 Infinite!!  [:-)]

it has true GI and renders way better than firefly
oh and NO i dont care about skins so much as I dont do the Nakked stuff

All depends how much poser stuff you want to load if you get vue, as even with vue 6 inf and even 5 inf, you can only put so many poser characters in before it crashes.
I have seen 6 poser people and scene loaded into vue 6 inf and ext from single, dual and quad core up to 8 gb mem on various comps crash out, if you want render large poser scenes in another 3d app dont use vue.
But if you just want use couple poser people some props just for render then vue is supperb but remember every other 3d app out thier can render poser scenes which ever way you bring in..
Vue will crash out of memory in a poser scene that every other 3d ap can render no probs.

No Vue won't "crash out of memory in a poser scene that every other 3d ap can render no probs." if you have enough RAM and a 64 bit O/S.
Take a look at some of the Vue renders sometime instead of just keeping on about it hmm ?

I think the O.P. was more interested in a better ,more realistic lighting model. cramming 9DAZ vickies into one INDOOR poser scene does nothing to help you get better daylight renders with fire fly

Firefly has problems with daylight renders really.  If they ever get the GI working properly it might help.
IBL only goes so far

Actually  the OP could Get Daz studio  free and pay just $18 for this ** PLUGIN**

Check this Video also looks like a great apparent long render times though.

Well it looks like view will be it.  Thank you all for your input!

And for the record i like the fire fly renderer.  i find it to be in some ways better then the max one for certain things, but since upgrading my Vid card poser is giving me nothing but problems, so its time for something else .

If you look at my gallery, the image i use for my icon, the background is all poser,  Most of the figure is too but there was some insane skin cloning and parts cloning in PS.

-Gabe-

*I have seen 6 poser people and scene loaded into vue 6 inf and ext from single, dual and quad core up to 8 gb mem on various comps crash out, if you want render large poser scenes in another 3d app dont use vue.

• I've rendered scenes with over 24 figures in Vue 6 Infinite, 64 bit. The wrong video card can cause crashes. Also, if you have 8 gigs of ram on a 32 bit system, you won't be able to use it.