is it best to render in poser, or Daz studio, or another program? what is the best render engine? 

so may say Vue but I kind of like poser the best, now I seen some on Maxell but I have a problem using it. And I want to make sure it does what I want before I spend the money...

I'd say which ever one you have. Alot say vue. 3dsmax renders alot faster. It seems to do pretty good but i'm not that great at setting up a scene yet to be sure.

The very best renders I've seen are from either vray or mental ray. They aren't priced for the hobbyist. The best freebie renderer I've worked with, and I think I've tried them all, is PovRay.

I've seen some cool stuff done in Poser with the right combination of shaders and lighting.  Just like any renderer, it requires some work to hit that sweet spot.

That said, I'm a Vray user on the 3dsmax platform.  I find Vray has the best marriage of speed vs. quality of any render agent I've tried so far, including MentalRay.  The downside is, there is no Vray integration to Poser that I'm aware of, and although it's available in one form or another for Cinema4D, Maya, Rhino, and a few others, the most mature version of it is for the 3dsmax software.  After all, it was originally developed for 3dsmax specifically.

As far as standalone renderers, there are a few good ones out there.  POVray can assist in creating some amazing art, and Maxwell has one of the most realistic, although slowest, lighting solutions available.

For more of a hobbyist budget though, I would look at Vue or Carrara.  Very good renderers integrated into those packages.

 Every render engine is different, so expect some crappy pictures when you change.

Render engines often used in the Poser/DAZ-Studio community include Poser's Firefly renderer, 3Delight via DAZ Studio, Vue, Carrara and Bryce. 

If you want a real good rendering engine (and are willing to pay for it), there is VRay. There are some people who use Cinema 4d (which has a very good rendering engine too) to bring their pictures into VRay. Take a look at Gizmee's Gallery if you want to see how this can look if you master that renderer. You may even have more options with it when using it with 3d Studio Max.

Then, threre are free engines like Kerkythea and Pov-Ray. 

The rendering engines used in Hollywood productions usually are Photorealistic Renderman and Mental Ray. Both have a very complete feature set and are fast. Both are very pricy, too, and you will probably need something like 3d Studio Max or Maya to bring your over. 

Again, if you want to change your rendering engine, expect a learning curve. 

Maxwell and Fryrender are the "best" renderers out, at the moment.
But...Maxwell SUCKS if you want to render Poser folk in it, such a complex PIA, sigh.
Love doing my Rhino models in it, but too much of a pain to try and make realistic scenes, IMHO.
They are also extremely expensive!

3DMAX is incredibly expensive, bloatware deluxe! ick.

If you want affordable "for the ordinary person", get Vue, or try Bryce or Carrara

Check my Poser to Vue import tutorial, in my signature :)

Movie studios seem to like Lightwave a lot when it comes to rendering. It's not great right out of the box for Poser stuff though. 

Vue for me, the lighting effects you can achieve are far better than Poser IMO!

I use cinema4D with Vray but mostly use cinema's AR3 for any poser stuff

do not  look too great in hi end render engines due to the textures being optimized for low end render solutions.
so you end up retexturing alot of poser/DAZ products
 like this armor suit i bought from daz

Judging from what's in the Galleries, there is no 'best' render engine. There are wonderful renders done in everything... Bryce, Poser, Vray, Vue, Cararra... it's not which one is the best, it's which one fits you best, and then putting in the time to learn how to use it. Yes, some have a lot more options than others, but if it fights your particular style or mindset, it's useless.

That being said, I did opt for Vray, because it's pretty much the standard for interiors, and that's what I do. Luckily, the interface makes total sense to me, with very few surprises. On the other hand, if I hit Render in Poser, I may as well just go grab a bottle of booze before urges to pitch the monitor through the window appear. ;)

Try all the demos you can find, and give them each a week. The ones that will serve you well will become obvious quickly (ease of import, settings logical, materials working). Then it's just a matter of reading, experimenting, and putting in the time to get comfortable with the one you chose.

My opinion the best & most simple Non poser option  for most pose user would be Vue as it support poser import natively.

 It depends on what your requirement for "best" is. Do you want to use Poser assets with minimal translation? Do you require physically accurate / non-biased renders? Do you need speed?

Personally, as an animator I'm looking for speed + quality. For my needs, there is nothing better than Photorealistic Renderman, as I'm sure several Hollywood studios would agree.

PRman's strengths include extremely fast render times in high polygon scenes (it was originally designed to render a 1500 x 900 pixel frame in one minute to be able to complete a 90 minute movie in one year) ; motion blur and displacements have negligible impact on render times; many intensive calculations (raytracing, AO) can be pre-processed and cached; it is completely extensible; the basic set of its controls are directly related to Firefly's and Poser has had RIB export since AFAIK version 3.

PRman's (apparent) weaknesses include lots of studying; nearly esoteric and exclusive user base; the command line version...is...well, command line; setup of raytracing is less intuitive than any other render I've personally seen; $$$$

ouch Photorealistic Renderman is $3500

As a hobbyist, the only other renderer I have experience with is Pov-Ray mainly due to price.  It's pretty powerful for a freebie, but has a steep learning curve.

The main drawback is that you can't change too much on the models directly in PovRay.  You have to set the models up in Poser, export them, then use PoseRay to convert them (although PoseRay does make it much easier).

It can't import the procedural textures from Poser, but with a little experience, Pov-Ray's scripting language can be very useful.

I'm not sure how the speed compares with other renderers, but the only renders I've had that took more than a few hours either used really large isosurfaces or had things like radiosity count or media samples cranked way up.

It's good to hear others mentioning Pov-Ray.  I was beginning to think I was the only one at Renderosity who used it.

just to concur with the above.  maxwell sux IMVHO:

• it is the only renderer slower that FFRender AFAIK
• it is possible to get worse results in maxwell ( with default settings) than in FFRender
• most real renderers (with default settings) get better results than FFRender

Quote - As a hobbyist, the only other renderer I have experience with is Pov-Ray mainly due to price.  It's pretty powerful for a freebie, but has a steep learning curve.

The main drawback is that you can't change too much on the models directly in PovRay.  You have to set the models up in Poser, export them, then use PoseRay to convert them (although PoseRay does make it much easier).

It can't import the procedural textures from Poser, but with a little experience, Pov-Ray's scripting language can be very useful.

I'm not sure how the speed compares with other renderers, but the only renders I've had that took more than a few hours either used really large isosurfaces or had things like radiosity count or media samples cranked way up.

It's good to hear others mentioning Pov-Ray.  I was beginning to think I was the only one at Renderosity who used it.

You can also use renderman shaders in Pov-man which is an extension of Pov-ray. That's how I did my skin shader and I'm pleased with the results.

Another plus of POVRay is that you can do network rendering with SMPov (www.it-berater.org/smpov.htm) , though I haven't managed to get the hang of it yet. Kerkythea is a great quality renderer and even has a MLT mode like Maxwell if you have a lifetime to use it. Unfortunately, you have to go the basic .obj import route and wrestle with the textures/materials.

You may also wish to check out trueSpace 7.6 Which is now free, yes FREE ????!

http://www.caligari.com/default.asp

You REALLY DO have to check out this site.

This includes the lightworks renderer, and also supports a V-Ray option for  $299

This is actually a very powerful modeling and rendering solution for a free download.

I'll have to check out Pov-Ray, I first used it about ten years ago, as command line only, I guess it's come on a bit since then :)

On the subject of which is the best renderer, I think as others have said it really depends on the user and what you want it for. It's not so much the size of the engine, It's really about who's driving it ;) and whether the controls suit your style, work method, and way you think.

Yes, Truespace is free. I tried to import and render some Poser scenes, but I gave up after some tries. You have to redo the materials, which isn't really comfortable because scenes are imported as single object. If there were a good import module things would be different, but at the moment I tend to say it's more work that it's worth.

Quote -  It depends on what your requirement for "best" is. Do you want to use Poser assets with minimal translation? Do you require physically accurate / non-biased renders? Do you need speed?

Personally, as an animator I'm looking for speed + quality. For my needs, there is nothing better than Photorealistic Renderman, as I'm sure several Hollywood studios would agree.

PRman's strengths include extremely fast render times in high polygon scenes (it was originally designed to render a 1500 x 900 pixel frame in one minute to be able to complete a 90 minute movie in one year) ; motion blur and displacements have negligible impact on render times; many intensive calculations (raytracing, AO) can be pre-processed and cached; it is completely extensible; the basic set of its controls are directly related to Firefly's and Poser has had RIB export since AFAIK version 3.

PRman's (apparent) weaknesses include lots of studying; nearly esoteric and exclusive user base; the command line version...is...well, command line; setup of raytracing is less intuitive than any other render I've personally seen; $$$$

Did you say a "year"? 
(Is that with or without dynamic hair?)