Quote - I model via hard/soft edge topology, and have to admit that after 10 years I am stumped regarding "disable polygon smoothing for the entire model".  Is this something specifically done inside Max, or do I need to hack my OBJ file parameters, or are you referring to turn off smoothing via Poser in model attributes? 

Since you just answered your own question (the last option) I'd say you are not stumped at all.  Something that is a bit confusing is that Poser's interface and documentation use "smoothing" interchangeably with Phong shading and Reyes polygon smoothing, which is bad because they don't really have much to do with each other.  An area of overlap in the most recent versions of Poser (7 and Pro for sure, maybe 6 as well) is that the setting "Crease Angle" in object properties applies to both Phong shading AND Reyes polygon smoothing, but that's the only shared setting I can think of.  The Poser setting I was talking about is on the Parameter Dials window -> Properties tab, "Smooth Polygons".  If your model is a figure (multiple bodyparts) this setting is separate for each and every bodypart.  It's not really your fault that this distinction doesn't seem obvious, it's because Poser's interface and docs confuse the two aspects of rendering (it confused me for a while too).

Firefly is a Reyes renderer, as is 3Delight (DAZ|Studio's renderer).  D|S does not make use of Reyes polygon smoothing though, and up until recently there wasn't any option in D|S to round off low-poly models; recently they added Catmull-Clark subdivision as a feature that can be applied to an existing model.  Since you're an experienced modeler I'm sure you already know how Catmull-Clark subdivision behaves, but be aware that it acts quite differently from Reyes polygon smoothing. 

Basically, with Catmull-Clark subdivision, the points that make up the profile of a model, from any angle, are moved inwards to form a b-spline - the curve formed is not constrained to intersect each point (and in fact it never really does).  With Reyes, the points that make up the profile are not moved at all, and the curve formed is more like an Akima or Bezier spline - the curve formed is constrained to intersect each point.  You probably know this difference between spline types already, just providing this info for any who are curious.  You can see this going on with your katana hilt, where the inner part of the grip is being shrunk inwards (assuming that is a Poser render with smoothing on, it looks like it is to me).

The curves formed by the two methods are very different, but with enough control points (that is, edges of your model) they can appear much the same.  Frankly I wish Poser would dump the whole Reyes polygon smoothing approach and join the rest of the world (Catmull-Clark subdivision) but I think that is unlikely to ever happen.

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