I'm guessing there isn't going to be one?
Or did anyone hear anything?

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=3331795&ebot_calc_page#message_3331795

See face_off's post (who has disappeared pretty much from this forum)

Of course, you could just use VSS.

Here is M4 without VSS being kicked in the head by M4 with VSS. grin

Tell you the truth I like the mike on the bottem better, I think the one doing the kicking is kinda orangy looking, the bottem one has better skin color and shadowing I think.

I get around it myself by taking some of the skin color out of the textures I find sometimes they are oversaturated when first get them.

By reduceing the saturation I tend to get a more realistic look, if I want more color I can change the models color to get a darker skin tone and more saturation in poser.

@ Tucan-Tiki:  I a little confused about your statement about oversaturation of the skin texture.  I don't know which Poser version you are using, but lately many of us have been spreading the word around the importance of Gamma Correction and the need to apply it routinely if you are using any Poser version that is not PoserPro.  Such disregard for proper monitor calibration will only lead to overblown specular highlights and oversaturation of all textures.  The bluishness on M4's skin texture is to counter-balance the redness of the texture and, IMHO, a rather cheap way at correction.  BB's method not only corrects but enhances the texture as well as applies Gc.

The effective color of a VSS shaded figure isn't determined by the texture or the shader. It's determined by the user, who chooses various values for luminance, tint, specularity, and subsurface scattering amount and color.

Every person has their own favorite technique for various tasks. Mine never involves editing color maps. If a map is too saturated, I desaturate it in the shader with an HSV node. If it isn't saturated enough, I increase the saturation with an HSV node. If it is too red or blue or green or whatever, I tint it with a Color_Math:Multiply node and a color of my choice.

On my monitors, the VSS figure above does not appear excessively orange. He does have some extra reddish tones in the shadowed areas, but that is intentional as it actually happens in real life. Unlike the bottom figure, which has almost no light reflecting from shadowed areas, the VSS figure is realistically responding to the lighting, which in my scene includes a considerable amount of secondary light as actually happens indoors.

It may be that for artistic reasons, you prefer the contrasty look of the figure without gamma correction. When one chooses to depart from reality for artistic reasons, anything is possible and legit, and if it just so happens that Poser's intrinsic errors in lighting and shading are exactly what you like, then that's great. You have the right tools. But this thread started by asking for something to improve M4's "realism". Frankly, if you don't think the VSS figure is more real than the un-modified figure, then you have no eye for realism. I'm not saying he's perfect - I've never yet achieved photorealism in Poser with a figure. But I think it is quite accurate to say that with VSS, the departure from realism can be reduced considerably.

Some examples of various skin tones possible by editng just ONE parameter in VSS. Not 10 copies of that parameter (per material zone), but just ONE. If you're not getting a color you want, then change it. VSS skin can be any color you want it to be, and there is no faster or easier way to change it than by using VSS.

Here are the same 3, but also included is the stock figure and naive shaders.

Again, if you are interested in non-photo real (NPR) shaders, then by all means do whatever floats your boat.

But to me, the stock M4 looks unreal - interesting, artsy, but unreal.

I (and others) have dozens of interesting NPR shaders as well, such as my Vargas airbrush style shader. All can be applied and managed using VSS.

Excuse me, BB, don't mean to get off-topic here, but where can I find your Vargas shader? I've checked your site, but can't find it there.

I published the Vargas shader  as a matmatic script on my scripts page:

http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/matmatic/scripts

If you're not a matmatic user, I can convert it to a Poser material if you like.

Hey, thanks!

Well, I do have Matmatic, but I've never used it. Guess I need to see if I can, huh?

If it's not a problem, though, a Poser material might be better  for me, as I might get confused and wind up having a bunch of questions on MM...;)

Mats uploaded in this folder:

http://sites.google.com/site/bagginsbill/free-stuff/random-shaders

Scroll down and find VargasVSS-Mats.zip. There are two MT5 files in there, made by the script.

Load these into VSS Template Skin, Template Eyewhite, and Template Iris, or whatever material zones you want to. Synchronize and render.

#1 is lighter - mostly white
#2 has more color

This is a render of #1.

Thanks, BB!