in re: eclark's question: yes, poser 7 and later included IL (indirect diffuse, no indirect specular) and GI, but they were slow and didn't work well, displaying low photon density (grainy shadow edges) and bucket-edge artifacts, hence they weren't supported by SM. it may still need some work in P8 if some of the renders are any indication.  in any case, trying to set GI parameters will be a diffficult and complex job for default users, hence they may disable shadows as in past versions, or they may skip GI to get quickie renders.  I'm not seeing a good understanding of IL by D|S 3 users in forum/gallery here (with one or two exceptions), so it may be the same with poser 8 users.