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Actually, it is a big leap in realism, at the push of a button. Did you not notice all the demo renders I did using only one light? Without tone mapping and GI, that one light scenario doesn't look real at all. Now it looks like a Vue render.

Demo renders? I saw one there that I noticed had your name on it. I think it was the one at the top of the circulation. I saw at least one GI render labeled as such, but I don't remember seeing your name on it. Not to say it's not there, but rather I wasn't paying real close attention. ;-)

Why, do you have more somewhere?

But I have to say, GI isn't an important thing to me in Poser. Sure, if it's fast like Mental Ray or Lightwave, but I'm somehow doubting that. Unless you say it is, though, in which case I'd believe you.
So.... how fast is Poser's new GI?

I was hoping for things more like area lights and an overall faster and better render engine. Because I don't use Poser as a final solution, but rather for pre-viz. This means that if Poser's lights overall get better and the render gets faster (and they do away with annoying crap like it taking forever to load textures), then I can get better results, quicker.

While the Poser 8 features seem fine and even something liek the next logical step in its evolution, it has very little to offer for what I do.
I imagine though I'll still buy it, just as I've done with every new release...
Earns me the right to bitch about it. ;-)

EDIT-
I have to say, those figures all look pretty much about the same.