Quote - I really doubt that a multi-system-render version of poser has come out

There is, it's called Poser Pro store.smithmicro.com/home.tpl Don't rush off to buy, wait for Poser Pro 2010 to be released.

Quote - Do I need to upgrade either Poser or Vue or both? is there a new method for creating 15-60 second animations that has come out in the last year or so that is fantastically better or faster? Or just as good and faster? (I get tired of waiting 8 hours for 4 computers to finish rendering a 30 second animation).

Can't comment for Vue, I stopped using it, for me it didn't deliver the increased render speeds promised in Vue6. Poser has done some changes to the animation system, but I'm not doing animation, others will be able to help you much better.

Poser 7 and Poser Pro will not give you any significant render speed improvement, but the new Poser 8 will. They've optimized it and now Poser will use a multi core (and perhaps even a single core) much more efficient, giving you a very good increase of render speeds. At least twice as fast, but I've had scenes that render 6 times faster.

Artwork and 3DToons items, create the perfect place for you toon and other figures!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?vendor=23722

Due to the childish TOS changes, I'm not allowed to link to my other products outside of Rendo anymore :(

Food for thought.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYZw0dfLmLk