first, build something simple.
A floor, a ball, a box, 1 light
Some simple colors or textures, and experiment. Do many small renders.
Use the normal Poser 8 render box first and learn its features.

Testing:

Cast shadows ON
Raytracing ON
Raytrace bounces, start at 1,2,4,6,8 . . . . . (i test render at 1, 2 for glass, more if realy needed)
IC 0, te be read as zero, equal NOTHING, (curent P8 versions, never go over 50)  (I mostly use from 0 to 10)
Indirect Light quality take, 5, 10, higher if really realy needed.
Pix samples 3, 6 if needed
Min shading rate 1.00 for draft, 0.2 for detail
Bucket 32
Smooth poly's ON
Use displacement ON

Simple scene, start low, build up, learn.
Only then,  with that experience, goto D3D render engine, and learn some more.

KISS allways works.

Poser 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, P8 and PPro2010, P9 and PP2012, P10 and PP2014 Game Dev
"Do not drive faster then your angel can fly"!