A lot of good points and feedback here. I have used Poser 4 ProPack  for seven years and push it to its limits in my images. My goal with Poser is to make characters look like the ones I once used to draw and bring them to life, so true "realism" isn't  required  for me...  I still use modified P4 females as opposed to any Vicky's and that's as far away from "realism" as one can get. :) As far as plastic looking people who don't cast shadows, that's the fault of the person using the software for not being able to find good textures or master one of Poser's features.