@kobaltkween: thank you, I really enjoyed reading your post (edit: I mean the long one!). Facts, common sense, and experience. Recommended reading for everyone.

@JoePublic...

Quote - So, running around and telling people that using a certain shader set and a certain PRO feature (Available at extra cost, thankyouverymuch), will turn their work from the usual Poser fare to CGTalk feature worthy, is....well....a little stretching reality IMVHO.

This nonsense of mixing up the subjects of linear shader calculations and photorealism is entirely of your own making. No-one has ever claimed that using real-physics based shaders will produce photorealistic renders.

Quote - I will dismiss GC and most other new light features right now as pure marketing hype

You are dismissing these real advances in Poser's feature set (GC, and from the sounds of it IDL) purely on the imaginary notion that someone is telling you they will fix all your renders. But no-one is.

"If I were a shadow, I know I wouldn't like to be half of what I should be."
Mr Otsuka, the old black tomcat in Kafka on the Shore (Haruki Murakami)