It needs a different technique, right?

VSS - no changes.

It's all in the specularity, and it is properly revealed with linear workflow, i.e. GC.

If you do not deal in linear workflow, then, yes, you have to change parameters.

Truth is, black skin and white skin are both skin. The reason they show up differently in Poser is because the arithmetic of darkBrown + Highlight is wrong if you do it non-linearly, i.e. without GC.

VSS does linear.

i'm in P7.

this is Shy character skin

Quote - I used vss in this image.  It's the Ebony texture by Virtual world, dark version with vss shader applied although I did increase the shine from the default .25 to .45 and lowered SSS from 1.000 to .3 - quite pleased with the results if I may say so :)  Thanks BB.

She does look good.

I also use VSS in image posted here. The SSS color was changed to dark purple (RGB=45,0,45) instead of default reddish color. Again shine increased to 0.5 because of effect of darker color.

This should work in P7 also.  I do not think VSS has any version incompatabilities (at least if using modern versions of Poser) as I understand P6 was first version to give Python access to material room, so you cants go below that.

settings:

2 infinite lights (1 white - raytraced shadows ,1 light blue -specular), vary your intensity to your liking.

1 IBL - outdoor Poser 8 IDL set at 10 with BB environment Sphere to bounce the light around.

render at 300 dpi , 10 pixel samples .1 min shading rate, 4 ray bounces

a little sharpen brush in Photoshop 7 to enhance the texture. She's really dark, and I think she came out alright.