Quote - Hmm.  I'll have to close down some program while it renders to see what happens - in the event I have another one running, that is.  What's this about running Poser 8 at a lower priority, though?  I assume that's different from a separate process.

Yep. The thread I linked explains it. If you go to task manager and look at the processes tab, highlight poser.exe and right click on it, you will see that there is the option to set priority. (The thread explains how to create an icon to load poser always at this lowered priority).

By default, I think, poser.exe is set to normal. By setting it to below normal, it gives priority to other processes. That would seem to suggest that poser would run more slowly (and maybe it does... slightly). But it also seems to prevent momentarily cpu intense processes from competing  with poser and causing it to hang. At least, that's how I understand it, and it has improved things for me. As always, your mileage may vary.

There are probably other things that cause Poser to hang. Installing into program files, instead of its own directory, under Vista or Win 7, for example. Or not installing the !DAZ folder for Daz figures in the main poser runtime. Or using content with incorrect paths that force poser to search for files.

Actually, on the last one, it seems that poser sometimes just randomly forgets where stuff is located. It may load a prop just fine in one scene and then spend an eternity searching for a texture the next time. I have no explanation for this other than that when runtimes exceeed a certain size (mine are 97 gb) amyloid proteins begin forming in tangles that disturb the normal neuronal functioning causing poser to suffer from early onset dementia.

Then again, it could just be me.

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PoserPro 2014, PS CS5.5 Ext, Nikon D300. Win 8, i7-4770 @ 3.4 GHz, AMD Radeon 8570, 12 GB RAM.