I am going to start a space war where galactic fighter planes doing dog fights in the deep void so a convincing 360 degree view of the cosmos is necessary.

And also how do you do make the effect like warp space where the stars get left out in a trail of light for flying faster than the speed of light?

For the former I'd make a texture for something like BB's skydome using some background piccys from Nasa Those can be used freely without copyright issues. If you want a 3d style, which has depth ands where some stars move faster (sideways on) than others, is to try using my Parallax scroller freebie. It's a bit complex, but if you're patient it works really well. Click the banner/link below and choose Concepts & Tutorials from the menu. For the warp effect use particle illusion by wondertouch. The SE edition used to be free. Use that to create a short video then import that into poser as a video background. Thats what I used for the Trek transposter style freebie in freestuff here.

Poser atmosphere and depth cue also help.  BB has a nebula/starfield texture created in matmatic.  Check the older matmatic threads over in RDNA's The Node Cult forum.

Not sure Atmosphere would be of any use in a vacuum.  Depth cue maybe, since eyes focus on different things but Atmosphere, nope.

Then again, popular SF movies have explosion sounds in space.  Oh dearie me.  One thing about 2001 which put it above all others for this one thing if nothing else was its realistic treatment of sounds in a vacuum, ie, none. 

So maybe Atmosphere would get used after all, given most SF movies and animations are made for an audience with a room temperature IQ. :) 

you'll have 2 lighting choices.

"hollywood" or "realistic"

Hollywood - where the ship is nicely and evenly lit from all sides. think Star Trek, Star Wars etc.

Realistic - where there is 1 light source (local sun or reflected sun from a planet) or the ship is self lit (Running lights, spots, weapons fire) - think Babylon 5.

And as you approach relativistic speeds, don't forget that a starfield you move toward will blueshift, and one you travel away from will redshift.

But if you're going for action in interstellar space, then unless you are against a light emitter, like a nebula, then the only significant lighting will be what the ships themselves carry. If you stick with realism, that is. 

yup.. thats why if you observe... the area the Babylon 5 stories were set in, was unusually rich in nebulas to be in the backgrounds....

Oh.

..................

I thought it was because they dropped too much acid after going to see a Chesley Bonestell retrospective and a theatrical re-release of 2001.....  :P