Welcome back!!! I was just thinking about you last week for some reason.  I was searching for something and happened on an old thread that you had posted in.

I don't use Daz, and I'm grossly behind in Poser versions.

I'm currently still using Poser 6 because my computer has an onboard graphic card that doesn't have OpenGL, so Poser 2010 is very sluggish to use.

With Poser 9 and Poser 2012, comes IDL (Indirect Lighting), and I'm very impressed with what I see.

So far as Daz vs Poser, I think it's all just a matter of preference. I think Daz is free at the moment.  But I don't think it has the cloth room so you can't do dynamic clothing. And I think Poser's material room is more powerful than Daz (though I could be mistaken).

So whatever program you decide to go with, we're looking forward to seeing what you do with it :)

"It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never
able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us.
This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good
heart whatever they might have to say." - Ghandi