Could you expalin a little more regarding your rendering issue(s) with DS? DS still uses 3Delight, but since DS4 Pro is free, you now get UberEnvironment2 and UberSurface with DS4 (may have been available with standard DS4 too, but I don't remember). If your issue with DS3 was render speed, that hasn't changed a whole lot with DS4 (there may be improvements with 4.5, but I haven't tried it, and haven't kept up with info on it).

Since I'm not sure what your issues were with DS3, I'll throw out a few random thoughts here that might be of interest.

Getting decent renders out of DS 3 and 4 has always been easier for me than with Poser, but that's just because Poser lights and I don't seem to get along (some day I will get past this). Compared to Poser Pro (10 & 12) I think rendering in DS is slower. As far a fender quality, in the right hands I think either one is capable of achieving equivalant results. If you were to move up to P9, for the average user it seems that P9/2012 has an edge on DS4 for SSS, but I have seen DS4 renders where SSS looks every bit as good as P9/2012 renders (again, it depends on the experience and talents of the user).

A lot depends on the type of render you are looking for, and how easy that style/quality is to achieve in either application. I do most of my renders in Carrara, because I'm most comfortable there. But I have been able to achive results I like just as well in DS. Take a quick look at my gallery here (link below), and if there is anything you see there done in DS4 that interests you, I'll be glad to tell you more about it (there is one "DS" render done with Reality/Lux, all others are 100% DS), and how I set up materials and lighting. I'm still pretty much a newb with DS.

__________________________________________________________

My Rendo Gallery ........ My DAZ3D Gallery ........... My DA Gallery ......