Hint for those struggling with IDL...

Use The "Render Firefly" script located under Scripts:Partners:Dimension3d:Render Firefly

In addition to your being able to set all of the stuff that is available on the Poser Advanced Render Options screen, there are a number of VERY useful controls located there not available elsewhere.

Under "Enable Indirect Light"

Intensity

This defaults to 1. If you are using Bagginsbill's Envdome (I hope you are) then this default works pretty well for outside scenes. If, however, your shadows look extremely washed out, you can fix the problem by dropping this level to around .5 and increasing your shadow casting light to about 50%. This actually "turns down" the light from the dome. It's also effective if you are using the dome and want a render in low light.

Precalculation Scale

This is the part of using IDL where you can grow old waiting. By setting this to around .5 you half the size of the pre-calc image (reducing it's area to 1/4!) and speed the process remarkably with no visual impact on the final render.

 

One other IDL hint:

Turn "Light Emitter" OFF (uncheck the box) in the properties screen of all transmapped hair. This will speed the process by a huge factor and, again, have minimal impact on the finished render. (I see none at all, but am told there is a difference. Trust me on this one... it's negligible at most.)

Hope the above helps.