I'm a grass-green newbie working (floundering) in Daz Studio 4.5 (I joined this site in 2009, but then had a computer too weak for 3D programs).  This might be an old question for this group, but I can't find the answer via forum topic seach.  I see that Poser-capable models sold by Daz3D can be used in Daz Studio, but these items have extra files that enable the Poser models to work in DS.  But many products marketed at Renderosity are listed as compatable with versions of Poser and make no mention of DS capability.  Obviously such models would not have any DS enabling files added.  Are models that are made strictly for Poser unusable in DS?  That would be a shame,  because there are model subjects here that have been neglected at Daz3D (like, all those spaceships at DAZ, but none of them with crew's quarters).  In trying to learn DS, I feel like I'm already wrestling with a bear.  I don't want to have to learn Poser at the same time, and, anyway, I like Genesis and the drift of the posts I read seems to say that it doesn't work efficiently in Poser, even with DSON support.

Newbie answer for newbie question:

Most items at Renderosity.com (as well as most Poser-esque content) can be used in Daz Studio.  A few exceptions are shaders and scripts as these depend heavily on the software's engine and scripting language.  Poses, props and figures usually work with little or no tweaking.

The only trick is installing and finding them.  Most people distribute their stuff with in a .zip with the folder structure built in.  For example the Toldi I Light by papus3d ( www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=72481 ) has a folder called Runtime, which unzips into your Daz studio My Library folder.  To find it in Daz, go to your Content Library tab (not Smart Content) and look under Poser Formats -> My Daz 3D Library -> Figures -> Papus3d.  The mats and add-ons (such as tools) are spread out under Pose and Props.

Some products are not distributed with the folder structure, leaving it up to you to decide where in your Runtime folder to place it.

I always open the .zip file and poke about a bit before unzipping it to figure out what's inside and where they are located.

There is a lot written about how to organize a Poser runtime folder.  I'm ashamed to say, I usually just unzip into my runtime with no effort at organization.

I don't think I have come across any that don't work in Daz.

Most Poser products will work to some level in DAZ studio, but DS and Poser handle material settings (surface tab in DS) very differently. 

More recent version of Poser support complicated (procedural) descriptions of surfaces. DS has similar capabilities in the shader mixer, but the two are incompatible and there is no automatic way to translate. Figuring out how to translate or adjust the materials in DS is not for beginers.

Currently, I have bought characters that I have skin material that is not set up for DS. I have learned how to setup skin materials in DS from just the texture maps. This is a lot of extra work. It takes me several days. I would not recommend it to a new user.

Popser product occasionally include Python scripts. Those will not work in DS.

E.g. Poser weight-mapped clothing that is distributed as cr2 solely won't work in DAZ Studio as such, which is quite some clothing amount for Dawn (the rigging of the DAZ Studio Dawn is different than the Poser Dawn). If you want to buy clothing for Dawn, it is best to stick to DAZ Studio supported products only - some vendors support both DAZ Studio and Poser in that regard. There is also some Poser-used rigging type (bone structure etc.) that is not easily transfered to DAZ Studio, which I think one of the Miki characters used, however, this one should be less frequent or almost non existant. Furthermore, while DAZ Studio has become more forgiving at interpreting bad quads or n-gons (polygon faces defined 4 or more points), there are some products which cause errors there, which can result in an odd surface structure or black polygons on the model. The latter is again not that frequent, but yes, I got a 'rosity product which is unusable due to that in DAZ Studio.

Space ships and the like should work for most part, but certainly would require at least tweaking of the surfaces/materials by yourself. If in doubt address the vendor and ask whether it potentially works. You can also always ask on the forum whether it is ok to risk buying a certain product or some product reviews may mention whether it works in DAZ Studio or not.

In general anything that uses Cr2 (Figures), Pp2 (Props), Pz2 (Poses), Hr2 (Hair), Fc2 (Face Expression Poses), or Hd2 (Hand Poses) formats will work in Daz or Poser both without difficulty, though as said by others some tweaking of surfaces may be needed to get the right effect for rendering.

Then again, most users will tweak surfaces settings to get various effects of lighting and look in Daz or Poser anyways, no figure is every completely perfect out of the box so to speak...

The exceptions are weight-mapped figures which as stated above are handled differently in Daz than in Poser, and Dynamic clothes/items which are also handled differently between these two programs. Poser "proceedural" textures/materials won't function in Daz (noted above as well I beleive) either...

Also light sets won't transfer between Daz and Poser, nor will camera presets...

Aside from those how-ever, pretty much any Poser file will work in Daz as well (I may have missed a few file types and if so I apologize), and most will require little or no tweaking to work except for touching up surface/material settings...

 Looking over a product readme file should give you an idea if proceedurals have been used for materials or if weight-mapping is present, as should most product descriptions...

I regularily go back and forth between Daz and Poser when I create items and haven't had any major issues with standard files between the two (actualy I've been able to figure out what base surface settings will transport from Poser to Daz as almost identical values). I use Daz's figure set-up tools to create products that function in both Daz and Poser with out too much issue at all...

I hope this helps some... :)

Poser Dynamic anything does not work in DAZ.  If it has the word "Dynamic" in it, you can't use it.  That goes for clothes and hair so make sure you stay aware of that word.

As others have stated, Python Scripts do not work in DAZ, it uses a different scripting language, and shaders work differently, but that can be gotten around.

Often PZ3 scene files do not load completely properly in DAZ, the cameras and lights are off.  Lights are a particular problem, they sometimes come accoss as black or too bright.

Aside from that, pretty much everything else works.

Props, morphs, clothes, and figures generally work in DAZ.  Rumor has it there are problems with some of the Dawn clothing working in DAZ, since I don't use Dawn I can't help you there, but my understanding is that Dawn for DAZ and Dawn for Poser are not the same figure, and autofit has a fit on some of the clothes for Dawn since it (by design I assume) does not recognize the figure.

Poser and DS "read" shaders differently.