Quote - > Quote - Not sure how Arnold is irrelavant. Something like Reality could be made to use it with Poser. Presently Arnold is rather expensive, but that does not mean it will stay that way. Many Render Farms are already using it, putting it easily in reach of any 3D artist.

I agree, but since this thread seems focused on considering the comparison of Vue, Octane, and Poser Firefly, I'd be interested in seeing any human renders from Vue which can produce results like Octane's render engine.  So far, I've not seen any human skin shaders in Vue that convince me of it's potential for such a purpose, but I've also come to realize that this is often not the fault of the render engine, but rather what the software is intended for, and how the users choose to impliment it's use.  On the other hand, I've seen a plethora of very convincing human skin renders from Octane:

The question is though.... are these poser figures?

Artwork and 3DToons items, create the perfect place for you toon and other figures!

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/index.php?vendor=23722

Due to the childish TOS changes, I'm not allowed to link to my other products outside of Rendo anymore :(

Food for thought.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYZw0dfLmLk