I can't believe that in 2015 we're still talking about long render times.  As many as 8 cpus on one board at tremendous speeds with fountains of memory...

My first problem is that we have to decide what aspects of realism we want.  It should just be "Real" as a default then dial down from there for stylistic purposes, should someone not want "real." If I want to attempt real, I have to have a doctorate in shaders, render settings, plugins, python scripts...I understand some people prefer the esotericism, it gives them something to do, but for me...I just want to be creative and move forward. 

Don't even get me started on the state of affairs with hair.  This continues to be a major WTF? problem again, all the way in the year 2015.  Just think back, those of you who were around, to 1999, 16 years ago, and ask that person using Poser 4 where they'd imagined the state of Poser to be in 2015.  Now ask yourself...are we anywhere near that?

Probably piracy is to blame.  No money; no development other than scraps.  No rethinking the software from the ground up. 

It would take a big chunk of money up front to get something truly new and revolutionary.  Crowd-source? 

 Also, what about technology?  What about an expansion board with nothing but gpus/cpus/memory on it that 3d programs could interface with for faster rendering, be it real time or click and wait?  Maybe a desktop box that connects through USB3 (or greater) (or something) for a compact render farm on the cheap(er)?

Obviously, I have no idea, but damn, I'm willing to have a dialogue, I'm willing to hear real ideas, and I believe I'm about the perfect end-user to say "Yes, this is how it should work" to "No, that is needlessly complicated, how about if..."

Can nothing be done?  2015!  It's been 16 years since Poser 4.