No, not a metaphysical question.

Pret-a-3D's software is on sale at 50% https://www.renderosity.com/mod/bcs/reality-4-3---poser-edition/107744/

I think of it as a stand alone renderer, but is that really what it is? Or is it more?

Second, can I use it on my main graphics machine which for security reasons is firewalled from the internet? I kinda got skunked by Blacksmith 3D which installed a kill switch since I my version of 5 such that if you don't get permission periodically it automatically deactivates. That kind of software is not acceptable for our work.

Top 10 reasons to use Reality

The most accurate PBR, unbiased rendering system, based on LuxRender, the benchmark of quality in the field.

The easiest material editor in the industry.

Non-blocking rendering: continue working in DAZ Studio or Poser while the render runs.

Adjust the light's intensity and color while the render runs.

Adjust the scene's exposure while the render runs.

Use GPU and CPU acceleration at the same time.

Use GPUs from nVidia, AMD, or other brands, and you can mix them together.

Apply film emulation to create a new, more filmic look.

Physically-Based Materials make it intuitive to edit your scene. No confusing nodes or endless lists of properties.

Run multiple renders at the same time.

Same interface whether you use DAZ Studio or Poser.

Automatic presets simplify your workflow.

Share material presets with other Reality artists.

Use the same presets in the DAZ Studio and Poser editions of Reality.

Stop and resume the render at any time.

Unlimited network rendering, even with mixed OSes (Mac OC, Windows, and Linux machines).

Fully documented.

Reasons #11-17 were bonus ;).

Reality is a rendering solution that extends Poser or Daz Studio providing the most advanced Physics-Based Rendering system in the market.

Reality has built-in physics-based materials. At any time you know what kind of material your editing.

Please note that the previous post is purely unsubstantiated opinion. Unless someone is referencing actual tests with comparable products, they are offering nothing more than personal anecdotes.

Here's my opinion. I bought several version and gave them an honest try. I love supporting the underdog, and with the programmer's long involvement in the Poserverse and Dazville, I felt that he was someone to trust and support.

Stuff to like....

-being able to change lighting while it rendered was absolutely brilliant. This saved soooo much time since I didn't have to wait for a render to finish to fiddle with the lights.

-documentation was pretty good.

-being able to continue playing while it rendered was nice but I rarely took advantage of this. I normally set a scene to render when I leave work and let the renderer use everything.

Stuff that sucked.....

-Pret-a-3D is just one guy. Bless his heart, he gives it a hero's try...but he's just one guy. Support ranged from spotty to non-existent. I was having a problem with the program either ignoring my camera or creating it's own to use. After many requests for help, another user piped up that this had been a known problem for some time. Huh?! If it was known, why wasn't it mentioned in the documentation? When I tried to uninstall it to install a newer version I ran into all manner of problems. The author was adamant that one only had to delete the installed directory. Several users again piped up (many with screenshots) mentioning that the installer threw files all over the place that required deletion for a clean install. The author never answered these. If you look at the Reality forum you'll see a few questions that haven't been answered despite being months old.

-I loved the idea that one didn't have to buy pricey (and increasingly redundant) shader packs but I found that all materials looked the same, mostly glossy. Making one's own materials for every scene become burdensome and prone to error.

In the end I asked for a refund. In Blender or Poser I now use Cycles. The few times I use Studio I just suck it up and use Iray. There's enough free shaders available that I don't have to feed Daz3D's cash cow.

Of course, this is just my personal opinion based on my own experience. Your kilometerage may vary.

Thanks to both of you. Very much.

Really the only thing that bothers me is the incomplete files removal. I don't like bloat in my system with orphaned files.

I really enjoyed Jen's review. In addition to being informative it made me smile!

Baginski89543, might you possibly have a link to the Reality forum? I'm going to try and look for it after leaving here.

http://preta3d.com/forums/

My experience with Reality - is it's as buggy as hell and a real pain to work with. Its also very slow to render unless you have a very powerful up to date Graphics card. The length of time it took to set up mats etc for Reality and the slowness of renders outweighed the ability to alter lighting while rendering. Iray CPU rendering was faster for me than Reality was and altering surfaces for Iray was much quicker than altering mats for Reality.

Thank you for weighing in. It sounds like there will be little support for the Poser version, which is what I am looking at.

Appreciate the link. I may buy it on sale just to try it, but as I said, I don't like programs leaving orphaned files all over the place.

If you're working/playing/just goofing around in Poser, then you should be hanging around in the Poser forums at Smith Micro. There's a few serious and quite knowledgeable Cycles gurus there, who are always enthusiastic about lending a hand. BagginsBill(?) is the go-to gent for shaders and always includes the math used to derive his material nodes...great fun for the older brain trying to keep in shape!

We also have Poser forums right here on the site and Bagginsbill and others will answer any questions there as well. HERE

Yes he will... if he reads it. If he doesn't there are others who, while they may not be the guru BB is, will definitely try to help you and are around a lot more frequently. No, I don't mean me.