If you've mostly prototyping paintings in 3D, Aeilkema, the free DAZ Studio might worth a look. It now has a _ lot_ of preset landscapes on the DAZ Store, and plugins for easy depth haze and similar. No ecosystems, though. It's free, so no harm taking a look. Scene Optimiser is a DAZ plugin that makes iRay renders feasible for those without a chunky graphics card.

Personally I'll be sticking with the last good version of Vue, Vue 2016 R5 (before the UI started to get messed with), and pairing it with Poser 11 Pro as they work seamlessly together). I guess Poser 12 will be the next to go to a subscription model (sigh).

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Learn the Secrets of Poser 11 and Line-art Filters.