Just a quick note on the difference between what your doing and what radosity is. . . Raytracing and radosity are both subsets of GI the big difference is that Raytracing assumes all surfaces are polished and shiny where radosity assumes all surfaces are difussed and with radosity the direction of light doesn't matter only the intensity. Not that any of that is going to help you but what might is using kickers. Kickers are lights that come from beneth a scene and help to diffuse the shadows. I'll dig up a render done in poser that uses a form of GI using kickers and you will be able to see the difference. Another good idea and this was mentioned by you is to raise your lights above the scene. On the rare occasion I actually use GI in a program that does not have IBL or radosity I always raise them high, it consentrates the shadows more so the kickers remove the excess shadows. Don't know if any of this will help but it will give you more to play with at any rate. Attached is a quick render in Vue using only four lights and one kicker.