The pathing isn't bad if you set your Poser import options correctly. Textures on the other hand... Getting them to look "meh' is fairly easy. As Dale said, it's primarily the transparency and in addition any "glowing" or reflective materials that require adjustment. Getting the materials to look "great" on the other hand, involves some time and effort. Once you've done it for a bit, it's not difficult, but can still take some time. Personally, I feel he effort is well worth it.

Really? I noticed quite a difference going from  a 4870 to a 5870. Were they comparable cards in terms of quality?

I went from 8g RAM to 16g, using 10 Infinite, and found that speeded things up quite a bit.

Excellent!

Did you render externally without loading the image first? It uses up substantially less resources that way.

Nice image, BTW!

No problem. Let me know if that works. I'm curious myself.

It might be a video card issue. You might want to try rendering externally.

It has nothing to do with CAD. Pick up a copy of 3d World or 3D art. Nearly all of the computers or video cards featured in ads or reviews are workstation cards. Then read the articles and see what the professionals use. In all cases, regardless of what software they use, they will use professional video cards.

Are they absolutely necessary? No, not even for CAD. Hell, I'm in the building trade and everybody I know that uses CAD uses a standard desktop, nothing fancy. However, if you're building a computer for a specific purpose (and you have the cash - as you stated, these cards are quite a bit more expensive), then it stands to reason that you would want a card specifically designed for that purpose.

Here are the cards that E-On has specifically tested and approved:

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_10_infinite/?page=15

If you buy one of these cars, you should be good (for Vue anyway). I have Poser Pro and Zbrush. I am using an AMD 5780 and have no problems with any of these programs, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you won't...

Good video game play and good graphics play are not neccessarily the same, that's why they make video cards specifically for graphics work. If that's what this computer is solely going to be used for, that would be your best bet. More reliability, better driver support.

That being said, my computers have always done both. Getting a high-end gaming card has always worked fine for me. The last I knew, AMD's 7970 was at the top of the heap, although that tends to change every few months or so.

I wasn't aware that AMD had CUDA support, as CUDA is/or was a proprietary NVDIA technology. Nor is CUDA necessary - at least with Vue- as I've only used AMD cards since Vue 3.5 and they worked fine for the most part. As Bruno says, if you're going to use a gaming card, I would check with E-on and get the best one they reccomend that you can afford.

Quote - Vue only cares about your video card and its driver.  Your computer needs to be built around it.  People here have spent thousands on a new computer (fast CPU, lots of cores, lots of RAM, the largest hard drive(s)) and Vue wouldn't run until they installed a video card that it liked.

I've been running Vue 10 Inifinite just fine on my Penitum 4 (single core) 2GB RAM WinXP32 system.  And Vue loves my video card.

Ahhh. That's because you're running 32 bit. The maximum amount any 32 bit application can adress is 2 gigs.  I stopped using 32 bit Vue around 8 or so. I use a crapload of Poser imports in most of my renders and had major problems after the first update. I bought Win7 64 bit, went from 4 to 8 gigs of RAM and everything was hunky dory. 16 gigs and it was smooth as pie (mostly!)

As far as the VGA goes, that mostly affects the GUI, not the actual rendering.

Also:

1. As far as RAM compatibility goes, if you know the brand/ model/ chipset of your MB, you can go to either the chipset/mb manufacturer website and find  a list of acceptible RAM. That being said, I've built 6 computers for myself and 4 computers for my son over the past 13 years or so and only had RAM compatibilty problems once, and that was with a NVidia Nforce 2 chipset waaaay back when dual channel RAM first came out.

2. As far as PSUs go, any PC's I've looked at that were built by generic manufacturers (Dell, HP, etc.) had power supplies that barely met the specs required with the original parts. Upgrade a video card and you've pushed your 12V rail to the max. Personally, I wouldn't go below a 650W for a workstation-type computer. In fact, mine has had a 1000w for the last 8 years or so.

3. If you're using a 64bit system, 2 slots is limiting your upgradability, unless you want to go with 2 giant sticks. Most standard MB's come with 4 slots if it's dual channel, 6 if it's triple channel.

4. Rich, if you have the ability to build your own, I strongly recommend it. You have a lot more control over the quality of the components. If not, try Newegg, or Cyberpower.

There are only two RAM slots. Vue loves RAM. I noticed a pretty significant improvement when I went from 8g to 16g.

The video card is less of a concern. As long as you have a PCIE slot and a power supply to handle a more agressive card, you can always upgrade. I don't see any info on that in the link, which makes me think that this computer is more for a casual user.

First off, are you sure the video card is the problem? In my experience, Vue is pickier about the amount of RAM you have, rather than the video card.

Secondly, what ATI card are you using?

I've had Vue 3.4, 5, 6.5, 8, 9, 9.5 and 10. All I've ever used were ATI cards and I've only had 1 issue that disappeared with the next driver version. Which brings me to the next question: Have you tried updating your drivers?

It's probably your bump map settings. It shows up in the dialogue popup evertime you import a Poser file. Make the number smaller. I think mine is set for -.0005. The minus is because bumpmaps for Vue and Poser are opposite.

First off, I think "Dominican Pirates" is a marvelous piece!

I noticed, as others mentioned here, that some of your Vue renders look too washed out or foggy. In some of those, it looks like you are adding a fog effect post render. If that's so, you're missing out on one of Vue's more outstanding features. Take some time to fiddle with the atmosphere settings. Vue can produce some great fog/mist without obscuring foreground details. No post work fog needed.

All the smoke and explosion effects here came from alpha planes created in PI.
http://www.dreamslayerartworks.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=1471&catid=member&orderby=title&direction=ASC&imageuser=3548&cutoffdate=-1
 For the record: I only have the PLE. These alpha planes came with Monsoon's marvelous "Fire" package.
http://www.cornucopia3d.com/purchase.php?item_id=8175