I had a different problem. Stephanie loaded and looks fine in Poser 7. (I have Poser 8 but I'm not running it.) BUT when I loaded the new version of V4, the updater failed to work. The updater couldn't find the os.py module. Does anyone know where the Python lib directory is supposed to be with Poser 7? Python works fine in Poser, by the way.

 Maybe, but I am just about certain that I did the save. If you look at the Recent Posts for yesterday, you will see there is a gap of almost 20 minutes between 4:27 pm and 4:43 pm when no new posts went in. And that is about the time I made my post. So I think its more likely that there was a temporary glitch in accepting new posts. It has happened before, and quite recently, too.

 IBL lighting has been around since Poser 6. I use IBL lighting in Poser 7 very extensively and there are some very good IBL light sets by SaintFox, Blackhearted and others. 

For female characters in Poser, you will find far more character products for V4 than all the others combined, and that is largely on account of the V4 morphs++ package.  And because V4 is so widely used, there are vastly more clothing and hair products for her. Yes, these can be converted to other figures with Wardrobe Wizard but these conversions rarely fit as well as on the original.

 Just trying P8 but having problems not the least of which is the new library interface which seems unsuited for managing multiple runtimes. P7 (Mac) is stable as a rock for me.

 Obviously way too much light. For my quick look renders I use one diffuse IBL and one infinite light. I first turn off all but the IBL and set it so the scene is just light enough to make out the color of the surfaces but no more. Then I add one infinite light set at about 60 or 70 percent rotating it to come from the upper left or upper right. I use the lowest auto render setting that includes shadows. For indoor scenes and portraits I start with one diffuse IBL and one point light. Hope this helps.

mazzam

 Well, Nathalie missed at least one sale.

 Running Poser 7 on a quad core Mac Pro. when I set 4 threads in the Preferences under Render, I am getting quire impressive render times. It really is much faster and has changed my work flow. But as pointed out above, each process gets a quadrant of your image and if all the complex stuff is in one quad, the other three will finish pronto and you will still have to wait for one processor to grind away.

Poser 7 has become very critical on path names for textures since SR3 came out. See if you made an alias for your main runtime by accident or created another directory with the same name. That will get the search monumentally confused. If the search happens to hit a folder name that matches and there is nothing that looks like a runtime inside it, I believe it will instantly tell you the texture can't be found. And don't ever create a folder anywhere named 'Poser 7' or any of the names you use for your stand alone runtime locations. 

The Ballroom Expansion Set at DAZ includes an elegant grand piano and matching piano bench. But I doubt if the keys are movable - it is a prop not a character. If you are a Platinum member at DAZ the set is $1.99 but be sure to get the Ballroom, too for another $1.99.

If I were making a piano pose I would find some pictures of concert pianists on the Internet, start out with a basic seated pose and then pose the collars, shoulders and forarms to get a position that looked like the photo and do the hands and fingers last.

 Same problem for me. Are you going to extend sale items that expire today for another day or two? And it would be nice to get an email when the site is working again.

I found the problem. A displacement setting for one of the material zones was too high. I changed the displacement setting for 'plate1' from 0.11629 to 0.00117 and it  renders properly. Same fix worked on the arm gauntlet. The texture image is used for the displacement map. The larger setting works for the black material but  the red is so much brighter, the scale has to be set much smaller.

 That isn't the problem. It is only one material zone, the red trim, that 'blows up' on the actor that is the problem. (I did turn off 'smooth polygons' on all parts of the kn1legs.cr2 and it made no difference.) The image on the product page for this item shows that the red  trim is supposed to have a small displacement but I am getting at least 10 times too much.

If it gets dark after you add the scene, the scenery is cutting off the light. The fix depends on the  type of light. If they are infinite lights, select each light, go to the properties page and uncheck  'shadows'. Or select the parts of the scenery that are cutting off the light and go to the scenery property page and uncheck 'casts shadows' there.

For the best results, figure out how the x,y,z coordinates work so you can create spotlights and position them inside the scenery so there is nothing in between the spotlight and the model. Hint. If you create a new spotlight, the last light in your 'select lights' list "Shadowcam lght xx" will show you  the view from your light to the model. Move the position and pointing of the light until the model is about in the middle of the picture.

I have never used the instant messenger. Is there anything I can read to figure out how it works? Just as simple as how to drop a message to someone? (I guess I am not a member of the IM generation :)