Thank you kindly.

And what does the dollar sign mean?

Quote - I've downloaded LuxRenderer, but if it's going to take me 5 hours to render a scene that PPro takes 20 minutes to do, I probably won't be buying Reality3 at all.  That sort of wait for a render, no matter how good it looks, just isn't worth it for me.

If that's the case, then Reality is definitely not for you.

My own brief experience using Reality with DAZ a couple years ago taught me that Lux is the ultimate test of patience for 3D art hobbyists.  For me, however, the results are absolutely worth it.

Case in point, this was my first Reality render, created in March 2011, using DAZ Studio to set it up.  It took 48 hours in Lux (due in large part to the high resolution) to reach a level of image quality I was happy with, and would have been impossible to achieve with Firefly (it's work safe):

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=2179882&user_id=463114&np&np

I switched back to Poser a couple of projects later after learning that Reality was incompatible with procedural shaders.  Thankfully, with Reality 3 for Poser, that is no longer the case, and I can finally stop being envious of DAZ users when I start new projects.  ;)

First off, welcome!  :)

Quote - ... It's actually on a Microsoft Surface Pro.

A tablet is not an effective tool for creating 3D art.

• It lacks the video processing power required to maintain smooth performance in the Preview window as you add content to your scenes.
• It lacks the drive space required to store your content as you build your collection.
• It lacks the RAM and CPU power required to quickly render your final images.

Bottom line, you're going to quickly find the Surface woefully inadequate for your needs as a burgeoning artist.

Quote - Rendering takes time, of course, but I don't have much of a comparison for how long renders typically take in Poser, as I'm new to it. But, after installing Anastasia, and rendering one of the setups that is included with it (model, pose, lights, backdrop), it renders in probably ~2 minutes.

That render time will increase sharply when working with more complex scenes.

Quote - The tablet hasn't had problems with much of anything I've thrown at it. I've loaded Mass Effect 2, Bulletstorm, and a couple other games, and it runs them well.

Video games use visual effects that are baked in to the software.  There's no raw processing power required to render them.

Quote - The Clearance Sale has been extended to Sunday 7th April.

http://www.renderosity.com/clearance-items-for-just-3-50---extended--cms-16605

Saw that this morning.  Nice.

I finished going through all 52 pages last night.  Thankfully, I didn't find that much I wanted.  I still won't be able to buy it all by the 7th, but at least I know which items were included.  I also went ahead and picked up a couple of must-haves.

I now have $96 worth of content on my wish list.

Alright, well I'm gonna add what I can to my wish list.  If it's still there in a week or so, then I'll assume I have time to save up.  If it's not, oh well...

Great...

I've already found some stuff I want, but can't afford yet, so I'm adding what interests me to my wish list... hope it's there when I'm ready to buy...

Quote - It must be April 1st at your house already. :D

Something like that...  :P

hehehe

Problem solved... the content I was trying to test is actually a Prop instead of a Figure...

:: facepalm ::

Quote - Restart the program and add it again?  I sometimes have to do that in Poser 9.

I could, but never had to do that before.

I have four HDD's, one of which is used exclusively for digital art.  It houses all of my software and content.  The TestRuns folder is on the root of that drive.  When I install new content to test, the folder structure looks like this:

TestRuns Runtime

And then I click Refresh on the TestRuns folder in Poser.

Quote - You should be able to pose two naked, unmodified figures together, save as a scene...

That'll work.  Thanks.

Quote - Are you sure it's not loading, and not that it's simply out of view...

The bath does load.  I've used it before.  And you're right, each section of the home is designed to load on different areas of the ground plane, so that if you were to load every section at once, the home would be fully assembled.

Ok, I've got a bit of a problem that apparently isn't going to be as easy a fix as I'd hoped.

Keep in mind I know nothing about how to use SSS beyond the vague descriptions I've read in the reference manual, and the demo thread about SSS on human figures over at RDNA.  Nevertheless, I would really like to learn how to take advantage of it.

I'm working on my first scene with SSS, using the Dublin character for V4, which comes with SSS shaders.  Trouble is, her skin looks too transluscent, and I need to know how to dial down the translucency.  Below is a shot of her face, and the shader nodes that came with the SkinHead.

The scene is indoors, namely the Dream Home Kitchen by DAZ Studio.  The lighting is my own setup, using a 4-point system with a Key, Back, and two Fill lights, and IDL.  GC is enabled in render settings with all props and figures set to 1 via the MaterialMods script.

And the higher the number, the more translucent the material?