After installing SR3 it looks different now, but still not what I would expect because it's totally flat in shadows. Maybe the combination of noise and velvet isn't that good for reflections.

But it is a lot better now, thank you very much for your help! :)

Thanks for mentioning the Service Releases, I have SR2 installed, but now downloaded SR3, will test as soon as possible if that changes anything - the shader itself rendered fine too, it was the raytraced reflection that was not rendering ok and looked totally different. :)

I think it is this "roughness" that causes the neat patterns on the cushions and this roughness isn't there in the reflections. So it seems it's not the velvet node but the other nodes in the shader that aren't visible in reflections. The other nodes are noise, clouds, fractal sums, and a lot of mathematical operations. :(

I rendered the original with Raytrace Depth of 5, but also samples with 12, it made no difference.

Don't forget Fingernails and Toenails - there it was annoyingly obvious. :)

But as you can see also in this attached render, extra hair maps aren't necessary, no fancy node settings in the MAT Room to get a different skin. Times are over when SSS washed out the original skin details like moles or hair.

(My Yves texture on Genesis)

I think that is the biggest sensation so far with the new Poser version. For demonstration I have attached a render with my Quentin for David - I've overdone the scatter a bit and the skin looks kind of waxy, I know, but the painted on body hair is in it's original sharpness and color, but the skin itself looks totally different. (No postwork for this render, this is a straight render out of Poser with the default lighting (One IBL with AO, two spots and I think an infinite light from the side, all with shadows turned on. (Shading Rate is 0.05).

The new scatter node is easy to apply, renders ultra fast (as the new Poser version in general got a huge performance push) and the best, under almost all lighting conditions, as long as the lights have shadows. 

No fancy blender thingies or nodes in the Material Room, really only basic - diffuse texture in the diffuse channel, bump in bump, spec in spec and Scatter in Alternate Diffuse. (When the scatter node is in the Alternate Diffuse, the normal diffuse strength must be turned down a bit to 0.2/0.3.) That's all. The scaling amount in the Scatter node decides how the skin looks, like wax with low amounts (0.2) or like skin with higher amounts (1.75) and if you set the texture detail to 1, no detail in the original texture gets lost.

@─ Silke: I'm really sorry if I maybe sounded a bit aggressive, that was NOT my intention. Maybe a bit, because I so seldom come to these forums and only found this by accident. Usually I get a PM here and so can help when someone has difficulties with one of my products.

I know that two M4's with high resolution (diffuse, bump, specular, displacement) maps, possible clothing, hair and then environment with props or figures fastly let the RAM fill, especially Poser is too fast at the edge. Then I always would recommend using a complete hairy texture instead of two M4's - almost every M4 character of mine at DAZ has several body hair options - as far as I know.

If you prefer a different skin, I recommend make the scene ready as it can be, with one M4 only and add the body hair M4 as a last step before rendering, possibly prepared in another scene seperately.

Render times depend on a variety of circumstances, not only the poly count, I would say that lighting is even more resposible for long render times than anything else. But if you do a little bit of planning for the final scene, I think it's always worth the wait.

@Ikendall - I havn't seen a satisfying result yet with body hair blended together in the Material Room, but I can retrace that experimentation there can be a lot of fun. But is it worth all the time and effort when there's an easier solution? I don't know. I have to give my customers something practicable when selling content, I can't rely on that they all like to experiment. ;) I really appreciate it though and sometimes it results in new ideas and even better products. :)

Just to answer several questions that came up here:

1.: If it doesn't work when conformed, DON't conform anything! You also don't need to parent anything. Simply treat the Body Hair Figure as a second M4 and exactly the same like the first M4 (with the skin texture on). Is it too difficult to apply a pose to 2 M4's instead of one? If you have altered the pose of the first M4, simply save it as a pose again and apply it to the 2nd (body hair) M4.)

1. Read the Documentation: http://artzone.daz3d.com/wiki/doku.php/azproduct/8790

There's a zip file for download to apply the body hair morph utility pose to unconformed M4 - that won't straighten the legs.

1. Material blendings of the body hair on the skin in the Material Room is a waste of time. You only have the color, but no bump and specular, so what do you think is the render result? I really can't recommend it.

2. AGAIN! CONFORMING an M4 to another M4 ALWAYS causes unexpected behavior and results, so DON't conform anting, if it isn't not necessary!

Is it really too difficult to work with two M4's in a scene? You simply only need to treat them equally, nothing else. One for the skin, one for the body hair. Make always sure that the right M4 is selected before doing anything. 

If it's too much to work with two M4's in the scene, simply make one M4 complete at first, you know, skin MATs, morphs, head hair, genitals and what else. In Poser - save it as a CR2, in DS save it as a scene file then. You can merge that second figure at any time into your scene, delete what's not necessary, applying Body Hair Morph and MATs, give it the same pose as your first M4 and render along.

1. I'm not often here in these forums, I have an own forum at MalePoserotica to answer questions about anything related to my products including Genital Addons and so on. I'm more often there so you always will get a reply for any questions regarding my products.

Don't waste too much time experimenting with stuff you don't know about instead of asking me first. I really would appreciate it.

 I'm glad we could solve this little bugger - and thank god it's not an error in my MATs, it's only a little adjustment in the preview settings. :)

Have fun rendering and give me a note when you maybe post something in the galleries. :)

Greetings,
Jepe

 IMO you don't need to make the first M4 invisible, when you selected the right figure, the MATs will be applied correctly and are usually visible.

I hope you noticed that there are two folders for the M4 Hairy Project, one for the face hair, another one for the bodyhair. I suggest you change to the body hair folder while the second M4 is still selected and then apply one of the body hair options.

The INJ pose file I mentioned is from my new Body Jewels 2 set btw, a similar pose file can be downloaded for the original M4 Hairy Project via the product page/documentation site at DAZ.

I can only guess right now, but possibly you applied the MAT pose to the wrong (first) M4.
Please make sure that you select the second M4 before applying the Body Suit INJ and MAT Poses from the BJs folder.

In Poser, you have to wait a little before the Body Jewels patterns are visible, because in the newer versions of Poser it takes a while for Poser to load the Maps into RAM.

I would also suggest to NOT conform the second M4 to the first and to use the "2Bodysuit UC INJ.pz2" file (The "Body Suit unconformed" pose). Treat the second M4 as a second figure and make always sure which M4 you select.

Duplicating a figure isn't complicated, make your character ready for the scene, apply texture MATs and maybe a pose and save this as a scene. Then you can work further on the character for hair, props and such. Finally in DS you can merge (in the "File-->Merge menu) a scene into the actual open document, in Poser you can import a Poser Document/Prop from the "File" menu. With merging/importing, yes, then you will have two overlapping figures in your scene, one for the texture, one for the jewels. Selection can be done via the small triangle on the upper left of the Preview window (in Poser) and in DS in the Scene tab. Make sure you always select the right figure, applying the MAT for the Jewels will turn every not necessary materials invisble that only the jewels are there.
Apply a pose to the first and the same to the second figure, that's not very difficult. Even when you want to tweak the pose manually, save the result as a pose and then apply it to the second figure.
So you can work without conforming one figure to the other, that often results in difficulties.

 Thanks for answering, bagginsbill. If you would ask me, I would say, you must find the right balance or it won't end up good for anything, not for your family nor for your business nor for your health. I think I can't believe that you aren't involved in the development of Poser and that no one wants your knowledge about Poser Shading, but if it is as you said, try to find the right people to colaborate with that your ideas don't get lost and that you earn what you deserve out of it.
I know that's not easy and almost 99% of the time it's better to make it all alone and depending on no one and nothing, but sometimes the chance passes by to do something at all if you do so.
Hope you understand what I mean.