Some of this may be old news to people, but I don't recall seeing details about this here.  I hope I'm not pointing out something terribly obvious with this.  I have come to find out that Poser 7's default lights act very differently from lights created by pulling down the Object menu and selecting Create Light.  Follows are some render settings that illustrate this.

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Render settings for all the subsequent renders...

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All the following are rendered with one Infinite light at exactly the same orientation, the Transform properties branch was cut and pasted between two different lights.  First a default light with default settings, shadow map 256, depth mapped shadows, shadow min bias .8.

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Default light, shadow map 256, min bias .1 (isn't lower min bias supposed to improve quality?)

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Default light, shadow map 1024, min bias .8.  A strange thing, the shadow map cannot be set higher than 1024 for a default light since it has a max limit of 1024, although this can be changed by double clicking the dial.

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Default light, shadow map size 1024, min bias .1.

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Created light, shadow map 256, min bias .8 (the default settings when the light is created). Note that the color of the light is different, otherwise default.  I see that the parameter dials shows a very different shader node config, and I don't really know what effect that has, but it looks markedly different even discounting the color.

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Created light, shadow map 256, min bias .1.  Again there are those ugly moire (?) stripes.

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Created light, shadow map 1024, min bias .8.

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Created light, shadow map 1024, min bias .1.

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Created light, shadow map 2048, min bias .8.  BagginsBill tells me 2048 is a decent quality shadow map size.

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Created light, shadow map 2048, min bias .1.  I can't tell any difference between this image and the previous, although this may just be too simple an example to show.

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Properties for the default light (although note that it loads with a shadow map size of 256).

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Properties for the created light (again, note that it loads with a shadow map of 256).

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I see that default lights have a very simple material config, with only a Preview material group, but that created lights have LampFlaps and LampBase materials groups.  The default light material config is here.  This material group is Preview (duh).  Created light's Preview material group is exactly the same.  **Including the color!**

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Created light lampFlaps group.  Note the color is the same as the default light.

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Created light lampBase group.  All settings are the same as the default light.  **Color is the same again!**  Why does the light look so different??

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For reference, a render from Vue 6i with default Sun light and atmosphere (apples to oranges, since this is an entirely different lighting model and render engine, but here you go).

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Vue Global Illumination model...

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Looking at all the above, I am suspicious that created lights actually put out triple the total light that a default light does (3 shader nodes all set to Intensity = 1).

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I'm wondering if maybe it's got something to do with that shader node thingie which doesn't appear in any documentation that I've found yet. I really ought to do some experimenting with it I guess

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I haven't noticed the difference in intensity, but there is a subtle difference in "penetration" for lack of a better term.

I tried to make all settable parameters identical for this comparison.

Note that the 'original' light shows through the window, while the 'created'
light doesn't. 

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The original lights also have different shadow camera names and controls, although it appears that only the names of the controls are changed. There is something totally screwy about the naming of new lights. If you delete an original light, the new lights inherit the old light's name (light 1, etc.), but the Shadow Cam doesn't. So after deleting Light 1 and Light 3, then creating two new lights, you have Lights 1 -3, but Shadow Cams 2, 4, and 5.

Lighting in P7 is so utterly hosed it's hardly worth complaining about. How this junk got past beta is beyond me. I just wasted a hour trying to find a version of BB's nostril glow fix that works for an old V2 figure. Hopeless. The methods don't work, and when you sort of have them kind of approximated, the result still has nostril glow. As near as I can tell, IBL casts light into all areas, even if the IBL map is set to cast only black light upward. So there is apparently no method that will control nostril glow if you have IBL lights -- even, it appears, if they are turned off.

Amazing.
M

ShadowCam naming is a bit bizarre I must admit - although I have managed to tame the dreaded nostril glow on V4 and V3 - I don't have a V2 to try it on but it does increase either the render time or the shadowmap rendering time considerably.  i'm more and more leaning towards using Vue to do the rendering though (that introduces a whole 'nother set of problems mind - looks like nothing is ever simple )

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Here's another strange bit of information. I found that if I point a light directly up the nose of a figure, the nostril glow disappears !!!!! :blink:

~ Meow ~

now that is wierd

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AO is quite good against nostril glow. Just add a Ambient Occlusion node to the nostril material.

... and be sure that at least one of your lights has Ambient Occlusion active, of course!

AO by material is supposed to be completely independent of AO by light - AO by light is global for all materials for the whole scene and requires no material changes at all, while AO by material does not require AO to be on for any light.  Also, you can use both to obtain a stronger effect.

One white spotlight, no shadows, no AO settings anywhere...

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AO in the light only, no shadows...

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AO in the floor material only, no shadows, and no AO for the light ... this is a bit subtle because MaxDist is set to less than one inch in my default settings, but it's visible up around the inner part of torus in the top half of the image. 

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PS, these current ones are with Poser 7 SR2. 

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AO in floor material only, no shadows, no AO for the light - with MaxDist set to 5 for the AmbientOcclusion node on the floor material.

How ya like that BIG LAME POLY ARTIFACT.  Neat huh?

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Finally, AO in the light AND in the material.

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Hi pjz,

You tried to help me with my lights a few weeks back when they were shining through the walls of a building I was trying to use.

I feel your pain. Sorry I don't have any good suggestions, still to new at this.

  :-(

Phuz