Say it's a HyperNURB thing.

Chromes poly count.

in C4D is only 1504.

In Poser would be 22,936.

That is a deference of 21,432,That is a lot of polygons.

http://www.atomic-3d.com/RK_T_HyperNURBS.htm

XSI,LW are the only two app's that I no of that will sub divide a tri.

http://www.atomic-3d.com/RK_Tutorial/RK_T_Mix_Sub-D_Tri-Quad.htm

Now I will try to explain this.but the explanation will be off it is not 100% accurate but ya get the point.

I do not know what this technology is called but I assume all the Fab 5 app have it.

Ya load a mesh in light wave that has a polycount of 100,000.

but LW does not count what u can not see

so since we can not see the back the polycount is only 50,000.

but if the characters nose poly count is 500 LW would use all the polygons for a close up of the nose.

but if you back the camera up so ya see the character from head to toe then the polycount of the nose would be only 5.

since LW has subpatch the 100,000 polycount mesh would only be 10,000 in LW.

Since LW does not count all the polygons the meshes poly count would be only a 5000.

So what a 100,000 polygons mesh looks like in Poser is = to what a 5000 polygon mesh looks like in LW.

LW has a polygon reduction tool that takes a Poser mesh at 50,000 and reduces is to 5,000 also.

Most app's have polygon reduction tools.

Blender for 3D,Gimp for 2D is free.

Can't tell you much about either.

if u go to Fab 5 forms and ask which app to use it starts a this vs that app war,it's a religion to some.

the sensible ones will tell you to try all the demos.

reasonable advice but this takes a long time to do and if u do not know any thing about 3D main app's pointless.

and it really depends on what u are going to do.

if you want better renders.

Max stock render engine is 10*s better then Posers.

but they have plugs like VRay that is 10*s better then Max Stock render engine.

We are talking $$$ for those renders thou.

If they all play well together LW,Vue,Poser would be a real good setup.

For anything all the way to animations.

Not the best of all times renders but some real nice renders.

http://www.newtek.com/lightwave/

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/

RorrKonn
http://www.Atomic-3D.com