This question may have been posed (no pun intended!) before, but it's something like 2 years since I last posted a thread here and that makes for a lot of thread to view, as I'm sure you can appreciate.

What I'd like to know is, is there a way in Poser 4 that a mirror prop can be made to reflect?  I've tried a few times and I can't figure it out.  Is this something that is beyond Poser 4's limited abilities?

Any help on this would be gratefully received.

Thanks.

we useta fake it by mapping a flipped image onto the poser square.

Poser 5 was VERY cheap, if EF is still selling it.. like $25 or so, and it could do mirrors...

The Poser 4 render engine does not support ray-tracing, which is needed for true reflections. Poser 5 (and above), Vue, Lightwave, and Studio Max all support ray-traced reflections.

There are a few cheats for Poser 4: I explain some of them on my website: How to Make Reflections (in Poser 4).
I also have a tutorial on How to Make Reflections in Poser 5 (and Above) and How to Make Realistic Poser Image Using Reflection Maps (which uses the Reflect node).

Thanks very much for the replies, and especially thanks for the tutorial.  I'll get to work on it asap.  :)

Okay - next question: the Poser textures tend to be pretty flat and unrealistic with the light sets that I've got; people tend to look as if they've been painted, rather than having 'natural' skin.  I know that Poser 4 limits the range of what I can do here, but does anyone know if there's a package anywhere I can use to give skin that realistic 'look'?  I'm talking here about, say, the reflection of perspiration, or the glow that skin reflects if a blue light is shined upon it - that sort of thing.  I'm pretty much an amateur here, so if there's a way to get these effects without downloading a package, please tell me.

Thanks.

The skin enhancements you are talking about require a better render engine with more abilites then what poser 4 had available.

I think you should just consider upgrading, since obviously you want a lot of what the updates have to offer.

it's very difficult, bat. due to the shader/render/lite limitations of p4, ya gotta fake all that stuff with reflection maps, bump maps, fake GI consisting of dozens of dim lites, etc.

...and rather then invest hours upon hours trying to fake something P4 can;t even do, your time and money would better be invested in learning P7.

I'd hazard a guess even using daz Studio would give yo usuperior renders then P4.. that's why Daz dropped P4 support last year, and most people now create content for P5-7, and DS.

Hi!
I dont think that the P4 render engine is bad, a lot of realism depends on correct ligthning.
Can you show us one of your renders, maybe we can point you the right direction.

Regards / Jonny

Compared with current render engines, it's lacking a LOT. Keep in mind yer talking about technology that was written when we were all using win 98.

compare the best P7 renders with the best P4 renders, and you see a huge difference in rendering ability. That's why all 3d applications have updates so often.. hardware advances, and better rendering abilites are created.

Hi Gareee!

Sure the engine has some limitations but its not a bad engine, there were beutiful realistic renders made even back before P5,P6 or P7.

Funny that you should bring up Win98 as I honestly think Win98SE was the best OS for home use MS ever produced :-)  , if it in some way could support  the amount of RAM i currently need I wouldnt hesitate using it.

Anyway we dont need to compare the best P7 renders with the best P4 renders as this is not the point here, Batsarse is asking for help on how to improve his renders and maybe it can be done without the need of buying extra software.

Regards / Jonny

While there were beautiful renders done with P4, they did not include features the OP is looking for. And just like any other computer grpahics, the old renders do show thier age today. My old Amiga and Atari 800 did some outstanding graphics as well, but compared with whats available today, they look primitive, and simplistic.

The OP wanted to do mirrors, and found that he could not. Now he also wants effects like ambiant occlusion and subsurface scattering, and those require the newer render engines.

It sounds very much like he's outgrown P4, as almost everyone else has, and Daz Studio is free, and can offer advanced rendering features like mirrors without paying a penny.

While P4 was great in it's day, if I had no money at all to spend on software, I wouldn;t be using it,  I'd be using Daz Studio, not P4. 

Rather then spending time trying workarounds that just aren't what he really wants, he could be investing that same time learning the advanced features available today for free.

Sorry, didnt se the part were he asked for ambiant occlusion and subsurface scattering.

I did however see the part "I'm pretty much an amateur here" and figured that Batsarse could use some hints on how to use his current software.

Talking about Atari 800 graphics seems a bit out of context here, can you show a comparision between that and the output of the P4 render engine?  :-)

Regards / Jonny

"Okay - next question: the Poser textures tend to be pretty flat and unrealistic with the light sets that I've got; people tend to look as if they've been painted, rather than having 'natural' skin.  I know that Poser 4 limits the range of what I can do here, but does anyone know if there's a package anywhere I can use to give skin that realistic 'look'?  I'm talking here about, say, the reflection of perspiration, or the glow that skin reflects if a blue light is shined upon it - that sort of thing.  I'm pretty much an amateur here, so if there's a way to get these effects without downloading a package, please tell me."

That's whay AO and subsurface scattering do.. the skin effects he's talking about here, and since DS is quite capable of those effects, learning DS with a state of the art rendering engine over working with a rendering engine that's now 8 or 9 years old, makes MUCH more sense.