DAZ has a few more items marked 50% off. So, I have a few questions. Does either of these products have a limited space? In other words, can you only fit 1 or 2 figures in it? Is it hard to apply photos taken with a digital camera to them? Is either one of them hard to create textures for (so I don't go broke purchasing add ons)? Given that both products have different strengths/weaknesses, which one would you buy? Or would you just have to have both?

The Cyclorama is a pretty simple ground/background prop, with a couple of extra flats that allow transmapped objects. Textures are, as I recall, fairly simple, but need a bit of work to make from a photo. You need plenty of ground in the texture. The Mill Environment is more complicated, with a multi-layer background, and a shaped ground with morph options. The background layering lets you seperate the sky from the landscape, but quite a few commercial texturesets don't bother. It's a bigger area, with a wider angle of view. There are a lot of flats for transmapped vegetation, distinct props so they can be rearranged. It's a lot more complicated. There's a lot of freebie Cyclorama textures. Most of the DAZ addons for these are in the Platinum Club lists, so even with a 50% sale it might be worth joining just to get the stuff at the $1.99 rate. I'd recommend the Cyclorama because of the free stuff and for DIY texturing. You can always use the Platinum Club trick if you want to buy a lot of paid-for stuff. But the Mill Environment can do far more, if you're happy to use the commercial texturesets.

If you can afford the extra cash, the Infinity Cove 3 from RDNA is much better IMO!

O.K., I looked on RDNA's site and they also have 2 products; Infinity Cove 3.1 and MicroCosms 2.0. This is confusing. As best as I can tell IC3 has a square/rectangular ground plane, and MC2 has a round plane. Has anyone used both of these products?

IC3 is ground plane and backdrop.  IC3.1 upgrade has the water plane.  The ground and water plane accept any of the textures created for Microcosm.

Microcosm is a world bulder system for Poser.  It has a round and square ground plane with several different tiling options.  The ground planes accept both Microsm textures and just about any seamless tile texture.  The ground planes are morphable.  The base comes with morphs for adding mounds, noise, and the like to create terrain effects.  It comes with a variety of textures for both ground and water.  There is a back drop plane and a free skydome in the RDNA free stuff.  The free stuff has a large collection of textures and morphs.  Most of the for purchase addon textures and morphs are real deals so they are $5 regular price and $2.50 during the real deal sale in the spring.  Right now it is half price and well worth it.  

There is a utility in the free stuff that allows you to create inj/rem poses for your terrains and the terrains and textures can be used in programs like Vue and Poser.

I've found that the Mil. Enviroment and both of the woodland realm playsets (on sale also http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/shop/itemdetails/-/?item=1602 & http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/shop/itemdetails/-/?item=1601  are most convincing. Cyclorama is imo way too simple. IC3 has the same problem as Cyclorama, they both don't look convincing on their own, you need a lot of extra props to make them look convincing. I don't think IC3 is worth the extra cash at all.

With the Mil.Enviroment and the woodland realm's you can do without the extra props, they're right there already. IC3 offers only background with a morphing terrain, while the Millenium Enviroment goes a lot further..... It offers a 180 degree enviroment and you can even go 360 degrees, allowing many more camera angles to be used then with IC3. The ME offers morhing ground and morphing water planes, as does IC3, but it also offers a number of props to make the scene look much more convincing. With IC3 (without purchasing additional props like trees & plants) I always get the impression the figures stand in front of a screen, but the ME gives the impression the figure is right in the middle of the enviroment. This is due to way the ME is shaped and because it adds a skydome and a number of extra props functioning as layers of trees & plants. With IC3 figures can only stand in front of everything, with the ME the figures can stand in the enviroment, behind or between layers, giving the impression the figure is behind trees/plants, in front of trees/plants or even in between them. Much more convincinv without spending a lot of cash on extra props such as trees and plants. This applies to the woodland sets also.

IMO the enviroments that  are offered for IC3 most of the times look too 'fake' . They always remind me of rendering scenes in Vue or Bryce, while the enviroments offered for ME and woodlands realms fit much better into Poser.

As for multi-figure scenes, no problem, you can add as many as you like. I've found that the woodland realms work well for 1-2 figures scenes and the Millenium Enviroment works great for larger scenes also, due to the ability to focus on a larger part of the background.

The advantage for IC3 over Cyclorama is that the ground plane of IC3 can morph into different shapes.
I have microcosm but I don't use it, if I want an outdoor scene I take my Poser stuff into Vue6!

O.K. That's cool. Someday, I might be able to afford Vue or some other high end rendering program. But for now, I'm still using Poser4. I do have Poser7 but I purchased the upgrade in the hopes that I'd be able to afford a new computer to install it on. That dream hasn't come to fruition yet. In the meantime, I have to use what I've got. The feedback on various products you all have provided is an enormous help in determining what will work best with Poser. And it might also help anybody else who reads this thread who is wondering about the differences between all four 'enviroment' products made for Poser. It certainly has helped me. : )

*The advantage for IC3 over Cyclorama is that the ground plane of IC3 can morph into different shapes.

*So can the Millenium Enviroment terrain plane. If you select the terrain in ME, you can actually change 6 settings: Shore Island, Shore, Craters, River, Island and Ground. By mixing and matching these settings you end up with different terrains. I know IC3 offers more settings, but the ME can do it pretty well also.

In the end it's all down to taste and what you desire to pay. ME may not have all the terrain setting IC3 has, but imo the ability to use layers make up for that. ME and IC3 do have a completely different look and for some scenes IC3 works great and for others ME works better, although personally I still find that ME suits Poser better. Then there's the pricing.... if you're a DAZ platinum member then the price is $1.99 per item, compared to $5 per item at RDNA. If you spent $10 at RDNA, it gives you IC3 and one extra enviroment set. The same $10 gives you the ME and 4 extra enviroments at DAZ and at the moment if you like winter stuff, you can even get more du the 50% off.

But.... if you can afford both, get IC3 and ME (and Cyclorama and the Woodland Realms), if you can only afford one and you're a pc member, I would choose ME.

When I bought ME it really was a no brainer..... almost all of the ME enviroments were 50% off at that time, so $15 did get me 15 enviroments, compared to 3 enviroments for IC3, you can imagine what I choose.