I know that some people have been having problems with Poser 8 and I really hope the SR1 will fix the issues that you are having because Poser 8 without the issues is really good. For last 3 hours I've been playing around with the indirect lighting on Poser 8 (thank for the inspiration bagginsbill) and when I say playing around, I mean really trying to get the most out of the indirect lighting. The indirect lighting really improves the realism of my Poser Renderings.

Normally I have trouble with creating realistic character renderings but I'm noticing that with the IDL that it's much easier to get that effect. I've been able to improve so much by that for 2 of those 3 hours of  playing with the IDL is because I'm very close to creating a render that looks almost like a Photograph of a person.  The other thing about the IDL is that it has been pointing out ALL of my body morph flaws, so I have to fix and render, fix and render. Keep in mind  all of this is with the Aiko 3 model. I can't wait to try A4 and V4. And by the way, I have never been into realism until today.

They did a Great job with the IDL so I hope the SR1 will help out many others so you can check it out too without the headaches.

Frederick
Poser by Design

It will be nice to see what you have achieved.  I don't know if you are aware of vincebagna's tutorial on IDL based on Whichway's findings over at RuntimeDNA.  It would worthwhile to check it out.  Link:

http://www.runtimedna.com/forum/showthread.php?t=46536

So far, I have been playing around with it using Terradome.  Let me tell you, the results are fantastic but the render time is a killer!

I got serious about 3D modeling earlier this year, and had been using DAZ 3D up until version 3 Advanced, which came out a few months ago.  Unfortunately, DAZ Studio has since been unsuccessful in working with third-party developers to release updates for all of the plug-ins that were originally designed for version 2.  In fact, several plug-ins have yet to be updated for version 3.

Suffice it to say, version 3 has given me plenty of food for thought about the inherent disadvantage of the so-called "strength" behind DAZ 3D's modular design.  If 3rd-party developers can't or won't release updates of their plug-ins for use with the core program, then the program itself becomes relatively useless, IMHO.

I bought Poser 7, last June, just to have a copy on hand, should I ever decide to tinker with it.  I've yet to even load it for the first time, however, the problems I referenced above have given me considerable cause to start learning how to use Poser, only I'd prefer to wait until after I upgrade to Poser 8.

That being said, I, too, am looking forward to seeing what SR1 will bring to the table, especially after reading about the problems reported on this forum.  As it stands, my modeling is on hold until one of two things happen:

1) All third-party plug-ins are updated to work with D|S 3 Advanced, or

2) SR1 is released much to the delight of Poser experts everywhere.

Whichever one of those happens first will determine whether I stick with DAZ 3D, or switch to Poser.

Soooooon....

Hmmm.  Last time you did that we had the Poser 8 release within hours.

You know, you should really stop doing that.  "Soon" traditionally translates from Poserspeak as "It will almost certainly arrive prior to the heat death of the universe.  Maybe."

yeah, I thought it would be last week, but I reckon the beta testers really put it thru its paces.
but I predict it will arrive prior to those guys in CERN producing the higgs boson, anyway.
in case anybody asks.

Quote - Hmmm.  Last time you did that we had the Poser 8 release within hours.

You know, you should really stop doing that.  "Soon" traditionally translates from Poserspeak as "It will almost certainly arrive prior to the heat death of the universe.  Maybe."

BB is using code. Count the "O"'s in the word soon. The more o's BB uses every time he says soon the closer we are to SR1 being released. :laugh:

Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo soooooooooooooooooooooooooooon?

Whichway

Until now I've never seen anyone really come close to a photograph with Poser, though many have tried. Somehow you can always spot the use poser in an image.

In this case, you cannot just state that you're very close to creating a render that looks almost like a Photograph of a person. You should show the evidence, until then, your post are just empty words.

So the challenge is, blow us away, stun us, amaze us, blow our socks off!

"Soooooon...."
(The voice of Bagginsbill as he runs screaming into distance, away from our constant harassment) :lol:

I agree with the OP about how IDL greatly adds to the realism of a render but I think you'll always have to use postwork to get anywhere close to photo realism. I'm experimenting with using Photoshop's RAW settings to reduce the 3D "clearness" and flatten the render a bit. I also find it good to add grain, at least to the shadow parts.

IDL is addictive. In some ways I hate it. Everytime you get greatly increased render speed you get a new toy to slow it down ;)

Before you get all excited, this isn't supposed to be a 'blow your socks off' photorealistic render. It's not even close for all sorts of obvious and not so obvious reasons. But I think it's moving in the right direction in some ways (despite the lack of hair and zero attention paid to eye shaders and such), and much closer than I think I could have gotten with earlier versions of Poser (this was done with a beta version of P8 - I've not managed to get hold of the full release version or updates. It uses IDL though).

What does still amaze me just with the introduction of IDL is that for this render I only had to use two lights - the indirect (bounced) light accounted for a significant amount of illumination at render time. And I think the result shows a much more realistic simulation of RW lighting.

But I think the more tools we get with each version of the software, the more we have to re-evaluate the elements we're working with and our approach to using them.
Since playing with IDL, for example, I've become much more aware of problems relating to mesh design and shaping (morphs) and figure bending, as well as the details in the various diffuse and control maps (bump, specular etc). Each of these elements now become far more noticable factors that can help or hinder realism. These are not really software related, so we can't really point the finger at Poser (unless you're using the included figures and content, but then these still arn't a problem with the app itself).

We are still missing a few app related realism features -  e.g. some shader elements - a decent simulation of SSS, transluscence, probably some extra math nodes - among other things. And there would seem, based on comments made at various times by folk like BB, that there are improvements that could be made with the current implementation of material, lighting and rendering (e.g. , Poser has difficulties dealing with transparency in cetain circumstanceswhich can make hair problematic).

My point here really is that Poser is moving forward, but it's bound to move more slowly with the limited resources that the developers have (in relation to the industry big boys). CGI realism is comlplex and comes at a cost - Poser is cheap but still does a lot for the bucks. We'll get a lot closer to photorealism in time.