I am new to Daz studio  and using the opengl renderer. (the delight render plugin doesnt work)

The scene is a room prop , genesis2 male and genesis 2 female.

Lighting is 6 spotlights, three above pointed toward the stage center and two near floor level pointed slightly up.

All lights at 1--% intensity.

The scene renders much darker than the preview. The back wall does not appear lit, and I dont seem to be getting any shadow.

any suggestions of what I should adjust ?

the point lights also are not illuminating scenes either.  I am used to doing this in Poser..

before giving any advice, you should find out why 3Delight does not work.  That is the core renderer and many features are unavailable or work not as expected in the other render options

the 3delight plugin does not work because I am running win xp and a simgle core processor. It may be the result I am getting is expected for opengl.

I am simply trying to evaluate studio as a replacement for Poser before I upgrade my PC.

When I started using DAZ I had a 32 bit Win XP system. I could only get 3Delight to render tinny scenes. I used OpenGL a lot. OpenGL is not a not really a render, it is more of a fast preview.

I tried a 64-bit Win7 machine with only 4GB of RAM and discovered 3Delight worked much better on small scenes. I think 8GB is the minimum RAM for most work. I now have 16GB. I do use OpenGL for previewing animations because I can get around 60 frames a minute of animation and an OpenGL render is smoother and better than the preview window for checking motions in animations.

You might be able to get better lighting using Linear Point Lights.  Linear Point Lights have a fall off start and end distance. If you make the fall off start and end distance very large, a linear point light will light up the back ground.

You can also use environment lighting. The environment light that comes with DAZ Studio is called UberEnviroment. It is a little complicated to learn how to use, so don't be surprised if you don't get good results the first time. I currently use the Advanced Ambient light most of the time for ambient light, but this is not part of the DAZ Studio free package.

I would say you need some type of ambient light, either UberEnvironment (free) or the Advanced Ambient which is what I use all the time (its a purchase)

You could probably do similar with a distant light or two dialed down.

I would say you need some type of ambient light, either UberEnvironment (free) or the Advanced Ambient which is what I use all the time (its a purchase)

You could probably do similar with a distant light or two dialed down.

Uber Environment, AOA's Advanced Area light, Area Lights, Advanced Spotlights, etc. don't work in OpenGL as they all use 3Delight Shaders.  Note also that skin, clothing, etc. shaders also don't work well in OpenGL as they use 3delight Shaders (though there is some translation).

For lighting OpenGL scenes you need more lights at lower intensities. Use up to 8, and have them add up to more than 100%. 

Have you tried adding any "Fill" lights, they should get you the ambient light you need. BB.

I notice your only using spots, you simply may be using the wrong lights for the purpose, no dis, you might give these presets a try they emulate the default lights in poser and should work well with the open GL; they are my own default sets and I largely use the open GL as I mostly use DAZ to create studies for 2D work in Manga Studio. BB.

 Poser Lights  -

In the parameters you need to turn shadows on for each of the lights... DS lights default to not cast shadows as loaded (you'll need to change the Shadow Type from None to either Ray-traced or Deep Shadow Mapped)...I suggest setting the Shadow Softness to about 34% to give a fade to the shadows as well, otherwise they look very hard edged...

Also you'll need to change the settings for each of them for the area the lights cover. DS lights like Spotlights default load at a 60 degree area of coverage (Spread Angle)... this can be dropped to 0 or increased to 180 degrees in the parameters.

Last item of note... once you've adjusted the lights you'll want to pick one main spotlight to be your primary light source at 100% and the other lights should each be reduced to around 50% or lower in brightness or the scene will look washed out...