So, I know I'm just typing to see myself type, but this has been a thorn in my side for many moons since I first started using Poser. What may that be? Posers absolutely terrible lighting system. Poser has been out for almost 25 years and in that time the lighting quality has been disgusting. You can ALWAYS tell a Poser user just by the lighting and even when someone knows what they're doing, you still can't seem to get the best quality compared to many other programs, some of which are FREE.

One of the biggest issues is in the image below:

I have read tutorial after tutorial, gotten help from many forums and the results ALWAYS come out the same. I'm no expert on lighting, but I do consider myself a step above those that just pose and render and call it good. This image was rendered using a simple IBL with some other small lights and I've followed the directions to get rid of the splotchy black shadows, but they always, always, always show up.

There is no excuse for a 25 year old program to still have these issues when a program like DAZ has a far superior lighting system and is a younger program. This is one of the reasons I have never done outdoor images because the ground planes end up like this. I've tried turning dials based on other user's input, I've turned off smooth polygons, I've added/taken away bump maps, but I've come to realize that it's not an issue with the object itself, it's Poser. Even some of my indoor pics get the same troubles and I get the same response from pro users that "it's just the way Poser is". I watched patch after patch from Smith Micro ignore a lot of the really big issues and previous companies do the same (though, I've owned other software by Smith Micro and I wonder how they ever stayed in business).

We still don't have light emitting objects (like a lightsaber blade), sure you can turn up ambiance and use a light gather node, but that's just complete BS that you have to take so many steps for an end result that you will most likely have to post-process anyway just to get it to look like the object is casting light.

I really don't want to abandon Poser over something like this, but if we don't see some HUGE upgrade to the lighting, I may just have to give it the finger and walk away. Something I don't want to do because everything is set up for Poser, textures, models, libraries, etc.

Bondware, if you want to make Poser something awesome, don't ignore the issues and let Poser fall to the wayside like everyone else has. Update it to bring it up to quality standards that make people flock to DAZ and Blender. Don't treat it as just "good enough" while your users sit there and fill the forums with the same issues over and over. I understand there are deadlines and sometimes content needs to be cut (I've been playing WoW for a long time, I understand all this), but when you add new features without addressing the old issues, what's the point?

Maybe I'm just spouting off nonsense.