When using the Simple interface, I miss:
- About anything more advanced than assigning color and an eventual image map to any feature. As a result, my render will keep that artificial, hard plastic-like feel.
- The option to have Bump and Displacement both in one surface definition, and the option to use Normal maps. As a result, I cannot distinguish large scale (displacement) from small scale (bump) surface variations. And I can’t use Normal maps, which are common in shading game characters and objects.
- Access to more real-life optical effects like Translucency and Refraction. As a result, creating believable glass and fluids will remain an issue.
- Access to the Preview / Diffuse / Specular split in direct light properties As a result, I’ll keep on having issues with handling Indirect Lighting (IDL) in an appropriate way, in preview as well as in rendering.
- Access to advanced render features (Custom_output) Honestly, these are hardly used anyway and can be considered high-end pro stuff.
Intermediate
Generally, all features which remain unsupported by the Simple interface, will also go unsupported when exporting Poser scenes and objects to other formats or programs. Exporting to OBJ, integrating Poser with LuxRender, Octane, Vue or you name it, all tend to lose the material properties which are not supported in the Simple interface. And even some of those might get lost in translation. In other words: when Poser is just my scene building and posing tool but not my final renderer, I consider the Material Room Simple interface as the recommended one. The question: what do I miss, can be inverted to : what elements from the Advanced interface go (un)supported by the Simple interface. This is addressed in the next article.