Quote - Honestly, I suspect the real issue at this point is that the eye texture itself is just slightly less than believable and it's throwing off the realism.

 

I think there is a lot of truth in that and the pictures ealier were not only glamour shoots but also not high quality and a couple look as though soft focus was used.  I can see the point trying to be made here but not sure on the strength of the examples.

The other point is that the OP was looking for the best SSS technique for eyes and, having followed this thread and played with my favorite character this has to be the best setup I have seen for believeable reflections.  I am still playing with the parameters as I like the eyes to be a little sharper than I have at present.  This may also be a factor of the texture but lets be honest here, this is a long way from the eyes currently suppled with many characters.  I mean finding a character with the option for real reflections is a bonus, most I have seen come with reflections burnt in making the textures a complete non strater in this context.

 

 

I use Poser 13 on Windows 11 - For Scene set up I use a Geekcom A5 -  Ryzen 9 5900HX, with 64 gig ram and 3 TB  storage, mini PC with final rendering done on normal sized desktop using an AMD Ryzen Threadipper 1950X CPU, Corsair Hydro H100i CPU cooler, 3XS EVGA GTX 1080i SC with 11g Ram, 4 X 16gig Corsair DDR4 Ram and a Corsair RM 100 PSU .   The desktop is in a remote location with rendering done via Queue Manager which gives me a clearer desktop and quieter computer room.