The only way I have been able to get good reflections, in Poser 6, has been with a Sky Dome.

Then I was reading page 197 of the Poser 7 Reference Manual:

"Poser 7 offers two methods for applying Reflection to your scene.  The first is to use a Reflection map, which is a 2D texture applied to a virtual sphere that surrounds you Poser 7 workspace..."

That sounds a lot like a built in Sky Dome, to me, but then the manual does'nt say where to create, nor apply, a Reflection map?  I checked th index, but there is no reference to Reflection at all.

The reflection map applies to the reflection node of your object, 
just like a texture map on other nodes.  The difference is that the
reflection holds still in space when you move or turn the object,
so that the ground always reflects onto the bottom of the object
and the sky always shows on the upper part of the object.

So they probably mean that the reflection 'surrounds' your objects
*as if it were a sphere, * not that the sphere is actually in the scene.

(In other words, the term 'virtual' is being used in its original sense
of a truly imaginary object.  As opposed to our normal use of 'virtual'
to mean something that is 'real' within the Poser world.)

My python page
My ShareCG freebies

For me it seems the the attached imagemap is only used if nothing "real" is in the scene that could be reflected. I'm using this since P5.

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No no, not to the reflection node. To use a "map" of the virtual world in latitude/longitude format, attach it to the Sphere_Map node. You can use that alone if you have an isolated object floating in a virtual environment.

If you have mulitple objects and they should reflect each other first, otherwise reflect the virtual scene only if they miss each other, do this. Set up a Reflection node as usual. Then plug your Sphere_Map/Image_Map combo into the background color of the Reflect node. Set the multiplier to white.

For best results, use Fresnel effect. (I think you read my article already at RDNA, right?)

Also, make sure you uncheck the Reflect_Light_Mult and Reflect_Kd_Mult options - they ruin your reflection realism.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

Attached Link: Probelight thread discussing image lighting, mapping formats and Sphere_Map node

In a thread about the probe light I discussed this technique. Here's a screen shot. Follow the link and scroll down to post #44 to see discussion of the sphere_map node.

Please pay attention to this: IBL probes are in angular map format. This is not the right format for the Sphere_Map node. The correct format for Sphere_Map is latitude/longitude. These things are discussed in the linked forum. You can convert to LL format using free utility HDRShop.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

Can poser 5 use these?

yes

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)

I thought that it could, I was just checking.