Yes, great list!
I would like to propel this further, want to see Reallusion continue to improve and optimize the final rendering potential of its iClone 7 product.
I invite anyone who wishes to see this goal achieved to join this thread and perhaps we can expand on this list and then ultimately consolidate it into a formal request to Reallusion, making a specific multi-user initiated roadmap for them to develop from.

It's nice to have a compact list, and it's fun to discuss the relative merits and priorities from our varying perspective.

For a formal request... The answer is to post them on Feedback Tracker and get people to vote for them.

---

iClone 7... Character Creator... Substance Designer/Painter... Blender... Audacity...
Desktop (homebuilt) - Windows 10, Ryzen 9 3900x CPU, GTX 1080 GPU (8GB), 32GB RAM, Asus X570 Pro motherboard, 2TB SSD, terabytes of disk space, dual  monitors.
Laptop - Windows 10, MSI GS63VR STEALTH-252, 16GB RAM, GTX 1060 (6GB), 256GB SSD and 1TB HDD

Agree 100%

I have been talking to them about supporting the VFX Platform which the bigger industry developers are working on with studios.
http://www.vfxplatform.com

Also agree with the rendering improvements. They are a HUGE leap over 6 but they still need to keep pushing to chase after what Unity and Unreal can achieve. So like mentioned screen space reflections and I would also like to see planer reflections too. Also like you mention, significantly improve DOF and lens effects. The closer iClone gets to the big two's quality the less need there is to export to those engines for realtime work.

Free Range
My IMDB

iClone 7 is amazing.
Facial Mocap
Motion Graph Editor
Hair & Soft Cloth Physics

No Flaws... WIP!
Once they hit "Sub-Surface Scattering" ...iClone and its new pipeline... "Look OUT!"

IC 7 also has a screen space reflection.... not! it is an emulation for the fun of it.



But what I really wish to see is this:

Cool detail for this step, thank you...reminds me of Kickstarter.


@wildstar
What do you feel is the most critical feature that could move IC7 closer to say, Unreal Engine's photo-real renders? 
Would it be your #1, or #2, or as mentioned sub-surface scattering?

I think Number 3 in the list is currently among the most urgent. Both DOF and particles cause visual deterioration of objects with transparency maps, especially hair. You can easily see that with the new Jade character. Wisely, RL showed the DOF improvements in 7.01 with a bald guy...



With DOF, the edge of the hair shows the background without DOF, resulting in a ragged look:



wildstar, could you explain how you use fog to create a mask? I used to know this, but I forgot, and I need a temporary solution because the DOF problem is holding me up.

---

The two biggest things for me are mirror reflections, and a realistic, built-in ragdoll physics option for avatars, which will greatly assist me in my actions scenes.

And also, I don't know what the term would be for this, but I would love to have a "smart" movement system, where based on wherever and whatever position your character is currently in, once you specify a destination point, it will "smartly" make the adjustments for you and send the character there, doing whatever it determines has to be done, in order to get there. Perhaps there could even be parameters you could set in the Properties of this smart movement system, such as "always attempt to go around," or "always CLIMB OVER," or "always end up standing," or "always end up in original position (sit > walk > stand)." Pathfinding?

What I mean is.......if your character is sitting on a stool, and you click the stairs behind him, your character will properly stand, ROTATE, and then move to the steps and step up. I guess that's being a little unrealistic though. Realistically, if I could just have the ability to have a character start from facing one position, and smoothly be able to face another direction and walk towards it, allowing me to skip the step of rotating and tinkering with the walk cycle to make it look less stiff in terms of both the foot sliding aspect and the properly placement of the legs during the rotation - I would be happy.

Or just remove foot sliding. I guess that's the root cause behind everything I just said. If you think about it, everything we alter on a character comes down to: "are their feet in the proper position at the right time?"

I know these are minor complaints that most people don't have. I'm just speaking for myself, as these are the things that take the bulk of my prep time, instead of telling my stories.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My iClone short films: https://www.youtube.com/iClone316

Such a smart movement system is unlikely to be done by RL since their whole mechanism of animations is very different (which is why we have sliding feet in the first place). The system would have to account for different stride lengths by calculating bone lengths and such, as well as altering the animations themselves.

It *sounds* like something that perhaps someone with coding experience could do when the Python extensions are available, but it's not a minor project -- it's on a level of "Anima" which I love *except* for the lack of interactions (if somehow *it* could be programmed I'd be there in a heartbeat -- I'd like the "if you are within two feet of this type of character then start fighting" sort of possibilities).

Still, if you are really missing this piece it might well be the thing that gets you into doing it yourself.  I have found, by and large, that the greatest third party things are those which the people themselves wanted but no one else was providing, so they had to learn how to accomplish it (even if you aren't a skillful coder you can well learn).  You might find a whole new career!  (My experience is that folks in those cases tend to forget their original need and get so involved in the side project it takes over full time).

---

Alienware Aurora R12, Win 10, i9-119000KF, 3.5GHz CPU, 128GB RAM, RTX 3090 (24GB), Samsung 960 Pro 4TB M-2 SSD, TB+ Disk space
Mike "ex-genius" Kelley