lacilaci : The old MR skin shader is a pure crap.. and the one in the thread of Lee, was an upgraded one, by a simple individual, was better then the original, but FAR away from Vray. If you say the one Vray has is not good, then you just don't understand how it work.. Arnold is a good one, but it has his own problem too.
tigre85 : I think you never tried the SSS2 in Vray, or just don't understand how it work.. it do not work the same way as the MR one! and it's WAY more simple then mr... and final render have one of the crappiest skin shader out there.. just after Brazil.. no wonder why we never see peoples rendering character in it lol. Look on Cgfeedback, dozen of great character rendered with Vray sss2... The nold MR skin is pure crap, the new sss2 is cool, but can't retani enought details in the SSS even if I boost the resolution of the ligmp like a crazy, past a point, there is not difference... just in the render time we see the diff lol so..
Now, in max2013 there is a new SSS2 skin shader,witch is MUCH better then the old one. The sss feel is very good.. but it still have one of the old problem, and it's a big one to me, the lightmap can't retain enought details when you render in small, let's say 800/600. while Vray retain like 90-95 % of all the details. So if I render in 2k with Vray or in 800 pixel, I get mostly the same result. But in Mr, you get a lot more details when you render at 2k and up.. in fact to compete with Vray in the details retention, you have to render at lest at 2500 pixels height to retain similar details as a 800/600 of Vray..and even Vray still have some more crispy details in the SSS.
airflow: Heay great, can't wait to see it :)
jonesthesteam : I did post in this post and image, to compare Vray and MR.
Here's an exemple, The new BETA MILA SSS ligtmap free (will be a hidden feature in max 2014 ) with 2 layers of MILA reflection compared to a Vray skin shader with 2 layers of reflection also. Vray has his weak point too,( like no control for the backscatter,etc but there is work around..) but still he retains more details in the sss wich is crucial.
If you want more details about what make a good skin shader you can PM me :)