Bit late of a reply, but the .tab files should be inside your LGEO folder, and are called l2p.tab, l2p_ELMT.tab, and l2p_ptrn.tab.
My ldraw folder structure looks like C:/LDraw/Apps/LGEO, and inside that folder, are the tab files. Just point l3pao to the LGEO folder and you should be good to go.
Also, this brickshelf gallery has a tutorial on how to get very realistic looking renders, Here
If done correctly, you can get results such as