Sorry guys have been really busy....ok p3 450mhz 128ram...but I dont think it is the system I can use brushed silver on every thing else but metaballs will reinstall bryce 2day and hope that it works. I quite often bring 4 & 5 poser figs into bryce and do brushed silver textures and render with superfine settings and with up to 80% volumetric atmosphere :) so I thought it might be a bug with the program :) I know that the amount of ram I hav is a little bit low. hope you can help bowen