Hi - new to vue and was wondering about water. If i create a scene with just atmosphere and water and set the camera to look across the water, when it is rendered the water seems to become more "speckly" into the distance (even when anti-aliased). Close up water seems fine. Is it possible I'm making a common newbie mistake or is the idea to crop the distance part of the scene with some terrain or something. Sorry if this is a stupid question. Thanks.

post a picture to show everyone what are you trying say, so that someone can answer you properly.

Standard answer here is "there are no stupid questions, only stupid answers (or stupid answerers)". INish is right, you should give us an example so that we can see what you mare talking about. Anyway, let me guess. When you look onto water in the distance, the refelecting and non reflecting elements become very small and are laying close together. So anti-aliasing hat to balance high contrasts in neighboured pixels. This can be difficult and that is what you are seeing. Maybe you go to a higher anti-aliasing level (ultra) that lifts your rendering times very much or you try to cover that with other elements. Or you try to work on light or the water material to soften this effect. Whatever i am only guessing but maybe that helps.

:-)???? If ever I answer, will it be stupid?

Hey thanks for the replies - have attached a picture (rendered at ultra). wabe's explanation sounds convincing. I have had a look around for tutorials on basic water but it must be too basic because all I can find are waterfalls, splashes and underwater scenes :-) Dont suppose anyone cound point me in the right direction ? Thanks very much.

No, this is what you'll get for the distance, cuz of what wabe said, "High contrast in neiboring pixels." (even after you render in ultra).

Gebe - an answer like "this is a stupid question" is a stupid one - isn't it. So if there is stupidity, then in an answer, not in a question. "Dont suppose anyone cound point me in the right direction ?" The question now is, what is the right direction? What do you want to achieve. This is important to know. Then we all are here to help you - be sure. What you can add here is a little fog or haze to "smear" the horizon a bit. Sort of assimilation. A similar effect like this one here, you are seeing in computer animations when faces become smaller than one pixel (in height). The animation starts to flicker. The software does not really know what to do in such cases.

Hi - by the right direction I meant toward tutorials about basic water rendering (how to make water look shiny, how to avoid the "High contrast in neighbouring pixels" effect etc) - sorry i didnt make myself very clear. I like the sound of using a bit of haze near the horizon, maybe I will try that. Thanks for all the answers.

you're always welcome.