Les, You've hit the nail on the head. Cast shadows affects how the object RECEIVES shadows. And big-time too. I don't have any renders to show at the moment, but I did some experiments. What I had forgotten was that my floor was set by default to NOT cast shadows. I did this a while back and had forgotten. The reason was that I had it's outer material set to full transparency, so I unchecked 'cast shadows'. Well, when I read your post, I suddenly remembered this. Tried it out with shadows on and it makes quite a difference. So thanks a lot. I have to leave for a couple of days. When I get back, I'll have time to check it out thoroughly. mac