Hey Eric, Sorry to hear you having some problems. Well, it is quiet sad that Vue is such a beautiful program; yet with so many problems. It doesn't interact well with Video Cards. Even it doesn't handle the CPU cycles properly. I recently started using Poser 5, with that software I can use few other programs (IE, outlook exp, messenger, Media player), all at the same time. But, when I open Vue, I even have to go in the taskbar to make sure no program running in the backgroud. So, in your case my suggestion would be do few steps and hope for the best. :-) First make sure except Vue no other program running, foreground & background. (So that Vue get all CPU cycles and memory) Activate your firewall or at least make sure, if you are on broadband. Then make sure your Open GL is disabled. (I find Vue works faster without it.) Then on your picture, distribute your objects in diff layers (well I'm sure you do, just going through the steps anyway) and hide the layers before you open the material editor. (This is very effective when your Pollygon counts gets really high). Hope it helps. If not I hope you'll let us know. :-) Kazi aka nish