Bloodsong, Yeah, I think so... Like I said, I didn't know anything about them, and I have STILL not even really read the manual thoroughly. But, I tried the shadow setting in the World Browser, and once I saw what it made (that dotty stuff) in the render, I searched through the Render Options section and found the "Enable Super Sampling" heading which of course has a selection for Soft Shadows. Checking THAT box does seem to make all the difference. :) BTW, in case you missed it or forgot, even the Vue people recommend NOT using "Ultra" unless it's for high quality printing projects. They claim it eats up much extra time and doesn't deliver any profoundly better results than, "Final". Cheers, Mike