Been toying with the tryout d/l of Vue - I'm interested because, despite being a Bryce addict, I'd like to do soft shadows sometimes. I'm told you can do that in Vue, but if you look on the ground here, they're sharp as knives. May be a silly question, but I'd really appreciate someone sharing their expertise. And I didn't mean to do a kinky picture - Storm made the pose, I just used it to attract attention ;-) Cheers

Thip, Soft shadows are possible... you have to select the sunlight icon and then you'll see a box for "softness" in the World Browser. It only goes up to 9.96, as far as I can tell. Then in Picture>Render Options, you want to choose, "User Settings", and under the heading of "Enable Super Sampling", check off, "Soft Shadows". This is the only way I know how to do it, but I'll bet bloodsong knows something better. BTW, Bryce is cool... I have Bryce 4, but I really haven't used it much at all since buying Vue Hope this helps you some.. Cheers, Mike

You may soften any light , sun light, directional light, etc... Just select the light you want to soften, then, at right hand on the top of the world browser, bring up SOFTNESS to the % you want ! Have a look also page 66 in the User Guide Guitta

Can't check the user guide, I'm only toying with the free tryout d/l. But the advice you two offered was all I needed for the soft shadows. Found'em, tried'em, cursed'em ;-) Seriously, as long as I'm working on ancient PII/233, I'd be drawing my pension before any pic with really soft shadows finished rendering. Can't stop toying with Vue, though. If Bryce becomes history, Vue will be a sweet substitute - maybe even if Bryce stays with us. Thanks for helping me out. Have fun

thip, No problem. :) I love Vue, but I didn't mean to give the impression that I don't like Bryce 4. Thing is, I got them at about the same time, but Vue made it to my door first by two days. I just haven't messed with Bryce much, because I'm kind of confused in there, and Vue's alot easier, to me at least. So I can't really say anything about what Bryce 4 is or isn't capable of compared to Vue, but I can tell you this: I have a 600 MHZ Athlon CPU, and though I've made some fairly complex pictures with Vue, not one yet has taken more than half an hour to render... just something you might want to think about...Also,it'd be a damn shame if Bryce were allowed to simply die, because I do know at least that it's DIFFERENT from Vue...somehow, I think Bryce pictures seem just ever so slightly more believable, but then again I'm by no means an expert at either program. Vue's soft shadows do work well, though. To tell you a secret here, I didn't even know about the soft shadow settings until you asked this question here, so I have to thank you for causing me to look into it! Cheers, Mike

heyas; i didn't know you had to turn up the light's softness AND do the soft shadows thing in the render options. is that why my last pic with soft shadows... i rendered in ultra mode, but the shadow edges still came out 'dotty' not smooth. i had to blur them. ?

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

If you have brought up the light to x% and forget to check also the "render soft shadows box" in the render options, you will NOT get soft shadows. And if you only check the "render soft shadows box" in the render options and had not given a % to the light softness, you will NOT get soft shadows either. Both have to be done. Sorry I did not mention that in my previous message. Soft shadows makes render time a lot longer. A good setup for soft shadows is is 2 to 5% ! Soft shadows cannot render in PREVIEW mode. Good render in FINAL, best render is BROADCAST. Guitta

heyas; i used to believe the manual on that 'ultra' deal as well, but people here said they used it all the time... and their stuff looked better than mine. so... :) guitta, i believe broadcast is actually lower quality, since it is designed for video/tv, which has lower quality screens.... plus it is for moving images, which don't need the detail of still images. unless the manual is wrong again ;)

You know, believe it or not, I actually prefer that not-so-perfect sort of rendering. I don't really like the "Broadcast" setting, but recently I've been making two copies of my stuff: One with the "Final" setting (with soft shadows), and one with "Preview", and both at the same size. Using Painter 6's "Soft Clone" brush to merge the two images, I've come up with some fairly cool effects that, to me at least, merge the best of both worlds, and make things seem just a little more "real". Actually, I think Vue's rendering is just a little TOO perfect, if that's possible. Things seem just a bit too sharp. I know there's a way to blur certain objects or selections, but hell if I know how to do it yet...I'm on a Material kick this week, and trying to learn this all systematically in due time.... unlike Poser, which I just jumped right into! Well, there I go again, talking for no reason ;) Later, Mike