heyas; in reality, shadows are cast on fog/cloud things, if they're thick enough, so technically, vue is doing things properly. there is a way to have a material not cast shadows, but there doesn't seem to be a way to have a material not accept shadows. the closest i could get was by making the material additive. of course, this messes up the value of your colours, so you might not be able to get the gas to look the way you want it to. you can also try messing with non-shadow-casting lights, to try to lighten up the shadow on the gas. you might try using a plane, instead of a cube. if you angle it towards the camera correctly, you can get a misty layer look... and maybe you can avoid having it where the item will cast a shadow on it. and/or you might try turning up the ambient light on the cube, until it isn't shadowed anywhere. aha... okay, if you turn the ambient light to 100% and the diffuse light to 0%, it won't take shadows. huh, whaddya know! :) you're right, though, it does look funny with the shadow on top of the cube, but not cutting down THROUGH the fog to the ground. that's what's strange about it.