AgentSmith quote and wrote: +++++++++++++ "True Ambience Computes the ambient light for a surface using the color and intensity of nearby surfaces, resulting in color blending from one surface to another." Color Blending, that's all it is. +++++++++++++ The Bryce manual statement isn't consistent with itself. It should read: "True Ambience Computes the ambient light for a surface using the color and intensity of nearby surfaces." and leave it at that. Computing the ambient light for a surface using the colour and intensity of nearby surfaces involves, by logic alone, more than mere colour blending. Hello, did somebody mention the intensity of one surface being used to compute the ambient light on another? I think they did. What does that sound like? What do the results look like? Does it happen just once, or does it happen for a whole sequence of surfaces all the way down to pitch black? I've always avoided saying that Bryce True Ambience is 'radiosity' in the sense of the calculation process used by traditional radiosity renderering programs. But the term 'radiosity' has undoubtedly become more widely and generally used to mean the effective bouncing of light in and around scenes. And that's what's happening in my scenes and, in a much better way, in pumeco's scenes. ++++++ radiosity provides interobject reflections and color bleeding, True Ambience does not. ++++++ - Yes it does. ++++++ If so, I could aim a spotlight at a mirror... ++++++ - No, that's caustics. Radiosity is a system for simulating the reflections between diffuse surfaces. Read here: http://freespace.virgin.net/hugo.elias/radiosity/radiosity.htm Note how True Ambience, especially in pumeco's hands, is doing a damn fine job duplicating the effect of the radiosity process. And remember this. We bandy about terms like 'True Ambience' and 'colour bleeding' as if they're something simple ("that's all it is"). Scratch your head for a minute and think about what is going on behind the scenes for this to occur. How come it takes so long? How does it relate to normal ray tracing? Received wisdom is good up to a point. Challenging received wisdom by thinking and exploring is how you push the boundaries and make new discoveries.