"it's no longer simple, and there are no masters of it at this time." I dunno about that. Have you seen some of the Mats made by Ajax, and Stewer. I'd nominate Ronstuff as a "Master of the Renderer too." (Or at least an extremely helpful reference library:p) And in fact the mat room is simple to use once you grasp a few basics. It's IMO the best shader system I've used. Definately get it. But keep poser 4 installed to get around a couple of annoying bugs. and Patch it iup as soon as you get it to.