I have been working on a picture in Vue 4 for sometime now- it is a night scene, along a street with people and vehicles. There are about 500 objects, and 25 light sources. In some, but not all the shadows, the shadow areas look extremely grainy, while others are perfect. The overall scene turns out quite nice at high render resolutions. Is this a quirk of Vue where multiple light sources overlap? Thanks

Are you using soft shadows? If so, then increase the quality of the rendering mode. Same so, if you're using volumetric lights (especially with smoke turned on). In general, you should always post a picture (or a link to a picture) when you ask such a question. We have to reply by trying to imagine in our mind what the problem could be and it's not easy because we are not diviners ;-)

is it a reflective material, it looks like it has a blurred reflection effect and is reflecting the roadway texture.

It is a store front- the blurred windows were to reflect ambient light across the street, without having to have a complete street front of buildings. The door in the middle is a wood texture, so I wouldn't expect too much reflection. I hate to seem dumb, but this is my first complex Vue scene.

If it's the window at left, then it is blurred reflections rendered at too low quality setting. If it's the material close to it, then it's a material issue (a noisy material). In fact, I can see the same amount of noise on all parts of it (lit parts and shaded parts). The shadows themselves appear to be ok from what i can see (e.g.on the grey car) Try replacing the grainy material that surrounds the windows with a smooth material and see if the problem persists, in which case post another picture.

Attached Link: soft shadows tutorial