it still has to calculate the RGB values for each pixel.>> yes, that was my issue at the top...is there a way to trigger the engine to wake up to the fact it is grayscale, and thus bypass all algoryths assoicated with color calc. This is such an obscure request I am fairly sure the toggle does not exist. I had very little time earlier today, but I removed the texture map and left the bump map in place, ran Real Skin Shader...nope...I don't think that is a productive path. ::::: Opera :::::