"God how I have bitter contempt for the Czars of fashion, LOL." Mugsey, What IS your problem? You can use all the P4 figures inside P6 (in fact all the past figures and content come standard with the application). They haven't been abandoned. You can use the P2 figures!!! You can use the original woody!!!!! You can still use the old material room (they have a simple form and an advanced form). You don't have to learn anything new if you don't want to. You can even load the maps by hand instead of using MATs. You can still use the P4 renderer (it is one of 4). That way you won't need to read the manual or play with lights and depth or do anything interesting with atmosphere. As for milking a cash cow... some companies upgrade every 6 months, so CL averaging 2-3 years seems more than reasonable. It gives them time to develop new features... features which many of us have clamored for! So... what IS your point????? Just because YOU don't want to play with realistic materials or light sets doesn't mean that everybody and their second cousin ought to be forced to sit in a smoky crumbly cave watching the aurochs die off. Some of us want to come out into the daylight and make real scenes. BTW, you can make your own black pigment by holding a plate over a candle and collecting the soot from the smoke stream. If you don't have a plate, use a rock. Animal fat makes a good binder, but spit will do. Making a brush from a proper twig is advanced tool-using, and requires the ability to recognize which ones will work well, so I won't bother you with the details. Carolly