I am not sitting in front of my copy of C3 (or C4, for that matter), so I can't try this out. But, here's a thought. First off, do the volumetric clouds reflect light? I haven't played with them at all, so I don't know. But, if they do reflect light, then you could possibly set up a distant light pointing in the direction of your laser beam. Place an object with a small hole in it so the distant light shines through the hole, hitting your mirror ball (or whatever it is you're wanting to hit). If, in fact, the volumetric clouds do reflect light, then, they'd reflect the beam of light from the hole to the mirror ball, and the light would bounce off the mirror ball and fling all around the dance floor. (Like how I've gone from your post to a dance club? It's a side-effect of living in San Francisco!) Anyway, that might well work. Otherwise, there was a thread a while ago about streaming sunlight through stained glass, and the solution to get nearly parallel light rays was to put the spotlight with the light cone about a million miles away. (Well, I seem to remember it was about 2,000 "units" away, but a little hyperbole never hurt anyone....) And Joe -- that's an awesome workaround. Very nicely done. - Dex