"everything Pumeco has done with PR can be done without it, inside Bryce, using the settings they already gave us. so for him to claim he actually DID anything, or to tout PR as some kind of renderer (which is implied by it's name, regardless of intent) is pretty weak." Wrong! PR would have provided a solution for people who don't fully understand TA etc. How many more times, if people really haven't got this by now, then there are folk around here a lot more nutty than I am! As for the title - nah, I won't be "Pro-Rendering" either this weekend - I'll be designing synths (heaven). Also, I couldn't give a F*uck weather 1 or 1000 people will be "Pro-Rendering" - I know 'I' will for just about every render I make in the near future, and I'll take plesure in the knowledge I was clever enough, NOT to have spent thousands of dollars in order to get a good render! "Well, to sum it up : it can't. Bryce simply can't be as realistic as the others" Speak for yourself. I don't care how many fancy features you have in Maya, if I wanted to do it bad enough - I'd equal a Maya render with Bryce. Bryce might not be 'high-end', but together with TA, Blurred-Reflections, and Blurred-Refractions the ingredients are there if you know how to use them. Have fun with Maya ;-) Peter, here's the renders. I know what a perfectionist you are, so I'd like it if you'd give the same amount of attention to these, as you did the previous renders. OK, the top image is using 100% shadows (but it wasn't rendered with 100% shadows). The bottom one is a streight render (other than desaturation applied - in order to allow better scrutinization of light'n'shadow). Basically, I thought seeing as virtual RPP needs to be used in order to reduce grain - why not use a virtual process to give 100% shadows. The render you see was rendered with 75% shadows, which is the best balance between error and using 100%. I want you to look at the gradation and notice how (in comparison) the other traits are 'nearly' non-existant. The top image has been 'Equalised' and therefore provides solid black to solid white where needed. I've also uploaded the original in all it's ...err... glory so maybe people will save it to disk, practice desaturation, equalisation and resampling on it. Again, I'm no artist, but from a 'naturalness' of light point of view, that,s the most realistic lighting I've ever seen from PR, and I'm thinking maybe this is the way to go if I get time to finish it. Hope you guys like the new settings. AgentSmith as you know, it was me deleted a lot of posts (typo's) :-D Len. (Errr no, I don't have Orlaith McAllister's phone number, and even if I did...)

The wait can be horrific, but the outcome can be worse - pumeco 2006