Just to be clear, when you say "set shadow to 0.400" you're talking about the shadow bias - or is it something else? If it's bias I usually start with it at about 0.1 and then adjust it if I'm getting ambient occlusion related artifacts.." Bias, you want high in RayTrace(like maps, does not seem to do much). @1.00. Lowering the actual shadow intensity is what I meant @0.400 "I often find myself wishing there were additional raytrace settings on the lights so that for instance they did only specular and didn't add more actual light to the scene or so they only cast shadows and don't add any light to the scene". You are in luck! Intensity dials down to negative values in P6 (-2.000). No light,,more shadows. "I'm somewhat loath to do the scaling thing since I'd have to adjust all the cameras, figures, props and everything too".. In luck again! Load a primitive box. In hierachy editor, drag all pertinant matter over the box including your cams and lights you'll use. Check your main cam and then scale box to 1000%. Nothing should change in the viewer. Flippin back to 100% box when you want to compare... Scaling up to 10,000 to 100,000 will solve iris/cornea artifacting, too. I can send you a pz3 with my lightset. It would be more effective. Speaking of IBL,, I've noticed that light base AO should be about 1/10th in settings as material based AO. I've dialed down AO in this lightset.