The chair's indeed were perfect. The polycount was beautiful. However, as soon as I began to inport the audience......the polycount shot up and vue started to die. I deleted their hips, thighs, shins, feet etc..but it made no real difference. Looks like a compository is going to be the only other way out. Can someone please tell me which way would be best to do this...step by step would be great, cos I'm pretty thick. the count at the moment is as follows : 5072 objects 4 lights 1323400 polygons. I did a prelim render to show you the latest disaster. As always your advice would be gratefully appreciated. ~beck