I have reloaded the transparency maps, Laurie, and had lots of email exchanges with Vue support. They even sent me a second cd but it was the same. Mike, I would suspect that my Win 98 had something to do with it, except that it behaves exactly the same way on my husband's PC. He is running Windows 98 upgrade from Win 95. I am running the full installation (not upgrade) Win 98 SE. Vue tech suggested that maybe we have a program in common that is interfering with it. I would suspect our virus checker were it not that Don and I both exited it before installing and using the program. I cannot think what else we both have, because our interests are very different. The only other thing that we have in common so far as I know is that we both have the Windows 98 Plus addons. I suppose there could be something there that is causing it, but I think they are pretty common and someone else would be getting these effects if that was it. I think Renderosity's Apache server is for some reason blocking my specific ADSL IP. It was all fine until the middle of last Saturday. I started this thread and came back to read the first responses on my ADSL line. Then suddenly the forbidden notices appeared later in the day and have been there ever since. I have no idea why this happened or what is causing it, but apart from the slowness of downloads, it is only a matter of seconds to switch to dialup, and my husband's connection, which is what I use for Renderosity, is unmetered too. I should be a bit more concerned about it if I had to use an ISP that put by-the-minute call charges on my phone bill.