And finally, I am trying to show what I mean by banding.  I used a spiral function to drive the color on a 2nd material layer.  On the left, the 2nd layer is on top, and on the right, the layer is on the bottom.  In both, the alpha boost is at 0.  So, it should be apparent that even when I use a procedural function to try to create a hull-like texture for highlights on a second layer, it doesn't work along with the other layer of color, reflection and bump mapping.  And, if I load one of the maps into the highlight channel, along with the other maps on a single, parametrically mapped  material layer, it doesn't work either.  I also did some experiementing with my still installed Vue 5, and had the same kind of results.  If anyone has an idea of how to get rid of the banding problem when using 2 layers, I can work with that!

greg