I've got several things that I've been wanting to make into Bryce props but they're all single sided polys & I always end up with the black stuff/ shadows you see here. Am I doing something wrong or does Bryce just not like the single poly stuff. I've tried the doily with a double one but that looked even worse.  I know I can texture it into the top of the stand but I'd really like to have the sides hanging down.

I did a render using an extra light but that made the lamp even lighter then it already is.

Also.. The chimney on the lamp... I set the transparency before I exported it & it shows that it's there in the Material lab but doesn't look transparent, not even if I increase the transparency.

I figured out why the doily wasn't working..

But I'd really like to know what I need to do to get flowers etc. to work right.

Attached Link: Southwest

Not sure what you mean but I've made single-sided poly objects in Wings3D and brought them into Bryce without problems. Maybe you need to use the same textures you're using in the diffuse channel in the ambient channel and play with the sliders a bit? The diffuse at about 70 and ambient at about 30 works for me for most objects. Otherwise you just get black shadows. The effect is lighting-dependent though, so you may need to experiment a bit. I'll give you links to a couple of renders I've done of a rose bloom I made in Wings.

Are you using Bryce to model???  If not...

Sounds like you have a inverse normal problem...  check the normals in your modeler..

Attached Link: Wedding Bouquet

And another one.

Hope this helps

John

  I think my biggest problem is not having as much time to learn to use Bryce as I thought I would when I got it last year.  And my being a little stubborn about asking for help might have something to do with it too.. LOL .. 

  The doily just needed some extra edge hardening in Wings to fix it. Don't know how I missed that one.  I managed to fix the lamp chimney transparency by fiddling with the
fuzzy factor. Don't know what that had to do with it but it looks really nice now.

The image shows my problem with the leaves. I think it's probably just the lighting. The top image with default lights. The bottom has a radial light at ground level. It looks Ok but I don't want to have to be adding a bunch of lights to make them show up. 

I use Wings for modeling .

I forgot .. @ tjohn..  Your images are wonderful!!!

If you want to get better lighting effects using the sun only, try lowering the sun on the horizon and placing it to the side of your image, not straight up or straight on.  Remember, shadow direction or lack of shadows distracts from realism.

Thanks, Ravyns, and what skiwillgee said.

This Forum has always been the most helpful I've ever participated in.

So, any questions you have, shout 'em out, and post images like you've been doing of any problems you're having. No need to bang your head against the screen trying to get Bryce to do what you want.

Although that's what I usually do, lol. (Maybe that explains my headaches) I'm a bit stubborn as well.

Now if only Daz would just fix the bridge between Bryce and D/S. I love how Bryce handles lighting.

I don't know why but lighting has been/ is one of the most confusing things for me in any program but I'm not having as much trouble with Bryce lights.  Maybe it will all sink in eventually. 

I don't know where I get the idea that I have to figure this all out by myself. There's always this wee voice saying you could always ask for help but it usually gets ignored.. LOL ..

Quote -   I managed to fix the lamp chimney transparency by fiddling with the
fuzzy factor. Don't know what that had to do with it but it looks really nice now.

Fuzzy factor??  That sounds like you're using volumetric lighting, that could increase render times.

I just use surface, and put a bead in diffuse and in transparency, and soup transparent (the lower one) all the way up to 100%, add 100% specularity and it's done.

That's how the stained glass in this lantern was done:

I don't know what the problem with the chimney transparency was.  When it only has to look semi transparent, I can  usually just set with the transparency slider & it looks fine. This tiime I've had to fiddle around with it.  It was the base density, not fuzzy that I adjusted.  Don't know why I said fuzzy.. Guess I'll blame it on having to pay a visit to the dentist that day..

When using an image map, turn off "pict interpolation" in the mapping mode menu and see if that helps, we had run into some issues like this during the testing/development process and it seemed to resolve the issue.