no, all I'm saying is that Transparency (and all attached to it) works on whatever is in/attached to Diffuse and Alt_Diffuse. But it does not work on Specularity, Alt_Specularity or anything else. And no indeed, there is no node for it.

Since it does work on Diffuse (and therefor on the surface elements that capture and re-emit IDL) but not on Specular, and your lights do have specular for good reasons, I got the idea (and nothing more than that) that the undesired effects you're facing might be a result from specularity, not from diffuse/transparency/IDL at all. To find that out, I suggested to run a test without the specularity, to see if that makes the unwanted effects disappear. It might be of help in looking in the right direction.

I was also implying a difference between invisible and transparent. Transparent means invisible to diffuse, to IDL, but NOT to specularity. Invisible means invisible to everything. So a transparent skullmap still responds to the specularity in your lighting, unless that's switched off on either side.

Note: in another thread on SR4, Vilters has reported that raytraced shadows on dynamic hair are improved / properly working in the new SR. For whatever reason, the availablity of SR4 is not flagged when starting Poser.

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Usually I'm wrong. But to be effective and efficient, I don't need to be correct or accurate.

visit www.aRtBeeWeb.nl (works) or Missing Manuals (tutorials & reviews) - both need an update though