3D Animation from Models to Movies by Adam Watkins (a good book, by the way) has a tutorial on faking radiosity (including caustics). Radiosity takes so long to render that I imagine it's often faked. Lightwave has caustics but I haven't found a way to make them look that great yet (C4D has nice looking caustics). I think with Carrara's G-buffers you can get alphas for shadows and then add the caustics in Photoshop. As an aside, light shining through a Jack Daniels bottle creates great looking caustics (they look even better after you've had a few nips!) Truespace has an amazing number of features and add-ons for its price point but I haven't been able to get past the interface (staring at all those tiny little icons and fly-out menus gives me a headache!) They do have a lot of learning video on their web site, however. If you like caustics, check this out! http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=131496&Start=37&Sectionid=19&WhatsNew=Yes