I am posting four images. The first is two gold links in Vue that took 42 min 29 sec to render using the Ultra settings & 600dpi. The second is a piece of broken red glass in Vue that took 3hrs to render using the same settings. Each scene contained two "lightdomes" (by Rich) that overlapped. The third picture was done in Bryce and took 1hr 20 min to render at the 'super' setting - this image contained the Semidome with 115 lights. Lastly, the fourth picture is a piece of broken red glass done in Bryce that took 11min to render using the regular setting - no semidome. I am happy with the way the metal chains look in Vue, but I can't seem to get the glass to look as good as the ones in Bryce (third image mostly although the 4th doesn't look half bad and the render time is faster)...can anyone help me with this? Thanks, Chris It seems

2nd image

3rd image

4th image

What are you looking for, I think it all looks wonderful. Sharen

To create realistic glass using Vue in less time than Bryce. I guess what I'm really asking is what custom settings are people using with the glass materials because when I use the presets my results aren't living up to my expectations. Chris

You need to really mess with things such as the refraction index, and the "fade out" color and "murkiness" slider, not to mention the "turn reflective with angle" settings, all under the transparency tab in the material editor. I don't really like any of Vue's stock glass materials that much, though the refraction index settings are correct in relation to reality. Meaning, for example, typical air has a refraction index of 1.0, glass, 1.52, etc. All that can be changed though. Just play around with it all. Vue's material editor is very powerful. And you also might want to select "object Standard" for your mapping, or your materials might change as you move the objects.

Your images are very good concerning the object rendering. What you should improve to obtain "radiosity faking" is the shadows , and the refracted light on the ground in case of glass. It is not an easy thing, but some "experimental" rules exist which have been discussed recently on this forum, like : - use soften shadows for materials, especially for the ground - use soften for the light - use a light at the opposit direction of main light, and uncheck "cause shadows" in order to soften the shadow of the object. - use noise bump at the surface of ground Lot of other tips exist, I'm a beginner in that field :) Yves

Looking good! I'd also recommend playing with the fade-out colors on the glass. I prefer setting the dark color to black and the light color to white. It gives a good glass look that way. Of course, if the background is either mostly black or mostly white, then a blue-gray would be preferable just to help it show up. :)

I've got a couple of questions. 1) Who's Rich and where is his dome lighting? It has to be the greatest lighting of all time to be GI and cast hard edge shadows like that. 2) Are you really talking caustics or radostiy? The general look in all four renders looks the same to me (radosity), however, the caustics are different. but then again you are using two different programs that generate materials differently, and have different render engines.

I'm Rich, but I didn't create the dome. I just got it from the freestuff here.