My system specs are: Dual Celeron 466, overclocked to dual 525 468 MB ram Windows XP Pro Elsa geForce 2, 32MB I get right around a 9.0 on the Cinebench dual render benchmark, version 6. (by comparison, a dual Athlon MP 1900+ scored a 35.46 in a recent test by Tom's Hardware, and my other machine, a K6/2-350 running Win98, scored a 2.49, with a single CPU) As to the first point: it's difficult to get a horizon line with the darkness in the background, and I wasn't sure that it would go well with the closeup feel of the image. This is one of the reasons I was considering a wood finish for the ground, but I didn't have time to pursue that further. Would a fine-grain wood finish help add some visual perspective? Perahps I simply need to reposiiton the spotlight, so the shadow becomes more pronounced...