As you maybe know I prefer interior to outdoor scenes at this time. I like to render scenes as real as possible but it's a long way to follow; I'm not at the end. So, just an exemple with that picture : what is wrong with that ? I think you will agree with me that something is missing ; it looks like no reflected light appears on the glass. It's an important thing, cause the viewer is waiting for that reflecting lights (more precisely, we would like to see for instance the image of a window with outdoor light, or something like that). That's why I used surrounding spheres with mapped pictures on it in order to try to simulate the effect of environment; but with this picture I'm now sure it's not very good. Of course the reflection on the glass also depend on the light coming from the interior : with no light, we should have more reflection on the glass. But in that cas I think it's not sufficient to explain the missing reflections. Also, I only have Vue 2.1 with no volumetric light which maybe could create more "oudoor reflection effect". So I know have an other idea to try to simulate the light coming from outdoor through windows. This further work is in progress, and it seems to be much more powerful compared to the precedent technique I was using. Excuse me for this long explanation, hope someone will be interested by this  Yves P.S. : it will take several days before I post the "improved" version of this picture cause One pic takes 35h to render in ultra mode with my PIII933MHz 256Mb, due to soft shadows. Be patient before to have the explanation of my

what a very cool idea, how to improve? I don't know, it looks great to me...Sharen

It IS beautiful but also just a wee bit flat as you suggest. maybe you culd simulate a "window" with a number of glowing cubes arranged geometrically and is such a way that the glaass picks them up! (If I understand what yo are asking) Lovely work anyway as is. Rivers

Great looking scene! Perhaps some reflections on the outside of the glass of the rest of the room? Might take away from the objects inside if it is too strong though.

I have to ask, what level of soft shadows are you doing(or pic size) that causes a 35h render with that setting and system? Higher that 5 I am guessing. :)

Looks to me that the cabinet needs some shadows. Maybe a harder light? The room could darken in the distance.

Try these settings for the glass or play around with them to suit your image. Try a 4% reflection setting for the glass. The menu's will look different in V2 but as far as I remember , the setting haven't changed that much since 2.*

The settings show above produced a glass as show below, the streetlamp is by MikeJ.

Thanks to all for viewing, making comments and suggestions ! >Rivers, yes you perfectly understood what I tried to explain, I think I will try very soon your very interesting suggestion ! Probably better than the idea I had to improve the above pic. >Nightvoice, I always use soft shadows greater than 5 : in that scene I choosed 10 for the two lights inside the "box", and 20 for the spotlight outside the box. Also I often use fallof greater or equal to 50% for the spotlight cause that is softening the shadow/light transition, but I don't know it it increases the rendering time > Kurka , Maybe I could impose more darkness in the room (reduce the cone angle of the spotlight), but I suppose it's a question of feeling. There are shadows under the box, the spotlight comes frome above. But I always prefer soft shadows, even when they are not real, cause they look more real to the viewer. I also often have lot of "ambiant light" in my settings to have something like global illumination in my interior scenes >hein, the menu is exactly the same that for Vue2.1 Your settings show 1.72 for refraction index which is more accurate for a crystal, but it's absolutely true that it will produce more reflections (so I should try your suggestion). Concerning reflection, I never use it since it is said that with a refraction index greater than 1, you will have natural reflection. But it's a very hard problem, since reflection is also affected by "Turn reflective with angle" setting. Cause refraction index is theoritically the parameter governing the limit angle for reflection. Does it mean that "Turn reflective with angle" account for some surface finish effects (bumps) which could modify the theoritical limit angle ? Interesting, but aniway your recommended setting 48 is greater than default from Vue I'm so happy to have this discussion and suggestion, Yves

Yves, the material I used for the glass is not one of the glass mats but "blurred water" which I modefied. I have no clue about the theories behind 3D , texturing or lights, I just fiddle (some pics take weeks just to get the lighting right) till I'm happy with the result :)

So you do the same as I do :=) Yves

Except the glass reflection you mentionned, the only thing I see that could improve your scene is a more... how to say it... "life-breathing" wall. try to use a bump setting or something like that... And, maybe, some not-so-clean metal materials. try to make your objects stained with dust, or something that makes them less "perfect"... It's the only thing I see for trying to improving an already excellent scene... :-)

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=203540&Start=1&Sectionid=3&WhatsNew=Yes

So this is an ameliorated version, also in my gallery (see the link). Just have a rectangular box with rectangular openings (simulating a house) around the main scene .The sun shines through the openings and illuminates the scene (can be seen on the box). This (I think classical) method is very time consuming, but efficient I suppose (could be improved, for sure). So would like to try other suggestions you made. An other thing is I have not used ultra mode (rendering time probably greater than 30h, I also want to make other pictures, lol), so I had to do some postwork to ameliorate the antialiasing.  Yves

That looks cool, Yves. I only suggest you to low your reflexion setting or to un-blur it. I really like your work...