Ok... On that room of mine I posted a bit below. I'm putting 3 lights right outside the window. 2 distant and one spot. All set to brightness 100% all pointing at the woman inside. I position my camera just outside the room to the side of the spot light looking in through the window. I get solid black, can't see anything inside. I switch to a camera inside that is set to show the window behind the woman. No light coming in and thus the woman shows up as a black outline against the window HOWEVER I can see the backdrop through the window just fine... I do a render with a third camera to the side of the woman showing mostly her backside. Thic camera is inside the room and angled to show those parts that you could see from outside. So considering that just outside I have three very bright lights I should get something... I get solid black. window is set to no color, trnasparency 100% and with 'no light interactions' checked. When I uncheck that the window turns a solid white in renders. Any idea why I can't get light to shine through a transparent object but can get the backdrop to show through?

Arcady, For windows I use this formula most of the time. Color:Value = 0 Highlight:Value = 90 Highlight:Value = 90 Reflection:Value = 10 Transparancy:Value = 90 This gives you reflections, highlights and allows you to see through it. The trick, as long as your close to 100% transparancy is to turn Cast Shadows off on whatever you are using for Glass. It's much faster than lighting through transparancy and in most cases people won't notice the difference. Eric Winemiller Digital Carvers Guild Freeware and commercial 3D extensions http://digitalcarversguild.com

Also, in the render room, make sure that you have 'light through transparency' checked. Mark

If you turn the Cast Shadows off for your glass object, you don't need to take the speed hit for Light Through Transparancy. Eric Winemiller Digital Carvers Guild Freeware and commercial 3D extensions http://digitalcarversguild.com

I suspect that what I missed was what Mark mentioned. I'll look at it tonight. I adjusted shaders all over the place last night but skipped going to the render room. After all I was just doing test renders with that little 'snapshot camera' icon... :) However definately thanks for the other shader info. I've been looking for a good way to get glass to look like glass and not just like 'empty air'. I'll try all those as well.

I'll have to plug Eric's (Digital Carvers Guild) shaders since he didn't. They've made transparency issues much faster with 'off the shelf' index of refraction values etc. Worthy stuff! Mark

Hmmm... I think I downloaded that a while back. Need to get around to installing. :)

Gee what do you know... Just a quick update. I just went into the render room and found a certain something unchecked... :) Checked it and now that elf girl of mine has the friggen sun that I put right outside her window shinning in brighter 'n you'd believe. :)