To go with that, move your Parameter Dials dialog out of the Document window as Poser will still read your mouse location in the Document even if over the dialog. BYS

I should add that whether to use displacement or bump mapping for this is really dependent upon the effect (are they that visible from a distance), detail (how close and realistic), and range (are you really close) required. If you really need to see the veins, even from the side, you'll have to use displacement maps as bump maps are only an illusion of texture that don't show on the edges of the object, whereas displacement maps will. If you are close in on the veins (close enought that their displacement should be easily seen ), for C4D, my suggestion is to do exactly what Poser 5 does: subdivide only the areas where the displacement map is effective and leave the rest alone. This will reduce the complexity of the overall model as compared to a full subdivide while allowing for good displacement mapping. I use this when doing landscapes with displacement maps - higher subdivisions towards the camera only. BYS

As far as I know, no, it does not. :( BYS

Be warned, displacement mapping quality is directly related to the mesh density. The less polygons, the coarser the effect. Personally, I think that a bump map would be a better approach unless you would like to subdivide M2 by a couple degrees (thus increasing the polygon count into the hundreds of thousands or millions). BYS

Cheers, Totally Agreed! The Dual P4 (Xeon) chips are obnoxiously expensive. BYS

P4s have always been more expensive than the equivalent AMDs. You are mostly paying for "the name", but there are differences between the chips, supported features, and chipsets/motherboards that support them. As someone already mentioned, AMDs are great CPUs that tend to have not-so-great motherboards/chipsets. Yes, EricofSD, we are right. ;0) Mind you, I've had few problems on AMD motherboards (especially after BIOS firmware upgrades and chipset updates), but fewer on Intels. All a matter of preference and pocketbook, methinks. BYS

silver, a man or woman after my own heart! :0)

My reliability has been very good with DVD-Rs. They aren't as reliable because the burning software, hardware, and discs all play a part (and are not all "up to spec" yet AFAIAC). Sorry to say, I've had more problems with zipping files (with WinZip yet) than with DVD-R (or CD-R). Every so often, I get a shocking revelation when a zipped file on CD-R (or DVD-R) is corrupt. This could be due to the media, but makes one think since it only seems to occur on zips. Nonetheless, since these represent my permanent archives (much of the data having been "permanently" removed from my computers), this is a tragedy. And, considering that I compressed a 27 CD set of archives into 3 DVDs, I'll stick with DVDs. cainbrogan, Geometries and textures are in the Runtime directory (in 4 and 5). BYS

Well, that makes sense since .jpgs are already compressed (that's why it's a "lossy" format - exact information is lost in order to achieve the small size). But, see, that wouldn't help me. At 4:1 compression, my entire Poser 5 dir would still be over 700MB; at the edge of CD-R unless overburning. And again, I'm a small-timer when it comes to accumulating Poser files in the Runtime. Let's face it, CD-Rs are going away, for data backup anyway, like the tape cassette. You can get a thousand of them for like $2 ;0) - that should tell you something. DVD-Rs are the only way as programs and data explode in size. And I have a sneaking feeling that their storage size will be surpassed within the next three to five years. BYS

Yep, I backup to an 80G drive until there is enough to write a DVD-R. Right now my Poser 5 Runtime is a measely 2.5GB. How many CD-Rs is that? ;0) BYS

No problems on my P4 2.54GHz either... :)

P4 doesn't even support P5 "Hair Room" hair. This is a new feature added to P5. There are ways to export the objects as .obj, but only the guide hairs are exported and fixing them in something like C4D requires great skill and at least four plugins. So, use and render P5 hair in P5. If there is a workaround, I haven't read about it. :( BYS

Hey, VK, Thanks!! :) That fills in those I didn't find (did a search on the Runtime:libraries:characters folder for the text). BYS

Darn Mac users making things complicated again! ;0) BYS

Not to worry. I've deduced the correlations by examing the .cr2 names against the Geometry names. At least there aren't many to worry about. Time for bed... :) BYS