It really depends on how wet you want it to be. Standing puddles are as reflective as mirrors. Damp pavement is only slightly reflective. You can try adding a 'puddles' layer to an existing material, then making it reflective and controlling the alpha and reflectance channel with a noise node. That should get you started.

Here are a few links to some renders I did using reflective ground treatments, maybe they can provide some inspiration:

[ http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1808082

](http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1808082)[http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1837070

](http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1837070)[http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1777015

](http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1777015)[http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1241905

](http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1241905)http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1037758

 The preview is a quick render of the scene and may not reflect things like internal shadows in clouds. If it did, it may take considerably longer to render. Try right-clicking on the Preview window and set the quality to Best, but know it will take much longer to render previews.

 The sun is a directional light and should not be affected by distance from the camera. That said, there appears to be some sort of distance applied to the vector or else the effect shown would not exist. I suspect Vue has a built in 'distance to sun'.

Interesting phenomena.

 Click on the small SeaVue picture at:
http://www.altuit.com/webs/altuit2/VueTraining/Vodcasts.htm

and it will take you to a page with a download link. click on the download link and it will download the 181Mb tutorial.

 Artur,
Yes, that's an excellent example! And your settings are not too far off of Richard's either. I believe I use pretty much the same settings as you for this type of scene. I've heard there's a huge render time difference between 95% and 100%, but haven't checked it myself.

 Richard,

Try rendering w/out GI/Radiosity using just Global Ambience and see what happens to the edge. My guess it will render fine with the lower settings. Of course it won't look right, but it's a quick test to see if the AA issues have to do with the Radiosity settings. If so, then there are a few settings you can use which might help for small surfaces like that. Let me know and I'll dig around and see what I can find.

-C

 Artur,

You probably already know this, but typically serious AA problems show up with straight or geometrically precise lines. Nature scenes can be rendered with much lower AA as they don't such geometries in them. I know you use figures as well, but even they don't have the AA problems which a straight line can create. Richard has a particularly difficult example.

 Richard,

Is it possible the line is a function of a texture map (bump or trans channel)? If so, try setting texture filtering to something like 30-50 and see what you get.

best,
Chipp

 One of the drawbacks of subdivision patch modelers, is they create objects with tons of polygons. This is one of the reasons I prefer modeling in SketchUp for many things.

One thing you can do, is export your mesh at a very low sub-d patch setting, and let Vue add the polys for you during rendertime using the Dynamic Subdivision feature in the Polygon Mesh Options panel.

Hi  Pnina,

Saw your post and thought I'd comment on some of these features. I think this might be helpful for others as well.

Quote - -Control procedural terrain altitudes based on relationships with other objects    
-The altitude of procedural terrains can be dynamically affected by other objects

These two are currently new features for Vue 7 Infinite. I'm actually not sure how they might be used, but if I were really interested in creating stunning terrains, I would certainly look into GeoControl. Certainly these two features, at this stage, are not missed, as I know of no one who is actively using them.

Quote - -User definable geometry anti-aliasing    Up to 1024 rays/pixel   (well, more than 64)

This has been discussed on another forum. The general consensus is one would never use 64 rays/pixel in a render, much less 1024 rays/pixel. For the record, Ultra mode renders with a maximum of 28 rays/pixel. I don't think I've ever heard anyone rendering higher than that-- and if they did, the render would take forever. I typically max out around 12 for my print read renders.

Quote - -Control materials based on the properties of other objects

Another brand new highly specialized node which I have never heard used before. Perhaps Dave can lend perspective to this.

Quote - -Animation features

Which ones?

Quote - -Change interface colors/size of text (so I can see easier)

I agree, this is pretty good-- and IMO should be in Complete. That said, when I use Complete, I find it easier to use (for my eyes) than Infinite. Maybe it's just me.

Quote - -Ability to reorganize the view panes

I personally have never had the need. This does not mean others don't, it's just never came up for me before-- and I do a lot of modeling in Vue.

Quote - -Python scripting
-Python console for direct input of Python commands
-Python functions to add, modify and remove EcoSystem instances

Complete can and will run Python scripts, as will soon the whole Vue line. They need to be first compiled-- which I personally object to. The Python console is used mostly for debugging existing scripts when authoring them. I hope to have my own VueTools available for Complete soon. I believe Dave is currently working with e-on to also have his SkinVue product as well.

Perhaps the only reason to add, modify and remove EcoSystem instances via Python, is if you CAN program in Python-- which is certainly not for non-programmers.

Quote - -Macro recording and playback to automate repetitive tasks

An interesting feature, but certainly not one which gets a lot of attention. In fact, other than Mark (Monsoon)'s playing around with this feature, I don't know of anyone else who is actually using it. Certainly, not in any of the many Vue forums I pay attention to.

Hope this helps.

Best, Chipp

 Nope, they're the same tutes. I rewatched them last night and learned a few things. LOL!

 Dave,

The only 'killer' feature missing, IMO, is the bake to polygons-- but I don't even use that any more as the primitive renders are really fast and MUCH more accurate for metablobs.

 Typically when doing walk-thru animations, nothing but the camera changes. Of course reflections change a bunch, but then they aren't part of the pre-render calculation. As long as the lights don't change, nor the material, nor any objects, the single uprfont calcualtion can be used to render the whole animation-- and very quickly I might add.

 Not really a waste, as it's there primarily for animations, not still renders.

Quote - There is an upgrade path from Elements to PS.

I stand corrected. I looked a while back and did not see this. Perhaps they too had a similar discussion. Thanks for posting.