Quote - ThunderStone,

I would love to see how the test came out. Would you post your test scene here?

Will do so ... going to work on a basic sphere, cylinder, pyramid, and cube ...metal theme.

Quote - **ThunderStone,

**Hmmm, that sounds very interesting, using a sliver from a dome eh?  I'd like to try that.

Fran, yes it does...  But then that what experimenation gets ya...LOL

What I did was:
Create the dome as per Hidden Phanatom MSP Glow tutorial... Then I selected about 10 that are in a curve. Group them, delete the rest, then duplicate the "sliver" as needed...  It works somewhat and rendering time is shorten (IMHO). I also save the sliver to the preset so that I don't have to re-create it each time I need it.

You can call it the Sliver Dome Technique? :b_funny:

rjay9663: Thanks for the file. I got it. and am using it... As for Zenith lighting rig, it is very high in rendering time. I tried out all 4 versions of it and each one of them rendering time was double what it would have been with my own version. (Of course, it depends on the objects and the size of the images)... I will conduct an experiment over the weekend to prove to myself that it was a fluke.

Right now I am rendering a complex sphere scene with my own lighting rig which consist of  a smaller dome of light like a sliver from a whole dome.and rotated sideways over the objects. Need 2 of these to adequately light the scene. 

:b_sad:

**
**

So glad I didn't do the window update... I have noticed that everytime there's an update for windows service pack etc. something goes bonkers in some application... You might have to download and re-install the C++ library.... Are u running any Microsoft Office Suite application in the background?
Like outlook or words or something like that? That could be the culprit... I had the same problem when I first started using Bryce 5.5. I don't know what happened but after re-installing the C++library and not opening up Words or Outlook before Bryce, I'm ok...

You also might want to check Microsoft site for further explanation of your error code.

Quote - Fran,

I found it!!  

Don't know if you still need the light dome. But I fould the light dome I was looking for earlier. It's part of a .br5 file named "lighttest_115".  I'll send it to you in a zip file.

Could you send it to me also? I am looking also for the light dome... Thanks!

About the Zenith zip... Thankee thankee thankee!!!!  I have been looking for that! :b_drool:

Quote - some dude made that once... years ago. but never released it to the public :-/

Is that 3D Explorer by xdsoft.com? Don't bother even going to the site. It's not there any more.
It would be nice to be able to convert from different 3D apps formats to the ones you need. sigh That will be a boon in the exchange department.

Quote - *The other four are not XP nor Vista, thus I did not include them in the count. They are either Win2K or Ubuntu Linux.

*They're games machines, aren't they. You play macho-type shoot 'ems on X-boxes and stuff.
Admit it! You're a games junky!!!

:lol:

Watch your mouth!! I am on Win 2K and ain't no game junkie!!! :glare: I might have  a game or two to play when I get bored with Bryce... or work... just  the default card game that comes with Windoze but other than that, it's Dreamweaver, Flash, MS Office etc.  I might upgrade to XP and stay there til they pried my keyboard from my cold stiff fingers...  But for now, I'm happily working my lil creative "magic" in Bryce with Win 2K...  :laugh:

Quote - I haven't had any networking issue with Vista and XP together. 14 computers: 6 Vista, 4 XP.

:b_unbelievable:

That's 10.... What are the other 4? Macs?

Curious minds want to know...

:m_scared: Sounds like the Bryce gremlins has strike again!

Look like chunks of material (shapnels) that goes flying out in an explosion?

Quote -
Maya and 3dsMax are just great, but.. require u to have lotsa money to spend on it... They're powerful, but you'll have to dedicate yourself to getting to grips with the tools and very preferably, with the technology behind it.

That is very true. 3dsMax cost about 4,000 smackeroos, thus putting it out of the reaches of poorer hobbyists. Of course if you're a student or a corporation or someone with deep financial pockets, then getting 3ds Max is cheaper than retail.

Quote -
Where its easy to just mess around in bryce and see what happens, apps like 3dsmax and the likes are really just 10 times easier to figure out when you're aware of significant background knowlege of the tools you get at your disposal.
As such, its pretty much mandatory to really study 3D practice and theory, either by yourself or by taking courses, in order to get the type of professional results you payed theprice tag for. If you're not going to put in serious dedication, its really just a waste of money because you're not very likely to reach a point where your creations will exceed the abilities of much cheaper apps.

You know, now I am glad I took those courses in multimedia program at the 2 yrs college for the associate degree. At least I had the instructor to help me out with the practical theory and application of Max... Not so easy to do so on your own.Theories? Baloney shamoney! Who cares!?! I just want to learn how to move the objects around in virtual 3D world and create those same objects, regardless of the price tag.  Theories are for those going for their PH. D. and research. (which is fine and dandy).

:b_toocool:

Keeping my fingers crossed...

I just check BT site and it's down...  Could it be just down due to working on the site or becaue too many people are already on it?

This is what I'm getting:

**The connection has timed out           

The server at brycetech.com is taking too long to respond.

    *   The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
          moments.

    *   If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
          connection.

  **

Ok  :b_stunned:  I can still reach Renderosity, so I know the connection is valid.

Anybody else get the same result?

TS

My condolences to you on this. Hope you get thru this heart breaking time.

Thanks... I did it and the result is rather astonishing... I played around with the technique before I worked on THE render. I have upload it and here's the link to it so you can see what I did.

TS