stewer--the shadows work fine, so long as the room prop is hidden. When the room prop is visible, the figures no longer cast any shadows on one another. I think the presence of the room, even with its own shadow casting property turned off, somehow triggers this bug. I am using DAZ' global lighting set and rendering with Firefly with ray tracing turned off. I guess I'll try the P4 engine to see if it has the same bug.

Select the prop and export it using File->Export->Waveform Object. In the "Check items to include" box make sure only the prop has a checkmark. Then reimport it and the gimbal lock will be gone. Make sure to save the fixed prop to your prop library or you'll have to do this again. Here's a simple;) explanation of gimbal lock: http://www.anticz.com/eularqua.htm

Thanks. I guess what I was really asking is why when only 1 figure from the scene is rendered it comes out darker than when ALL the figures and props in the scene are rendered (under the identical light setup)? Is it because the lights are reflecting off the additional surfaces and thus increasing the brightness? Is this in fact something that the Poser engine can do? I would think that if anything the single figure render would be BRIGHTER because there are no surrounding figures casting shadows.

I tried the displacement maps as outlined by little dragon above. I didn't see a "remove back facing polygons" option for the Poser 4 engine, but yes, when I tried the Firefly engine, that option was already checked and the lines were still there. I seem to remember these lines being an issue a while back but I can't find the thread.

Thanks I'll try it but since the problem occurs only on the wall I don't think I should change any global settings that will affect the whole picture.

Hey, thanks a million, little_dragon. Worked great! Now as far as that link of yours, still scratching my head...

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I'm going to try _dodger's procedure (thanks for the detailed info). I really need to keep the overall body texture I'm using because it has the hand texture part that I need, so that's why I don't think I can use the separate hand figure in "Additional Figures." I realized my original thought about detaching the hand wouldn't work either for that reason as I would then lose the texture that was associated with the body/hand? Thanks again.

Thanks for the great site! I downloaded the Great Hall but found that all the geometry/object files are missing (GreatHalluv.obj, etc.). Hope you'll put those in! Thanks again. PS I also have the overlap problem due to layers. I'm using XP Pro on a 1.8GHz Dell with IE 6.0.

Any spelling errors in a company's product are an embarrassment and should be pointed out as otherwise the trend toward disregard for proper language usage will continue. And correct spelling should not incur a penalty as far as the release date is concerned--it's a joke to think that there should be any relationship between the two.

Ron, It's really pretty simple. The crosstalk problem will crop up in 2 different ways: 1) When you start a new scene, and 2) when you reload your saved scene later (although if you're lucky you may not get problem #2 at all, at least for a while). For a new scene, start by loading in rbtwhiz's Millenium Null character, which is very small and invisible. Make sure it's selected (since it's the only character in the scene at this point it should be already) and then load in your first Mike or Vicky character. Now select the Null character again and load in your next Mike/Vicky character. Repeat this sequence until all your figures are loaded in. You will not have the crosstalk problem for the rest of the Poser session. If you change any figure (morphs, etc.) while you're working on the scene make sure you save it in the "figures" library so that you can load it in separately later. When you reload your saved scene later, the crosstalk problem may appear. One of the figures will be corrupted. Here's what I do. Select the corrupted figure and save its pose into the pose library. Make sure the figure's "body" is selected and write down the body's X, Y, and Z translation values and the X, Y, and Z rotation values for future reference. Delete the figure, select the Null character, and reload the figure you just deleted from the library. It will now appear normal, without any crosstalk. Apply the pose you saved and the X, Y, and Z translation and rotation values and you have your scene back intact!

First, select the hair. Then, use the dropdown arrow in the "Document Display Style" palette so that you can see the additional entries for "Figure Styles" and "Element Styles." Select "Element Styles." Count off 4 circles leftward from the up arrow on the right side--that's the "Cartoon w/Line" option. Select it. Thanks to Traveler for the tip.

For a few days, that one scene I was working one was saved and loaded many times, sometimes into the same instance of Poser, sometimes into a new instance, and sometimes after the computer had been turned off overnight. No crosstalk. The scene I started today was saved once and the crosstalk appeared right away when it was reloaded (I believe into a new instance of Poser). The differences that I can think off between the scene that didn't have crosstalk and the new one I created today are just 1 simple prop and some lights. Forgot to mention I have the latest patch, Windows XP, Pentium 4, and 512MB RAM.

I always have a spotlight explicitly pointing at something--for example, a figure's head or some prop. That way you're guaranteed that the light is being directed exactly where you want it. You use the Object/Point At menu item to indicate where you want the light to point (make sure you have the light selected before going to the menu). Once the light's pointing correctly, you can change its X, Y, and Z translation settings to move it around the object it's pointing at, or closer and farther. Note that it will continue to point at the object as you move it. You can adjust its intensity (set it to 100% to immediately get a sense of it) and color. The closer you move a spotlight to its object the brighter that object will get.

Ron, thanks for the trouble you went through to answer my question. I have now changed my character names from "Figure 1" etc. to something more meaningful. However, as Jaager pointed out (not that he needs confirmation), it does not solve the crosstalk problem. So far I've been using the null character fix for that.