svdl, this would be a workaround too, not real SSS, but that would be nice to see what you come up with this technique. Doubling or tripling the model will certainly take longer to render, but then maybe one or more of these models could be low-poly. Still, I think the distance on ray node might be the answer, combined to some filtre, wish I had more time to play around with it.

That's interesting, but subsurface scattering is not about the skin getting redder, it's about light going through the thin layers of skin, hence the reddish effect, but this won't work for hair, leaves or ice. And also, this effect only happens when the skin gets in contact with a strong sun ray or lamp. I think that the "distance on ray" node might prove useful in this, but I really don't know how. How about you give it a try? I'm sure it's there somewhere, and that you or another SSS maniac will come up with the right shader. And we'll all be thankful.

Well, they answered me about the texture maps paths, said it would be fixed in the next update, and asked me for an Xfrog exported file to check it for themselves, so I didn't feel so confident about this issue; but if they told you it would be fiex, that's good news. Now how about this new problem I have, see my new post about illumination baking!

@ iloco: I sent E-on' tech deparment an e-mail to report this. Hope many of us will do the same, so they might solve this quickly.

Did you use a "map" filter, before connecting to the "distance to object below" node? I've had this problem too with shorelines, but found a workaround by changing values in the "map" filter.

Have the same problem iloco, but it just got worse: I wanted to load an Xfrog tree that was exported as .lwo, and Vue wouldn't load it, got an error message: buffer overrun, and then Vue crashes. I know this has to do with memory, but I never had this problem before this new update. So, I tried to get back to the previous update, but it as apparently corrupted, so I wasn't able to revert back, but when opening Vue again, another warning saying that I might have to reinstall the app completely. No scene would load. tried to get back to a previous Windows saving point ( system restauration? I don't know the term in english, sorry), but it didn't work. So I tried one last thing before reinstalling Vue, I re-downloaded the bloody update and now it works fine, well not fine, since i still have the problems mentionned before.

Shame for non PSP users! How about a PSD script? Oh well, I guess someone will come up with it by working on your tutorial!

Now I've seen it too, but I think, but I'm not sure, that this option is only available when importing objects. Again, not a 100% sure.

Yes, they are the same that come with Infinite and 5 esprit.

Didn't get any new plant species when I bought it! Wasn't supposed to anyway! Are you sure they're now offering plants with the module? You sure you read right?

Accushadows come in 3 different states: 1-Regular raytraces shadows, well this one you know. 2-Hard shadow maps, which are only available when at least 1% softness has been given to the light, any light. 3- Soft shadow maps, available all the time for all lights. I tend to say that shadow maps are not very accurate, the worst being soft shadow maps. With them, the shadows you get have very little in common with the shape they should have, so I tend to use them for additional lights. Hard shadow maps I sometimes use for the sun, when camera is place high in the scene. These shadows tend to be more accurate that the soft ones. When using 1 or 2, you can define the accuracy of the map with a few parameters, and there is one moment when memory requirements are worse than using standard raytraced shadows. And that moment doesn't come in any warning from from Vue, unfortunately! Generally speaking, it does save computing time, but you need to learn how to use them to get the right balance between accuracy and render time. The module has a few other interesting features: for exemeple, you can decide which objects are affected by a light, this can be useful sometimes. The module is the cheapest of all 4, so I say you should go ahead and get it!

Lanaloe, thanks a lot! Didn't know you could go more than 100 in this slider!

Do you use global illumination? If so, you might want to check the Advanced Effects Options , in the render tab, when clicking the edit button of the Advanced effects quality. If you check the Custom indirect lighting settings, check the jittering option and choose "reduced pulsation". That's what it says in the manual. Hope this helped.

Can you be more specific with the plants? What names? Maybe you should reduce their size in the "general" tab, I've noticed that the smaller the object, the more you get, and they probably need to be small anyway, if they are small plants. I know I have populated 20000+ dry grass or patch of grass objects.