'Morning Bop, Gebe & Hisjoy . . . In this scene I've got: Imported objects = 28 / Native objects = 55 / Native Boolean Difference objects = 5 / Lights = 6. I keep my system defragged when needed & I have nothing running in the background, except for Systray & Explorer. I think someone just did some testing here lately on what slows Vue 4 down. I believe they came up with: The number of polygons isn't what slows Vue 4 down - I believe they said it was more the number of objects. Someone will correct me if I'm wrong? I'll have to give it a try myself, when I have the spare time. Have a good one . . . Mark. :^)

'Evening Davo . . . 8^) I get the same thing when I used my Vue 4.06, but what I noticed is: when you raise or lower the scale size, the brick size doesn't change, but the texture of the brick does. The larger the scale size, the more defined the brick texture is. This may have something to do with the brick material using a mapped picture, instead of procedural colors? I'm sure someone else with more knowledge will give you more information. You have a good one . . . Mark. ;^)

Thanks for your comments everyone . . . 8^) Hey Bop . . . I agree with you 100%, I had more in mind when I started this one, but things started slowing down SO BAD, that I think I gave up on further additions. It was getting to the point that, just for the main preview to render it was taking almost 10 minutes, & several minutes for the screen refresh, every time I did the smallest adjustment. I'm only running a PIII 500, & I guess it's somewhat slow for doing work in Vue 4.06. There are 89 objects & 190000 polygons, in this scene. Hi Audity . . . I've got to be honest with you, I have no idea of how you would get out of the pods. Maybe they feel that once your inside, there's no need to get back out? Heheheh. Thanks Jon . . . Again, I have to say that I had different plans for that area of the image, but due to my system slowing down so dramatically, I gave up on my plans & just threw something in the center, so it wouldn't look so empty. Also, there are separate point lights at the very top of each sphere. You all have a good one . . . Mark. ;^)

Hmmmmm . . . I don't see any nudity, or are my eyes going bad? This is a really great image, Audity, good planing on everything. Maybe some day I'll purchase Poser? I just find it kinda hard to spend that much $$$ for something that I may not use very much. Anyway, a very nice entry for the challenge & you have a good one . . . Mark. ;^)

'Morning Jilly . . . Very nice scene you've got going there. If you go into the "light shadow editor" of each light, you can increase the "shadow density" beyond 100, up to maybe 200 or even 300. Sometimes I've raised it to 400, depending on the lighting in my scene. I hope this helps some & you have a good one . . . Mark. ;^)

Thanks for the warning Guitta, I hope it helps us on a dial-up connection to access the site a little quicker. Hehehe. .....Mark.

Thank you Varian . . . I appreciate your positive comments. The weather, the news, a movie etc. all can have an effect on what kind of an image idea I come up with. Sometimes I even get ideas when I'm in the produce isle of the market looking at the vegetables & fruit, very strange I know. But to be honest, without a program like Vue making everything so easy, to accomplish such a wonderful rendered final image, I don't really know if I would be able to transfer the ideas from my head, to the computer. 8^o Thanks for your suggestion Guitta, maybe I'll give that a try. But as I said earlier, this image is a little different than the others that I've seen on their pic-of-the-day site. ;^) Anyway, thanks again to all of you & have a good one . . . Mark. PS: ( Could someone tell me, when I see an "Instant Message" box at the top of the Renderosity page with a message in it, is the message for me or does that message go to everybody who views the forum pages? I don't want to be rude & not return an answer to someone, if they meant the message for me. )

Morning all . . . 8^) Thanks to all of you for your nice replies to this image. I have to be honest though, I didn't really do any planning ahead of time, it just kinda came out as I went along. I was playing with Zbrush when I came up with the octopus object. I wanted to see how good the octopus would look in a Vue 4 rendering, so I imported it into Vue. After rendering the octopus, & it looked so nice in Vue, everything else kinda fell into place. I really enjoy all the images that I see posted here, & I think that Vue has a great rendering engine. So it's a pleasure to create objects in another program, just to see how great they look in a Vue rendered scene. I must apologize for my work looking a little different from the normal images posted here, but once I open Vue & start playing around, my mind seems to start wandering in so many different directions that it becomes easy to create an image that is unusual. Maybe some day I'll buy Poser, & then I can do some images that look a little more realistic? All of you have a good one & thanks again . . . Mark. ;^)

Morning . . . 8^) Hi MikeJ, thanks for your reply & information. The only reason that I brought up the .DXF file format, was to include it as another imported file from Zbrush that would flip on it's "X" axis. The only objects I import are .OBJ files, whether they have textures or not. Thanks loads Jcleaver, for your solution of "flipping" the object on the "X" axis, before exporting it as an .OBJ file. Imported objects work great now, when I import the file into Vue 4. Now all I have to work on is: how to get a texture created in Zbrush, to look good in Vue 4. Good morning Guitta . . . . . well, I guess it's not morning for you any more where your at! Heheheh. 8^o You all have a good one . . . Mark. ;^)

Hi Jilly . . . Did you use sunscreen on the baby, before you let him sit in the sun??? 8^o I'm sorry, bad joke! I can't offer any suggestions to the problem, but I wanted to tell you that I thought your image was very nice, & I wouldn't have noticed the skin disorders, if you hadn't mentioned them. Have a good one . . . Mark. ;^)

One other thing you might want to try Spectre, you might want to uninstall Vue & all related files from your computer, then do a fresh install of Vue - download & install the "Full 4.05" patch, & see if that corrects the problem. . . . Mark. Just another thought? 8^o

'Morning Spectre . . . 8^) I don't know anything about Win XP, I'm still using Win 98SE. The only thing I can think of is, when you did your upgrade to XP, did you do a fresh install? Meaning, did you do an "F-Disk" & a format, then install your new operating system? The reason I'm asking is, I know it's a whole lot of work, but I have several friends that just did the upgrade by installing their new operating system, ( over top of ), their old operating system. They had nothing but problems with a lot of the software they had on their systems. So, they went the hard way & did an "F-Disk", formatted the hard drive, then installed all their software. That created a fresh environment to work with & 99% of their software worked great. Other than that, I don't know of what else might be causing your problem. I'm just offering a suggestion, don't know if it will correct the problem or not, but I hope you get it solved soon & you have a good one . . . Mark. ;^)

Thank you Guitta . . . 8^) I'll give your wonderful suggestions a try & you have a good evening. ( It's only about 11:30 AM here in California. ) . . . Mark. ;^)

Hey jgmart . . . 8^) That's a pretty nifty looking image, I really like the effects you gave it. It somewhat resembles a painting, more than a 3D rendering, very nice & different. Have a good one . . . Mark. ;^)

'Afternoon Orio . . . 8^) Sorry to hear your having problems. But I too have downloaded & installed the Vue 4.06 incremental patch, & I have imported & edited several .OBJ files, & I have to say that I haven't had one single proglem doing anything with any of the .OBJ files I've imported. I'm running Windows 98SE / PIII 500 / 512 ram. You might consider sending an e-mail direct to Steve at E-on, discribing your problem. Have a good one . . . Mark. ;^)