I use the old fashion method....eyeball it

Attached Link: Bryce Turbo Importer - what to check for to get it to work

( top spot in the r'osity webring? ) Join and post the webring banner at your site......every time you come to Renderosity, use the hot link you posted at your site....if you enter Renderosity 3 or 4 times a day this way, it won't be long before your number 1 too!!!!

Cool....can I go play in the poppy fields?

I agree with the head lights and fender reflection comments. But the scratches are a real nice touch, that adds to the old photo realism. great job!

ACIS modeling rocks, it's one of the hardest to learn ( which I'm still slowly doing ). but what can be accomplished with it, is truly amazing.

When I seen Amapi on the CD cover you were the first person I thought of BT. I'll have to check out your tuts. ellocolobo I live in the USA, but I subscribe to 3D World, so I get it usually 3 to 5 days after it released, B&N probably won't have it for a few weeks.

Good software companies take care of their user base....bottom line. This is a excellent offer for those who are just purchasing Bryce and Daz content. But what about the users who already have B5, Turbo Importer, Vic & Mic 1, 2, & 3. and most of the Mil Animals and creatures. And are already PC members, this offer really holds no incentives, other then the offer of an upgrade path. Or the users who could care less about Daz content, and only want the upgrade for the render improvements. I think it would be in DAZ best interest to try and accommodate all of the current user base, while also trying to expand it's user base. Sure you can't please all of the people, but I see it as being ludicrous to not give every registered user of Bryce 5 some sort of upgrade path to version 5.5. Especially since they have been selling the 5 version of Bryce. I recall an instances where a similar situation had occurred. Not only did the company offer an upgrade path from the version they had acquired. But it was the full price of the current selling price of the software. Sure the people who paid 3 times as much the year before complained. But that was a very good offer from the new owners. IMO, Daz should offer an upgrade path for every B5 owner, for half of the current selling price of the software. That is fair to the people who just bought B5 from Daz, and the long term users who paid full price 2 or 3 years ago. And they should continue to offer bundle deals for all those interested. But there are many type users. All of who's needs should at least be considered. If this is the only upgrade path to follow, than the price of Bryce 5.5 should definitely be under $100 before the discount. So those who choose this path will pay under &70. That's my 2 cent

Everything listed under B5 is already in B5. Everything listed under Turbo Importer is what turbo importer does. Everything listed under Daz Studio is what DS does. There is nothing new for Bryce in this Bundle. There is a bunch of content, that will need to be brought into Bryce via DS and Turbo Importer. Personally I think the long term Bryce user and long term DAZ customer are getting the short end of this deal. Even those who purchased Bryce and Turbo Importer from DAZ are getting the short end of this one.

I was in Fort Myers the morning Andrew went through Naples, Went to Miami right after that. ( I splice telephone cable ), after 2 weeks in Miami, I went to Kauai Hawaii, after Iniki hit ( class 4 hurricane ) . I have never seen devastation like that, Miami was bad, but when one of these storms go over a little island they rip it to shreds and don't even slow down. I would be down south ( your way ) right now , but I broke my leg....which has been a real bummer along with all the storm infestation we been having lately.

I live in Sarasota Fl. Hurricane Charlie hit 45 miles south of where I live and Frances came through 45 mile north of us. Ivan please go anywhere but the peninsula of Fl. I just heard Ivan has killed 65 people so far ( on the Island ) and the eye is just about to hit the corner of Cuba. This storm has the potential to be the worst in the last century.

Two other features that help work flow in clustered scenes are:

1. The family tools,
2. Solo mode

Example of families: say you have many objects that share the same material. You can put them all in the same family, then if the material needs to be changed or tweaked they can all be easily selected using the family menu.
Solo Mode: Once a group or objects have been selected, you can go into solo mode to temporally hide all the other object.
A good example of using solo mode is, say you have a full scene, and you need to import a new model that contains many parts. You can go into solo mode ( with no objects selected even before you import it. Then when it's imported it will be the only model seen and listed on all the selection menus. All the different part are easier to select to place materials on. After the editing is done to the model you go out of solo mode to place and do other translations to it.

Every one know that refraction is the bending ( direction shift ) of light as it passes through a transparent, or semi transparent object. But why does the light bend? The light bends due to a change of speed that the light is traveling at.
The direction it bends depends on the optical density of the objects it is passing from then into. When light passes into a denser object it slows down and it direction changes towards the normal. When it passes into a less denser object it speeds up and bends away from the normal.
( The normal is an imaginary line, passing diagonal through the object from the entry/exit point of the light,) Refraction only occurs at the boundary of the object.

Example: When light passes from the air into a crystal ball it slows down and is bent towards the normal as it enters the crystal, then it travels in a strait line through the crystal ball, then it bends away from the normal as it exits the crystal ball and speeds back up as it enters back into the air.

That's why there is no Refraction Channel for volume materials. Because refraction is not a volume property.

The Bryce environment is set at 100 percent refraction, that's why the refraction channels 100 is called air. Any setting above 100 should bend light towards the normal, any setting below should bend light away from the normal. ( but it does not )

"Sure, the air between two non-transparent objects can have refractive properties.(but I'm not sure if you would see any difference in Bryce if you did this "

Yes the air has refractive properties, but if light is not traveling between an optical dense boundary, refraction will not occur.

" But if you stuck a sphere in there and made the refraction 1.33 and the refraction of the cube 1.33 the sphere should become invisible."

No, you just would not see any refraction because there is no optical density boundary change.

"So will taking the cube and booleaning it out hollow with another cube. Which I know it is hollow to begin with really, but the effect changes with the booleaning..."

Because you are actually having the light pass through the object, it goes in than out the thin wall of the boolean. So you are really inside an environment that is Bryce's 100 percent air. Where if you are inside a cube that is not boolean, then you are in an environment which is set to whatever the cube refraction setting is.

" An increase in the refractive setting, now the cube is casting a shadow."

Yes because you are making the optical density denser. So the cube lets less light in. and cast a shadow with the light that does not penetrate into the cube. The denser the optical properties become the less light is let in, thus the spherical shape gets small as less light travels through the cube and exits out the rear.

This effect does not work the opposite way because there can not be more light let in than the surrounding environment lets in. In other words if the air is 100 percent refraction and the cube is 0, more light can not be let into the cube, than is present in the 100 percent surrounding environment. ( But if it could wouldn't that be a great way to fake GI )

Where I see the Bryce ray tracing algorithm flawed, for refraction is. The light should shift direction depending on the optical density properties. But it does not. Sure when you set refraction lower or high than air, you will see an opposite shift change on the surface of the object. But the light passing through the object does not shift in direction. In tjohns demonstration here the shadow on the sphere stays located at the same place no matter what the refraction is set at.. Where in reality the light should be shifting direction more as the refraction gets denser. I bet if the refraction was set to 0 for the cube the shadow would still be in the same location even though it should shift because the light in the real world situation is being bent in the opposite direction.

Hey where's the Critique flogging option?....

ummm....maybe their more interested in promoting their website than their art. ( a banner with a background )