Thanks for the help, Kiera, and others. Kid of weird not using the reflection channel, but the program will give me the results I want. Didn't want to blame my tools!

I got a pretty good simulation by using the alternate diffuse color as a second texture on a sphere map, set to about 50% grey. The two maps together pretty much achieve the look I was trying to get. I get more or less of the reflective look by making the color more black or white. I'll make an example later tonight and post it here. Thanks for the suggestions!

The ray-traced reflections have a few problems for me as well. I've gotten some odd triangle shapes where there aren't supposed to be any on a car, and on a pane of glass. I love the new lighting in the renderer, but getting some good reflections are turning out to be a challenge. I used to import figures into Bryce for more advanced texture options, and was hoping not to have to do that anymore. It's got a much better renderer than P4, but I haven't been able to build the shader for reflections that I want to put on an object. I'm still working with it, but I'm not sure if the goal is attainable... -Tempus

I tried the link from the image, but the problem I'm having is the diffuse color. The object has a texture map, so if I make it black, it fades out. I had mine set up pretty much like it is in Kiera's message, but it's not quite the look I was hoping for. I've played with Shaders in other programs before, and environment maps were easily made, but I'm beginning to wonder if P5 has that ability. I do a lot of image compositing, so I don't always want ray traced reflections, but I may not have an alternative. Thanks for the help, and if anyone can figure this out, I'd love to know how! -Tempus

No, I didn't think of angling it up - have to try that! Thanks for the suggestion!

Yeah, but I can afford Poser. If DAZ comes out with something, I'll probably get that too, but at the kmoment, it's just vaporware. The render times in Poser are now comparable to Bryce (and the old renderer is still there also). It would be great if we could all afford Max, but if wishes were horses, we'd all ride.

The image is 646 x 612 pixels, and I think it took about 3 hours on my P4 1.4, with 1024 megs RAM. (I increased the dpi to do some smoothing, and the final image here is a little bigger than the original, so there's a little stair-stepping). There are two ray-traced lights in the scene, the ray-traced reflection, and then the trans maps on the hair and eyes were the slowest areas. I had originally tried to do a 3000 pixel high version, but I got impatient and bailed after a few hours. A feature for the renderer that would be nice is one like Bryce has, where you can stop the render, save the file, exit out, shut down the machine, etc, and then later open it again and hit resume. I don't have that much faith in my equipment to go and do a bunch of other things in the background while it's crunching a really complex file.

Poser has transitioned from Fractal Design to MetaCreations, and now to Curious Labs. If need be, I'm sure it would do it again. What other graphics program has a community built around it like this one? Poser isn't going to go away. I also think Steve Cooper and company are way too passionate about the product to leave the end users without an unlock if they were forced to drop out of the picture. All this concern over having to reformat your hard drive has gotten rediculous. Reformat it, and if you've passed your limit, you can run it for seven days while you send them an e-mail and say "Hey, it's me, your customer, I want to unlock my software," and I'm sure you'll get a new code. Like any other company, CL wants to help and serve the people who buy the product. All of your bitching and demanding resposes would probably get more attention if you WERE a customer, but since you haven't bought Poser 5 from them, they have no obliagtion to you. Telling us all to go fuck ourselves probably didn't help either.

Good post, soulhuntre.

Once the newness of P5 dies down, one forum should be all that's needed...

Thanks Steve!

WiNC, Amish Rake Fight has been around for a long time, and was not made my me. Now can you dig that.... sucka! (insert spin-a-roonie here)

Steve! Just wanted to say thanks for all the blood, sweat and tears that went into Poser 5! I've been having a ball with it, and I know in the future it'll be tuned up into a well-oiled machine. I also appreciate your taking time to give the forum here your personal attention. I've seen a lot of negative reactions, but it's a great new tool, and I've got a lot of enthusiastic exploring to do! -Jeff Whiting Tempus Fugit