Hey guys and thanks so much for this fascinating advice and the screenshots.

I realise obviously that each scene will need it's own settings to achieve the look desired, I was curious to see how you all go about it and utilising some of these almost "hidden" settings.

I've been using vue for a while but am now only just starting to "try" use it "properly" and take a little more time. After always using the ultra settings and waiting sometimes days for a render to finish only to find I wasn't happy with the result and almost giving up! I really admire both of your works immensly and am truly made up and grateful to you both for offering advice, it's been truly invaluable.

I know there's always more to learn, but I've learned more from this thread than hours of video watching at geekatplay!

Thanks guys

Thanks, I went to try your sugestions and was wondering if you could cast your eye over these settings and let me know these render settings look about right?

Here's the Atmosphere Editor Settings, I couldn't find "Outdoor Radiosity" but Selected "Global Radiosity" and selected "Optimize for outdoor rendering" instead.

I bumped the "Sky dome lighting gain" to 2 from 0, is this generally enough? "Shadow smoothing" I left at 100%, is this the same as the soft shadows setting you mentioned?

Thanks again

 Hi bigbraader, and all!

Thank you, the "old fashioned look" is exactly the term I should have used. I always knew that my long render times could be reduced by using custom settings rather than ultra but haven't really got to grips with what everything does and therefore found myself moving sliders and ticking boxes without knowing the consequences!

The examples you have given are absolutely spot on and indeed beautiful, great stuff btw, and illustrates the look I'm trying to achieve.

I actually realised when trying a render with your grass pack, and I speak for every vuer when I say thanks!, that the colours and quality did not match all the other renders I've seen using your pack, mine looked rendered and to be honest, pretty nasty! Howiefarkes gallery has some truly awesome work also, each with the finish I'm trying to replicate and can't wait to try these settings out. 

Would you say you use the same ballpark settings for everything you render?

I'll certainly be trying your suggestions and want to thank you for taking the time to reply, very much appreciated.

hey guys,

I agree with Imaginatos, i have a ATI Radeon HD 5700 in my machine and Vue a crashes all the time and I have countless warnings in the terrain editor when launched, then vue just crashes :0( this is really disappointing as all was fine in Vue 7.

Do you think this will ever be resolved? The last update made things even worse for me (8.40-04 build 51934) and I can barely use it.

If not, then I'll have to bite the bullet and get a new card, would love to hear you recommendations for about £150...

My system spec:

AMD Phenom II X4 964 @ 3.40GHz Processor
Win 7 Home 64-bit OS
8.00 GB DDR3 RAM

Thanks in advance

Thanks Mazak, that's just simply awesome!! I'm curious if your render setting in that file are the ones you would use for all your renders or just for this piece?

thanks again, Your a true star, you've helped me out and I'm checking your site now!

That's great....thanks for all your help and time...take care

Hello Mendyh,

Thanks for your response and I have sent the money at the time of this post.

I really don't know what happened :~( Anyways thanks again for your help in this matter.

Kind regards,
Kevin

www.3Ddesktops.co.uk

....you look great btw... :0)

that's great...thanks for your help Debbie