What you saw was likely due to a high altitude thunderstorm cell. The TS cell masks the sun at the horizon and what you see is a beam of light shining through clear sky. I live in Texas. We see this kind of thing often in our neck of the woods. Jim

Give the Eovia software renderer a try as opposed to OpenGL. While you certainly shouldn't be having a problem with a 6800GT, depending on the drivers, you might be seeing an OpenGL issue. The reason I say this is because I had similar problems with a 6800GT. I also saw problems such as all of my models disappearing, everything in the object tree disappearing, all menus disappearing, etc. I resolved that by switching to the Eovia software renderer. I plan on trying updated drivers soon to see if that will allow me to move back to OpenGL. One other note. I had AA enabled in OpenGL and have not tried OpenGL without AA. I'll have to give that a shot since Poser 6 works perfectly fine on the same machine, and it uses a real-time OpenGL renderer as well. Jim

Mike, As a fellow author, I understand the work that goes into writing a book. My last book was about 1200 pages and I'm writing another now that will be around the same thickness. However, you need to always keep in mind that the people offering criticism are your customers. They paid for the book you wrote, and they certainly deserve the right to complain if the book didn't meet their expectations. You must resist the urge to take such criticism personally and accept it as part of being an author. My 2 cents. Jim

Wow, Thomas! You should seriously consider writing a book if you've got enough of this type of information to fill it! I would certainly be willing to purchase such a book. This tutorial is absolutely fantastic! Your image is also fantastic. I just love seeing other people's creations. It really lets me get some great ideas. You are truly a talent both in Vue and in your ability to convey your skill to others. I really appreciate this work, and I hope to see much more! Thanks. Jim

Absolutely beautiful! Thanks for sharing this. Jim

Funny you should say that! In the description when I saved this image, I said, "A peaceful pond just aching for a topwater lure!" :) Jim

Thanks, YL. I'm working on fixing that awful texture on the dead tree close to the camera. The more I use the material editor in Vue, the cooler I think it is, but I sometimes get frustrated in that what I see in the preview cube isn't what I really see when I apply it to my object. :) Still learning! Jim

Wow! I really appreciate these responses, especially from the talent present here at Renderosity! I'd like to be able to take credit for the beauty of this image, but the credit really goes to Vue. It is so easy to get incredible results with this software! I'd love to share how I composed this. Everything is directly from Vue with the exception of the fence posts. Those were modeled in trueSpace and then brought into Vue and textured there. I haven't honed my material editing skills yet, so I copied the texture from the dead tree (which I still don't really like in this image yet) and altered it a bit to make it look like an old fence post. The ground terrain is pretty well masked by the many patches of grass I added. Some of that grass doesn't look too good in the foreground to me, but I'm still tweaking it. I love the way you can use grass to make a shoreline more natural and less "perfect." The sky is the default Masai Mara from Vue. I didn't change a thing. :) That's about it. Thanks again, and thank you e-on for such an awesome product! Eat my dust, Bryce! Jim

I have used Bryce, Terragen, and Vue. Have downloaded a demo of Mojoworld, but haven't installed it yet. I find Vue to be very intuitive, but what I find to be even better is the extremely high quality of the renders. Terrains: Vue FAR exceeds Bryce and Terragen in this area. The Vue terrains are photorealistic. I can always identify a Bryce texture when I see it, and Terragen's, while better than Bryce's, don't compare to Vue's. Water: Vue's water is superb! Bryce's water always looks strange to me. Terragen's water is very nice, but the reflections in Vue are much more realistic. Trees: You'll need Bryce 5 if you want trees that are worth anything, and even they aren't very good. The trees and other vegetation in Vue are out of this world! Even at very close range, they are beautiful! Render quality in Vue is better than any of them in my opinion. I would choose Vue over all others. I've seen plenty of Vue creations that I literally couldn't tell from reality. That's what did it for me. Jim

Man! I had never even seen that Edit Function dialog! And I thought Bryce had some complex material editing. :) Jim

Thanks, Guitta! Unfortunately, this particular image has moved on to oblivion since you can't save in the demo. I will use that technique in future renders. My purchased copy should be delivered today. :) Thanks also for the terrain recommendation. Jim

I have been using the demo of Vue 4 while I wait for my purchased copy to arrive. I have created a dozen or so "masterpieces", all of which fall into oblivion as soon as I quit Vue. I've learned a lot, and cannot WAIT until my purchased copy arrives. :) Speaking of which, can someone tell me how many more vegetation objects and materials you get with the purchased as opposed to demo version? Jim