Thanks Billy and GPFrance, your explanations are very useful. I havent sent the file to Rodluck yet, because i want to try to fix things myself first. With your explanations i have some more possible solutions again, but, as I noticed while trying the other suggestions, my computer is simply too old for this work. So what I will do first is buy a new computer, which is something I need anyway. If by then I still have the same problem, i will send the file to Rodluck to see if he can solve it.

Unfortunately none of your tips seem to work. exporting as .obj makes wings crash. so does triangulating the mesh, but all polies are quads anyway, so that should not be the cause. inverting normals also has no effect. I think my computer is the problem. Its rather old... Whats the difference between .obj and .3ds anyway? how come my wings crashes with .obj and not with .3ds?

Thanks for your tips. The high resolution mesh has 71K polygons. I have tried exporting as .obj, but wings always crashes when I do so. Ill try triangulating the mesh, but that will result in an even higher amount of polygons, wont it? probably have trouble again there... Ill try inverting the normals as well. Thanks for your tips. Ill let you know if it worked.

So far I dont use any program for modelling. I have downloaded the silo learning version, but cant save anything with that. I downloaded anima8or as well, but its complicated to use. Is there anything you would recommend which is both easy to use and very versatile?

Thanks for your tips. They surely are helpful.

should be possible. I think it says something about that in the manual. if I remember it correctly, go to the file menu and select updat->remove last update. not sure if thats it, but the manual probably says something about it.

thanks, that might be exactly what I need: building creatures from scrap! not too expensive either....

Thanks Orio, thats indeed what I would be looking for. But thats rather expensive isnt it? Maya is about $ 2000 if Im not mistaken.... I guess Ill buy Xfrog some day and keep it simple first. $2000 is a lot for a student! (and so is $20 for an antelope...) Thanks for your tips Remco

Im very happy to read all these ideas. I would value them greatly. Its true that the esprit manual only gives a one-sentence explanation of what each node can do. Not very helpful.... Good luck with the fulfillment of these new ideas! and thanx in advance

Thanks. Ive been messing around with a RGB colour map, but so far didnt get any wiser. I guess it takes a lot of time to get the insight. I have seen the flash bundle at Cornucopia, and I would like to buy it actually, but i dont have a credit card... And I dont have any inspiration to create the winning Winter Wonderland Contest picture, where this flash bundle is the price... ;) Ill just have to work hard on my patience then...

Thats indeed the tutorial Im referring to. Im sure its a great tutorial for those who have a basic understanding of the function editor, but I dont have even that. Plus I use Vue 5 Esprit, and not Infinite. I have a feeling that the Infinite version has still more possibilities. Your example of a foamy shoreline is great, but I cant seem to use it in Esprit. How can I get the "distance to object below" command, for example? And I would especially like to learn more about functions for procedural terrains. I have a feeling that some really stunning terrains can be created with the function editor, but I lack even the basic knowledge to get going. I dont have the insight to learn it from scratch. Or perhaps more honestly, I dont have the patience...