OK, thanks. Finally SEEMS to work. A lot of things left to make sense with but anyway;) To keep things together I used:

In Nodes window header chose "Type of data to take shader from" to "World".
Added nodes: texture_coordinate (generated) -> mapping (vector) (in that node, under "Vector" tab set Scale to 0.5 x 0.5 x 0.5) -> environment_texture (color) -> background -> world_output
In 'world' panel loaded the HDRI, set Surface to "Background" and Color to "Environment texture".

And got anything better than a pink sky :biggrin:

Quote - You might try lock camera to view under display (I think)

Didi you mean the button next to layers? It`s already on.

Quote - texture_coordinate (generated) -> mapping (vector) -> environment_texture (color) -> background -> world_output

Mapping node:

Vector button ticked
Scale: x:0.5 / y:0.5 / z:5.0 

Thanks, tried, but all the same. Even on Textured preview, as attached.

Btw, strange there are two places to choose the *.hdr: in the World panel and in the Environment Texture node. I used either World panel (as in teh tute) or both... Doesn`t make sense as for me...

Attached Link: The tute

Now back to the job and trying to get HDRI working. Tried the linked tute but the effect is a bit nonsensical: I get a one-color, blue sky (as if I used single color inst. of a HDRI texture).

Help highly appreaciated.

H

Quote - This bit of info might help...

OK, thx, but your scrnshot doesnt match what I have:0 Theres no node-related stuff in the material editor (pls see my shot - just a small icon missing, no node info next to the material name, and besides there`s no "use nodes" button in the Material Editor).

Hmmm, still it`s 2.69! Did I miss sth?;)

Quote - -- choose Cycles Render (top near the main menu - you only do this once)
-- Edit mode: select your mesh to texture, assign a material (like in Blender Render -> Material area)
-- have a node window open
-- you might see a Use Node button in the Material Area under Surfaces: click it
-- the default material you get is a DiffuseBSDF connected to Material Output
-- in node editor, [SHIFT][A] (add) Texture -> Image_Texture
-- connect Image_Texture color (yellow) out to DiffuseBSDF color in
-- browse for your texture by clicking the Open button on the Image_Texture node

Thanks a lot, and sorry for abandoning the thread for "ages";) Tried but the result is rather strange, the object (the roundish wall in the lower middle) doesn`t display any texture (normals point outside). Maybe the problem is I had no Use Nodes buton in the material options?

Thanks, by now I`m using Internal, the scene params are already set. How do you think, is it worthy to re-set everythng and move to Cycles?

Thx. Works quite seamlessly @ least in a very basic setting. I remember the old GI in 2.4x and it was sooo painful! Very glad don`t have to fake GI. I prefer to model & animate and let the algorhythms do the GI part.

I know this wonderful thing. Even wrote about this in my 1st post :P

No, I want to get the tool options. Theres only 'occlude geometry' and 'only selected', theres no button for 'exact line / midpoints', etc! And in the dynamic spacebar menu there`s no knife any more.

Thanks. Would definitely give them a try, though they don`t "want" to work on my machine. Some driver / card incompatibility, I think. Will maybe give them a try later...

...and when I changed audio encoding to mp3, the result is a film that can be seen by moving the time slider, but  not via "play" button in Totem video player. What`s the problem?! 

Quote - moving to Linux would likely be a one way street

Heh... It was exactly the same for me. I forgot taking my Win CD and when it finally crashed I had no way to recover but to move to Linux - whic h I did. Now I`m thinking of re-installing LW (over Wine) to explore the structure of some obscure fragments of my ongoing animation proj (I used Blender to convert to C4D thus far).

Returning to the sequence problem: Bledner did not enclose audio in the projcet, despite choosing AAC... When tried Multiplex Audio (its description suggests it`s the option to choose) Blender disappears on render. Tried in 2.53, but the options are completely different (I think even from the descr you cited for 2.6 :0) When I re-loaded the 2.49b proj into 2.53 and set audio to aac (there was no coding set despite I chose AAC MP4 in 2.49) Blender 2.53 just spit a message that there is an "Error initializing Audio stream".

... Any suggestions?