yeah, i'm using bryce 4.0, and i've had that happen to me too. it acts like it's loading the scene, gets to the point where the wireframes should pop up, and then it reverts to the default scene and gives that damned error message. the only solution i've found is to save big projects twice, with different filenames, so you have a backup copy. otherwise you just grit your teeth, clench your fists, and try like hell not to punch the screen as you start over from the beginning.

oh i understand now... i was just looking in the wrong place. thanks for the info.

oops! i also forgot to mention that it looks best with a 1:3 size ratio for the beam core and beam corona. (believe me, i spent six hours on it. six hours.)

which control do i use to size manually? don't i have to hold a key and use the intensity control or something? anyhow, the phaser is actually two lights, the beam core light settings are: surface visible light and infinite light enabled, falloff disabled, white light, 25 and 0 for the sliders. material properties are: no texture, white for ambient color, everything at zero except ambient and refraction (both at 100), and in the material options menu, "fuzzy" selected and everything else turned off. the beam corona's light settings are the same, except volume visible instead of surface. material settings are: the "smokey light #3" volume texture, deep orange for ambient color, diff and spec at 0, ambient at 100, base density 50, edge softness 100, fuzzy factor 105, quality 50. in the material options menu, flat shading and additive should be the only items selected, texture mapping mode should be set to random. sounds complicated, but it gives a really good result, especially up close. renders fast too (on my celeron 450).