Hi, I'm Clarissa, And i've been having a little trouble in bryce 4 for mac. I've created a scene that's about 55 megs and i'm on a G3 but it takes hours and hours of rendering, and seems to just stop after some time.... could anyone help with maybe knowledge of a program, or something to make my rendering work??? Also is it possible to transform an object into a lightsource? eg. change a cylinder into a lighted clear cylinder?

I'm not sure what's causing your Mac to hang up while rendering. Does the scene have large amounts of volumetric materials or volumetric world active? I find that tends to seriously slow down rendering time - I'm on a PC. It's possible to convert an object to a light source. I'm guessing you still want the cylinder in place as well as the light? Duplicate the object to be converted. Then, in Create (IIRC), move the pointer up to the top where the little arrow is. There, you should see a little row of icons which mirror the main shapes in create. Simply click on the light type you want with one of the cylinder duplicates selected and Bryce will convert the object into a light. You'll probably need to remove textures and gels from the light by "E"diting it. Hope this helps Paul

Thanks Paul - that's a help!! =) Is there a way to maybe convert the wireframe into b-box or something like that? (cause it's seriously slow in wireframe mode too) (ohh and i do have some volumetric stuff - but not heaps)

hey sorry to bother you again, i tried your method paul, but i dont have a light option in the create arrow.... (all i had in there was fly-paths, mountains, rocks/trees, boolean objects and tutorial and user sections... no light!) I tried changing the object in the "M"aterial screen but could only change it basically.... it could change to 'light' but i had no real control, is there a way to change this light source like the preset ones? like with that light control screen that adjusts gels, dimness, infinite light etc.? thanks heaps! xox

Have you thought of sticking a (semi) transparent/clear material on the cylinder and then placing a small radial light with in the cylinder to simulate it's light effects? HTH, John

Nope, wrong arrow Toad :) This is on the right-hand side of the screen up near the top after the rest of the tool icons. Paul

Soz john, i actually tried that... but the result is pretty ugly... Still are there any other comments on the way the rendering... sort of stops when it gets about half way thru?

Is is starting to hit an object that has heavy transparency on it? I notice this happening in the scene that I'm working on right now. It screams along until the 3rd or 4th pass through and then it screams through the top 1/2 of the screen and then appears to freeze. I noticed that it's at the first row that has a pixel for the tranparent/reflective texture on a crystal vase. Once past the vase, it screams along until it hits the next vase. Go figure. John

Use one of the volumentric light materials that are in the volume presets. Apply it to the sphere. As per the rendering, go into settings (monitor, I think) and turn of sleep. I had the same problem when I upgraded to OS 9 until I set my computer to never sleep. Just turn off the monitor if it's going to be a long render. Sarah

Has anyone had any luck with Render to disc? does that speed up the render?

I've only used it once. On long renders, it will save you about 10% - 20% time wise because it doesn't have to spend cycles updating the display. HTH, John