In Vue 4, I'm wondering about the ultra render settings. Ultra does (IMO) produce results noticeably better than Final. But I'm wondering about some specifics... 1) In Ultra, have you noticed that the enable super-sampling box is turned off? Wouldn't that disable soft shadows and blurred reflections? 2) Under antialiasing. What is the # of pixel subrays for Ultra? I thought the help said 16 for Ultra, and 9 for Final. But in User mode, if I set it up to 9 (default), I get the exact same render times as Ultra. Which makes me think that Ultra is using 9? If I increase it to 16, the render time goes up quite a bit. Ideas? Thanks! Brian

I always use the "User Settings" when I render. I use at least 16 subrays per pixel. Yes, it does increase the render time, but the render comes out much better in the end. :) Laurie

You just have to play around with it some, Brian. There could be no one good setting for everything, because for example, say you're doing a desert scene, with nothing but sand, rocks and plants. having "blurred reflections" checked off wouldn't do you any good, since you probably wouldn't have anything reflecting, but it would still increse the render time, even though it's not really doing anything. So, what you settle on needs to be decided based on what you NEED. "Final" and "Ultra" are just two presets. Once you get used to it, you will probably use your own settings more than anything. Just make some simple little scenes, and experiment. Nobody can really say there's a "best" way to choose how to render, without taking everything in the scene into account.