This scene is really simple, all Bryce 4. Just experimenting on my low-end work computer, a Pentium 2/266 with 128MB RAM, so it can only handle light experimentation. Nevertheless, I thought the volumetric lighting turned out kinda cool on this one, and made some unexpected glow at angles corresponding to the central hollow (boolean) pyramid... Nothing fancy, but thanks for peeking!

And here's the scene itself, I was surprised that the light sprayed out in the way that it did, I was merely trying to fill the scene with light. No sunlight on this one, of course...

That is interesting! I wouldn't have expected the light "spray" either.

Cool experiment.

That is feak'n cool looking!

Ooooo! pretty picture. 8)

That looks kewl! Volumetric lighting does produce some strange effects.

Love it!!!!!!! :-)

This is fascinating image. Thanx for sharing with us this simple but amazing discovery you made. I do have one novice Bryce question in regards to this. You said that there is "no sunlight on this one, of course." I have struggled many many times to try to figure out the "no sunlight" settings. If I select "disable sunlight" in the sky lab my scenes do get darker but they don't get DARK. And the sky hardly changes at all. Any tips for me on this?

Are you trying for a night scene?

Neat.

WOW!!!

Zescanner, sorry it took me so long to reply, I really didn't think anyone would care about lighting mischances! I'm not QUITE sure what you meant, but do you mean that you can't get your scenes dark enough, even with the sunlight set to off? If so, you can use the haze and fog settings to "add" darkness. Just set their color to black and play with the levels until it fits your scene! This screen is from Bryce 4, but it works great in Bryce 5 as well. In fact, this is my default, startup sky. I grew tired of thinking only in the Light World...

Oh yeah, there is a volumetric cloud slab at the top of the scene, which is creating the ripply clouds. That is not a fog or haze effect....

Thanx for the tips about getting my scene dark to work in. I have tried a few more experiments and though I am not fluent with it yet, I think I am beginning to understand it better. You've been a big help!

Zescanner: Disable sunlight, turn atmosphere off and/or set sky color to black. That'll make your scenes really dark! There is a sky preset near the bottom of the selections that will do this for you.