CompuServe Messages

I just ran a test here. I created a "floor", a cube, and a sphere in front of the cube. The front of the cube was mapped with an automatic flat reflection map. I went into keyframer and made an instance of both the cube and the sphere. Both cube fronts showed the reflection of the spheres. I even tried rotating the instanced cube, thinking maybe a mapping problem was occurring with the instance. Again, the reflection came out ok. The best I can suggest is copy the problem file over to another name, and start chopping out portions of the model and see if the problem goes away. If you are using any IPAS routines, turn off or delete them too. If you get down to a simple scene and still have the problem, you best bet is to upload the simple scene to the libs and leave another message. I just ran another test <g>. You were asking about cub maps and being able to reflect the instances. I verified that the automatic flat reflection does reflect the instanced objects. Remember that a reflection map on an object will not show portions of the object itself. If you attach the sphere to the cube, the sphere will no longer show up in the reflection. With regards to CUB files, you are right that they won't help with the instanced copies. No way to reflect something that's not there! Your best (or only) option is to use automatic reflection maps. Just be sure to only calculate the reflection on the first frame (if nothing that would be reflected is moving). That will speed up the animation render. A CUB file wouldn't work well in this case anyhow, since it's a flat planar surface which is doing the reflecting. Good luck! LAM