CompuServe Thread

Anselm: I know little about World Builder but my general take on what you wish to do is that everything you need is already in 3DS. Mess with a .flc in your shininess map slot for shimmering water. Haze and glow around a planet can be simulated with a mapped or semi-transparent globe. Clouds can be simulated with maps as well. I rarely need to view my architectural stuff from so far away <G> so I am not the best person to ask about the best tool or method to achieve your desired effects. Possibly some other forum member wouldn't mind jumping in and offering a more experienced opinion. – Bob Ritger

I own and love World Builder, and I think Bob is right on — you can do what you want in 3DS without WB. WB is really a tool to create views of landscape from a ground view — i.e. any scenery you can see out a window, or standing in the meadow. It can create almost any type of landscape you want in that situation — even something that looks like early dinosaur-type earth — but from space you are really so far away it doesn't make much sense to use WB (it DOES allow you to render from above, but that's kind of like spending the time to draw the Mona Lisa on the wall of a room you'll only see from the outside in).