Cool, thank you for the pointer. That's a new one for me.

Ahh my bad, I meant to type "I have GI and BG switched off and am only using HDRI dome"... I think the bright skies are in some cases the realistic effect with these camera settings... must learn to tweak them better and maybe start experimenting with the Aperture F value. Thanks again for the tip though, I'm sure if other people are checking in on this thread it could help them also

You would need the create the map to be applied to the sphere and then possibly UVW map it outside of SketchUp, maybe using UVtools and Blender? I dont know. All I know is that mapping a sphere in SU alone is dicey.

@fcborik said: Hi Jack, Thanks very much Frank, I will be sure to check these guys out!

I've had similar issues with creating vray proxys. I've exported the vrmesh from 3ds max, imported into sketchup via vray, then apply textures to the proper materials. Then I save that SU file as "tree 1.skp" or whatever. I usually have no problem opening this file later and rendering - the textures/materials are still showing up. However, when I'm working in another scene and import that same SU file with the proxy, the textures will not consistently render. When I sample the materials of the proxy, the texture shows up in the SU material editor for about a second, then it disappears, it seems like the vray material editor which has lost the link to the texture overwrites the SU material - so it defaults to a solid color. Not sure that helps, I could be doing something wrong but in the end I need to place proxies without re texturing all the time. Chuck