I am interested in VUE 4, but I am wondering how large you can render something, and also how detailed can you make stuff? I do all Photoshop compositing for print. I would like to be able to combine images created with VUE 4 and photographs. So can files be render 11x17 at 300dpi, and is there enough detail? All of these image look great on the web, but I don't know how they would look printed.

Attached Link: http://petes-oasis.com/tilerendering.html

You can render any size but you got to use your head. Rendering bigger than the screen is risky cause of glass based operating systems. But it can be don't easy if you check out and apply the stuff on my tutorial to your work project.... It's a little more work but it's almost risk free and even if it does goof up well you only loose a piece instead of the whole thing. You got to render it 300 dpi to print 300 dpi properly so you would render you picture to a size of. 3300 X 5100 in size. Ya that's possible. The thing is is the time. This image could take a week to render or more so do you want to risk it or not. Risk is not nessesary if you use your head. It makes it possible painlessly. Now you could resample but the quality will suffer of course cause your going 4.16 X bigger. That's almost too much.

I've rendered images up to 18" x 24" at 300 dpi by rendering to disk. Rendered at the "ultra" setting it takes a few days, but I've had no problems. Just make sure you select "render to disk".

AND, the quality depends on the quality of your models - obviously. The better your models are, the better the resulting image will be.

Ya like you can always try to render it all at once to disk to. My buddy just tried that in Bryce, A simple picture but lots of lights and not to big 1600 X 1200 and it took forever to render. Weeks and he crashed his computer at 85% antialasing so he got nothing to show for it.... Like it's pick your poison.... Tile rendering and he'd be done by now. If you got Photoshop or similar progam it's the sencible way to do it.

Hi,as already said the biggest limitation her is time.Personally i made good experiences with interpolating images in photoshop.Use a smaller rendersize with 300 dpi resolution at final settings and render it to disk.Up to 60 % interpolation you don`t see any difference when you interpolate them in photoshop.To get more on the safer side you can even use a bigger resolution if you want to. In my case i make photoprints at 300 dpi up to 24 " wide. cheers rollmops :-)

When you print your image rendered in VUE 4, is there enough texture in trees, rocks, etc., so that it looks photographic? I know someone said it depend on the quality of your models, well where do you get these models? Do they come with the program? I am very critical, like I said I would be blending with real photographs (originals from 2.25 and 4x5), I hardly ever even use 35mm.

Well you got to know what your doing but making real life renders is possible. That's a trick though. That takes experience. Look in the gallery and if some of those images will do then you kinda answer your own question. It don't matter what program you use making things look real takes experience.It's a trick of being a good observer and then making your scenes equally complex and natural. The trees and plants that come with Vue can be edited endlessly and every one is different every time you click the button. No two the same. You'll run out of computer before you run out of trees and plants. You can download tons of stuff for it from the web too. Check out the FAQ link up there and look around. Lots of stuff for free too. I've done what you want to try and yup it can be done and it looks cool too. The hardest thing you'll face is can you actually create a scene that looks real. That's something you have to learn how to do. Vue is the easiest program to learn though so it's also going to be the easiest to learn how to do that. Be prepared to be disappointed cause it's not as easy as it looks but you'll get it pretty fast if you practice. Like the first few times you'll not get it but it will come. you just got to hang in there.

First let me thank everyone for there help.I have looked through some of the images in the gallery and none of them look photorealistic to me. If some one thinks they have something that looks real please let me know.

Have you ever seen a photorealistic image which was created through a 3D software? Please let me know where. Vue is a great software - and there are some really fantastic artists - even in the direction of photorealism here - but don't forget, we are talking here about a low end price category. For that it is absolutely unbelievable what Vue can offer. When was it the last time that you have used a camera in that price range to do high end photos? Anyway. Your question for high end models. Very simple. You can try to buy them. Digimation is a good source (http://www.digimation.com/models/). Or DAZ3D (for Poser models). Or you have to create them by yourself. Like all tools, 3D graphic is not an easy thing. You have to learn it, and the learning curve can be really steep. Especially for the high level you are interested in. Realisticly nothing under a year of more or less heavily efforts i would say. Even with an easy software like Vue! Back to photorealism an 3D graphics. The question is how much sense that makes. If you need absolut realism, go out and shoot it. Every medium does have it's specific sides. And these should be visible. I can't see a positive thing in simulating a complete other medium through another. I believe that images can be really strong in the combination of realistic and artificial elements. Even stronger than without visual "breakings" like this.

Ya I'd say the same thing if no art here is good enough you'll never get good enough mastering 3d stuff yourself probibly to be any use. It would be easier for you just to photograph it. And way cheaper. Like Even Lightwave is capable of photorealistic effects but your looking at years to learn it and even more years to master it. The best art here is done by people with years of experence so you be the judge, It harder than it looks.

I agree with what wabe said :3d graphics is always more or less a fake of reality.The point is to make it believable! But thats too philosphic i think...:-) To the texture question:I would use high-resoluted Photo- textures for objects in the foregrounds or everywhere else when necessary.In Vue i dont use standard trees with stand- dard textures when they are positioned in the foreground close to the camera.I always change the (not convincing) bark textures and create my own trees with textures i scanned or photographed before.To save poligons and time you can use greater complex textures for buildings when possible...There are a lot of tricks you can use;look in the tutorial-area:-) cheers rollmops.

What about a 72dpi photo printer?? I just rendered a 1280x960 photos at Ultra settin and at 600DPI.....It took about 6 hours to render... :)

You got to realize that that 600 DPI is vue is FAKE. it just instructs the printer to print it on the fly to 600 DPI. you loose a lot of tone doing it that way and your image ends up being slightly blurry. You got no control over the process.. Look at it this way.. You got a picture that's 1 pixel red one pixel green and one pixel blue. you tell it to print 600 dPI from it's present 72DPI. You get 8.3 pixels red 8.3 pixels green and 8.3 pixels blue. There is no magic. A better way is to resample it in Photoshop say but now that it's faked to 600 DPI you got to copy and paste it to a new image that's 72 DPI then make it bigger in steps the more the better cause then you will get a whole range of blended colors more closly to what it would look like if you had rendered it bigger in the first place. But it gets blurry also but you can fix it in Photoshop by changing it to lab color and using Unsharpen mask on the lightness channel and then change it back to RGB before printing it. You got total control this way and it's the best way other than actually rendering it 600 DPI. Meaning for every inch of picture your going to render 600 pixels. Your image is only 2.3 inches by 1.6 inches... Everything else is fake, does not exist and will just be resampled on the fly. Every pixel will be made 8.3 times bigger. That's too much, the print will suffer.

Just a quick note to say I've done several renders at 10,000 by 10,000. Time taken depends on the file you are rendering. Anything from a few hours to two weeks. Zoon.