infinitely more rewarding? I don't know that it's infinitely more rewarding and I wouldn't go so far to say that it's harder to use. It's got more stuff in it which means the interface takes more time to learn. There are tons of things about Carrara which are better than raydream and some things which aren't. Some of my friends just bought older versions of C for $48.00 as a sellout item on some website. You should hunt a little bit for older versions of C. A few more points for Dex. Metacreations did release a patch to Carrara 1.0 but after they dissolved it became a real challenge to find. Eovia then patched it again when they were established and released Carrara Studio 1.0 (Different than Carrara). Carrara renders faster than Raydream and I don't really think there are too many kinds of differences in the modelers. You'd have to really judge that for yourself. The interface IS different and takes some time but I'D NEVER GO BACK now. I think the Raydream interface is a lot more confusing now that I've forgotten it. There are some things in Raydream that I really liked and missed but not enough to reload it on my machine anymore. I'd try the demo just to see what you think. Freebies are GOOD! -Kix

-Kix