I bought raydream and poser from Metacreations a few years ago and thought when meta sold everything (poser to curious labs, etc) they just dropped raydream. Is raydream still around? If so, who has it? Is it still possible to get patches to version 1.0.2? Is Carrara somehow related to Raydream? If someone knows the history after meta, please let me know. Also....changing the subject slightly....I like raydream but have always been frustrated by the lack of exporting things to Poser 4 (dxf only). I would like to be able to export into 3ds or something else poser 4 likes. What is Carrara? Is it related to Raydream? And if I decided to move on to another program, is Carrara the one to move on to? Sorry for so many questions but this forum took me by complete suprise.

Raydream became Carrara. Carrara is Raydream only hard to use.

There's a long story. Here's the bit (with a bit more detail than Nivek provided). Metacreations had RayDream (Studio and 3D), Infini-D (another 3D program it had purchased from a company called Specular), and Poser. Metacreations "combined the code" from RayDream and Infini-D to create Carrara, which it somewhat hastily released. Version 1 of Carrara was notoriously buggy because of the hasty release on the part of Metacreations. This hasty release of Carrara was precipitated by MetaCreations somewhat mystifying decision to divest itself of all of its 3D software business. They off Poser (to Curious Labs, as I recall), and for quite some time Carrara was an orphan. But one of the original programmers of Carrara (and RayDream, as well, unless I'm mistaken), Msr. Antoine Clappier, had been in negotiations to get the rights to the program. Eventually, a company was formed, called Eovia, and the rights to Carrara were assigned to them. Eovia released a patch for Carrara version 1 that really made a lot of people happy by improving its stability, and began working on Carrara Studio 2. I made the jump from RayDream Studio 5.5 to Carrara Studio 2 recently, and while the interface is a bit befuddling, I am growing to really like the new software. As for patches and plug-ins for RayDream, they're still out there somewhere on the net. There's a plug-in for RayDream 3D that allows 3DS inports and exports (although that was standard in RayDream Studio 5.5 -- I think it might not have been standard in RDS 5.0 or 5.1). Hope that's helpful and not too long-winded. - Dex

Very good recall of the history.

Used copies of Ray Dream (almost always Studio, which is all right, because it's better) are sporadically available on places like Ebay. All in all, it's almost infinitely more rewarding to use as a modeler than Carrara, but isn't always as good a rendering tool (though some effects are done better in original RDS). Personally, I recommend trying to get both and using them as a single program broken into parts, something like a cheap Lightwave. It's a pretty decent pair, and still infinitely cheaper than, say, MAX.

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

Attached Link: http://store.yahoo.com/eovia/carrara.html

As for Ray Dream patches, I believe there's a recent thread on this forum that ends up with a link to a website with said patches.

The Yahoo group (RayDream) has the patches in the files section - including one that has Poser 4 as a module in RDS. It was written for Poser 3 in RDS 5.0, but it works for Poser 4 in RDS 5.5 - at least as far as posing goes. I am not sure about morphs or JCM. RDS 5.0 needed a patch to handle OBJ correctly, RDS 5.5 incorporated the patch and better rendering, but not much else. The polygon modeler seems to be more or less the same in CS2 and RDS 5.5 - if anything, RDS 5.5 does a little more. RDS has a CAD-like interface - which I like better. Zoom is a heck of a lot easier in RDS, but C2 has more range. If you are going to do more than just polygon model, CS2 is the better choice by far. You guys are really kind to MC, the whole deal with them smelled like a Ponzie scheme for the unfortunate stock holders and the guys whole sold parts of their programs to MC to get in under the MC umbrella. Imagine a program that had RDS - Painter (+P3Dthat worked) - Bryce - Poser all as modules within it. That is what MC pissed away.

Jaager, Thanks for the tip, I wasn't aware that group existed! Brian

I'm still using Carrara (patched to 1.1) and also still have RayDream 5.5 installed. Probably due to the fact that my 3D experience began with a Metacreations package from my brother consisting of Bryce, Poser, Carrara, Canoma, and RayDream (he used to do their website), I started off using that interface that some people seem to find so irritating. And that's what I got used to...I can't do anything easily in RayDream (put me in front of lightwave or max and I'm totally lost), but all the items in my freebies section were modelled in Carrara. So, I guess it all depends on what you're used to...and "hard to use" and "infinitely more rewarding" are rather subjective phrases.