Why can't Curious Labs make a plugin for Bryce or work with Corel to get one done? There is no excuse for it.

Because they don't want to?

If they did it probably would`nt work any better than Poser 5.

Nah...probably some kinda family feud type thing...

I thought Bryce was a dead product. Are they still making it?

I dont know about further development.But they still sell it.

Of all the potential plug-ins for Poser this is the most often and longest requested one.
People have been asking for this since the days of Metacreations.
More people own Bryce in common with Poser than any other single 3D landscape or modelling program.
Bryce, while slow, is a superb program for rendering.
With all the plug-in developers around these days I am really surprised nobody has developed a good Poser to Bryce and Bryce to Poser plug.

CL listen up!

Bryce is already owned and used by large numbers of Poser users. A really good set of plugs would really enhance Poser 5. Add the ability to bring Bryce landscape etc. scenes into Poser and the combination of the Bryce materials with those of P5, the huge libraries of materials and Bryce models and you would have a winner.

Any takers?

Regards
STORM

On the other side of the equation, Bryce seems to be just about the only 3D application in the world that doesn't have any way, built in or external, to convert its native format (obp) to something else. I think the same holds true for Vue as well.

Does Bryce have a SDK available?

Bryce is far from dead. It's got eight lives yet to go. I think I know what the problem is and why it hasn't been done. And if it's what I think it is then it's CL's decision not to make one, not Corel's. Can anyone tell me how VUE network rendering works? (Does Vue have network rendering?)

Vue has network rendering, called Render Cow, and it works cross platform. I've not used it so I can't speak to it's functionality.

There is a kind of plugin for Poser to Bryce, Natural Pose by Konan, that can also import Poser animations into Bryce. Vue only has network rendering if you buy Mover4, but you can only render animations over the network, not single pictures.

Guys, this isn't CL's fault. They approached Corel about it, and Corel refused. So let's put the blame where it belongs, not on the scapegoat de Renderosity.

There is another plugin for Bryce called Susanna that brings in poser animations, at least there used to be. Marque

And nuuti is out there too which appears to combine the programs into their own interface. Haven't tried any of them yet.

Joey...if you knew that for a fact you would be breaking NDA. Don't spout rumors.

I heard in another forum that Curious Labs wants a large sum of money to allow another company to make plugins (i.e., to license the technology). Corel probably didn't want to pay the ten grand (or however much it was). bonni

Joey...if you knew that for a fact you would be breaking NDA. Don't spout rumors And don't rush to conclusions, while you're at it. The information is not a rumor and didn't require an NDA to get it. In essence, Corel wanted serious money from CL to build the plug-in, and when CL said no, Corel said fine and walked away. This is hardly classified information.

In essence you heard from somebody who heard from somebody else who.... You're still spreading rumors. In fact quite the opposite is going around too. See elizabyte's message. In essence what elizabyte said is closer to the truth but it's not the whole truth. All I can say.

Either way, it's a shame. Personally, I'd love to have a plugin similar to Vue.

A main reason why no third party has developed a plug in is that the Bryce .br5 format is not only undocumented, it's even encrypted! (So I'm told.) Corel seems to actively discourage and third party development, more fools them. Personally, I find that I have the Poser to Bryce path so honed to the utmost efficiency now that a plugin would not really be all that much benefit.

Phantast do tell? Or is it a trade secret LOL

*A main reason why no third party has developed a plug in is that the Bryce .br5 format is not only undocumented, it's even encrypted! (So I'm told.) * It isn't actually encrypted, it's just in a binary format and much of the implementation is pretty unique. Bryce has basically followed a parallel but seperate evolutionary path over the years from most other 3d technologies. I pretty much have nearly complete data on the br3/4/5 file formats, so file convertors are definitely on the cards (it's on my business plan). However, the additional work required to achieve a full (live) data sharing plug-in is economically more questionable, and there's no data yet to indicate whether the Bryce API meets the basic requirements for such a thing. All we can really deduce from the existing im/exporter plug-ins is that the API supports the ability to add and extract data, which by itself is not sufficient for such a plug-in. Bill

Carrara's ancestor (RDS) had a plugin for Poser, and I'd like to see it return. And its not been because of Eovia why there's not one, its CL not making one for it. As we all know from the Carrara list that there is one finally in the cards from a 3rd party developer for sure, and one possibly from Eovia itself from the rumours I hear. Can't say anything about Corel... as I am not familiar enough with Corel. I can say that some have said that it was only until recently that it was possible to work with CL close enough to make a plugin for my favourite software possible. as for the CL bashing that goes on, a lot is kinda deserved. I can't for the life of me figure out why they didn't spend time working on making the app better at posing and interacting with external renderers, especially the most popular ones used around here, the goodies are nice but the hair doesn't export without a lot of work, its got a lot of issues that needed to be worked out (overly cpu intensive aka no hardware acceleration, group limits, etc). Most of us that are serious about our 3d art don't render in Poser, so the Firefly was an unneeded frill for many too. I'm glad for the clothroom, and glad it exports to obj at least.

youre all wrong. its all fault. i am responsibel for no bryce plugin, for slow firefly, for outraguos pricing and nudity without flag.

" In essence, Corel wanted serious money from CL to build the plug-in, and when CL said no, Corel said fine and walked away. This is hardly classified information. " Even though I'm under NDA's I don't think I'm in violation when I say: THIS IS NOT TRUE, PERIOD. So Joey, I challenge you to post a link to someone, at either CL or Corel or actually anybody in a postion pf authority, who has ever said anything like this. Look at it this way, no major 3D company but Vue has ever licenesed Poser. Why would that be? Think about it.

dan, respectfully, but ya know, some of us actually own Poser Pro Pack, and know its got a Lightwave plugin, a Max plugin and a C4D plugin. So you're not right in saying only Vue had it. RDS had it before too, it just didn't carry over to Carrara (partially that was because of Metacreations folding, and I'm glad that situation is finally seeing a reversal)

Attached Link: poser in C4DXL

years ago when i was using Bryce3 and poser3 easy import of poser figure was my dream also Until i embarked upon the HORROR of rendering animation in Bryce!!! as an animator who does not own a render farm for bryce "lightning" I find bryces ultra slow raytracer totally impractical for animation renders!! I often see bryce users proudly announcing they stuck it out for 92 hour renders etc. pardon me but that is just plain ridiculous :-) and would never work for any deadline oriented paid 3D work. As others have mentioned ,those of us who are serious about high quality renders of poser scenes are already using other programs( I use Cinema4DXL See Link) and if you are not willing to spend the cash for one of the alternative renderers already available, than you may as well struggle along with posers weak output.

for those interested, Cinema 4D 6 ce will be featured on many Sep/03 magazine cover CDs, with an upgrade offer to 6 XL for EUR 99,-. I will try to get a copy of it today and test if it works with the ProPack plugin. Version 6 of Cinema 4D doesn't have the global illumination features Version 7 has, but Cinema 4D is known for having a fast renderer.

But the ProPack plugins are CL-made (or licensed) so it's not quite a conradiction of Dan.

its a contradiction because he said ONLY VUE licensed it, and that's my point... Vue's not the only one! We all know its not true it was only Vue, so there :P

I mean, saying Vue ONLY had a plugin is untrue. My point is that they should have more plugins to work with external renderers... playing well with others is -very- important in my book. That's the real issue. I've heard Bryce is slow, but its still popular among the hobbyists and I think they shouldn't be shut out, their money spends just as well too...

Look at it this way, no major 3D company but Vue has ever licenesed Poser. Why would that be? I don't think it's about licensing fees. If Reiss-Studio can afford licensing the Poser SDK, why shouldn't Corel?

Yes, but I think Dan is hinting at some problem between CL and third parties wanting to make their own plugin - so for THAT purpose the ProPack plugins aren't relevant since they were produced by/for CL, not by Maxon, Discrete etc. Actually, Vue doesn't have a plugin as I think the term is used; Poser must be closed for Vue to read the PZ3 file. It also sounds as if the latest patch to Vue is going to introduce P5 compatibility at the expense of P4, though with a workaround, which is a worrying sign for Vue 5.

In essence you heard from somebody who heard from somebody else No, I heard it from someone at CL itself who was directly involved in the negotiations. No, I don't care to share who because all of you are just a bunch of anonymous handles, and I respect my friend's privacy a little too much. But the facts are true; get over it and move on. Any more questions? Or is it just easier to blame CL for all the Poser world's ills these days around here?

if someone is dealing with bugs in software, or are looking for features in software that they used to have, and find they don't have anymore, I don't see it as unjustified complaining when they voice their opinions on it. only wanting to hear rah rah cheers is akin to sticking head in sand... its a competitive business and it pays to listen to your customer base.

this is why I have bought and bought from Eovia when they have come out with new software, and preordered twice from them, whereas with Poser I waited many months before I took up P5. I'm happy with what P5 does for me... I'm only saying it could be better, and I'd like it to work better with the software apps I use. And that appears to be happening, and you know, I waited until I heard from Eovia that it would really have a chance to happen... because Eovia always listens to me and doesn't treat me like an idiot. Learn from that.

A few things here: mit123 - The answer is yes, I will tell all. You'll find it all writ out for you at phantast.comicbabecentral.com/tutorials.htm (Caution! Adult site! Well ... tame adult site, anyway ...) williamsheil - You interest me. I had heard it was binary AND encrypted but my source may not have been reliable. Is this information available? I have ideas for utilities I would like to make. A further point to note about Poser and export. A frequent complaint is that transparencies don't survive the Poser export - Bryce import. The main reason for this is that when Poser writes a .obj file it writes texture information in a .mtl file. However, it only writes a subset of mtl format, and leaves out the transparency information. I don't know why. It would be possible to write a utility that analysed a .pz3 file and then wrote a full .mtl file IF one could get hold of a full documentation of mtl format, which Lightwave Corporation keeps guarded. You will find partial guides to mtl format on the net, but these document only the bits that Poser writes, which makes one suspect that CL don't have the full mtl docs either.

Phantast, you might find that Craig's newest application on his site would be very helpful. Its called Babel, (windows only) it reads Poser PZ3 files and collects all your textures, including transparencies, to a directory. I save my transparency shaders for reuse in Carrara, so I don't have a big problem there. But the biggest problem I find is being able to get my program to find all my Poser textures that I want to use for my scene, and I am able to get my scene shaders set up much faster thanks to his application. this is the type of thing Poser should do, and doesn't. And the idea of making Poser objs the size of bacteria really is a huge pain in my side when making props.

(not to mention the small size of Poser objs means I have to rescale them in Carrara to a size that is usable, in order to make transparencies work at all)

you might find that Craig's newest application on his site would be very helpful. Its called Babel, (windows only) it reads Poser PZ3 files and collects all your textures, including transparencies, to a directory. < Can you give a URL? I don't (at this time) use Carrara, but I've been researching alternative rendering systems for a while now. I'd like to look into this a little bit. bonni

hmm..as a better brycer that poseur..;) What I've heard is Corel has pretty much left Bryce to twist in the wind..Mojoworld wanted to buy it, but couldn't come up with the cool million Corel priced it for. I know a coupla versions of Bryce have been made less accessable, but Corel's just not talking much about Bryce. We were hoping for a Bryce 6, but that doesn't seem to have any support, even inside the company. They have, on the other hand, dropped the price to under a hundred for Bryce 5 (grumble)..shoulda waited..;)

Attached Link: eovia

the website for Carrara is at the link provided, and the website for Craig's utilities is: http://www.castironflamingo.com/ Carrara has the best renderer for the price, bar none. It is not all that easy at first to get into, some people get confused by the interface, but really its not that different than P5 when it comes to the rooms, etc. Craig has some good Grouper tutorials, but I find that Grouper is not necessary for Carrara, rather the new app that he's created, Babel is much better, paired with my method of importing from Poser to Carrara. You can get better renderers and 3d modelers in higher end apps... but nothing beats Carrara for price to performance :) And the company is dedicated to strong support of the product... that's mainly why I'm happy and sticking with it, and damn glad I never got Bryce *g*

(but Craig has good shader descriptions for hair transparency in his Grouper tutorial for Carrara, and any C user should hit his page for them... don't know what I would have done without his tutorials on transparency!!)

Eovia was offered the time with one of the CL engineers for dialing in a Poser5/Carrara2 plugin. This was just prior to the release of C2. Eovia didn't have time to program the thing before they wanted to release C2. They couldn't release the man power for the programming. Curious Labs are a bunch of bastards for not stopping all developement and programming it for Eovia. Eovia are a bunch of bastards for not completely delaying the release of Carrara2 in order to program the plugin. There... Now none of us need to say it. Sorry for stealing the thunder. I'm joking about the two bastard comments of course (for the record). Oh, and no animals were harmed in the writing of this post. :) As stated above, they couldn't release the manpower so please don't post "well... they could-uh". No they could-uh not. Timing is very important. If we all remember correctly there was a CL meltdown shortly after that so they never ended up getting together. Oh... BTW: I am my own source. I worked at CL. I LOVE Carrara and all the guys over at Eovia. I use both apps in my work whenever possible. I wanted to see it as much as anyone. I was a Poser/Carrara plugin chearleader. Hi... My name is Joe. shuffle shuffle I've been a Poser/Carrara chearleader for 6 years. shuffle shuffle HI JOE! enthusiastic clap clap clap clap I look horrific in a skirt and knee high socks. Maybe that was part of the problem. I know nothing about what is going on now with the 2 apps. I hope that there will be a Carrara plugin. All the best, Joe www.3-AXIS.com P.S. On another note... I finally got around to watching "Dinotopia". I watched all 6 hours straight through. DANG! There was a ton of CG in that movie. It was all really nice too. I suggest giving it a watch if you haven't.

Joe, you should have sent me. Everybody knows how good I look in a skirt!

Ain't that the sad assed truth. LOL You look pretty as a girl. ROFL

Attached Link: http://www.greenbriarstudio.com/

CL and Eovia have a cooperation agreement now, though :) The announcement is on the Eovia website. The part about it being easier to work with CL now came from the Carrara mailing list owner, Ringo Montfort, its there in black and white if you go looking for the mail, I think he wrote it either there or here at Rosity, I am not sure anymore and would have to look up the post in the archives. Seems that this is really finally going to happen, now, its been confirmed over the list that a third party is working on one. I understand what happened with version 2... it was a huge upgrade from 1.1. The deal is though, that Carrara users were promised an application that worked well with Poser from Metacreations days, and used to have it in RDS, so that's why you hear complaining. I've even searched for copies of RDS so that I could use the plugin and just export to Carrara to render... its hard to even find them on Ebay now. But now that I know there's a plugin in development for Carrara, I'm happy to wait for that instead.

I was fortunate enough to meet Ringo at Siggraph. People, let me tell you. He is one heck of a nice guy. I could party with that dude... Yo! Uh... That was California speak. :) I remember testing the Poser plugin for RDS. Damn... I forgot to put that one on my resume. Thanks for the memory jog. MAN was that thing S-L-O-W (the plugin as well as my brain). If someone is putting a plugin together for Carrara I'm sure it will be much better than what RDS had. I say "if" because I don't want to misslead anyone into thinking I know anything about a plugin being written. If memory serves my right, the plugin was slow because of the RDS code. It would be way faster in Carrara. *** No toxic chemicals were dumped into any rivers (small or large) while writing this thread. *** Cheers, Joe www.3-AXIS.com

Attached Link: http://www.greenbriarstudio.com/3D/

correct link, this one is working on the DAZ studio version coincidentally as well, but what's of interest is the GMI format conversion.

Could it be that the .mtl function is a hold over from Poser 3? It had no transparency to provide, and maybe this part was never altered in the two subsequent Poser versions. The RDS plug-in was Poser 3 to RDS 5.0. It works in RDS 5.5 and it works with Poser 4 - after a fashion. I think it does the part of P4 that is of P3, but not the additional functions.