Hi everyone. I'm new here so I figured I'd fire off a couple general questions to get people's input. I'm generally new to the 3D world and up until now my experience has been fairly limited to Bryce on the Mac. I have recently had the opportunity to test drive a friend's copy of Vue 4 (non pro) and am amazed with the results over Bryce. I have also just downloaded Terragen and will begin experimenting with it this weekend. Question 1: Comments on quality/ease of use between Terragen/Vue/Bryce. My personal preference right now is Vue but I'm interested in hearing what other people have to say. I've seen some amazing stuff in all 3 apps. I realize Bryce isn't actively developed anymore and Terragen is free - so those arguments aside :) Currently I have a dual G4/450 that seems to run fine with Vue 4. It's a little on the sluggish side and there's a few bugs/crashes but it's tolerable. However, after reading a few posts about the high system reqs for Vue Pro and the instability of it, I'm concerned my little G4/450 dp won't cut it. I just happen to be in the market for a new box anyway so here's my next question: Question 2: Mac or PC? I'm completely open to moving away from the Mac and going PC with windows XP. It'll save me about 2 grand and Vue may be more stable? Any comments on this? Is the PC version of Vue flakey too? I've heard about problems with ATI cards and OpenGL? What about 3rd party models/materials/plugins/etc. compatibility? I know the Mac version of Vue 4 can't open some PC Vue items. Please - leave the typical Mac vs PC arguments out of this. This is strictly as if the decision would be based on what is best for 3D apps and nothing else. Anything else people want to comment on would be greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone for your feedback! I look forward to becoming a part of this community. Hopefully I will have some good pics to put in my gallery before long! E.

Well, most of the questions are discussed a hundred times here. Thats why we have them collected in our Backroom. Look up and click on the word. You'll find most of the answeres. Mac or PC? Difficult. I'm on a Mac (G4 867 MHz) and feel comfortable there. More than on a PC. But of course the PC version has a much longer history - and much more users. Anyway, i would never make a hardware decicion depend on only one application i want to use. The whole picture needs to be viewed. Maybe you can do both things. Buy a PC and Vue. Vue comes for both platforms so you can find out what platform you prefer. Hope that helps a little, Walther

Ahh! Ok sorry - again I'm new and didn't realize there was a "backroom" of sorts. I'll investigate further. Thanks, E.

No problem!

Mac or PC - Its really down to which one you like most. Seriously, I prefer Windows & just can't get on with the Macs we have at college, but I know people at college who are just the opposite. Terragen - free obviously :) - poor animation, no trees etc. Vue - Camera hard to 'get right' during animation but Vue Pro fixes that if you have Lightwave/Maya etc. Great trees. Fast renderer. Import models. Bug fixes galore in the future for Pro. Bryce - Sorry, don't know, but if its no longer developed then its future is limited.

Vue- I have Vue and love it to pieces! I'm new with Vue also and I'm working with it slowly but shorely! So happy Vueing! Johannah

Bryce has it's own weirdo sides, as in Vue. I have 4.12 Mover and it's surprisingly stable and pretty fast too. When it comes to Mac/PC, and you're planning to use computer mainly on 3D, I prefer PC. Ignore the OS, MacX and WinXP are both stable (XP less, naturally), in 3D you need raw power and lots of memory from computer, and till Mac G5 uses Intel processors (meaning more gigas) it lacks the gigahertzs needed for faster rendering/viewing. Then again, I still use Amiga 500 (5Mhz, 1Mb memory) to play games :D

Bryce is Good, harder to get a hold of than Vue, but it's worth the effort. Vue is faster than Bryce, but each have advantages over the other. It depends on what I want to do, I can acheive some good results with one that I can get using the other, it's really just a case of what you want to do and then seeing which is better for that particular thing. As for the development of Bryce there is a petition available to sign - check the Bryce forum here (and pleease sign :o) ) in the hope that the new owner will either develop Bryce or sell it to someone who will develop it - and there are a few interested parties from what I hear. Terragen is good but limited in some respects, I've not used it too much but what I've seen has impressed me. As for PC/MAC well that really does come down to personal preference, while there are more 3D proggies that are written for the PC that doesn't mean the PC is better or worse. as Hilt says it comes down to the processor and RAM you have on board. Use what you're comfortable with, personally I use a PC but I'd consider swapping if it weren't for certain matters (I've discussed it in the Poser forums so won't repeat myself here :o) ). At the end of the day though stick with it, you'll be amazed at what you can do, the only limitation is your imagination - knowledge of the programs in question is not a limitation - you can overcome that easily enough with time. Have fun. :o)

I run Vue d'Esprit with OpenGL using an ATI card and had no problems whatsoever.

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There was actually a thread posted in the Poser forum about how fast and powerful the newest Macs are, plus they can can run different OSs in partitions. The new Macs allow tons more RAM, up to 8 Gigs. "Apple has matched the G5 chip with a 1-GHz front-side bus per processor...for a total FSB bandwidth of 8 GBps.... You can load a G5 with up to 8GB of 128-bit, 400-MHz DDR SDRAM..." I'm willing to take out a loan for this. :D I use both Bryce & Vue, they each have their quirks. More info on new Macs- http://www.macworld.com/2003/11/reviews/powermacg5s/

I recall the days when there was a verbal fight between Amiga 500 and Atari ST users, especially in UK but also here in Finland. Which one was better? Noone knows but both had their fans for reason. 15 years after that it is PC vs Mac. And I like it :D The only thing that prevents me from getting a Mac, I think, is the price. Personally, Macs look great and OSX can handle mousewheel and other best parts of PCs, but the design doesnt lower the price for sure. I have a dream that one day Apple would start manufacturing Macs as chips you can install into regular PC-box (or vice versa would be nice too). ("forget the ridicilous loading of OS from harddrive!", the ads yell.) Remove the Mac-chip and replace it with PC-chip if you're in windowing. Or have them both in your machine at the same time -there are cellular phones that take two SIM-cards too :D That's my vision of perfect computing world. Till that kind of innovation hits the markets I stick with my cheap-but-powerful-PC and secretly envy anyone who has more-expensive-but-powerful-and-beautiful-laptop-Mac. But both are still ridicilously expensive and crashy pencils:)