I want to do basic 3D renderings, custom morphs for Poser, props and scenery. I keep hearing all kinds of bile over Metasupport for Carrara, most of which sounds reasonable. Am I getting a pig in a poke? Outside of probably being the last version of RDS (but at $99, I can take that bath), is it worth owning? I have a Mac, so I've been told the number of .OBJ importing/exporting 3D apps is pretty small (this came from a tech at Zygote). Strata3D claims they'll support .OBJ in the next release, but I'm guessing that won't be another freebie. Please, your thoughts?

I'd say that RDS 5.5 is a great package. It's the last in the RayDream line, and so many of the bugs that plague Carrara are worked out of it. (It still does have a few quirks, but it's not too bad.) For what you're wanting to do, RDS will server quite well; it'll do much more, too. And there's still a great deal of info on the web -- tutorials, etc -- for RDS. Plus, this forum is a haven for Dreamers who haven't moved on to Carrara. (Lots of Carrara stuff, here, too, and much applies to RDS.) I'd also suggest you check purplus.com. Last I heard, they had RDS 5.5 for around 80 bucks. (I bought my copy there a while ago for 130. Still feel like I got a good deal, though....)

Yes, it is an excellent package for that price, even though it is an orphan. The MAC version of RDS is more stable than the WIN version. Also, if you plan on getting it try to find the "update" to 5.5.1 for OS 9 compatibility. I don't know what it does as I use OS 8.6 (for now). If you can't find it someone may have it here so don't worry about it.

AzChip (Arizona?): Thanks for the tip. You were right about the price, and now I'm eagerly rubbing my sweaty little palms together waiting for it.

I got it and I'm happy I did. I also have Carrara, but I'm using RDS for my slicing and dicing. You won't be disappointed at that price. Marque

Yep, Arizona is right. Although my name is Chip.... And living in Phoenix, I know all about sweaty little palms.... :o)

D'oh! Well, I think I can hack my way through the manual. Interestingly enough, our library is looking at purchasing a book titled Real Time Rendering, which covers the subject from the ground up. I don't think they'll buy it (CS isn't big here) but I'm thinking of ordering it through an online bookstore.

Hello! If anyone knows where to get that 5.5.1 patch, I'd really appreciate it if they could direct me to it. I upgraded to OS-9 not knowing that it would disable Ray Dream. Thank you.

See thread 11 in main Carrara forum, not sure if that will help.

Guys... is the 9.0 patch on Metacreations not working? Pleeze tell me; I'm repartitioning my 20G HD this weekend and don't want to waste a lot of time reinstalling. http://www.metacreations.com/products/rds55/rds551update.sit.hqx It's about 658K, and I was able to DL it... I think I've also seen it archived on one of the more popular sites.

Duane, Thanks for the url! I downloaded it and it worked out fine. I guess I was looking so hard on the support pages that it didn't occur to me to check out the product pages. Again, thanks. Is Renderosity like a family or what!

Funny you should say 'family.' I got tele-interviewed by Macromedia Thursday about the Macromedia Exchange, where users swap extensions to Dreamweaver they've written, and when I was asked what I liked best about the site I said that it fomented a sense of mutually supportive users, like Renderosity. At that point the interviewer told me he had been working at Metacreations until he was laid off in January, missed it and offered unofficial Poser support if I wanted it. Small world, eh? FWIW I installed both RD5 and the fix this morning. Haven't had time to test either (I spent all night reformatting a 20G external drive to HFS+ and reinstalling the contents), but I'll keep fingers crossed. BTW, while this edition doesn't come with 8 CDs and a VHS tape, it does come with one tutorial CD. It didn't come with box packaging like Poser, but Poser's box is large enough to accommodate both Poser and RD5's books and disks. Cool.