What program should I buy if I want : Volmetric lighting To be able to import translate objects Easy to understrand friendly interface with no learning curve. Something that makes beutiful renders Somthing compatible with poser Is it Vue? Is it Mojoworld? Is it worldbuilder? I want to know so I can make an informed decision on what product will best work for me, Has anyone rated these products with thier render powers and poser compatibilitie?

I have Vue and World Builder. World Builder has a very hard learning curve. With Vue I was making renders in one day. Vue integrates beautifully with Poser, accepts almost everything Poser does except the Poser 5 materials, hair and cloth room functions. Vue has point lights, volmwtric atmospheres, easy to use interface and is very stable. (It hasn't crashed once since I got it) It renders faster than Poser, and can render animations over a network. I don't know Mojoworld.

Hi try Bryce5 have a look at the bryce forum for more details Dave

You'll be hard pressed to find anything with NO learning curve as you indicated. But I think the next easiest program aside from poser that can do what you suggested is Bryce. You can eventually get as complex as you want with Bryce, but the only learning curve you'll need to climb when you first get started is how to import Poser hair correctly. ;)

Just some questions. I don't own Bryce, and I am not slagging something I don't know. The reason I didn't get Bryce is because I was told there is a question as to the future of Bryce, that no more development will be done on the program and that the version available now is the last version. Is this true? Would also like to know if Bryce has point lights, and if it can render over a network? And what is the render speed for Bryce compared to Poser and Vue. Can Bryce import Poser animations, and if it can, is it just individual figures or entire scenes with multiple figures and objects?

Both Bryce and Vue have demo versions. At least I hope the Bryce demo is still on Corel's site. Corel is no longer supporting Bryce, so I would tend to lean toward Vue. I have both and Vue is really nice and easy to learn. If you can afford it, go with VuePro. It has a really neat feature that if you import a pz3 file into Pro, go back and adjust things in Poser, the next time you open up Vue, it tells you that the pz3 has changed and do you want to update. Say yes, and bang - new pose in imported. Importing Poser itmes into Bryce is not as easy, but once you get the hang of it, it works fine.

I have Bryce5. You can not import poser animations to Bryce. There is some application (Natural pose) make its possible to import, but I have no experiences about it.

VuePro does not import Poser animations by default either, but can do so with the use of e-on's Mover, IIRC.

I own both Vue 4 and Bryce 4. For speed, low learning curve, ease-of-use, Poser import, etc., Vue wins hands-down, IMO. Render quality is about the same, IMO. I had Bryce for a year before I got Vue; haven't used Bryce since.

Oh, and I forgot the most important thing. Vue has arguably the best vegatation of all the 3D programs. No two trees look the same, and they are animatable in the wind, etc.

I own all 3 Vue, Bryce and World Builder, and I like them in that order. World builder has a lot of potential but it just doesn't work. If they ever got the bugs out of World Builder I'd move it up above Bryce in my favorites because it imports Poser files AND can do things like create meadows, forests, fields of tulpis, just by sprinkling "seeds" around and each plant is variated in truly realistic but random ways - awesome - but it doesn't work! VUE is great also, but you gotta buy extra stuff to get more plants and variety, and then you still have to place each item one at a time, but it works well with Poser and renders nicely. Bryce is just clunky and out dated, BUT it has tons of free stuff available and a large user base to help solve problems. Importing Poser is a PITA (big-time) but once you get the hang of it it is easier. Even so, Bryce does some of the best scenic renders I've ever seen. Other candidates not to be overlooked are MoJo World and Terragen (a free product). That can do some pretty amazing atmospheres and terrains. They work well for creating beautiful scenics to import as a background image into Poser, rather than exporting Poser stuff into them (but I think you can do that with MoJo World - just not sure as its the only one I don't own)