First, I'd like to say that I stop by this forum every now and again just to peek at what's going on with Bryce, since it was the very first 3D program I had ever tried so many years ago. I still have a warm fuzzy place in my heart where I hold those fond memories of playing around with the program. But that being said, I also recall some not-so-fond memories, particularly when it came to the time it took to render images.

Just quickly looking through some threads here, I've noticed things like "took 2 weeks to render", etc. I have to wonder... why hasn't Bryce (or the current creators of the program) improved it's rendering engine yet? 2 weeks is an insane amount of time to wait for a still image render, particularly when there's no GI calculations involved (even with true GI it would be considered excessivly long by today's standards). With all the latest advancements in photorealistic rendering speed that have hit the industry lately, how do you guys do it? You must all have incredible amounts of patience and loyalty to the software. How do you professionals meet your deadlines and such?

I haven't worked in Bryce for years now, and after moving on to other 3D (modeling) applications that do high quality raytracing much faster, I'm shocked to come back to my "roots" and find out that there was virtually no improvement to the software's rendering speed after all these years. I feel for you guys. ;-)

Corel sold out to Vector Capital, and Bryce is essentially, for all intents and purposes, for PC's anyway dead, there will be no further developement, period. I believe there has been developed, a similar app by one of Bryce's originator's but it is for the MAC, only....

wtf.. as far as i knew bryce6 dev't was for pc's as well. it better be Drac

Wasn't it Eric Wenger who is developing Artmatic, a Bryce twin? I may be wrong but that is only for the MAC...if you know who is developing an actual 'Bryce6', fess up, we'd all like to know....;]

So Corel purchased Bryce only to sell it out, and not develop for it anymore? That sounds like Corel alright. But seriously, why discontinue it on PC? Any way you look at it, it seems like a damn shame. I'm sure all you guys have talked about this eternally here in this forum, but it's the first I've heard about it, having not used the program in years. Hope it works out for you all in the long run, because you seem to be very loyal to the program. I don't understand how it wasn't profitable for Corel.

Attached Link: Bryce6

Well...I have never let a still Pic render for more then two days and that was at Poster size resolutions with 300dpi...Most of the time it is due to the Textures that are being used and the folks who are rendering that long of a time need to go back into Bryce's Render options and change things so(TIR and Reflection settings and of course need to change how many Pixels it will pass on)Bryce will render Faster,Like if you have your TIR settings at anything above 4 you need to change it...There are many more settings in there that need to be tweaked but I just never had the time to do it all,One day I will figure out the Best settings to have,I adjusted my settings and changed from 45 seconds to 23 seconds when I changed the TIR settings,Folks just need to play with the settings... Also there is a a team that is making a Proposal to Vector to BUY Bryce so they can continue to UPGRADE everything in BRYCE6...

and it better be for pc as well. or someone's gonna pay. E~

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/viewed.ez?galleryid=641476&Start=1&Artist=ddruckenmiller&ByArtist=Yes&For

With a sense of humor and irony, that's how...

Drac, the actual link says it all; http://www.bryceformac.com/ hmmmm, do I see the word "MAC" in there? Why yes! yes I do!!! So far even that is all talk....

Developement right now is for the MAC but it has been promised that there will be a Version for the PC,Providing VECTOR gets off their DEAD arse's and just SELLS it to Scotts company,They want to Turn Bryce6 into a Higer end Software that will eventually rival Max or maya Or Lightwave...The first thing they have said they will change is the Rendering Engine...Granted that is still a few years off after Bryce6 comes out but it can be done...Like I said if only Vector would sell...

@ddruckenmiller, ROFLMAO!!!

"They want to Turn Bryce6 into a Higer end software that will eventually rival Max or maya Or Lightwave...The first thing they have said they will change is the Rendering Engine..." They definitely need to change the rendering engine regardless of who they're trying to compete with. But as for making Bryce into a higher end software... that might be a BAD move. With more features comes a higher pricetag, and they'll lose their base market. The higher end software are very expensive as you know (Lightwave is the cheapest of the high end stuff), and are so packed with features, it would take Bryce another 4 or 5 upgrades to catch up to where those programs are at now. I don't think that's a great idea at all for the software. I use 3dsMax almost exclusively now, and for all the stuff it can do, it's well worth the heafty pricetag for professionals. I don't see why Bryce would want to go that direction when their core user base is probably not going to be interested in most of the features. Faster rendering (up to 10x faster or more is possible now with the new generation of raytrace engines like Brazil or Vray or Mental Ray), and true GI would probably be the holy grail for most users. Then they can keep the price relatively low to please everyone. But I'm not even a user now, so maybe things have changed a lot since I used it. You guys know what you want. ;-) Later/

Bryce has been left to languish so long that I'm afraid it may never recover. The decline of each company that has owned and developed it and the growth of Bryce's competition certainly hasn't helped either. I'm with you Zandar in that I've moved on to using higher end software, but now and then I return to Bryce when it helps me do something faster and with more ease then I might be able to do in another software package. Yes, there are still those rare moments. :) And as mentioned by foleypro, when I do use Bryce I'm very careful about scene setup and rendering setting with tregard to how they affect rendering times.

Aye, Zandar, you're right. All of these things have been hashed over many times, even with Pendulum, the person responsible for the Bryce for Mac movement. It's been stated time and time again that if it IS developed, it will also be for the PC. My PC has no problem running Mac programs, ever, regardless. But I dont' think they need to outdo the big dogs, either. Just outdo Bryce 5, and I'll probably enjoy it. I don't enjoy using Lightwave, but it really does kick ass when it comes to results! Foleypro's right, though. Render times can always be tweaked down to nothing, a 2-week render should only be acceptable if it's an animation, really...! Even then... Silly...

originally posted by foleypro: "They want to Turn Bryce6 into a Higer end Software that will eventually rival Max or maya Or Lightwave..." ...God I hope not...do they realize that companies like Alias Wavefront (Maya) have more than 20yrs of experience with development of high end software.? NO program gets it right the first time. if Bryce 6 attempts to include these features into its product it will turn out to be an expensive mess of half-cocked and poorly executed ideas.

Innovator, don't worry, not gonna happen'....;]

Well lads, if the first thing they do IS change the render engine maybe they will incorporate Mental Ray just so it gets up with Max and Maya....hmmmmmmmmmm, I thinks not. I will have to agree that Bryce is at risk of being left undeveloped for too long and having too much catching up to do....especially in the animation department. And animation features of a 3D program will make or break it, especially when talking about the catagory and company Bryce has to compete with, within it's current price range. Cheers

I think that Bryce is great for implementing my ideas into 2D, non-animated artwork. Lightwave is obviously much, much more powerful and it's render engine incorporates all kinds of optimizations. I really love Lightwave, but I doubt i'll ever use it for stills... Bryce animates some things well, but I mostly use it for fine art, if you want to call it "fine", or "art", at that!

A little late responding here but most (maybe all) of the renderers that Zandar mentioned are not raytracers - they're scanline renders with raytraced effects. Trying to compare the two is like comparaing apples and oranges, they're both fruit but they sure do taste different :-) Raytracers were largly developed by acedemia with an emphisis on accuracy, hybrid scanline renderers were largly developed by Pixar/Mental Ray with an emphsis on speed. And they darn well should be fast since the last time I looked, the standalone version of the Mental Ray 3.2 renderer (only!) was over 1K$. That's why you don't see many in prosumer 3D licsenseing the high end renderers mentioned - the additional cost would push them right out of that market. Raytracers, on the other hand, are relatively easy to code and the tecniques used are largly in the public domain and widely available. Having said that, there is a low cost scanliner, Pixar's (now Apple's) REYES render engine and some good API's for it. It's used in apps like Mojoworld, Poser5, Zbrush, etc, but it's not (in my view) in the same leauge as Mental Ray/Vray/Brazil. It's also some 5 years old and it shows. So, we put up with it 'cause Raytraceing is cheap and can produce darn good renders.That's really what the prosumer market is all about :-) Sorry for the long ramble; Dan

Attached Link: http://www.vrayrender.com/gallery/

I can't speak for the other engines I mentioned, but Vray (at least) calls itself a Raytrace engine, and is always referred to by everyone as one. Or more specifically, an Advanced Raytrace engine. So I tend to agree with them on that formality. hehe. ;-) By the way, I certainly wouldn't expect Bryce to adopt any of these renderers as part of their package, since as you pointed out... it would spike the overall cost of the software, and completely alienate it from their base consumers.

Attached Link: http://www.splutterfish.com/sf/gallery_view.php?photo_id=231&screen=8&cat_id=2&action=images

I should point out also, that standard scanline rendering and raytracing work "backwards" from the camera: the rays start at the camera, and only the rays from the camera are bent or bounced by raytracing. Renderers like Brazil and Vray (and Mental Ray as well) calculate photons of light starting at a light source (like real light), which can be reflected, refracted, bounced off mirrors, or concentrated by a lens, accurately simulating more of the ways real light can move through a scene. Otherwise known as caustics. Standard scanline renderers aren't capable of doing real caustics, and must resort to tinting shadows to "fake" the result. However, these renderers combine raytracing and photon mapping to calculate light bounced off mirrors onto walls, etc.

Thanks Zandar for the info on V-Ray and yes I see that it does do pure, fast raytraceing (as well as scanline), has great looking renders and the price is much better too ($300-$800). I was pleased to see that they are also working on a stand alone version and a plug for Maya (which is where I'll probably go if nothing happens with Bryce). Best; Dan