Hello, I am trying to determine which verson of Vue 4 will best fit my needs. I am planning to print 8x10 or 11x14 landscapes at 300 dpi. I use 2ghz Athlon with Win XP 500mb RAM. Does Vue 4 Prof offer advantages commensurate with increased cost for my needs ? Larry

11x14 landscapes at 300 dpi ? 512 M of RAM will probably be too short. You should consider getting 1 Gb. In term of memory management, Vue Pro will tell you upfront if you don't have enough memory to render a scene. Vue basic will not. I am still trying to understand that one. I thought swap files were there to avoid fitting everything in memory. Maybe there was a reason...

Well, i think you should first look at the list of features both packages do offer. In principle of course both packages can render high res files. Depending on the machine they are running on. As agiel already said, Pro is the much more system demanding package and you maybe are more on the lower end with your system for that. But i would firstly look for the absolut "must have" features and then check the machine you want to run it on. A big issue for Vue is always the type of graphic card you are using. Go to our backroom (link in the header) and check that out first. This is important.

In my humble opinion, Vue Pro, has got too many errors. It crashes, it's slow compared to Vue d'Epsprit (even after I shut Pro down, my com is horribly slow)... Vue basic is much more me. A well-working program, and it's definately good all the features you need. The additional features of Vue Pro are great, but not worth the extra $... Go for basic ;) (IMHO)

IM(not very)HO, if you're looking to do static renders then go for Vue Basic. If you're looking to do animations then Pro is the way to go (+ mover of course). John

Yup, right on, John. For static rendering, Pro doesn't add all that much. Plant Editor, better OpenGL, a couple of new rendering options, network rendering and mesh simplification. Of course, if you want to be able to export, then you'll need Pro. I personnaly cannot complain about Vue Pro's stability. I find it pretty stable. It's crashed a couple of times (like any other piece of software), but nothing worth spilling my guts about. I'd say both are an excellent choice, depending on what you want to do and how your budget stands. Pete

as much as i love vue i would also suggest u take a look @ carrara 3, http://www.eovia.com/home.jsp inferior atmospheres but the rest is pretty full on, to me its more of a symbios going on between these 2 apps, i wish vue had tons of c3 features, and i wish c3 had tons of vue stuff :) but all in all they are both great apps.

I had a look at the demo of Carrara3 some time ago, and I was a little bit disappointed. There is lot of features, but "medium level". But the interface didn't helped me to fall in love with it too! (it is like Bryce you love or you hate;) ) But as you said symbios of both could be terrible! (for interface reason I will prefer the Vue +tons of c3 features:) ) For sl91911, maybe Esprit could be enough, Pro is more oriented for animation in fact. You can begin with Esprit, and if you feel Pro would be better, sidegrade, it cost appx the same price (Pro+Esprit = Pro alone);) But if you want the beautiful springtime birch, you have to have Pro:)

yeah im with u on that, the interface is to me the big turn off with c3, so im hoping vue5 or c4 will be a pleasant surprise :) anyway, vue5 with c3 features and especially the render engine would be such a wet dream, lol, but well that wont happen of course :) but it would for sure be nice.