Personally, I'd recommend Vue for doing nice landscapes. It's in a reasonable price range, you can do some very naturalistic scenes with it, it's pretty flexible, and you can import models from other programs if you later decide you'd like to start incorporating animals, people, etc. Bryce is fun and useful for lots of things, but (this is just my opinion; Bryce users may disagree ;-) it's not that great for producing convincing landscapes. Bryce is good for stylized and even abstract stuff, and you can do some cool things with it, but I think Vue beats Bryce hands down for high quality, naturalistic scenery. See what others suggest, though. People have different opinions and these are only mine. ;-) bonni

"When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch." - Bette Davis