Hi there, I must admit I'm rather disapointed with Carrara 4. The new features are not as good as I was expecting. I was hoping for something on a par with VUE, but it seems eovia have a long way to go. The modeler is quite nice. I haven't figured out the IK thingy - not sure I'll need that though, since I use Poser too. Anybody else feel the same?

Sorry for you.You confirm my decision.When i have seen the new features,i didn't see the ones i was expecting to find and i decided to wait until 6(may be).I have Vue and Bryce so i don't need a semi-VUE one.I have Deep explorer ,so i don't really need more new file formats(like in Pro version).I really need better modelling features in Carrara(more speed,better selection system,more subdivision tools.I have P4 3,2 and 2 megs Ram memory and i find Carrara too slow when i have some detailled meshes on screen.I have bought Transposer plugin and i find it is working but so slow to use .BUT I really like and enjoy the interface ,the workflow and the rendering of Carrara(except selection system,i repeat).So in place to update to Carrara 4 i put 109$ on Silo,an exceptionnal polygone modelling soft

Message edited on: 11/04/2004 19:03

I don't have C4 yet, due to funds. But from what I have seen of the demos, the selection tools are vastly improved, as is the Terrain Modeler. But keep in mind that even though these are improved, I don't see them taking the place of a dedicated Landscape app like Vue or Bryce. These apps offer dedicated functions and a different way of doing 3D images. Carrara is more of a General Purpose 3D app. So what's my point anyway? I guess I would like to see an honest to goodness comparison between Carrara 4 and Carrara 3, not Vue vs. C4, as that is like comparing apples to oranges... Paul

I don't think Eovia intends Carrara to be mainly a landscape application. With C4 you get a very powerful modeling package that vue can't come close too(c4 pro comes with amapi 7 as well as 5 other modelers).You also get a very decent animation package too. With the new terrains,sky you can do some pretty nice landscapes with carrara that I think compete very well with Vue. What were you expecting.

Sorry you are disappointed. I'm very pleased with my upgrade. As Mike said. Its not a dedicated terrain program. Carrara is an all in one solution. And thus its a flexible package but not as advanced in every area as a dedicated terrain program would be. Brian

Martial what video card are you using? I'm shocked to hear you are having speed performance issues. The speed of Carrara is one reason I choose it over other applications. I have a much slower system. AMD 2000+ 1 gig ddr, but I have a 128mb video card. I'm not sure what you have, but this could be issues with your video card. Also CS4 is a HUGE increase in OpenGL and Software rendering performance. I can actually play bone animations in realtime in CS4. Its almost like working in Motionbuilder. Brian

For Nicolas86:i have upgraded my motherboard,memory and and CPU last february 2004 but i have kept my videocard ,a ATI Radeon 8500 with 124 memory .According to our office in house technician,if i don't want play game,it will not so good to update to Radeon 9800 for example
For the speed,i must precise that the slow constat were when i import some polygone meshes coming from Poser body parts(i want to make some morphes for example).I make the same obsevations for Truespace 6,6.
Also now i use Rhino and Silo for manipulating this kind of meshes and i see how rapidly it could be.Zbrush 2 is also used.

The time for rendering it is ok for me.But i don't like to always see the faces and vectors selected so slow to move and always selected-deselected by Carrara

Other observation;i don't expect from Carrara to be a terrain program.It is ok if someone need these features .But for now i prefer use VUE d'esprit Pro

Sorry for my bad english(i am a french speaking person) But i didn't want to say i don't like Carrara.I use it .It is just i was expecting more from this update and i didn't see enough to pay for it

Well ATI explains your performance issues. Some programs have issues with ATI cards, and Carrara is one of them. I'd recommend if you have the time changing your video drivers. Since I've had similar issues with Carrara and other programs when it comes to ATI and that usually fixes that. Performance is the reason I passed up Softimage, and it was likely due to my ATI cards, of which Softy didn't really have a fix for.

I have the ATI Radeon 8500 video card for Windows98SE. Carrara Pro 4 is the first version that actually works with the card using openGL without locking up my system. And the default Eovia software driver works even better than in previous versions of Carrara for this card. I'm using ATI's CATALYST 3.10.

Message edited on: 11/05/2004 22:00

I also using the last driver.Is someone knows about a perfect match for videocard open gl driver-Carrara3-Vue d'esprit Pro?Thanks

Martial, That is a tough question and has a lot to do with drivers, opinions and experience. I guess you could ask what cards the developers used on their development/testing systems. I have used Carrara 3 with an ATI 8500 on Mac with no problems. I use it now on a Dual G5 Mac with an Nvidia FX 5200 with no problems. My PC has an Nvidia GF4 TI 4400 w/128mb RAM with no problems either. Of course always make sure you have the latest official drivers. In doing troubleshooting for some of my clients systems I found that many problems were caused by them using 3rd party, hacked, or over-clocked drivers. Go with the latest Nvidia or ATI drivers that are official release drivers. On Windows it seems to be even better if those drivers are WHQL certified, but sometimes they are and sometimes they are not. Beyond that other things I have seen slow down graphics apps had to do with the motherboard and chipset. Use a well known Motherboard and a proven Chipset. HTH, Paul

I'm using old ATI drivers from a year ago. DirectX is 9.0b.

Message edited on: 11/06/2004 21:33

Geez, I really wonder what's up with your system, that you find CS slow... I mean I have been using Carrara Studio for a couple of years now directly because not only do I like it's rendering, but more so when I was working with my celeron 266, Carrara was the only app which allowed me to assemble higher poly scenes without much difficulty... and that was with a 128 bit ATI 16 meg card... Then I got a celeron 400, and a slightly faster and larger but still cheapy hercules card, but still only had 192 megs of sdram on the system, and all was super... Now I have a quicker amd 2200+, with a cheapy 32 meg geforce 2 card, the gimped 128 bit model, and have but 256 megs of ddr, and Carrara really does rock all over all other apps for speed of moving things around when assembling scenes.... hmmm