Gavotte has made an excellent point in that there are a TON of things I like about the package. First I'll list the likes that I DON'T want changed. Please don't change the following. 1.) Having the whole mess in one single interface with a great render preview tool! Futzing around with multiple apps to generate one single final image BITES! Carrara is superior in that regard. 2.) The price! Nuf said. 3.) My experience has been great customer support. Fixing bugs and such. 4.) Forging ahead and carrying the flag by adding new cooler and bigger stuff. We forget, but things like bones haven't been around all that long and the new sound stuff in the code is going to springboard Carrara into a whole new world of competition kick ass animation stuff! We're still just learning it. How cool can it get when we get a new version with a whole bunch of cool stuff to learn on an annual basis! I LOVE IT! 5.) The Spline modeler. I do 95% of all my modeling in it and I can get it to do a lot of magic tricks. 6.) The SDK. Plug-ins are one of the best things a program could ever hope to have if it was to stay fresh and competitive. Eovia should NEVER EVER let this go and should ALWAYS provide it for free. The package has benefited in HUGE ways using this avenue. LONG LIVE PLUG-INS! Things I like but could like even MORE! 1.) The shader engine in the code is really fantastic but it's obvious that there are a lot of people out there who are writing bigger and badder plug-ins all the time. That's an indicator to me that the shader engine could be even more powerful. It's getting to a point where there are a lot of options which need to be folded into the code proper and more organized. Eovia did a great job recasting a lot of the stuff that was in C3 into organized managed structure in C4 (great job!). I don't think we're done. Eovia should seriously consider taking a serious look at the competitor packages and a serious look at the plug-ins and start forging new tools in those directions. I'm ALL for plug-ins. I'm also for keeping things organized and for growing the package. Some plug-ins are clumsy because they just need to be stitched in proper. 2.) Render nodes. I want more than 4. I don't want to pay for more (obvious and blunt but I want more for free, I'm greedy!). I think other packages are looser with this aspect. 3.) The animation stuff is really coming along and I'm really glad Eovia has been brave enough to move into it. I think there are more things that can be done. Studying the competition is the place to do that if Eovia wants to swing users into the C camp. 4.) The GI/Realistic Lighting engine. First, I love it and I'm getting results from it which are great and I'm getting to where I use it pretty much 100% for final renders. I still think it can get better. Could we PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE put some controls on how glowing objects emit light intensity when using the GI stuff (PLEASE!)! I want other controls too! The scene scale changes the results. How about a control nob to manage that? I could also stand having a control nob which manages how much the light scatters at each bounce. More control means more power which means more amazing results. GI really is fantastic. It can get even better! 5.) Particles. The particle engine isn't bad. It also isn't powerful. If I someday learn how to figure out how those three frickin color boxes in the particle dialogue box work, I'd love particles even more (this is a SERIOUS pet peeve! I want to use those color boxes from life to death!!!). I want particles to interact with other objects. This is something that lots of people want. Particles in other packages can do A LOT of magic tricks that C can't do yet and I think it would be a BIG improvement if C were to push forward a harder hitting particle engine. We need better ways to generate water and smoke (etc.). Things that I would like seriously improved (not casually but seriously). WARNING, RANTING IS NOW FULLY ENGAGED! 1.) Can we PLEASE put XYZ and scaling coordinate dialogue boxes into the metaball modeler?! Duh! How can we possibly make something in the metaball modeler when we can't even put a ball at 0,0,0 using the mouse! I've seen some really impressive models built in other codes using metaballs and C could casually do the same if we could just have control. 2.) Memory leaks. The code reaks of them. Get rid of them! Also, stop futzing with the video drivers. At a minimum, test them better before going to press. So far, the patches have helped LOTS so I know you guys can do it ( you sneaky little devils)! 3.) 50% of the time when I change the grid properties in the spline modeler I get an error message (specifically, when I'm interfacing with the dialogue box that appears). It happens sometimes when I change a number. It happens sometimes when I press a button. I'd like it to stop happening altogether. Ok, that's the extremely short list of the most (loved, hated, and want to improve) I could come up with. I actually could write many pages on the subject with objective and constructive explanations. If you would like to hear that, let me know. -Kix

-Kix