As a long time fan of bryce, I've got a problem...bryce 5.5 still looks like a minimal improvement on bryce 5 and no idea when bryce 6 may appear and what it will offer. I need a good, pleasant to use 3d program which gives the things Bryce currenlty lacks terribly. This sucks, I wish to remainw ith Bryce but...I've wiated years on better rendering times, etc etc. sighs I tried Mojoworld, interesting but not what I want. I use Rhino for modelling, love that. Love bryce but frankly it's pathetic for screwing animations (camera path whiplashes so often it's abysmal) and render times slower than a salted snail in a desert. ANyone used Vue, opionions ? :)

If your looking for faster rendertimes,........Vue is NOT the answer.

Although Vue has alot of things that I'd like to see incorporated into Bryce (customizable plants, four window views, mat lab) it's rendering time is only a litte faster than B5 at the moment, although I don't have Vue Professional or 6(?).....

Go have a look at the feature list for Vue Infinite. Now there's some serious features... (ecosystem... baked textures...) but it does cost 600US.

Just got an email on Vue Infinite, I'll have to check it out.....

What about Cararra? I tried it a bit but are not sure if has any better rendertimes.

I tried Carrara and was disapointed a lot with the vertex modeler. Vue is a superb software but it crashes continually if you don't have a recent video card with always the latest drivers and because of the anti-pirating programming in the software.
The company is out of its mind asking 600,00$ for a software with no modeling except boolening as Bryce.
At this price, I would buy Cinema4D who can do all Vue & Bryce can do: modeling, landscaping, importing Poser characters and objects, animating. And the rendering is one of the best at this price.
There are thousands of tutorials in many languages and many forums. You can have version 6 for free and the version 9 (demo) at Maxon.
And it's one of the easiest to learn...
Excuse my english
Michel

Mikeberg, Alas, I loathe Cinema's entire interface, ugh it sucks :/ Tried the demo of Vue and found it good, just lack of particle ability stopping it being truly fantastic for me. Ordered Vue5 anyway ;)

I have to admit, I use both and Vue certainly has its good points. Here's my impressions if anyone is interested:

Vue has much better vegetation than Bryce. And now Vue 5 has rendering options that are worth the $200 price tag (for Vue 5 Esprit), ergo: Global Illumination, Global Radiosity, true HDRI support. I do have to admit that Bryce's materials (presets or made from scratch) are much better than Vue's, and Bryce's terrain editor is second to none as far as I'm concerned. I still haven't figured out how to make a decent looking mountain in Vue, whereas Bryce I can pop out a beautiful one in about a minute and a half.

I do still eagerly await Bryce 6 (5.5 I think is going to be nothing more than a small upgrade). I'll just wait and see what Daz does with it. I'll probably still pick it up because I do love Bryce. But Vue, I have to admit, is setting the standard right now. Daz has their work cut out for them.

Heresy! There is only ONE true 3d app and it's Bryce!!!

I can't say I've worked with vue, but I started out with Bryce and hit all the same walls. After nearly two years I stumbled on Cinema 4D 8. After three hours of playing I could do everything that I could do in Bryce (with the exception of vegitation for which you need Xfrog), and after that everything was easy fixes to old problems. I recommend Cinema 4D, at least give it a try, and if you don't like it you are really only out a couple hours and some download time. Regards, David

"You can have version 6 for Free" Where...? Got a Link...?

It came with a copy of 3D World (Cinema 4D CE that is). I did the registration, got hooked (I think it was the lighting that really got me), and am now running R9 core with Advanced Render 2. I must admit, I would like to see bryce's terrain lab brought into C4D as well as some aspect of the procedural materials.

i got that ce version isnt it limited size wise?

not if you took advantage of the registration offer. still it is a handy modelling tool even if you didn't.

Silverblade I think you won't be disappointed by Vue, it is a really good software, I'm always pleased to use it! I was fan of Bryce, but like you I was desesperated that it wasn't updated. I switch to Vue before the announce of the 5.5, and I'm quite happy because I won't have buy 5.5... I think Cinema and Vue (or even Bryce) are not really comparable, they don't deserve the same purpose (except art:)). One complete the other! They are both two good software!

I've purchased every version of Bryce since v2 and recently bought the Vue 4 ESD. Switch. The render times are incredibly faster, the interface is far and away better than Bryce and features that Bryce should have had long ago. You won't be disappointed.

Well Vue Pro5 is in the mail ;) Thanks kindly for all the feedback! Feels kinda sad, but Bryce has been left in the dust :/

And as for render speeds, I get improvements of three to ten times using Vue 4 over Bryce 5 with equivalent scenes.