heyas; vue has a demo you can try before you buy. :) bryce used to have a demo, not sure if there is still one around. i had the demo for bryce three and it was SLOOOOOOOW. but they say the full program was faster.... i'd say vue, but i'm biasted. i like the materials editor in vue. it might not have a randomize button, but you can see what you're doing and control things in it. i like vues workspace better, it has 4 views. and its plenty quick to work with, and render. i think bryce has a more robust terrain editor, and has skies that are a bit better. or easier to make. (and if you get stuck, byrce always has the randomizers so you can luck into good stuff! ;) ) i think bryce is a bit easier to start with. punch in some stuff, load some materials, fiddle with the sky, you're good to go. in vue you have to learn a bit more to be able to do things. after the initial learning curve, i think vue is easier to use -- and more controllable, as i said. lastly, vue has a vegetation generator, which bryce does not have. this will spit out hundreds of unique trees (or ferns or reeds or cactii orwhatever kind of plant you select), which is something bryce doesn't have. oh, and there is one annoying thing with vue: the current version can only handle six layers of transparency. the next version will fix that. oops, almost forgot: bryce 4 has volumetric lights, vue doesn't.