When Bryce was relatively new to the market, the thing you said about the render engine was true. Bryce does things in its default mode what others would do only after enabling and adjusting their premium settings. But for a long time Bryce has sat while others kept evolving. So now Bryce is at a big diadvantage (rendering speed, new material types/properties, and lighting effects.) Also Bryce can't handle morphs or import sequences, so it is a long way behind on animation. What Bryce still has going for it is what I consider a really great interface design. The controls are well placed, intuitive, and aren't all that difficult to use. The others still seem to have a thing to learn from Bryce when it comes to material and object libraries. This means you can see what the settings will do when appied, and they're ready to be used without much learning.

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Barbequed Pixels?

Your friendly neighborhood Wings3D nut.
Also feel free to browse my freebies at ShareCG.
There might be something worth downloading.