As far as high or mid-end apps - EIAS - Electricimage animation system - has a fast engine even when it raytraces. The images it produces are excellent. A higher learning curve than Bryce of course - a totally different workflow. The beauty of Bryce is everthing is already there under the hood and it is up to you to find the depth of it. I use both, and even Carrara and Vue once in awhile. The real beauty of Bryce is what some see as its fault. The reason it is slow is there are very few render parameters to tweak. All the other apps (except EIAS) start with low quality render settings to make it look like they are fast. Bryce has always traded speed for beauty - which means less time tweaking (more tiome waiting) and prettier images from the start. In the end the time pretty much balances out, and you always have a pretty image. That, the seductive ease of use, and the every day discovery of depth is why we all love Bryce. Scott