DAZ's weekly freebie is a set of seashells in obp format. And in a newsletter update I got today, here is their latest word on Bryce 5.5: "Work on version 5.5 continues going strong. We're happy to share with you that the render speeds for many Bryce 5.5 scenes have seen amazing speed increases, some over 2 times as fast. At the same time, there are some scenes that are actually rendering slightly slower. The release of Bryce 5.5 has been delayed further as a result. We want to do everything we can to try to make the render engine work optimally in as many different scenes as possible. In other news, the Bryce 5.5 box design has been completed and delivered to the printer. The extra content that will be included has been finalized and is ready for inclusion on the master CD. The only part that remains to be completed is a last few rounds of testing. More news on the completion of the boxed version as it completed and ready for shipping."

rochr or orbital made the cover, most likely, which is awesome news for them :) as for the other stuff.. they probably messed something up again. drac

They've also got a Bryce tutorial in their "March Madness" promotion today, and a 40% sale-price on Bryce 5. Tempting, but if the UI is still as non-standard as Bryce 4, which I've had the chance to struggle with, not tempting enough. (I couldn't even find out how to close the program.)

Antonia, Bryce 5 has the same UI as 4. As far as I can remember, the main additions to 5 that weren't in 4 are the tree lab and an expanded sky lab. Actually, I'm kind of fond of the UI, except some of the little arrows are too small!