Attached Link: http://worldsofbryce.blogspot.com/

Nice !!! :D

Thanks for the review, Dude. I went to Daz to take a look, and since there's no boxed version (I couldn't find one), I won't be getting 5.5 looks like. I wouldn't live long enough to download it on dial-up, LOL. Hopefully 6.0 will be boxed.

nuh-uh, it's boxed! just wait till may 5th. drac

Ohh...thanks. :^)

That review is dead-on from what I'm reading here.

bando: except the fact that it's wrong. the speed increase is bogus. test scene files prove it. DAZ has just given us an unusable product. the difference between 5 and 5.5 is so massive in what i'm rendering that i'm seriously considering asking for a refund. :(

nice review, i think ill wait for 6.0

I warned you! I told everyone the speed increase was bogus, the leaked rendertimes from a while ago showed it already. I demand bryster takes back the stones he hurled at me earlier!

the difference between 5 and 5.5 is so massive in what i'm rendering that i'm seriously considering asking for a refund. Does this mean massive speed DECREASE on your scenes?? if so I'd say you would defenitely have the right to ask a refund...

I noticed that you didn't seem to impressed with the new mat presets organisation. The thing is, now you can organise them into the groups you really need. The number of folders seem to be unlimited while cats within those folders is still limited by the main drop-down size. eg: 'Architectural' has 6 cats, but can take 14. and you could always rename the Architectural folder to something else more pleasing.

the daztalk board is full of annoyed people. and darlissa has made an announcement that kinda reads like this: "yeah, we were gonna tell you this before you bought 5.5 but we forgot, we were too busy patting ourselves on the back for a screwup well done. basically SOME scenes take longer to render than in 5. we couldn't really figure out that one major bug. sorry kids, tough luck"

I wonder if I should start an egg business.. anyone wanna buy some eggs from me?

Now Rayraz........We've seen pics of your backyard, you don't have any place for Chickens.

depends...are they 5.5 eggs?

Chickens are quite small, I'm sure I could fit about 50 in the garden and still walk around ;)

They're 5.0 eggs, they're faster to produce ;)

But what I really want to know is about Multi-threading,.........Will it use dual Processors ????? If not I think I'll wait until Bryce 6(goes back to reading the C4D manual).

C4D! :D two thumbs up for that proggie :D

Well, I've had one beer and I find myself grinning already (hey, it's Belgian). I have one beer left in the 'fridge, and I'm convinced that is not sufficient to provide as much grinning as I'd like tonight (despite the assistance of events in Bryceland). So, I have half an hour to buy some more beer before the state enforced no-more-buying-beer-for-you-matey hour descends. Will I be back from Tesco before Drac's render finishes? Will a major shit storm have blown up? Has DAZ managed to cause more irritation than even our own pumeco?

The tree lab is broken too. When I (and others) try to edit the tree to any degree, the program crashes. I cannot load the full cathedral scene from the content bundle either. Bryce 5.5 crashes after about 4 minutes of wait time. This scene loads quickly in Bryce 5.01. I am not using a state of the art system but it is more than the system requirements state. Hope they fix this soon, until then buyer beware.

Well I just purchased it for $7,95 (after vouchers and discounts being deducted), as far as I'm concerned that's what it's worth. Doubt I'll ever use it, but I'm not planning on asking for a refund, I'll pobably find someone else to buy it from me, that's a lot more profitable. On the other hand I may keep it, not sure yet. I'm seriously wondering why someone owning Bryce 5 would buy this for the $99 or even $79 after the serial deduction. That's one expensive upgrade. As for as I'm concerned it's not even worth being called Bryce 5.5. They should have called it Bryce 5.1 instead and given it away for free. There's hardly anything in that's worth the upgrade. Seems like another DAZ 'get a lot of money through a rip-off' has succeeded very well, since I haven't seen the DAZ server being so awfully slow in downloading before. I'll guess I'll never see it again either since DAZ just lost a customer. For the sake of Bryce, I'll hope it will get a decent owner someday, because if this is all that DAZ can produce after almost a year of working on it, I'm fearing the worst for Bryce 6..... it will take 10yrs at least to be released at this rate.

amen brother!

The only decent thing Daz has got for Bryce is Rochr's Bryce Masters Series: Great Hall. excellent alround. Lets hope Bryce 6 has plenty of things like this and it should be worth updating!

Folks... If you are Rendering Scenes that you Had Lights in from 5.01 THEN You need to go back in 5.5 and turn off the GEL Light,Yeah that BUG that was really annoying in 5.01 but was fixed in 5.5... That might save a little time...? But hey they do have a 30 day REFUND Policy... Go for it...

Be sure to check out this topic at DAZ: Bryce 5.5 - Information Regarding the Render Optimizations as it outlines in more detail the varying render times that you will experience. Hope this helps explain what you're experiencing. The initial review sounded pretty good, with comments like: "In terms of faster renders, I have to say that there is a noticeable difference. There also seems to have been another AA pass added, because in some scenes some artifacts appear where different materials meet, only to dissapear in the next pass. Definitely faster, nicer, I have to test out some serious computer-deathkneeling scenes to be sure, but some quick and dirties have proven some 20-30% less waiting. GOOD! The only down-side is that even in rendering a sphere over a water plane, every newbie's wet dream come true, towards the last AA'ing pass, my comp pretty much froze." and: "In essence, DAZ delivered on what it promised. It didn't set too high a goal and it certainly brought home the bacon. Now it only has to think harder in terms of Bryce 6. " Of course, it's true, as outlined in the post at DAZ linked above, the render optimizations have come at a price, and the further and further that development progressed, the more and more apparent such concesssions became. Too bad that because some scenes aren't showing a 50% speed improvement, the rest of the review is being trashed. And yes, it's true, the improvements made in 5.5 are small compared to what will be in version 6.0. DAZ learned a lot while working on this point release, and that will be a big advantage when development on version 6 begins. Steve

You guys should submit bugs to DAZ's bug tracker about scenes that render slower. Otherwise you are just whining uselessly. Make the complaints pay off for the users. Report issues.

Message edited on: 04/29/2005 17:51

Nice writing, hope DAZ picks up on your suggestions for Bryce 6.

But will it use 2 processors ? Vue use 2 processors. Of course Vue crashes every 3 minutes, so I guess it's all relative. (puts his wallet back in his pocket and resumes reading).

Yeah, it has multi-processor support now.

[i]"And yes, it's true, the improvements made in 5.5 are small compared to what will be in version 6.0. DAZ learned a lot while working on this point release, and that will be a big advantage when development on version 6 begins."[/i] That's a scary statement, in two ways..... 1. These improvements made are small (they for sure are, very small indeed), but yet DAZ has no problem asking $79 from Bryce users for it. (Not taking in account all of the vouchers that can be used on it, since most of them needed some kind of payment too). If DAZ is already asking 'big' money for small improvements, where will it end when the larger improvements come? 2. Work on Bryce 6 hasn't even started yet? At the rate DAZ is going compared to the competition, Bryce 6 will be hopelessly outdated when it will be released.....

Look at Daz Studio versus Poser and Bryce 5,5 version Vue 5 and I don't think Daz has a great futur in 3D except selling 3D props and characters like Mike & Victoria.

Aye, all this disappointment is nothing new my friends. Do you remember Bryce 4? Can anyone think of ONE better thing about Bryce 4 than Bryce 3d? What about Bryce 5 itself? You can count the improvements on one hand. So it comes as no surprise to ME that Bryce 5.5 requires only 2.5 fingers to count all of it's improvements. Bryce started as a plug-in for Photoshop, to simulate "Bryce Canyon" type environments. Back THEN, Metacreations really did kick ass, they made all kinds of cool stuff, including the Kai's Power Tools sets (of which Bryce was part of, originally). They also made Poser, Headline Studio, Painter 3D (Detailer?) and a host of really intuitive and fun programs. The vision which propelled them forward is simply NOT around anymore. The only big upgrade Bryce has EVER seen was from version 2 to version 3, which introduced a whole slew of new features (keyframing animation, being the foremost "it moves!" feature...) But I'm not angry at all, regardless of how sour my text may seem. You get what you pay for, and if you buy the cheapest 3D package on the market, expect the cheapest and lowest-par results. Elitism aside, it's a tool and in the right hands one can make beautiful imagery in Bryce. Bryce brings 3D to the masses, and without it many of us simply wouldn't be doing 3D graphics at all... Keep at it, my friends! And I'm done for today on anti-DAZ sentiment. Thank you for actually reading my blatherings!

But DAZ fix their bugs pretty fast. The first bug fix is already at DAZ for the spray can and the tree problems. 24 hours .... pretty good response time.

Let me start by saying thanks Draculaz for your review on Bryce 5.5. I wasn't sure if I was going to upgrade to Bryce 5.5 or not, but given what I've read I guess I could wait for Bryce 6 or even 7. I do agree on one point from lordstormdragon is that given Daz was announcing Bryce 5.5 (and not 6), that we shouldn't have been too surprised on the limited upgrades that were made. I understand that Daz's choices on what has been upgraded isn't popular among Bryce die-hards, but I think that our high expectations should start on Bryce 6. Daz will hopefully learn from their mistakes, however they made sure that Bryce would import and intergrate with Daz products better; a corporate agenda that we should have seen coming. Personally, I would have preferred to see Mojoworld own Bryce rather than Daz, but at least we don't have to deal with Corel :-) "...and if you buy the cheapest 3D package on the market, expect the cheapest and lowest-par results." I don't agree with this statement however. In 3DWorld magazine, issue #62, there was a buyers' guide column for Landscape Generation programs. Bryce 5 had an 8 rating out of 10, beating Mojoworld 3, Worldbuilder Genesis and Worldbuilder Pro 4. Bryce 5 matched Vue 4 Professional and World Construction Set 6. Vue 5 Esprit had a 9 rating. Peace.

LOLsounds like Bryce 2 all over again around here lately (geez that was really bad)! And whats with all the new comers to this forum lately, been hiding in the outskirts until you got burnt or here from other forums and want to throw stones? Anyhow, glad to finally see whos been lurking. I said it many, many, many months ago when DAZ first bought Bryce and announced they where intending for a Bryce 5.5, that I would wait to get the fallout from that 5.5 experiment then hang on until Bryce 6 when theyve learned their lessons from Bryce 5.5. Im still planning to hold true to my course until then. They really have to come out with something innovative, competitive, stable and reasonably priced to re-capture the market. Just buying an established name brand product doesnt mean you can live off its good name and laurels. So far, its just an upgrade and not a very good one at that from all reviews. This being the case, DAZ will have to double their efforts in an all out attempt in regaining the ground lost from years of neglect of this popular, reasonably priced piece of software. Just like Hollywood: new film comes out and despite all good hearted attempts from all parties involved to produce a winner, the critics come out swinging and lashing on to every negativity that dares to surface. Its a tough crowd to please but then again, its a tough business theyve decided to pursue. At the end, after all is said and done, it comes down to the harsh light of winners and failures.

Amazing, isn't it? For years people have been whining about how they wish someone would buy Bryce and do something with it. At the same time others have been quietly getting on with the biz of rendering. Then along comes a hero who not only saves Bryce from the scrap-heap, but actually tries to improve things and all I hear is more whinning and griping about how long it's taking, or will they fix this bug or that bug and will Bryce 5.5 do the dishes and hang the washing out on the line..... Get a life, guys! When you buy a new car you still have to learn to drive it.....however much it costs..... DAZ did us all a favour. Be grateful and give DAZ the credit for giving it a go - no matter what their motives are....NUFF SAID.

I don't agree with you at all TheBryster, Daz bought Bryce for making money and if they don't make a good application, they won't. If I buy or upgrade a software application, I have to get satisfied with it or I'll switch to another one. (excuse my english)

DAZ did us a favour? By letting us pay for a application that cannot deliver it's promises and at the same time pushing DAZ Studio on us? That's not excactly what I call a favour, but lying and abusing one application to push another one.

pushing DAZ Studio on us?

You obviously don't have trouble placing Poser characters in Bryce. Lucky you!
Studio does just about all Poser does if not easier.

Message edited on: 04/30/2005 20:24

"You obviously don't have trouble placing Poser characters in Bryce. Lucky you! Studio does just about all Poser does if not easier." Studio doesn't even do half of the stuff poser 6 does and personally I find it a pain to use. Besides that most of my pz3 files will not load into D/S at all, D/S is choking on them. And I'm not the only one having this problem..... So, DAZ is pushing D/S on us and it's not even working for me at all. I bought Bryce 5.5 not D/S, but you can't even use Bryce 5.5 without having D/S, the 2 are completely integrated already.

Yup D/S is an intregal part of B5.5. But you can use it or not. It doesn't get in the way and you only see the D/S button on the CREATE UI. D/S works fine for me. And I was talking about Poser 5 anyway, and about posing characters. D/s loads in seconds. P5 loads in eons. I have had no problems with any aspect of B5.5...yet...;-)