@Cheers

Thanks for pointing out XSI, I've been over their site and downloaded the demo clips etc.

I have to admit, that's a LOT of 3D power for it's price - really amazing. Unfortunately, I don't think I'd be wise to move over to XSI - well, not at this point anyway.

See the thing is, we all have our different goals of what we want to achieve with our software.
For me those needs are quite modest, but unfortunately not easy to come by in a single "affordable" application.

I need mainly three things (essential to my needs);

1 - A modeler that can model symmetry in real-time.
2 - A hair system.
3 - A dynamics system.
4 - A bloody good renderer.

Now from what I've seen, XSI will give me all that - except for the hair-system, which only comes with the Advanced edition (which is way out of my budget). If the foundation edition had a hair system, I'd certainly give it a shot - but there ya go.

I can hardly believe I'm about to say this but, after visiting a few sites today, things are actually starting to make my Cinema4D setup look attractive - lol

My system is sorta half finished, so instead of being forced to upgrade the core and modules I've already bought twice over (just to get clothide), it looks like I'd better go for seperate Mocca and Dynamics modules for my current core - then I have a very powerful system.

Like I said though, theres no way I'm falling for Maxons "epic-scale" modular upgrade path any more, my core is staying at 8.5 and that's that. If ever I need anything above what I'll have when I get those modules, I will no doubt be looking into the history of how XSI/Lightwave/Maya treat their customers in terms of fairness of their upgrade structure.

BTW, Cheers if you are still reading this thread, could you please be a little more specific about your dislike of the Mocca module - I'd really like to know because it looks as if that's the route I'll have to take.

Thanks

Len.

The wait can be horrific, but the outcome can be worse - pumeco 2006