"OpenGL is a lot faster on my system in Carrara Pro 5 Beta than Carrara Pro 4 was. The floating points are still a problem for imported hyper-smoothed objects." What I found incredible is that with OpenGL I can now place a texture that is a video onto an object and then play the animation and see it in near realtime in the 3D view (textured shading). Something that was no where near possible in C4 or earlier. Its also a big plus with animating with bones. As you can see the movement play back smoother and faster.

The eovia site says upgrade versions do not qualify for free upgrade to 5. But they want you to buy version 4 to get 5. If you own a previous version, of course. How in the world would that work. I guess you just upgrade to 5 directly. That seems a bit confusing.

"Landscapes can now tile"

Mark, did you mean due to the Landscape Replicator the landscapes can now tile, or is there a tiling feature for landscapes I am not finding in the Beta?

Chuck

I'm so clumsy with words... :-/ You can replicate terrains and they will be tiled together. By selecting "Seamless" in the Replicator function, you can connect them together. There has been talk about truly fractal terrain tiling but I don't know if that is being considered currently or if Eovia has the time to implement something like that for the C5 final release. Eovia likes to blindside beta testers with new capabilities. :-D Oh, and don't forget the, "Create what I'm imagining" button is also on the list of to-do's. ;)

I think he was referring to the Replicator tool . You can replicate the terrain using the seamless function. Try the following: 1.add a terrain object. 2.drag the replicator icon to the scene. 3.In the sequencer drag the terrain object onto the replicator item to create a parent child relationship 4.double click the replicator item in the sequencer to go to the replicator editor. 5.For the Replication method use Autogrid. 6.Choose an appropriate number of objects. 7 Then choose Seamless at the bottom of the editor window. You should have tiling terrains now, the terrain object can be a Surface replicating group too ,I find the replicating tools to be very flexible. Hope this helps.

I'm a old Raydream5.5 user. Does anyone know if it's been officialy excluded from upgrading. I was just about to upgrade. Carrara4Pro allowed an upgrade from Raydream5.5. Now I can't find it and Carrara5Pro no longer lists it in the upgrade pricing. Am I SOL?

I'm pretty sure that RayDream and Carrara (with its new makeover) at this point have nothing in common anymore.

I know that purchasers of C4 will get an automatic upgrade to 5 when it releases... maybe you can get in that way? Good luck!

That is a good suggestion, Bluetone. Ringo

Thanks. Great idea. That's a great deal. I'm looking at the Pro verison though.

Hmmm. I found the old C4Pro upgrade. It's still $399 to upgrade to C4Pro from RD5. The C4Pro to C5Pro upgrade path is then another $169. $468 total before shiping. Hmmm...2nd day shipping on bothe $19 each...looks to be about $508 altogether. Pretty darned good. Anyone got any idea what $$$ C5Pro might be expected intro at? This is getting realy exciting... :D

Hmmmm... your math dosen't add up unless one of your numbers is a typo.. $399 + $169 = $568 not $468. Just thought I would point this out.

Oops! Hahaha. Your right. Thanks for setting me strait. Maybe it's just simpler if just wait and see what full price is for C5Pro. The features on C5Pro are so exciting I can't do anything right at the moment. I'm watching the quick time render demo and my jaw droped. WOW! :)

mylemonblue- What I was saying is that Eovia says that if you purchase C4 now, you get an automatic upgrade to C5. If that's the case, then ugrade your Raydream to C4Pro now, and receive the auto upgrade AT NO ADDITIONAL COST to C5 when it releases. I'm not sure if it will work that way, but it might be the 'backdoor' your looking for to upgrade to C5 from Raydream. Good luck!

SWEET! Thanks bluetone.

Your welcome! :D

Upgrade purchases are not eligible for the no-charge upgrade. Carrara 5 Pro will cost $549. If you buy Carrara 4 Pro today for $549 you will get the upgrade to Carrara 5 Pro at no additional cost (except shipping if you choose a box version). Regards - Bob

Thanx for the clarification! :D For those who don't know, Bob is with Eovia. He should know! ;)

Re that Poser scaling issue: I've found if I select all then use the scale all command in the VM I can get a Poser object large enough to work with -- and if I do the same scale in reverse, it goes right back to where it was (at least, close enough for clothing pieces. Might be some morph shiver tho).

I'm on fence with this update. Definately worth it. But worth it for me right now, today? I've barely gotten into the functions I already have. About the biggest thing that would kick me over towards purchasing this week would be tools that gave me some of what I can do in Hexagon within the ways I've figured of getting Poser and UVmaps and Carrara's VM to play, if not nicely together, at least not entirely at each other's throats.

It's good to hear about the replicator. I was expecting to purchase Vue for that feature but was holding off until a C5 announcement. Glad I waited!

nomuse, your right about scaling and it's the way I usually work for new models (I don't scale morphs). It just bugs me that Carrara Vertex room was able to handle Poser stuff at it's native scale up until C3, but this problem cropped up in C4. Another thing I'm noticing in C5 (Which I got today!) is that in the vertex room, some times the textured preveiw doesn't show the textured colors. Anyone else noticed anything like this? I'd like to confirm it's not just my machine before reporting it. mike

As a potential buyer(looking for alternatives at the moment), the only thing holding me back is Poser 6 support. Until that happens, I'm afraid I'll have to hold off :(. Looks like an superb program otherwise!

mylemonblue, If you can upgrade to c4 standard you can then upgrade to c5pro. Don't know if there is a diff in your upgrade from RD5 to c4pro or c4standard. The only thing I find weird it they could have bundled hex w/ c4pro also. They obviously chose not to do that so you can buy it seperately if you want pro and hex.Otherwise your "free" upgrade will only be for standard.

ren_mem It would only work if I could upgrade directly from RD5 to C5Pro. Any time you have to figure a inbetween upgrade step the total cost runs equal or over full price. If I realy want it bad enoph I'll just have to pay full price. Thanks for trying though. :D

Eovia usually offers their products at reduced prices if you already own licenses from other programs that are newer than RayDream. Just keep looking on the specials page.

Hi, Of Vue challenged....I'm currently rendering a short animation that contains over 1000 trees on a vast terrain. Flocks of birds frying out over the terrain all thanks to the new particles and all very fast to setup. I'll have tutorials coming soon.

Very nice ringo...can't wait to see. I actually just got a sealed box of vue that I am debating over selling...their upgrade path and very controlling sw policies are so screwy I really didn't want to fool with them and I got it because of the replication and plant related issues lacking in carrara. Other than panoramic...I don't know that c5pro isn't going to be better at landscapes that is why I was asking about the plant editor. I think carrara renders skin better.

Attached Link: http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/PlantStudio/index.htm

thanks. Will take a look.

Are people using this on xp ok? I'm guessing yes, but it looks very old. Does the dxf look ok on import?

It works great on XP, I used it on Bryce 4,5, Carrara and Vue the imports are good (need some smoothing). It also exports to obj, 3ds and lwo

It's forever in my tool box.

Message edited on: 10/26/2005 23:53

Ringo please comment on symmetery. I do not think any of us would appreciate C5 without symmetery function except other cutie features listed in press release. I think it is a waste to buy C5 to use those features without complete modeling room with symmetery function.

Thanks Dennis445...probably have to get texture maker at some point too. It had said dxf, but I imported the models on the site...worked fine. Any tips on shading would be great. Starting to get the hang of the different channels. Have you enjoyed Vue? E-on seems kinda quacky :D Are there any new export formats other than the pro ones listed? Like realmovie, mpeg. I assume no flash...gotta get vectorstyle for that.

Does anyone know if you can animate trees and plants similar to the breeze animations in Vue? Not a deal breaker but just curious. It's nice to be able to create an entire forest on a landscape but it will look a little lifeless with any type of animation if the trees are completely still.

I dont think you can animate trees via wind, but you could setup some bones attached to the plant object then attached to an invisible object used as a control point.

Gweb, as mentioned earlier, C5 does not have a symmetry model function in the Vertex modeler. (Hexagon 1.2 does now) DCG plug Gemini can help with this for Carrara. The Carrara Vertex modeler is significantly improved by changing the modeling engine to Hexagon's. However, Hexagon is a better modeler with a more complete toolset. tkane, no tree animation at this point in time (but a slow camera pan can help disguise that) Carrara is really knocking on Vue'd door. The C5 volumetric clouds are better than anything Vue currently has. Vue still has a slight edge in environmental presets and richness of atmospheric editor at this point in time. As far as plants go, Vue has a very nice array of Stock plants that it ships with. However, the Carrara plant editor is much more powerful (not counting the motion capability of Vue) because you can actually add branches and leaves - you can't do that in Vue. The Vue plants do come with some excellent Alpha mapped textures for leaves and good textures but you can easily make those for Carrara plants too. There is no grass or small plant capability though Carrara yet - I wish there was. While you can create some excellent objects within Vue, the modeling in Vue is not as flexible or powerful as Carrara and there is no particle sytems either. Just the lunatic ravings of a madman here... ;)

Maybe I missed something, but will C5 or C5P have HDRI & IBL capabilities? TIA :)

Uhhh .....Carrar4 pro4 already has HDRI/IBL

Thanks :)

HDRI been in Carrara sense version 3. :-)

Mark I already read ur post and I do not want to hear comments from people who are not from Eovia team. I ASKED for comments from Ringo no body else.

C5 will turn into a big garbage without symmetery function. I asked for it in every version since RDS. I think Eovia knew it and did not want to put it in Carrara to make it difficult for us.

Gemini is completely garbage.

Message edited on: 10/27/2005 15:09

You know G-Web, your commentary is not helping in this thread. I'm sorry if you aren't happy that your preferred features didn't make it into this build, but claiming that C5 will be "big garbage" is is poorly considered, as is your similar commentary about DCG's plugin. There are features I am still hoping for in future builds, but I think that Eovia is doing a pretty good job, all things considered. I think this looks like a pretty decent upgrade. When push comes to shove, if you don't like the product, then don't buy it.

No worries Kolschey. Everybody's entitled to an opinion. I didn't know I was on the Eovia team! You learn something every day. :-D

Symmetry is not planned for the Carrara 5 release. It is available in the Eovia Hexagon modeler. Bob Stockwell Director, Sales and Marketing Eovia Corp.

Eovia is doing pretty good job? I dont think so!! They knew we need symmetery function for modeling because all things are double, triple, quad sided! They just dont want us to finish modeling quickly.

Save your breath!! Let us do the complaint work. (sigh!)

RINGO I am still waiting for your comments on symmetery function.

Message edited on: 10/27/2005 15:47

Perhaps you should send him an email directly. Ringo is a very valuable member of the Eovia community, and he is well respected both inside Eovia and outside. However, he is not employed by Eovia. Bob

Thank you for clarification.

Does C5 Pro come with a newer version of Amapi Designer or was Amapi dropped entirely? Also, how does the implementation of sss look? Forgive me if it was mentioned and I overlooked it.

I don't know that Eovia has decided what all is included with the release of C5 or C5Pro. I least I don't remember anything being said about it.

Amapi hasn't been dropped in favor of Hexagon. They both have different users. Amapi is definatly for folks creating 3D that ends up in the real world as products. Hexagon is a modeler designed for people specializing in imagery. There are similarities, but Amapi has some features for precision that aren't part of Hexagon including calculating volumes and Microscribe functionality.

SSS is way cool. Here is an early render I did with it although I've seen better ones since then by some of the other beta members.

Message edited on: 10/27/2005 16:26