Attached Link: http://www.diardsoftware.com/

You will never guess what I discovered, Vue-ers. This program Universe, which is free, can do awsome volumetric clouds and smoke INSTANTLY. It's not 3d, its more like postwork, but download it and try - basically you drag over a fractal cloud shape and draw it on the image. See below what I did just now - this is before:

This is before.

This is after - notice the chimney smoke. This is awsome!

These volumetrics, which would take hours to render in Vue, took me about 15 seconds to draw in with Universe. All I did was open the jpeg file and use the Nebula tool. Oh, right, I forgot - Universe is meant to be for drawing space scenes - with gas clouds, stars, nebulae, etc. But it does this better. -Zak

This one I also just did now - check my gallery for a larger version (1600x1200).

Looks very interesting. Thanks a lot. Only "Free?" It says $39,95 + $24.95. Othwerwise some features are switched off. But you can stay in evaluation mode indeed as long as you want to.

Well all the important features are in the eval edition, like the nebulae and the gas clouds. Only things like planets are in the pay version.

I have used the payed version for about 4 or 5 years. It is pretty cool, but one thing it does miss is updates...it hasn't been updated in 3 or 4 years :/ Cheers

Oh. Bummer.

"Oh. Bummer." Ohh, I wouldn't really let that put you off, as it does a good job...and as you have shown it is pretty cool at smoke/cloud effects....but, when compared to the results from Flaming Pears "Glitterato" and "Lunercell", then you are able to see what areas it needs work on. Cheers

Yes, I've got the paid version as well, although I've never tried it for clouds, always nebulae! Must give it a try...

http://www.renderosity.com/photos/GAL_200512/GalleryImage1107754.jpg Be nice to think that E-on would implement something like this much sooner rather than later, wouldn't it?

Tell me about it, eon really missed the boat on this whole cloud thing, both Terragen 2 and Carrera 5 Pro offer way better (and in terragen's case absolutely realistic) volumetric clouds. I love Vue, but they really missed out by not getting into this feature in Vue 5.

I've been lobbying E-On about this cloud situation for quite a while. Terragen2 clouds are outstanding. I'm hoping that E-On will surprise us all with an update that will include this sort of reality. I won't hold my breath, but I will continue to hope!

Megalodon

Megalodon, I'm sure E-on are very aware of the competition...and they probably realise that it is an open market and if they are not competitive enough they will lose out. I will just add one other thing concerning features etc and show just how fluid the market can be; A person requires a landscape app and looks at Vue and Terragen. They think, "Wow! great realistic skies within Terragen...but I need plants and trees as well. Oh, looks as if I need Xfrog and a couple of tree libraries also. How much will all that cost? Hmmmm, it's far more expensive than Vue alone...with it's integrated vegetation" Obviously that example doesn't really hold up for Pro users, because there are pipeline considerations etc to consider...oh and we don't know the cost of the different Terragen versions. Yes, Terragen does set the bar for realistic landscapes IMHO...but it's not the only consideration. Me, well if Vue doesn't keep up with the competition then I'll move on to something that does...but realism isn't my only consideration ;) Cheers