and now for a rehash of my previously deleted forum post, minus the negativity.

Pumeco it seems like you've done a LOT of work on this project. I did some digging around in the old threads and read most of it, and aside from all the negativity I have to agree with a few points that PJF and others made many, many months ago.

what exactly is "professional" about Pro-Render? Do you think it's the shading? Do you think that it's the fact that you can't use meshes in TA in Bryce without multiplying their memory load? Do you think it's professional that you can't animate with it without computers being thousands of times faster?

but I have other disagreements as well, for example in #74 PJF states that "True Ambience is close enough to radiosity as makes no significant difference". I apologize in advance for offending you, but you couldn't be further from the truth. TA has what, THREE controls over it's "emission"? i saw the post where you "bounced light", but after working with mental ray for the past few years what you're really doing there is bouncing diffusion, and this is a very different thing.

Corel introduced True Ambience as a quick workaround for actually having to program anything. It calculates nothing like real light. Bryce is a ray-tracer only, and these "rays" are not light rays in any way! They are data rays that describe what color a pixel should be based off of certain elements. Bryce never had (and never will, at this rate) anything resembling photon calculation OR radiosity, and having used other apps that DO have these features it's vastly apparent that TA was just someone's quicky workaround to making radiosity / GI effects.

my main point is this, Pumeco : while you are able to do some interestingly soft shadows and lighting techniques with PR, you could already do those with Bryce. you have merely made a set of materials which utilize TA in a more realistic way. why would you tout this as a "renderer", like mental ray or V-ray? youv'e done no programming, no research into how light works (at least that you've shared here), and basically wasted everyone's time to draw attention to yourself. I don't think that qualifies as "progress".

to paraphrase another old-school Bryce user, in the amount of time it would take to make ONE Pro-Render animation, you could go out and get a job, BUY 3DS / Maya / XSI, and finish the entire animation with time to spare. HOURS per frame? to achieve something that most programs can do in mere minutes or seconds? what exactly is professional about wasting your own time?

but hey, that's kinda harsh I admit. to be honest, I'm impressed by all the labor you've put into this project! Bryce is all about making workarounds to deal with things, but one thing it will never be is "professional", no matter what kinds of materials you throw in there.

honestly, I'd like to see you go pro Pumeco. you have a diligence and devotion which would be a wonder in the high-end atmosphere, although i think you'd give Modulok many headaches!

Message edited on: 02/14/2006 17:12