Okay I just downloaded C5 pro. It's not installed yet though. I'm interested in doing Architectural Visualizations. Are the landscape tools in C5pro at the level yet to suggest that I not get Vue 5 Infinite as well? Has anyone here got experience with Vue 5 Infinite? Is it worth it? I ask here instead of the Vue forum because basically I'm a Carrara user so asking in the vue forum is like Duh, anyone in that forum probably likes it already that's why they're there. The demo looked impressive on each program, there seems to be quite a bit of overlap between the two programs. I guess I'm just wondering if C5 pro can do the vue thing to a level where buying both would be overkill.

I've been exploring Carrara 5 Pro's landscape capabilities since it came out. You check my gallery to see what Carrara can do, and I don' feel like I have scratched the surface yet. I don't think you need Vue, especially for Architectural Pre-viz.

I've had Vue 5 I for about a year now, and I still find it a mixed bag. When it first came out it was what I would define as an alpha build released to the public, for a pretty steep price. It is definitely more stable now, and if money is no concern then buy it.

However, I think Carrara's terrain modeler is better than Vu's, and the surface replicator in Carrara can do more accurate distribution of objects (can also covert instances to "real" objects).

If you need huge masses of vegetation with animated plants then Vue will be fine.

I personally think that Carrara's quite competitive as a scene renderer. Vue's algorithm for individual plant variation and animation are about the only thing I would consider as missing in Carrara. I do, however, think it is also easier to control sky colors in Vue, but then we have Carrara's excellent volumetric clouds, which beat out Vue's.

Download the Vue demo & try for yourself, but I personally think Carrara will do better with architectural scene renders. Big outdoor scenes with several hundred thousand plants belongs to Vue...at this point.

Try the demo.It is more hoggy and buggy. Maybe that will change. I think carrara is more than enough and basically more stable. For an upgrade path I think it is a waste especially if you are not going to really use it. You have to upgrade with every version or forget it.

I'm not an architect, but I really enjoy modeling buildings and structures. I'm looking forward to using Carrara's sub-surface-scattering for realistic lighting on marble, alabaster, "people" or other semi-opaque materials.
I also have plans to utilize the translucency for an added element of realism to plant models. If Patrick 210 will forgive me, I would cite his "Palm Island" as an excellent example of how "real" this enhancement can make vegetation look.
The displacement map function will add a lot of detail at render time too. I don't believe even Vue Infinite has all those features yet, but I'm sure they will be added eventually, after all, Vue is Teaming with ILM and I'm sure some cool plug-ins and features, (and stability) will be added as a result. I considered both apps and did a lot of research before my purchase decision due to tight budget constraints which unfortunately precluded owning both apps. For right now though, Carrara gives me more features in Carrara5, let alone Carrara5pro, and at less than half the price, (actually, a quarter of the price for C5 with the current sale) for making a realistic close-up render. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have both apps.

I've been struggling with this question for a slightly different reason. I need to recreate topography fairly accurately for fly-overs and such, and the main draw of Vue was its ability to read DEM files. I ran a demo of Ground Control (Digital Carvers Guild) and I'm worried about the detail level I can import to Carrara. My results were much cruder than what I could get in Vue 4 from the same DEM file. However, DCG demos are limited by "crudity." For example, Anything Grows only allows 100 strands, so you can't really see what a thatch of hair would look like, although you can test other features fairly well. So I'm wondering if anyone is using GC with Carrara and would mind sharing some thoughts about it. Thanks, Mick

I have Vue 5 Esprit and Carrara 5 Pro. From my opinion most have been said already. For Architectural Visualizations you shouldn't need Infinite. If you need a better or more detailed vegetation, just use your money for Xfrog. These plants are certainly superior to the ones from Infinite. There isn't really much you can't do with Carrara compared to Vue. Some things maybe in a different way. For your purpose Carrara should really be enough. It's more worth to put the money maybe into some plugins for Carrara.

With Ground Control, I think you will be more limited by the computer you have than by the resolution that can be imported. What is nice is that you can use the resolution control to work your scene with terain at a low resolution and then ramp it up for rendering. When you import DEMs there is a resolution percentage to choose, you can choose 100%.

I'd like to thank everyone for the excellent input. I decided to hold off on Vue. I have Vue d'esprit 4 and don't use it much. . . I was really interested in the distribution of plants which it seems Carrara beats out Vue anyway. I sent the money to Corel for X3 and to IMSI for Turbocad 12 pro instead! Okay that's a fib. . . I had already sent it to them but was considering Vue as well. Now that that is settled: does anyone know how easy or tough it is getting house plans from Chief Architect ver 10 into Carrara? Would I be better off just redrawing them in C5pro?

X3 is a nice upgrade, especially the Photo Paint color adjustment module.

Hi Cy, I also use 3D for architectural viz. I'm pretty much with all the above comments on Vue vs. C5Pro. I also have used Turbocad up to v.11 Pro and actually TCAD (v.7) is where I built my first 3D model! Nowdays I use ACAD almost exclusively for 2D and a little 3D work, but not necessarily because I want to just because that company has a stranglehold on the industry. I had to give up on TCAD v11 Pro because of the bugs in the layers and styles dialogue boxes for now. Maybe v12 will have sorted that out. I don't know about Chief Architect, but I have found that with almost any 3D software a spline has to be exported/imported in order to build off floor plans. Illustrator is a good app for exporting vectors ( to become splines in 3D) that are accurate enough to be used as the basis for architectural viz in 3D. The method I use for building 3D from plans is just to make a 3D mass model with only a little detail in the CAD app and then export it as .3ds. The more detailed modeling begins in the 3D app as I bet you know. This works OK for Autocad and especially well for Turbocad. Now my only problem is getting accurate placing relationships and 'snap-to's' in Carrara 5Pro without resorting to very time consuming workarounds. For now, I've had to return to Cinema 4D for really accurate scene building, but C5Pro is really a lot of fun to use, so I keep hoping they will get rid of the limitations that seem to be inherent in the rooms and construction box scheme. C5 Pro is really powerful except for that. Vue may have an edge on it in creating water and atmospheres EASILY but not much. Like the others have said, use Xfrog for trees etc. I've also tried Onyx Tree Pro and it makes excellent trees for arch viz which are highly configurable from low to extreme high poly realism. Good luck, wb

I think you may want to wait and see what Vue 6 comes with.