Well Chipp, I'm familiar with using Piranesi, as I first bought it 4-5 years ago. It's NOT an easy program to learn to use- but once you get the hang of it- it's very powerful. It's amazing to me that for such a relatively expensive program, and somewhat difficult learning curve, that it has caught on so well and now has a MAC version as well. If people could be doing this with simple scripts or photoshop filters they wouldn't be buying it! ...Piranesi is very popular within the architectural design and product design arenas and a proficient Piranesi artist working with a regular client can easily make $3-5000 a month using it. This is because every Piranesi image is completely changable- backwards or forwards- and can be used in animations, panoramas, etc. It's a great marketing design tool...

As far as Vue 6- I think DAZ-Eovia is going to steadily eat away E-on's low (Easel) and mid-range market. I suppose E-on's marketing plan is to escape to the HIGH-END and hang out with ILM staffers in San Francisco- well big deal- that doesn't do any good for most of us who bought into the original Vue software. I have 3DS MAX and Lightwave (not the latest versions) and got into Vue because it was an easy to use program- I did NOT want to be using MAX or Lightwave- which is what XStream is all about... so where's the BENEFIT to the mid-range Vue user who doesn't want, or can't afford multi-thousand dollar software???

With Vue 5 Infinite there seemed to be the "promise" from email discussions I was having with E-on that they would be greatly expanding upon Cel-Shade-Toon effects (they didn't), expanding upon Python (it's THERE- but almost nothing makes any productive use of it- where are the highly useful PYTHON scripts like Poser has?). I was told that supporting an EPIX file output was something that could be done in half a day (or "just write a python script to do it" someone at E-on said. YAH, Right... I bought V5I because I'm a programmer???

No, I haven't decided to remove Vue from my harddrive, like some people have stated. There is a lot I still like about using Vue- but I think E-on really cares very little about what their low and mid-range user base really want.  They have become the most UNFRIENDLY software company I can ever think of- and I've dealt with a lot over 20 years. E-on is a small company- but with the warmth and friendlyness of Microsoft. ----You WILL LIKE what we will be SELLING YOU in Vue 6- so SIT DOWN and SHUT-UP...