Quote - My point was Art vs Photographic-like reproduction.

I certainly understand your point of view. I think we all strive to some degree for photorealism.

I agree with you, while realism is important, so are the features of a program for providing maximum flexibility in order to achieve the intention of the artist.

I'm sure Terragen 2.0 will be nice, though I doubt I'll spend the time trying it out. IMO, it takes a lot of time to become really proficient with a new tool-- to understand the subtleties and how to best use it.

For me the question is whether to learn a little bit about a lot of tools, or dig deep into one. I've always preferred choosing a tool and sticking with it. I guess I could go on and collect Maya, Max, Lightwave, SI, Modo, Hexagon, Silo, Sketchup, etc., but would the resulting product (my art) be any better? I don't think so.

Of course, the situation does change if you do 3D for a living, but then I expect you would have the time to learn new tools.

I have a simple test to see if a rendering tool is worth spending time with. Just check out the best results in the galleries of it's users. If they are of sufficient quality, then the tool has the potential to create what I want. That is the case with Vue. I see nothing in the Terragen gallery as impressive as many of the renderings by Erka and others here.

Lastly, when reading messages in this forum, I sometimes look at the gallery of the person posting. Monsieur Boliou, you certainly enjoy creating a story with your pictures!

best,
Chipp