Attached Link: e-on's August 2nd Press Release

I will always love my Bryce, but have been very closely watching for the unveiling of Vue 6 Infinite.  As attlleus mentioned above, I've been drooling ever since.  If you can afford to do so, having both of these appy's in your 3D tools arsenal might not be a bad thing.  Yesterday's e-on press release announced how V5I was used by ILM in creating some of the scenes for Pirates of the Caribbean & looked very impressive:

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/about/press_materials/?page=..%2FPRIndex&date=August%201,%202006

Today's press announcement finally unveiled just what V6I has in store for you as reported by RO's Vue mod, agiel, direct from e-on's SIGGRAPH booth:

Here are some of the new features that will be available in Vue 6*:

EcoSystems Generation II with interactive real-time EcoSystem painting and layered EcoSystem materials
Spectral atmosphere engine with Spectral clouds and MetaCloud technologies
Flicker-free SolidGrowth 4 plant technology
Ventilators for local wind effects
An entirely re-written radiosity engine for fast indoor and outdoor realistic lighting
New animation graph editor for precise control over keyframes and time curves
Absorption and multiple internal scattering (Sub-Surface Scattering)
Large Amplitude displacement mapping
Volumetric shaders and HyperTextures
Motion Tracking import from Boujou or MatchMover
Multi-shape area Lights (convert any object into a light emitter)
Re-posing of Poser characters directly inside Vue

• Not all features are available in all products

A detailed description of the new features can be found at:
http://www.e-onsoftware.com/vue6

If you follow the attached Aug. 2nd press release link, you can watch a QT movie showing the latest features from V6I.

FYI - for those of you (like me) who purchased Vue 4 esprit way back when they offered it for $99 to registered Bryce users, you can side grade to V5I for $479 which currently sells for $579.  If you purchase V5I by tomorrow, Aug. 3rd, then when V6I is available, you will be able to upgrade for FREE.  The current listed price for V6I is Nodelocked License: $695 and for a Floating License: $795.  So sidegrading to V5I now (if you afford to do so) wouldn't be a bad deal.  I know many of you are going the Carrera route - I don't blame you.  It also looks to be an amazing proggy that undeniably will grow and continue to get better & better.  I mention this as info to those looking into all possible options.  Whatever floats your boat best - then go for it!

Wouldn't it be amazing if this unveiling sparked the technicians working on Bryce to even better heights?  I feel they both have their strong points and watching at least one appy take advantage of 64 bit integration is indeed very exciting!

I dare you, while there is still time, to have a magnificent obsession. --William Danforth