Hello fellow forum members,

I'm new to both applications,so I'm asking this kind of beginner's question here.

I've seen both artworks done with Vue and TerraGen in the galleries, and both are quite awesome to me.

Since Vue 5 Infinte is much more expensive than TerraGen (whose free version is already strong, as its work demonstrates), I suppose it's also a much better application than Terragen.   But I wonder what Vue's advantages are.

I already know that Vue has a much better capacity in generating vegetation, and may have a better modeling ability, too, since Terragen does little or no modeling.  

But are the render engine (speed), landscaping, atmosphereing, and lighting capacities of Vue 5 Infinite all better than TerraGen?

You inputs are greatly appreciated!

3DVim

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Well in the main in Vue you can IMPORT a great many formats of objects, some textured, and some you have to texture within Vue, while Terragen allows none of this behavior. What you can do in Terragen, leaving out postwork, is simply terrains/landscapes/seascapes. TG2 is supposedly coming out soon and will allow the importation of other objects but I am unclear as to whether the Free Version will. I seriously doubt it as they would have no reason to charge for the registered ver. otherwise. Don't get me wrong.....Terragen is an awesome terrain/landscaper with great abilities in that regard, but only in that area of modelling. From what I've gathered the registered ver may well cost as much a Vue without the integration to other apps minus the object import. Vue5Infinite will, in it's current version, quite successfully import Poser figures and animation (it's advertised but I haven't tried it as I only tried the demo and didn't have poser at the time), fully textured .3ds models, and I would assume LW objects w.textures, tho I have no LW either so I couldn't try that.

Hope this helps.....

Thank you bobbystahr for the input.

Also, what do you think of Vue's render engine?

Poser and Bryce both have slow render engines, especially Bryce's.   I'm hoping Vue's got a much faster render engine.

Thanks again!

3DVim

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Depends largely on your cpu I figger...Bryce renders like a snail on my internet[this300 3dNOWAMDcirca 1997] computer but goes like blazes on my much faster offline work station[2 gig athlon]..3D is not a fast medium when you start adding polys but Vue handles huge numbers of polys better than any other reasonably priced software I've demo'd, and it's render quality is, IMHO, fantastic.....

Thank you bobbystahr for the input.

Since you mentioned Bryce, I'm wondering what you think of Vue's advantages over Bryce?

Thank you very much for your time and attention !

3DVim

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I have both Vue 5 Infinite & Terragen, right now Terragen doesn't import objects, it has a much better render engine. Vue's renderer is very noisy looking, almost cartoony. Terragen = realism. No one knows when/if TG2 will be released.  Just look at the galleriers of each one to help you deciede, Vue does objects, Vue's plants aren't very good, Terragen is more photo realistic, much better atmo's.

Vue 5i has boolean modeling and metablobs (all it's primatives can be used as metablobs) for modelling.  Doesn't compare with lightwave but can be used with lightwave.

Bryce is very far behind even Vue Easel and $20 more expensive after the 6th of sept (who knows how much bryce 6 will be) 

While vue can be slow, it can resume a stopped render even after you save and close the program.   I just rendered some thing that took six days (bryce can't count as well a vue) which I only while not home or sleeping.  It worked very well.

Bryce has a resume but I can only get it to work if I don't close or save.  Kind of defeats the purpose. 

In vegetation bryce doesn't really compare to vue at all.  It can do trees but they tend to all have the same trunk shape and don't bend.  You cannot created trees from scratch in vue (yet) but you can alter existing trees.  Trees you buy from Cornucopia can be altered in Vue.

The ecosystems are wonderful..bryce chokes on 1/16 that many objects. 

You have a lot more control and effects over rendering in Vue than in bryce. 

And if you use poser stuff then go for vue...it supports the current version of poser...bryce does not, and probably never will.

hi, bryce supports over daz studio poser files (bryce 5.5).

when you look at the galery vue is more used in close range screens as in landscapeviews like the pictures made by TG. Both Tools are great, the question is what kind of screens do you wish to render?   

Well all those posts certainly covered that quite well...save a lotta typing here...LOL,thanx for throwing in mac8, Tirjasdyn,and schoesser..community spirit lives in Vue.....

3D Vim, why don't you download the demo of Vue5 Infinte and see for yourslef if it suits your needs?

Vue is not a modeller, you can create basic shapes with primites, and do boolean operations. You can also create organic shapes with metablobs ( = metaballs, but with more possibilities)

Vue comes with vegetation, and terragen can't do vegetation right now.

Vue imports all major 3d file formats, and TG doesn't at the moment.

Vue has global illumination, radiosity and image based lighting. TG doesn't.

TG atmospheric effects are better than Vue5, but with Vue6 around the corner, it's all gonna change.

TG's renderer is faster ( well it's easy to be, because there is no imported geometry to compute, and no advanced lighting models.)

TG'renderer is the most photorealistic you can get for now. This is going to change too imho with Vue6.

Terragen (TG) 2 has been postponed for about 2 years now, while Vue has dramatically improved in all natural environnement rendering aspects over the same period.

TG is free for non commercial use, Vue Infinite is expensive.

Probably the most important issue to keep in mind now is that if you get V5I now, you get a download version of V6I upon release for free. The rules change with V6, as they have done -major- work under hood; the render engine is completely reorganized and rewritten in places (as is the GUI, which I suspect is the cause of many of the memory issues), a lot of pro level lighting effects are implemented (full radiosity, subsurface scattering, per-item light generation, a spectral atmosphere so we have true volumetric clouds and light behavior based on atmosphere structure, not preset colors and intensity). This matters a lot on any render quality question, as this was done to address the issues of graininess that could sometimes appear (also Vue will support accurate -indoor- lighting for the first time, correcting one of its weaknesses). If you -do- use Poser for figure composition or to animate, V6 will have incredible connectivity with P6; like finally reading the shader tree. Allowing reposing of imported content in Vue itself. With the improvements in the animation system added to that.... If you animate, V5I provides a 5 liscence rendering system right out of the box. V6I will have the same, plus the new renderbull scheme, which is a commnand line renderer designed to work with managers like BackBurner for more pro level renderfarms. Terragen is cool for what it does; but Terragen is also a few years old in tech, and TG2 is still, after those years of development, not even release candidate. If all you need is distant terrain, Terragen could do the job. If you need a renderer you can grow into, take advantage of the offer at e-on software's site and start learning the ropes with V5; you have enough control to trade some functions for speed in Vue, so there really isn't an easy answer....

Good concise reply bruno021....wish I'd said all that that way....LOL...very clear.....same to you DaleB

Hi, bobbystahr, mac8, Tirjasdyn, schoesser, bruno021, and Dale B,

Thanks you all for the inputs!   I'll choose Vue over Bryce for sure.

I agree with mac8 and bruno021 in that TG renderings are more realistic looking than Vue5i's.

I think that since TG has a very strong free version, I'll pick it up for some good spins in creating sweeping landscapes.  I'll probably invest in Vue5i too, for its vegetation capacity for some of my scenes and many of scenes that call for human character integration.

Thanks again!

3DVim

For examples of Vue images that are not cartoony and more than comparable to Terragen's realism, have alook at the galleries from :

erka - http://excalibur.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1163705&member

troc - http://excalibur.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=923068&member

and

raffyraffy - http://excalibur.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1073050&member

And don't forget to check out Phoul's showreel from the latest Siggraph to get an idea of what V6I can do....done with a pre-beta version of the software, btw.... ;)

I haven't spent too much time with Terragen, and there are certainly those here (like agiel) who have clocked many more hours in Vue, but here are my 2 cents anyway...

With TG, you almost automatically get a great render no matter what. This is because many of the scene variables are quite limited. You can't add objects (people, houses or trees) nor is it possible to create multiple terrains and rescale/rotate and place them. Moving the camera around is a bit more difficult-- in fact it's a whole different way of doing things.

It seems to me, using TG is like going on a vacation with your camera. You create a terrain, then start moving around it, looking for a beautiful view and taking pictures. You tweak a few settings, including adjusting the terrain, materials and atmosphere, and you're generally guaranteed a great image. The downside is it's often hard to create the EXACT image you're after. TG does a GREAT job with textures on terrains.

On the other hand, with Vue, you can certainly create junk. Not every image is going to be photorealistic-- and you do need how to learn to tweak the settings to fix the aliasing versus render-time trade-offs. But, if you take the time to learn it, Vue can become a very powerful tool. As agiel pointed out, there are quite a few real masters out there who can create stunning images. The EXACT stunning images they were after.

HTH,
Chipp

You get photorealistic renders with TG, yes, all the times no, because the free version is limited in render size and AA settings, and with Terragen, the bigger the render, the better the quality. The TG licence is 99$, so it's pretty cheap anyway. But it gets a tad boring after a while. I was fed up with creating  terrains, water, atmospheres ( great ones, though), and nothing else. Too limited as it is right now. And terrain creation in TG relies a lot on 3rd party apps, free and for a fee. ( GeoControl, WorldMachine, Terramaker...)

this is something I recently did with vue 5i

http://excalibur.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1285298

maybe it´s not as realistic as a terragen-render and there is still much potential in vue that I didn´t use yet...but I think vue is a very good choice because of its easy interface....the right programm for hobbyists like me :)

Very nice Eisbaerchen...a tad more AA and it would be Terragen-esque for sure, with maybe some of the shore effect from the tute in the backroom..great work.

Hi y'all,

Just checked out all the beautiful gallery images.   Yes, Bravo Vue!

And thank you all for the inputs!

Cheers!