Hi all, just wondering if anyone knows when Carrara 6 might be on the market - I don't know the history of Carrara. I own Carrara 5 Pro and I'm hoping Carrara 6’s rigging capabilities get improved.

Cheers

I haven't heard anything from Daz re:C6... 5 has been out for about a year?  (is that right?)  and Since daz bought it after that time, I'm not sure when 6 will be released.

Well, although the programmers at DAZ are pretty good, how many years did it take to update from Bryce 5 to 6.  A lot!!!

I think for the most part, Bryce is there baby, and if C6 comes out it will probably be a minor, maybe 5.4 or something to make C more compatible with Bryce.  I think there idea in buying Eovia in the first place was to give a heftier update to their Bryce users.  

They have to recoup a lot of spent money, so I would like to know also.  I have been playing with Vue Easel, and if Infinite gets stable, and DAZ sits around too long, I might make the switch.

Quote - Well, although the programmers at DAZ are pretty good, how many years did it take to update from Bryce 5 to 6.  A lot!!!

Timeline :-
07/2004 DAZ acquire Bryce 5
05/2005 DAZ release Bryce 5.5
10/2006 DAZ release Bryce 6.0
So, 10 months from acquisition to 5.5, and 17 months from 5.5 to 6.0.
Total, 2 years 3 months.

Those times are true, but DAZ acquired the Carrara programmers also. That should be taken into account.

Quote - Those times are true, but DAZ acquired the Carrara programmers also. That should be taken into account.

Agreed, and if DAZ haven't replanned what's to be included in Carrara 6, they shouldn't have lost more than 2 or 3 months due to coping with the acquisition.

Yeah but they did make Carrara a universal binary, which took time away from creating Carrara 6. I figure maybe a summer release. Just my two cents. David

I hope so, my tree editor still crashes everytime I change the default, even with the patches.  DAZ knows but has said nothing since the aquisition.  

I like the idea of universal binary, faster execution times, better compatibility, especially after MS releases Vista and DX10.  But, that should screw-up everything again.

I have no reason to expect a serious bug-fixing effort. In my expectation what they are going to do is release a 6 with some new eye candy -- possibly some very interesting eye candy (normal mapping? Dynamic cloth?) -- but it will contain many of the bugs that have been in Carrara since version 4. What is actually pretty interesting is wondering in what directions they mean to take it. The developers have been very close-mouthed. The only hint out there is the activity on the bug tracker -- lots of concentration on things that have to do with render improvements and integration with Poser, essentially no movement on anything else. Is this a useful indicator? Does it mean even more integration with Poser, or merely a smoother integration? Being as this is DAZ now, will it import DAZ Studio content as smoothly as it currently does Poser content? Even more intriguing is some of the internal naming structures floating around. "Future DAZ product" is named....does that mean Carrara and DAZ Studio might merge? If so, it certainly makes sense they are keeping THAT one under their hats for the moment. I'd certainly wait until Poser 7 shipped, too, if I was in their shoes! I have some faint hope that they might put more tools into Carrara for the reverse operation; for getting Carrara-built content exported into Poser (or DAZ Studio). These could be very exciting tools to have for a content creator. A modeling engine with built-in cr2-builder would be the only one of its kind out there....even if the market for such a thing might not be that large. Still, it really does feel as if the modeling tools are tacked-on to a software now positioned for different tasks. Carrara 5 pro was basically a couple of Hexagon hand-me-downs crammed into the old framework. They worked remarkably well, but the framework is getting a little creaky. I don't expect much good in that direction in the future, however. It makes too much sense to put all the dedicated modeler functionality into Hexagon. Even if the current state of that program is rather less than could be desired in terms of stability and friendliness. Fun to muse on this, but ultimately pointless. DAZ will do whatever it is they do, and us end-users will pay them even if they ship a piece of garbage. We both survive, and with luck even grow a little.

Quote - I haven't heard anything from Daz re:C6... 5 has been out for about a year?  (is that right?)  and Since daz bought it after that time, I'm not sure when 6 will be released.

Well...  actually Carrara 5 was only released in May.... 7 months ago.  So I would guess it will be a little while before Carrara 6 would be released. 

Quote -
I think for the most part, Bryce is there baby, and if C6 comes out it will probably be a minor, maybe 5.4 or something to make C more compatible with Bryce. 

This would be a good thing for Bryce users, Bryce and Carrara users as well as for DAZ as a company.

Quote - What is actually pretty interesting is wondering in what directions they mean to take it. -- lots of concentration on things that have to do with render improvements and integration with Poser..... Is this a useful indicator? Does it mean even more integration with Poser, or merely a smoother integration? Being as this is DAZ now, will it import DAZ Studio content as smoothly as it currently does Poser content?  I have some faint hope that they might put more tools into Carrara for the reverse operation; for getting Carrara-built content exported into Poser (or DAZ Studio). These could be very exciting tools to have for a content creator. A modeling engine with built-in cr2-builder would be the only one of its kind out there....even if the market for such a thing might not be that large. 

It seems there are lots of possibilities....  We will just have to wait and see what happens. 8)

I don't know, Bryce 6 isn't boasting of a lot of added features as much as just a new core rewrite.  I read the info and didn't upgrade from 5 even for the special price.

I didn't either and now the price is $99. 

Swade: Carrara 5 wasn't released in May 2006, it was released in December 2005. The following are the release dates for Carrara during the Eovia years: Carrara 2 - June 2002 Carrara 3 - September 2003 Carrara 4 - October 2004 Carrara 5 - December 2005 If Daz was going to continue this trend (release every 13-15 months) we should see Carrara 6 being released between January and March 2007. I believe this is probably not going to be the case because of what someone mentioned before: the developers were busy releasing the Universal Binary version of Carrara 5 for the Mac. The other thing that might slow them down is that they could also be the same team that is fixing bugs for Hexagon (since the team that developed Hexagon was not part of the Daz deal).

Well I just hope Daz treats Carrara with respect and we get an update in the first half of next year. Carrara is only a few steps from being a reasonably mature 3D application – let’s hope it gets to grow up and express its full potential.

Thanks all

I asked Daz about Carrara 6 update and they sent this back:

I'm sorry, but we don't expect Carrara 6 out in the near future, though we are working on Carrara at this time.  We don't yet have a solid feature list, but keep an eye on your DAZ:  The Source software newsletter for the latest information.

Vicky Tolonen
DAZ Technical Support
1-800-267-5170
Mon-Fri 9AM to 5PM MST*

I just got Carrara 5 Pro, so I'm still learning(and will be for a long time) but, looks like they need some hints on that feature list fot ver 6. Sounds like they need to hear from Mark our Moderator and Shonner etc... to give them a push. Who knows they might listen...

That's bad news. Especially since they've stated previously there will be no bug fix. I guess for all the stuff that doesn't work well enough for what I am trying to do, I need to look into a new program. At least there is plenty to explore still with Carrara on the render side of things!

My philosophy on Carrara is to buy plugins for it when you need to do more cool things with it.  Learn everything about the basics of it first though so that you know when the time is right to advance Carrara's features.

What I "miss" from Carrara is not so much new features....it is broken core features. Including things that worked in previous versions of the program but are broken now. When I can't throw some polys together, slap on some group names, do a little editing then export it to Poser anymore it makes me, well, rather sad. I think at this point I (like Dr. Geep) get as much done in version 4 as I do in version 5.

Hmmm. Sad to say, because of a few bugs in a plugin I need to revive Carrara4 on an old computer. It's an issue because my laptop is an Intel Macbook and can't go back to 4 -- but UB isn't DAZ's fault.... It means slower progress on certain projects because they can only be done at work. The plugin developer blames Carrara, Carrara blames the plugin developer, and now the official message that no upgrade is planned. Bad news for everyone. I guess I'm always comparison shopping Carrara to other apps, and C had the advantage because I'm familiar with it. Now I will have to look more seriously at the others. It's not as though I've reached my full potential with Carrara. It can still do a lot, and I've invested in it for years. I guess I'm willing to try the 2 computer workaround and see what happens. ;-) holly

I'd like to point out that as early as spring of this year Daz had said they have no plans to develope and release a Victoria 4, but less then 9 months later here she is.  They do like to keep things quiet for some reason.

I'm still trying to get used to Carrara.  It's like an alien language to me I'm coming from two opposite directions to this application (3D Studio Max and Poser).  Carrara feels like it should be a nice meeting of capabilities, a middle ground, but I can't entirely wrap my head around it.  Add to that everytime I make some progress I run into a bug that makes me walk away for a month or two.

I have a love hate relationship with this software.  I want to love it, but I think it hates me.

No bug updates is very sad news.  I suspect keenart is right and they will probably come out with some intermediate version.  My guess (like I have anything relevant to base it on) is that it would be late spring early summer.  Probably 5.5.

Or, they might re-write it and sell it as Daz's Carrara Studio.  

(ergh, mumble, mumble...)

Chances are C6 is on the way very soon now - they just started a deep discount for the current versions at Daz to get people to buy in. I'm thinking I might get the basics edition for $9 to play with and then decide if I want to pony up for C6 when it comes out... I'm still undecided.

Get Carrara Standard at least--basics is just that. You will scream with frustration if you buy Basics when you realize the HUGE difference between the two.

Hi,

They are treating Carrara with lots of respect and they love the Carrara developers.

Ringo

Quote - Well I just hope Daz treats Carrara with respect and we get an update in the first half of next year. Carrara is only a few steps from being a reasonably mature 3D application – let’s hope it gets to grow up and express its full potential.

 

Thanks all

I hope to see C6 soon as well.  I hope they at least get the photorealistic renderer more stable.  I usually have to drop my bucket size down to 32 to get it to render without a crash.

Some in this thread have expressed an opinion that they believe that Daz may improve Bryce instead at Carrara's expense.  I don't think that will happen.  Bryce and C5 are like apples and oranges.  I only use Bryce for background terrain pics, and now that I have gotten some experience with Terragen, I hardly use Bryce anymore.  

I personally love the UI in C5 Pro.  I find it much easier and more intuitive than the multiplace approach used in other 3D apps like Maya and 3DSMax.

Carrara has always been my favorite app for modeling and rendering, even back in the Ray Dream days.  Hopefully Daz will continue improving it over the next few years.

Interesting thread here.  I've been a RayDreamer and Carrara user for a decade now, maybe longer.  I love this software, and I use it in broadcast television almost daily.  It's powerful and stable.

My problem with it comes from the lack of respect it gets.  I did an effects-heavy sequence for a no-budget feature film using a CGI model I built of a train in Carrara.  Nobody believes that I did it in Carrara.  

This lack of respect for Carrara translates into troubles when trying to get it to integrate well with other software -- After Effects, for instance.  Yes, there's a nice AE plug-in with Carrara 5 Pro that moves camera and light info into the AE project, but the kind of rendering integration that Cinema 4D has with AE is stunning, and Carrara just doesn't have that.  I'm working on a video game and getting animations from Carrara into the game engine is just impossible.  

I'm hoping that Carrara 6 will improve its professional integration.  (They did add the "pro" moniker to Carrara in version 4; you think they'd get more pro features going, wouldn't you?)

I've been fighting with Lightwave recently.  Let me tell you -- anyone who's complained about the lack of features for rigging in Carrara should just try to rig in Lightwave.  Lightwave is a NIGHTMARE for rigging.  Has a great modeller, has a wonderful renderer, but rigging?  Impossible.

Anyway, here's hoping that C6Pro is a little more pro and a lot more fun.

:D

 - Dex

I've been usign it for about 11 years, since the original Ray Dream came out.  I think there have been two problems at the core of the respect issue.  First, it has been bought and sold so much, a lot of folks aren't sure who owns it this month. :)  Secondly, up til now, none of the companies who owned it did anything at all about promoting it to the professional market.  It still remains a fairly obscure program for the most part in the professional arena.  I hope DAZ will do a better job, add some pro features and market it right.  Maybe then some of the respect will come around.