Hi...

I've  owned Vue Esprit  since version 4. I presently have Vue Esprit ver 5 and was thinking about upgrading to Vue Esprit 6. I'm sure a Bryce vs Vue thread has been posted here many times, but could someone who uses both tell me how they  (Bryce 6 vs Vue 5 or 6) compare? Their strengths and weaknesses...

DAZ  has a really attractive upgrade offer for owners of Bryce ver 5 & 5.5.... I just got 5.0 today on a DIGIT magazine cover CD-ROM and included is a $10.00 off the upgrade to 6.0.... Meaning for $39.95 minus $10.00 coupon I can get Bryce 6 for $29.95...

Again,  my intent is not to start a Bryce vs Vue bashing thread. I'm only interested honest comments from the people who's opinion who really matter to me the most. The fine and friendly crowd at Renderosity...

Happy New Year

Ken

PS: I've posted a duplicate thread to the Brycee forum...

Bryce still has some nifty features, but it really showing it's age. It can't tough the Vue ecosystems, dynamic plants, and the new atmospheres.

Granted there's a HUGE difference in price, but IMHO there's a reason for that.

Also to give you an idea of Vue's acceptance, it was used to generate a lot of the island scenes in Disney's Pirates of the carribean II.

I don't think bryce in all it's years has ever been used for anything on that level.

I own both, but never even installed the latest bryce version, (even though I bought it JUST in case) and just can't imagine going back to it after using Vue6I's eco painting brush system.

Agree with Gareee here, I also have Bryce 5 or 5.5 can't remember which but haven't bothered with it. The shear scale, versatility and stuff I still need to learn with Vue6Inf is mind boggling!
As you have a previous version of vue could you not upgrade to 6Infinite as this gives you so much more than Esprit could. Yea I know it could be a money thing, I'm maxed out so can't get V4 at the moment [LOL].
Good luck with whatever you decide!

One interesting feature in Bryce 6 is the Boolean-to-Mesh conversion. You easily model your stuff in B6 with primitives and then click the convert button; you'll get a new, clean mesh! In Vue you still see the booleans when "baking" an object from booleans; B6 will now create a totally new mesh from boolean groups...this feature alone can be worth some bucks imho.

Bryce was a nice tool a number of years ago, but it has long since been surpassed in terms of functionality, ease of use and rendering quality by Vue.  Granted, there is a significant diffeence in price.  Ecosystems, SolidGrowth, advanced rendering, and indirect lighting are just too important to pass up versus settling for a warmed over mid 1990's technology.

What is this "new" feature in Bryce 6 named terrain brushes? Anything in Vue similar to these?

I upgraded Vue 5 esprit to Vue 6 esprit and Bryce 5.5 to Bryce 6 and while there are significant improvements in both programs, I think by far the biggest leap was in Vue esprit. Sure, Bryce now has HDR lighting but it is still very slow to render, while Vue 6 esprit has sped up considerably from Vue 5 esprit. Add to that the amazing new feature set available to esprit 6 and it has to be a clear winner.

I have also used Vue 5 Infinite quite a bit and thought long and hard about upgrading esprit to Vue 6 Infinite but after comparing features I decided it wasn't really worth the huge outlay in my case. I don't use animation, I already had the lightune module, the included ecosystems are enough to get by for now and when I add the Ecosystem module I will pretty much have all I need and for an upgrade price of only $79 it was a no brainer to be honest.

Vue 6 Infinite has terrain brushes (don't know about other Vue versions).  There are not a whole lot of them right now with the pre-release, but they come in 2 sizes (512 and 1024).  Looks like you can make your own too.

I was hoping only to compare Vue Esprit against Bryce as Vue Infinit is a little out of my price range... So I'm totally ignoring any posts which mention Infinite...

I don't know how Bryce could be not up to par with Vue, especially when you see some of the art work created by Andy Simmons (Hobbit) here...

Cheers & all the best in 2007

Kenmo

Hobbit is one of my absolute favorites here but he does alot of postwork in Photoshop (not that thats a bad thing) plus he has more raw talent than I'll ever have.

Rich

Having used Bryce 5.5 & 6 I can easily say one thing about Bryce is it's incredibly short learning curve. Besides being a lot of fun Bryce taught me the basics I needed to step up to the next level , Vue 6. 
Bryce Pros: Easy to learn. Will render a scene above 3000x2250 pixels. Bryce 6 has IBL, Imaged Based Lighting or HDR if you prefer. It can group objects without crashing, LOL, but it is true Vue 6 Esprit has crashed on me everytime I try to group. The fact that Bryce 6 has been completely rewritten from ground up and future versions are probably going to give people what much more expensive packages give. After prerelease, it's still only a 100 bucks!!!
Bryce Cons: Render quality can not compare to Vue, although if you go through the Bryce Gallery here and see the arts of bs58, Monsoon's early Bryce work, pjero, Death_at_Midnight, estevez, Flak, hobbit, Hythshade, MarioG, Yoro, these are to name a few of my inspirations, you will be quite inspired no matter what proggie you choose. Bryce render times are not that bad if you know what you are doing, but they will set you back a day or two, LOL!!! 
Vue Pros: Also easy to work with and I have only worked with it for about a week and I love it. Render quality is most times Photorealistic compared to Bryce and about as good as the big dogs, you know them as Lightwave3D, 3DS Max, Maya, Modo, and only a couple of others in this class. Vue has had IBL or HDR. Spectral atmospheres, WOW, That a HUGE PLUS for me, Love them. Makes Simple Animation much easier. Bryce Animation is a headache at best. Vue has several different versions for you to pick from, which ever you want or can afford. For me it was Vue 6 Esprit and even though there a few annoying bugs with it I still love it and after the Full Release Versions are out I will probably upgrade to Infinity. It's really one #@&& of a piece of software.
Vue Cons: Honestly I don't know all these yet. The three most annoying for me are that it will not let me render larger than 3000x2250 pixels, says I am out of Memory, LOL, I have 4 GBs of PC 5400 RAM in each of my Dualcores. PC 5400 RAM has a speed of 667 MHz. It will not let me group, don't know why, but everytime it crashes : ^ (  and it will not take big Bitmap files. I had to scale down all my Bryce 4000x4000 pixels textures to 500x500 pixels so Vue could handle them
Last Word: From me anyway. I have Loved using Bryce and will continue to use it, but from now on Vue is "My Main Squeeze", Also if you want a list of the better Vue artist, go through the Vue gallery and be sure to bring a roll of paper towels with you to wipe up your drool, LOL!!!!!!!

In addition, if you have any doubts about the quality of Render Bryce can do, then check out the link provided:
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1354348

I think I would like Bryce more if it wasn't for THAT interface. Its a well featured program but its GUI is even more obtuse than Mojoworld. :blink:

Steve, lol, that interface is totally self-explanatory; you click on a tree you get a tree, you click on a mountain you get a mountain; how can that be easier? There is NO landscape software that has a more intuitive GUI; that's why there are millions of B users here at Rosity and worldwide. :-)

I myself a bit irritated at Vue because of that buggy "memory full" message when wanting to do big renders...and the grainyness sometimes can you drive mad; I never had that problem in Bryce even at the LOWEST render settings. 

That part of the interface is fine, its the navigation that confuses the hell out of me, I never know what view I'm using. I also have a lot of trouble manipulating objects, more often that not I end up moving the wrong thing, it drives me nuts. I guess I'm just a lot more comfortable with Vue's 4 port system.

Quote - I was hoping only to compare Vue Esprit against Bryce as Vue Infinit is a little out of my price range... So I'm totally ignoring any posts which mention Infinite...

Kenmo

Though, you can later purchase upgrade packs for Vue6 Esprit to give it some of the features which Infinite has.

Also, Vue6-Infinite can convert booleans to polygon meshes, though Esprit cannot.

Some people love Bryce's interface, some people hate it.  The number of owners is not really a function of how good the interface is, more of the price.   I don't use it because for me the interface gets in the way of working with the program.  I own Bryce and I bought the recent upgrades but I prefer Vue.  I'll keep buying the Bryce upgrades at the stupid prices as a just in case but till the interface is sorted out I doubt I'll use it.  For me Vue was a more expensive but far superior option.

Thats exactly what I did, it was too cheap NOT to buy. I would like to get my head around it more though as I think its one of the best programs around for abstract images, though I think that when it comes to landscapes Vue is definitely way out in front.

In some ways, Byrce is easier to learn because it does not have a "wordy" interface.  My 8 year old loves to click on the buttons to see what happens.  In Vue, she won't click around as much. 

I learnt on bryce and I have no problems with the interface because its what I am used to. I have Vue6 I but I still keep going back to Bryce because I find it easier to use. I love the Bryce trees but I always have problems with the terrains and I don't with Bryce. 
but lets be honest its not the software that makes the artist and I think some of the Bryce art is unbeatable :)