I have the demo version of Vue6 and the book Vue6 Revealed. I am experimenting with the program trying to decide if I want to get into it. I currently use Photoshop CS2 and Rhino3D and would like to expand my creative horizons. But I am somewhat concerned about rendering times required for Vue that I have seen in other posts. I have a DELL XPS, 3 MHZ processor, 1 gig of RAM and a decent video card with 128 MB of RAM.  I would like to be able to make good prints up to 11x14 at 300 dpi. Am I facing really long rendering times? I know it depends of the complexity of the image but I can't tie up my computer for days for a render. Overnight ( 12-14 hours) would probably be my limit.
Is this a reasonable expectation? Should I consider a different program? I really like what I have seen but, as I said, can't tie up my computer for that amount of time.
Thanks for your feedback.
Jim Barbieri

You have a demo version of Vue 6? From where? As far as I know it does not exist.

However, if youhave that, simply try out with some typical elements you want to use and render them. Then you see.

If it is really a demo and the render size is limited, you have to look for the time the rendering took and then calculate how long a bigger one will take. Keep in mind that you have to compare pixel amounts, not sizes etc.

I'd strongly suggest getting another GB of memory.  I did a 12x16 @300dpi render in 16 hours on a single computer.  That was using the user render settings and turned fairly high since there was lots of trees and grass.  If you have water or lots of reflection in a scene, plan on spending much longer on rendering times.  

Network rendering is the only other way to speed things up.  Look around and see if you can get some older systems - they don't have to be fast systems or even match each other (you can mix PC and Macs). 

wabe, you can download demos from e-on but the render size is limited and you can't save.

Speed44, like Peggy said, rendering times depend alot on what you have in your scene.  She's right about getting another gig of RAM.  It does help.

I've used Vue since version 4 and have never regretted getting the program.  The render settings are customizable and you can get some great renders.  Take a look at the Vue gallery and you'll get an idea of what you can do.

Thanks to all for your input. I do have access to another computer on my home network. And I will consider increasing my RAM if I decide to get the program. I was a Bryce user  (4.0) for a while but have decided to take a serious look at  Vue, as well as the new version of Bryce. There are some very impressive images in the Vue gallery.

Victoria, can you lead me to a Vue 6 demo please? People ask that and can't find it. So I really would like to know where to send people with this request.

You are right, wabe, the trial versions are only Vue 5 at this point ... my bad.  I only used my Vue 4 trial for a week before deciding to buy and have been hooked since then.  

From what I read at e-on, the trial versions will come up once the final releases are out for the Vue 6 line.

My mistake...sorry. I have the Vue 5 demo and the Vue 6 Revealed book. I thought the book might help me get familiar with the program. Hope there aren't too many differences. I am going to wait for the boxed edition at any rate.

When I did my Vue 6 upgrade, Speed, I got the electronic download (the only one available) and it creates an image of the CD so I've already burned my installers to disc for backup.  The only thing I'm waiting for now is the hard copy of the manual.

There are a few things in Vue 6 that you don't get in the Vue 5 demo - the biggest one is ecosystems which I absolutely love!.  My upgrade was to Vue 6 Esprit but I'm about ready to side-grade to Vue 6 Infinite because of some other things I need.

Speed44,

    I also had the same problem, my comp used to take for ever to render, What I did. I took it to my friend (comp wiz) and he stop all the useless programs that run in the background in ur comp. That really work for me cuz my comp is working like a champ now. And I also print some pics that I did and it came out with really awesome quality.

P.S Don't forget to DIsk Cleanup and Disk Difrag before rendering, I also do it and it work find, just a though......

Also - Vue 6 Infinite has the standalone render (not sure if other Vue 6 versions have this).  You can speed things up a bunch using this.  Just save your picture with the render settings you want it to render with, close it, then select a new picture (this is a good time to do a full reboot).  Go to Render, Batch Rendering.  Select your Vue picture and it will render away.  The benefit of using this is that your computer does not have to hold in memory the entire scene. 

Wow, never knew increasing RAM could make a difference. I thought rendering relied strictly on the CPU, that is, more CPU power=less render time. That was my philosophy.

Also, you can stop your render/save/restart at a later date if 20-30-40 hours is to long to tie up your comp. That feature alone is worth the price for me, Oh and did I tell ya "I LOVE VUE 6" !!!!!!!!

I have done a LOT of larger images with 20-60hr renders by the Resume Render method - just let it go all night, stop in the morning so you can use your computer for work/personal use, just before going to bed load up your scene again and hit Resume Render (loved it on Bryce, too - yes, fellow former Bryster here).

I'm loving V6I as well! Noticeably faster renders (though can still bog down with complex scenes and/or materials - that's to be expected with ANY 3D program).

And yes, I bumped my systems up from 2GB each to 4GB each and everything goes faster - even Vue - so I'd suggest getting as much RAM as your computer would allow.
Hope that helps-
-Lew ;-)

Also if you are using DDR2 you can upgrade from PC 4200-533MHz RAM to PC5400-667MHz RAM or better yet PC 6400-800MHz RAM and if your system can stand the over clocking PC 8000-1000MHz RAM and PC 8500-1066MHz RAM. Mine would only go to PC 6400, but let me tell you that was a intensely marked improvement over the PC 4200 RAM that came with it. I can now handle scenes that are in the upper hundreds of billions of polygons and before if was a stretch for 70 or 80 billion polys. Just make sure you pick it with the correct case latency. They are all 240 pin and work in the same slots.