Let's say that Bryce Pro came out, with features and capabilities similar to Vue 6, for, let's say $349.  How many of you would buy it? 
My calculations show me that if at least 1 out of 4 Brycers bought it, DAZ would easily recoup the costs. Considering the popularity of Bryce, I believe there is a good chance it could even become the single most favorite and most profitable 3D app in the world.  It just seems good business sense.  Now I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.

Sign me up.
Nope, you're not wrong one bit.

If it was as easy to get into, and as powerful, but with full modeling, I'd buy it in a heartbeat, lol.

Considering the $$ I have invested in Vue, Bryce Pro would have to come in under the price tag and have more capabilities than Vue.  I love my ecosystems and, while I started with Bryce and still work in Bryce, some things, like the ability to import pz3 files directly into Vue and be able to re-pose in Poser and render using the Poser shaders, which I use extensively, without having to go through something like DAZ Studio is of prime importance and not something I see DAZ doing any time soon.

I have to admit, Vue's ecosystem is quite nice, definitely an ability for any "landscaping" 3D app to strive for. Bryce 7.0 will have/should have Instancing, so that will start to help in that arena. A start, mind you, lol.

**ability to import pz3 files directly
**DAZ and e-frontier seem to be playing nice-nice these days, this would be a great addition, and I hope they can make it happen.

and be able to re-pose in Poser 
Might not have to do that with Bryce 7.0, looks like the figures might be re-posable directly within Bryce. Might be no (immediate) need for Poser or Studio.

***Might not have to do that with Bryce 7.0, looks like the figures might be re-posable directly within Bryce. Might be no (immediate) need for Poser or Studio.

This would be a definite plus for Bryce because the only reason I have DS on my computer is to import into Bryce when I use it.

Lol, you are not alone (that's what a lot of people are only using it for)

I would bet anything to this effect on Bryce 7.0 will be limited, meaning it might not be able to do all the bells and whistles. Probably just bringing a figure in, pose, change clothes, change mats, etc. I would bet morphs and such will still be done in Studio/Poser.

But, I am truly ONLY guessing, I do not know for sure. (my guessing gets me into trouble sometimes, lol) I am only eluding to what DAZ itself had eluded to.  ;o)

Good point victoria_Lee. Maybe if there was a Bryce Pro version, that problem would be fixed. As it is now, importing Poser figures into Bryce is not an easy thing to do. When I try to bring Poser figures into Bryce, I get a message asking where certain mat files are located and when I click on the asked for file, Bryce promptly crashes on me. So now I just ignore the message and once I have the figure in Bryce I select the parts that I want to apply a mat file to and go into the mat lab and select them there. I have heard that if you go through DAZ studio first and then bring the figure into Bryce, it is easier. And I have downloaded DAZ studio and tried to install it. But when I click on the installer, I get a message telling me that this version of DAZ studio is not compatible with my operating system and can go no further. When I checked out the info on this app it was listed that it will work with Mac OS 10.3 and above. I have 10.3.5 so what is the problem now? Anyway, Maybe if there was a Bryce Pro, all these problems would be fixed, and importing Poser figures would be alot easier. And if that would be the case....sign me up Scottie!

Since most of us import complex models into Bryce anyway,  full modeling, while nice to have,  is not a priority.  Advanced texturing and lighting should be a priority, since without that, your output will never look top notch.

Bryce needs to be opened up to a larger group of users.

Vue has done this with making itself compatible with formats higher end apps can use, along with camera sync, etc. DAZ already has an FBX exported for Studio, that will hopefully make its way over to Bryce. And, with an SDK announced for Bryce 7.0, I hope to see an easy way of using (faster) 3rd party renderers, along with eventually a large pack of various plugins. (camera sync, vegetation lab, etc)

As far as traditional modeling goes, if I were DAZ I would start making Hexagon and Bryce compatible like Studio and Bryce now are. I believe most people underestimate Hexagon.

And, with DAZ owning Carrara, we will probably/hopefully see some its technology run down into Bryce, or again at least way to take a Bryce scene into Carrara, which also has; lens flare, motion blur, global Illumination, caustics, sky dome illumination , ambient occlusion, subsurface scattering, displacement maps I/O, G-buffer export, collision detection, particle system, anisotropic lighting, oh yeah and Poser native import - CR2, CRZ, PP2, PPZ, PZ3....

Not that don' t think DAZ should just copy/paste all of those abilities into Bryce or anything cough

hops off soapbox

As long as it was truly Bryce and not some sort of Vue clone, and it has pretty much the same feel of Bryce, not some confusing interface, I would buy it. I spend over $3,000 USD just on the base CAD package I use for almost every release. $350 Bryce is reasonable, but I would rather it be another $6. :-)

I look at it this way. All this 3D art stuff for me is a hobby, not my profession. I'm in it b/c it's fun and neat and cool and I need an occational break from software development. As soon as Bryce stops being fun, then DAZ opens the door for their competition. The point I'm making is if Bryce ever becomes too much like the competition, especially in terms of price, then for a little more the competition might be a better choice. If it was my career, I certainly would be thinking along those lines.

Keep it inexpensive, keep it simple (but powerful), flexible (adaptable to the business model of the artist), and keep it fun.

Simple = the interface. Not cluttered, not window centric, not dials everywhere.
Flexible = provide an SDK so programmers like me can write stuff for it, adapt it to other programs that need a quality render engine (like Solidworks... it needs a good render engine badly), and is configurable to the artist. Right now Bryce is not very configurable.
Fun = keep the user/artist happy and there will be a loyal following... consistant income for DAZ. Destroy the fun and might as well go learn something else.

Bryce Pro would also need a better way of handling transparencies than it has now.  One of my biggest peeves is having to go into the mat lab and importing the transmaps manually when I bring a figure in, even through DS.

By the way, when I import stuff through DazStudio, all the textures come into Bryce perfect.  Very impressive and so much easier than in the old pre-DazStudio days. 

I would purchase it in a heartbeat.

If interface remained close to existing with its ease of use, I'd buy it.  And I'm a tight wad. 

Tell Daz, I said it was okay to start development. Haha

It would be nice to see, but not sure if I would. This is not a reflection on Bryce, just that I have Cinema to do this already. (the Bryster already knows I'm a heretic - I rendered him an image of a nice red comfy chair!)

Any chance that this Bryce Pro could be able to export metaball objects, specifically trees?
I would buy it immediately for $350, if it could export it's trees, which are very good, IMO.

That i would pay for!

I would just love to pay lots and lots of money for Bryce - but I will never have lots and lots of money, so for me such pricing would immediately cut me out of the loop... unless of course I won the lottery...

In which case I'd probably buy Maya and 3ds Max - because they are the industry standards and I want to get into the industry, but unless I get a job in 3D I'll never be able to afford to use such apps on my own - I'd never be able to afford hundreds of pounds, never mind thousands.

Sadly it's all just pie in the sky for me.

Bryce Pro with the capibilities of Vue6, sign me up for sure...=)

I am still waiting for the arrival of Bryce 6, which I ordered from a reseller, because that's the less-complicated way of doing things in the hospital where I work. Direct is problematic, because of credit card, etc.

Anyway, I haven't gotten a chance to check rendering speeds on B6. I will say, though, that, unless they are massively faster than they were, I'd have to see a quantum leap in render speed from current releases to the pro version to shell out big $$s for Bryce Professional.

I was rendering a couple of glass containers last night on default, with a two-light setup, and it rendered all night only to be 50 percent complete this morning. It was only about 950x950 pixels at, what, 75 dpi or something like that.

I understand all the reasons glass and refraction slows render times down, but, when I could go to AIR and render some rather nice glass in a fraction of the time, it makes me scratch my head and say, "hmm."

I have always liked the Bryce interface and the way you can get some nice renderings with a little less techical knowhow than with Entropy, AIR or BMRT, but those render times in Bryce just kill me.

My piece that I did last year, for example, for the Traugs project had one of those characters in it, Professor Lug,  and it took two whole weeks to render, because I had several glass items and some tubing, etc., on a lab apparatus. I got the exact result I wanted, but it rendered in the background day after day, while I pumped out several major projects.

Just one poster-sized render. Ouch.

My .02.
John

No.  Better rendering and rendering speed.  Improved materials and skies (and better editors for them.)

There are plenty of modeling programs out there, some free, like Blender and Wings3D, and some relatively inexpensive, like Silo, that can do the job.

It would be like comparing Vue's post processing to Photoshop.  I feel Bryce should be the second-to-last  or last (without post processing) phase of a rendered 3D project.

Take Carrera and Vue.  Both have modeling capabilities, but neither are mentioned very often as modeling applications.  Sure, if you want, you can create great looking models using those applications (including Bryce), but the time it takes compared to a dedicated modeling program doesn't make sense.

Just my opinion here and I'm sure there are others that would like an "all-in-one" application.  But a shovel, rake, and hoe make sense too.

if it's $3.49, I might be able to swing it..;) I haven't used 40% of 5.0 yet..;)

Sorry to say after working with Vue6 Infinite, Bryce Pro would have to be pretty damn impressive (ie exceed Vue 6) and beat the price for me to even consider it. For me all that Vue 6  is missing is particles and physics.

Vue 6 has a very easy interface, not as simplistic as Bryce but still very easy. The plant editor and ecosystem can't be beat. Animation wizard is a breeze. And realistic skies and lighting to die for.

On second thought, with programs already out, like Carrara, Vue, and some lower versions of big name apps, ..not at that price range for Bryce Pro. Im moving on,...