I guess it takes all sorts to make a world and obviously there are those people who can understand something without ever seeing it happen, but by just studying the rules for it.

These days more advanced teaching methods understand that some people learn best in this manner - BUT!  there are those of us who just cannot take things into their brains in a purely theoretical manner, we learn best by seeing what happens when we turn the knob. i.e. personal hands on experience.

It seems there are those who learn best by seeing the workings, those who learn best by hearing things described, and those who learn best by actually doing it themselves.  Most people use a combination of all three in varying proportions according to which suits their prefered learning method best.

For instance, I find that I learn best by following intructions step by step while trying each bit out for myself.  Or by discovering something for myself via trial and error.

But if I just read instructions - I either don't understand or my brain switches off or I just forget it very quickly, but doing it as well fixes it much more firmly in memory.

I have a friend who, if he once hears something described (how to do something) he will easily remember it and later be able to reproduce it perfectly - I have no idea how he does that.  Yet he has problems following written instructions.  Like I said different folks...

So for me that's why Bryce's interface suits me so well, and probably why Wings3D suits me too, since once you've followed some of the tutorials in the Wings manual you then know enough to try things out for yourself.
Bryce with its pictorial controls, like the tiny terrain button to add a terrain, a water button to add water, a sun button to control the sun - it is very simple to understand and does not require a mathematical brain to first understand theoretical principles.

Blender on the other hand requires a numerical memory to remember the keyboard shortcuts necessary to control the simplist manoeuvers, and is therefore a closed book to me.  To my constant regret.

If Bryce had Blender's power collected under a simple interface like Bryce has now - what you could do with it... wow! The universe would be your shelled organism of choice...

Measure your mind's height
by the shade it casts.
Robert Browning (Paracelsus)

Fran's Freestuff

http://franontheedge.blogspot.com/

http://www.FranOnTheEdge.com