I had the latest issue of 3D World magazine delivered today, (issue 100, February 08) and on the disc (a dvd this time) is Carrara 5 Pro. 
Thought people might be interested :)

Happy chrimbo all!

wow...the perfect Memorial Day Gift! (we're a LONG way behind on deliveries here...;)

ooo! and i havent even opend mine yet!

I installed C5 just to see what it's like but I'm not at all sure what advantage I'd get with Cararra over Poser/Hexagon/Vue to be honest

Quote - I installed C5 just to see what it's like but I'm not at all sure what advantage I'd get with Cararra over Poser/Hexagon/Vue to be honest

None IMO

@wolf359 - after playing with it for a bit, I'm inclined to agree with you.  It's not very user friendly

That is sort of the point of Carrara though. You may or may not get some advantage out of it versus three applications that added together cost around three times as much...

true and I'm sure for some it'll be a great investment but as I already own the three apps, It's a bit of a moot point :)

Quote - @wolf359 - after playing with it for a bit, I'm inclined to agree with you.  It's not very user friendly

And Carraras outdoor landscape rendering capabilities
are quite substandard compared to any version of vue

Issue 100. Got to make note of it and let's see Feb 08 issue--should be in Books-a-Million by March or early April.

I like Carrara for the neat vertex modeling (hopefully they still have spline too).  Even though I have a minor problem getting Jessica Alba face down (well, okay any face, anything that resembles a face-my pet rocks are good).  However, its great for making beautiful curves out of cylinders or beautiful arches out of cubes, moldings for walls, grand pianos, grandfather clocks, furniture, etc. which when compiled in Poser 5 make beautiful room settings--Plutom 

"Quote - "I installed C5 just to see what it's like but I'm not at all sure what advantage I'd get with Cararra over Poser/Hexagon/Vue to be honest"

None IMO*"

(Sorry - recursive "quote" there..)

But I'm very grateful that now I can stop worrying about whether or not I should try and get Carrera.
Since I too also have Poser/Hex/Vue (and Blacksmith). That's an XMas prezzie all by itself (/me  ticks one worry off the list. Only umpteen hundreds to go..)

Cheers and happy new year (soon),
Diolma

Quote - > Quote - I installed C5 just to see what it's like but I'm not at all sure what advantage I'd get with Cararra over Poser/Hexagon/Vue to be honest

None IMO

That's why it's free and soon to be orphanware.

it also won't talk to Poser 7 which is a bit of a problem - still, it does make semi interesting terrains that I can export to Vue.

It's got a hideous interface too.