My first copy of Bryce was B4. I was wondering what the first version of the software was like, how was the interface and what was it capable of. Anyone been using it from day one?  Who`s got the earliest Bryce pic? 

Well I still have my copy of Bryce 2.....and that was what got me hooked.

Attached Link: 4 renders with 4 versions

at the link I have a series of 4 renders of the same B1 scene rendered in 1, 2, 3 and 4...

between 1 and 2, the sun position changed on opening files... grr.

I hated 2 when it came out - the interface was so cluttered!  but it was boolean operations that got me into B2 and away from B1.  a lot of the subtle atmospherics of B1 got ruined, above and beyond the gross error in sun position.

I started with Bryce 3D properly, but mostly did the usual crappy starter scenes. Very colourful, but I'm glad im doing what i'm doing now.
Great topic.

Came on floppy disks and  I had to upgrade my computer to use it. The millions of colors video card cost something like 800$, which in '94 was very expensive. No animation, sky, tree or light lab, no real render options and had much simpler TE and ME dialogs. The DTE was considered so advanced that it was hidden from casual use. The DTE  also used Eric's interface for his D4 app and while it had almost all the functions we use today, it was all crammed together to fit the small screens of the day. The main Bryce interface everyone would recognize today.
One kinda a cool thing was a scene generator where you could select different terrains, materials, skies and water and it would generate a new scene for you with those elements.
No imports - everyhing was built from primitives.

Sure has been a long, strange but very enjoyable journey!

I started with bryce 2. When you compare it to bryce 5 or 6, its not like THAT much changed? i guess the biggest technological advances since version 2 are trees, ibl and premium render options, and animation.

I hope the tree editor improved for B6.  I still have a lot of realism issues with them.  I'd found a cheat sheet for making real trees, and they look great but they choke my computer in a heartbeat.  I need to upgrade in so many ways it's not funny.

Quote - I hope the tree editor improved for B6.  I still have a lot of realism issues with them.  I'd found a cheat sheet for making real trees, and they look great but they choke my computer in a heartbeat.  I need to upgrade in so many ways it's not funny.

I would be glad for that cheat sheet info mboncher if I may, I find the trees to look a little to cheesy, and then there is that ghastly dip halfway down the trunk.

I started with Bryce 3D

Like Calyxa said - the atmospherics (especially the smooth fog) has been changed since 2.0.
Hi Ruth!

The presets pretty much guaranteed you the start of a Roger Dean album cover. Roger Dean did all the Yes album covers in the 1970s and he was one of Eric's Favs.

Here's the basic setup when you first saw it on a Mac.

In expert mode each palette was detachable and if you click on the '!' (exclamation point) you get into the deeper functions of each palette.

Note the whopping default render size of 520 x 354.
This same render used to take a half hour on my old 66mhz PowerPC 601. 
Now it runs in about 20 seconds on a G5 2.3ghz.

This is 1994 technology.

Notice the render that was made by choosing the mixer in the creation palette.
That purple fog is pure Roger Dean...

btw - I did a history of Bryce presentation at BryceCamp Sedona in 2002 - so I've got access to some of the really old stuff.

For complex scenes renders would have to run overnight- just to get a render of 520 x 324.
I remember one user modeled a dinosaur using nothing but crushed spheres to form the muscles.

I'll have to dig to see if I can find some of my ancient renders.

Thanks for playing.

Scottt

oooh now thats oldschool man! wish i could play around with those old atmospherics...

My first bryce was ver 2, I get it throudg a 3d magazine.

A friend of mine had Bryce 2 and I was floored when I saw what he could do with it. So, I went half with another friend of ours and bought Bryce 3. The manual sucked; it looked like it was written by a bunch of nerdy-techs instead of artists, but I got over it. Waiting for Bryce 7 to come out :-) 

Sigh - takes me back to when the 'Full Screen' used to work.

Yeah - that's true - what ever happened to fullscreen?
The manual was really cool too - very Kai Krause.

Yep it was a manual written by artists.
It was cool to read and made it fun to try things - not techy at all.

to Rayraz - yeah the atmospherics were like a can of spray paint - very old school.
At the time Bryce went to PC - only the Mac was running 32 bits and Windows was still running 16. The 16 bit difference had to be scrapped to make it compatible with the PC. And out went the mathematical precision it took to make fog look like that.

Scott

Full screen still works on the Mac (Control + Tab). I think it broke on the PC with Bryce 4.

And you can still detach the palettes by holding down the space bar and click dragging them.

I started with Bryce 2 and it was awesome compared to prior package POVRay. No more math or coding to create a scene :).

Bryce is still lurking on my system in version 5, but I find myself using it less and less. Now and then I might create a terrain and export for use in Blender but that's about it.

Quote - Bryce 1 was a Mac only thing.  I got it for xmas 1995 and within 2 weeks upgraded my Mac IIci to one of the "new" Power PCs after I saw how much faster B1 ran on those machines as compared to the old IIci.  yes, my husband still gives me grief about the time I bought a $3000 computer to run a $100 piece of software.

at the link I have a series of 4 renders of the same B1 scene rendered in 1, 2, 3 and 4...

between 1 and 2, the sun position changed on opening files... grr.

I hated 2 when it came out - the interface was so cluttered!  but it was boolean operations that got me into B2 and away from B1.  a lot of the subtle atmospherics of B1 got ruined, above and beyond the gross error in sun position.

Calyxa, Do you still have that scene?  I was wondering what the same scene would look like in bryce 5 and 6 - any chance you could do that?

I might have it on a CD somewhere, but I think it's on the one with the label that's partly peeling off so I hate to spin it...  I've been through a few computers and more hard drives since then, so if I can't get it off that CD, then it is lost.

ah.

I do have the file, but I have a bootstrapping problem, and now I'm remembering this is why I never pursued it before.  the B1 file needs to be opened and re-saved with B2 (or maybe B3 would work as well) before later versions will read it, and I don't have those versions installed anywhere handy.

I started with B2 in 1997. I think Bryce changed dangeriously little since v2; many "thanks" for Cor-El (DAZ?) for wasting such a brilliant software; I had to emigrate to Vue after the destruction of Bryce and now waiting for a ground-breaking new B version... :-)

What strikes me about this thread is that many seem disillusioned with Bryce as it stands.  Wish i hadnt started it now, im all depressed. LOL.

I woudn't say I was disillusioned with Bryce, I just want something different, Bryce was a great stepping stone to where I wanted to be....

Actually Sambucus nothng to be depressed or disillusioned about.
Bryce is now over 14 years old.

Think of all the apps it has outlasted and it doesn't even have a modeler.

It could have died when MetaCreations sold it to Corel - but it didn't.
it could have died when Corel sold it to DAZ - but it didn't.

Not only that - it had kids!!!

Two of its main godfathers of design - built their own neat little landscape apps.
Ken Musgrave made Mojoworld.
Eric Wenger made Artmatic Voyager.

Granted there's only been some features added recently that begin to make it a more modern app - but what a heritage...

Think of all the potential 3d careers and great 3d artists it has launched as well.

Nothing to be sad about.

Scott

I started with version 2 (the first PC version) which I aquired through a 3D magazine coverdisc.

Up until then, the only 3D software I'd ever used was a program called Imagine3D on the Amiga.  When I first started to play with Bryce, I remember being totally amazed at how quickly a scene could be visualised and rendered.  Seriously, I remember walking around with a permanent grin on my face.

I've loved Bryce ever since, and I always pity those that have never taken the time to understand it's interface and workflow.

Started with 5, ate, breathed, & slept Bryce for the longest time, now  wish I had found all of this earlier......then I'd be really crazy.