Only thing I don't like about my Bryce is it really does not export to Maya or C4D or even Vue Infinite?

I have another question.  Can you achieve MojoWorld like and Terragen like terrain and planets with Bryce?

What I mean is very precise and Crisp, clean, bright and High Definition terrains and planets.

That was a mouthful :)

as far as I know, Bryce's architecture isn't set up for adding plugins, aside from being able to use some photoshop plugins in the terrain editor (which is accessed by some wacky easter-egg keyboard shortcut that I don't remember).

because Bryce terrains are essentially raster images, and MojoWorld planets are essentially vector functions, no, you'll never get the same sort of MojoWorld-like terrains with Bryce.

you know those fractal functions that you get in the terrain editor fractal drop-down menu?  those were added in Bryce 4, by Doc Mojo.  they are "proto-Mojo" as it were.  but because the fractals are rasterized to create the g2h terrain maps for Bryce, they lose their resolution at that point. 

MojoWorld not only lets you get 'infinite' resolution on the functions, but also it gives you direct access to the parameters of those functions, unlike in Bryce, where you can choose a "random extent" (compare to setting the Largest Feature Size in MW), or a "random character" (compare to tweaking the Roughness parameter in MW)...

I have to read up on this terminology.  Raster vs fractal vs procedural terrains vs functions.  Its all confusing to me.

If I want to bring in a High Resolution Google Earth 4096 x 4096 tiff file into Bryce, vue, Mojoworld or even in Maya I don't know what they would call this?  A Bump map?  It will obviously not display a render of the original Photo in 3D.

I have no idea what you mean by "high resolution google earth tiff file" -- what is that?  is it the satellite color view or something?  you could use that as a diffuse color texture....

raster is to vector as bitmap heightfield is to procedural terrain, if that helps.

tiff is a graphics format. Usually very accurate, but intensely huge (a full screen pic can go 20-30 meg).

Now if you convert it to grayscale, you should be able to use it in the the Terrain editor to make a reasonable facsimile of what you're after. Also, there was a program called 'tiffer', that was small but elegant, that I seem to remember could do some conversions.

There's plenty of people to do modeling by using the terrain editor and grayscale images. Stand by for further instructions...;)

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1656605&member

I use Vue and Terragen Terrains a lot in 3ds format....

Check at link above

Quote - If I want to bring in a High Resolution Google Earth 4096 x 4096 tiff file into Bryce, vue, Mojoworld or even in Maya I don't know what they would call this?  A Bump map?  It will obviously not display a render of the original Photo in 3D.

Are you talking about a height map? If you are, you cannot get it from even a high res 'google earth' tiff because it would have been lit by what ever side the sun was casting the shadow, when the satellite image was taken. It would be needed to get a height map from top lighting.

The Bryce terrain editor is limited in the fact that it's difficult to be precise.

There are websites that have downloads for height maps you could use in Bryce, but the only ones I have found are either just covering america or they cost money. I've been look for a decent Himalayan height map for sometime now.

Good luck in your endeavors.

This link of some tutorials might help as well.

http://www.shadedrelief.com/

1st question
Bryce currently does not support plugins. Daz has talked about making version 7 open source to allow development.
I had a version of the deep exploration  file converter. Even with the program installed It required a copy of Maya or Max installed to export in that format. The difficulty was with copyright protection from those companies not the ability to create a plugin. Maya will import obj or 3ds so if you have it anyway you can then save to a maya file.

2nd question
I don't know any way to extract the color information and the elevation maps out of the google program. If you do please tell. If you are looking for elevation maps Bryce supports USGS DEMs (Digital Elevation Maps) without textures. http://edc2.usgs.gov/geodata/index.php

Thanks for all the great and helpful replies.

I know understand.  I was confusing Height Maps, bump maps etc.

What it comes down it for me is I will have to use a few 3S applcations, Vue, MW, possible Bryce and Maya then bring in my Stills and composite or layer them in either photoshop or possibly Apple Shake, Combustion etc.

That will be the only way to get out a Still I want.  I just have not seen any phto shot so far that has all the detail I want in my scene,

It will also have to have some painting in it, back to photoshop or Maya.

It comes down to Post Processing and I have to combine my work into one thus Composite them in one Applcation.

Attached Link: http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/tutorial/tutorial/-/?id=2157&_m=d

Posted a link for you