Attached Link: http://www.e-onsoftware.com/about/newsletter/

Is it just me or has the prices jumped JUST A BIT ?

Really? I hadn't noticed, lol!

I spotted that.  Better start saving I guess !!!  I wonder what the upgrade pricing will be like

Seriously, with upgrade it is still going to be over 600 for Infinite. Which is ok if they got alot more to offer. We shall see.

yeah, that's USD though - I wonder what the price will be in the UK .  Only time will tell I guess

Well, I am out of Malaysia now and living in Lithuania which is an EU country...but one of those that doesent share the Euro:D So it will cost me 2.8 times more than the USD:P But i doubt they give deals for post soviets:D

I hope the ambitious pricing reflects a significant upgrade.  Or is it just that the dollar has dropped in value.?

The $ was 30% than the € a few months ago, but it is now only 20%. Besides, the Complete product may be the new Infinite...  without a few features?

I noticed that.  I wonder what the differences between complete and infinite are.  Have to wait for the comparison chart I guess

Call me silly, but I don't think the incomplete version should be called the "complete" version. :) 

It should be Vue 7 Esprit Pro, Vue 7 Studio, Vue 7 Inifinity.  'Complete' in the name is quite misleading since it is not complete. :)
 

The announcement was exciting but the price rise is significant. There will have to be a lot of new features to justify that kind of money.

Well, I think that the decision to create an intermediate level between Pro and Infinite is wise.

The differences between Pro 6 and Infinite 6 can be summed as: a handful of tools for everbody and lots of tools for professionals; if they cut the feature set well, Complete7 is the right tool for the dedicated amateur.

Another wise decision is to make the entry point program not a dead end but the start of the bit-by-bit-I-will-get-everything road.... :lol:

Prices have somewhat gone up, which was to be expected, as Vue has no competition in its market.

Bye!!!

Just thinking out loud... Would any of us Infinite users considering 'upgrading' to Complete if it had all the features we wanted? Just wondering. What features do you think are most important for Complete to have in order to upgrade to it?

Personally, I think it needs full function editor support, ecoSystem painting, import and export. I also want to be able to 'bake to polygons' my metablob creations.

I'm not a big fan of animation, so it's not as important to me-- how about the rest of you?

Sounds about right Chipp.  I'd also want access to the new radiosity engine and the new spectral stuff + the ecosystem 3 technology too

They list architects under Infinite so my guess is the new radiosity engine will only be in that level. It looks fine for me, the features I would actually use at this point will be in the Complete version. I'm at Pro-Studio right now so it would be a reasonable jump if I can go from there to Complete.

Hm, damn right there'd better be godoreaosn for this price hike :/
I LIKE the stuff in Infinite, exporting textures, & lots of little bits are so sweet and make my life easier!

For that price hike, I want particles, and and well I've posted huge list before, lol.
faster render, more realistic renders (OMG, I'd do naughty things for a Maxwell quality non biased render!), FIX the sodding way Vue inverts greyscales, add real world units ot function editors, rigging....

And AGH!!! I was thinking of getting 7 Xstream so I could link Vue and Lightwave, finally, but..not at that freakin' price!!!!!! That's insane!!

Wanted to buy C4 extended,  and Particle Illusion 3, sigh, there goes that plan....

The pricing for xstream is pretty insane, maybe it includes some type of external render licence?

Infinite is still high priced, I am worried about the Complete version, I dont think it will be complete and will be missing that one vital thing you just know you want and is only in the infinite version.

Lets hope there upgrade pricing is reasonable.

Jon

Same here for animation.  It's the one thing in Vue I hardly ever use.  There are a lot of other things in Infinite that I use all the time.  Will have to wait and see the chart. 

I like the idea though that you can start from Pioneer and keep moving on up.  When money is tight, the module approach is very attractive.

as im gearing up to work on animations... inifnite is where i'll probably end up...

grins at peggy - but i gotta catch up first, right?

i'm still gonna avoid xstream like the plague.

i do like the fact that they added another level - i DONT like the price hikes on everything =(

but, from all the hints being dropped - working within any non-disclosure agreement folks have with E-On, of course - i'd say... it's more than likely well-worth the upgraded price.

only time will tell of course.

Cost is important but so is my new toys...................so I'll prolly say f..k it and go for Infnite again just 'cos I like my new toys!!!!

Chippwalters,
baking metablobs is the ONLY way you cna get the buggers otwork right, at times, with some materials :(
In my I, Beholder pic, I used metalbobs to build drool, dripping from the beasties' mouth, baked the metablobs to polygons (or liquid mateiral would just bugger up), and it worked a damned charm! :)
So that IS a very good feature, folks ;)

Does anyone have a clue about the new features? The email promo just tells us that the software can be purchased piecemeal depending on need. If there's an improvement in the rendering speed I'd be interested in upgrading, but right now the difference between the US $ is distorting what we pay here in Australia...so I'll probably pass until the situation improves (if ever!).

Xstream had better work right out of the box if they're asking for that price. I think I'll wait and let the rich people beta test after its release. 

The xStream price is insane, and like Steven, I was thinking of getting it for C4D, they say there will be a special introductory price, let's hope it will be reasonable...
Now about Complete, I agree with Chipp, these feautures need to be in this version, as for animtion, they don't say anything, guess we'll have to wait. But if Complete has all the Infinite features, minus production and pipeline integration features ( or so they say in the newsletter), like maybe g buffer and camera tracking, then I think Complete will be a great version.

Well for me I had XStream 5 for Cinema 4D and it was nothing but a nightmarish waste of money. Although the prices at this time are a bit over the top whatever I have paid for Vue in the past has always been worth the cash even with the headaches we are all familliar with inside Vue. But i also agree that a list will clear alot of "is it worth it" up for us. I do not nor do I ever intend for going the XStream way again nor do I animate anything. As Jonj1611 said, there is likely something going to be missing in Complete that we Infinite users just have to have. So whatever the prices end up being, it is Infinite for me.

Were I in E-On place, I would make this subdivision:

xStream: everything, embedded in native modeling apps;
Infinite: xStream minus embedding;
Complete: Infinite minus Python scripting and (perhaps) minus advanced radiosity for internals.

Pros need scripting for creating their proprietary tools and therefore omitting scripting from Complete would make them not even consider anything below Infinite; the question for them would be very simple: Do I need embedding? if yes, xStream, if not, Infinte.

For everybodies else it would be a "picture collecting contest" to reach Complete.

Clean and fair.

Bye!!!

Alex,

I agree with you, except I think radiosity needs to be in Complete. They can't switch render engines from Complete to Infinite-- that just wouldn't make sense. Too many different code bases to support, IMO. But you are right, the ability to script Python doesn't need to be in Complete.

Radiosity was in Vue Esprit since 5, I wouldn't expect them to take it away from 7 Complete...

SkinVue is Dave's baby but judging by the number of e-mails I get and forum posts I see asking why it can be used with Esprite I'd say we do need some sort of Python support in the lower version.  Plus if its in the lower versions and so has a larger user base there will be an incentive for more people to write add ons.  Then someone else can create those particle systems, fluid simulations, modelling plug-ins and other handy bits and pieces without e-on having to get side tracked from making the core Vue app the best landscape generator out there.  Given C3D is the obvious place to sell a plug-in its win win for e-on too.

Or to sum up I hope e-on have included python as far down the product line as they think there is a market for add ons.

Quote - Radiosity was in Vue Esprit since 5, I wouldn't expect them to take it away from 7 Complete...

I wasn't proposing  to remove radiosity to the lower end products, I was saying to restrict the super-duper new features to the high-end (Architect's Edition) ones.

Bye!!!

 Well considering the price I really hope things work in it properly.
Love esther

I wish they'd make it so I could just buy the eco-sprayer and ventilator as plugins without having to get the whole big package.  I'm a starving artist! 

What I would like is a program that doesn't crash every session. Last day I just tried the plant editor with a single tree in the scene and ... crash. Another bug report...
I have never sent this incredible number of bug reports for another software, except in my job ;)
So I'm not so excited with new functions which often means new bugs with e-on.

I dream of a Vue software made with Cocoa framework, well integrated in MacOS, which  works like a charm. I would spent my night on.

But alas Vue has a horrible GUI with bugged widgets and amazing window system. They don't know how to make GUI so why don't they use the Mac framework (and the Windows framwork as well) ?
Actually I'm wondering if e-on knows how to make programs...3D algorythms maybe but not programs.
Why Shade programmers can make a reliable software for both platforms and not e-on ?

But Vue makes beautiful pictures so it's a trap, and life is hope...

PS: I have Esprit+modules.

2ni,
sorry to be evil and mean, but...
it works wonderfully on a 64 bit Vista rig! ;) :thumbupboth:

let's just hope me saying that...doesn't cause Murphy's law to bite ME in the ass, and make Vue7 crap on my rig, hehe!! ;)

It's even working beautifully here on XP32 and Vista32. Opening the plant editor while only one tree in the scene is no problem this side of Steve Jobs. Sorry, couldn't resist this one!

2ni - sorry about the humor of those with infinite... they either never had to deal with pro studio, or they forgot about it ;)  (pokin the infinite folks and giggling - j/k folks, strange sense of humor today)

pro studio consumes more resources than either infinite OR esprit (personal experience with PLE and esprit versus pro studio), and as such, crashes faster, harder, and more often.  (yes, my own theory, but i dare any of you folks to take the test and find out the real reason why pro crashes so much ;)  seriousely - the part of me that's feline is dieing of curiosity!)

plant editor doesnt crash mine consistantly, but it DOES crash it.  there is one thing that will always crash mine, so i dont even do it anymore - and couldnt tell you if they fixed it in the last update or not.

thing is, everyone's systems are different - like our bodies, our computers tend to one-of-a-kinds - even those bought from dell, etc.  we put our own stuff on them, etc.  so, while MY computer crashes vue every single time i try to create two or more projected texture maps in a scene without saving and restarting vue,... YOURS seems to hate your plant editor.  Tom's (fictitional person) Vue might crash most often loading spotlights.

you see?

the bugs may be present in every single copy of vue... but some systems seem to "react" differently - no matter how much memory you have, or what OS you are using.

thank you for being one of the ones to send off bug reports =D  i DO hope they work out more of the mac-version bugs for you guys on that "other" system ;)

oh, and i have pro studio, with XP pro 64, and 4gigs ram.  hopefully - soon to be 8 gigs of ram... wheeeeeeeee!

Cool, but these prices......

Vue 7 Pioneer compared to Vue6 easel dropped in price (50%), but who knows what functionality has been taken out and has been replaced by modules (I hope none).

Vue 6 Esprit & Pro compare to Vue 7 Esprit & Pro stayed the same, Vue 7 Infinite went up $100 and Vue 7 Xtream went up $500......

Vue 7 Complete geared at me (the independent user) sounds great, but as an independent user I can never justify spending $599.00 on something like Vue, that's a considerable amount of my limited budget. Vue 7 Pro Studio is already a though job for me an independent user, even with the upgrade prices, I'm sure Vue 7 Complete will be out of reach of quite some independent users, no matter how much we desire it.

Looking forward to seeing more of Vue 7 and hopefully it's worth the upgrade, I'm still not convinced going from Vue 5 to Vue 6 was worth the upgrade price asked, so I'm hoping it will be really different with Vue 7.

Perhaps 'downgrading' to the new Vue 7 Pioneer could be an option with some of the modules, depending on what they cost.

I really do not hope they force us, as the usually do, into buying the next Vue to get the bugs from the previous Vue fixed. I'm hoping for once it will be differently.

 Hi bruno021, I'm a mac user, ane I  believe vue 6 still doesn't work with animations (it used to until the upgrades) from poser.
Also it doesn't work really niceley with poser pro as yet. I was hoping they would fix that but there haswn't been an upgrade of vue 6 for many many months.
Love esther

I got the newsletter myself and are in the bandwagon with the other posters.

To me, it all seems so vague, don't you just love it when they keep you in suspense -- that is until the wallet weeps.

I noticed that they changed a lot of gears: once was Vue Easel, now we'll be having "Pioneer" (I bought Vue 5 Easel and had a free upgrade to 6) to Complete --  I too am wondering, will this be the new Infinite or will it be a 'shorthand' edition to Infinite, hence the promoting of users Small Studio (Complete) and Professional (Infinite).

I went on and sidegraded to Vue 6 Esprit which was the beginning of '07 when it was still from beta to stable.  Other than that, in my opinion, it was a real tough act to follow in turns of working with the program and its apparent crashes, just like 2ni has mentioned.

Granted the prices are are something to behold here --

(since Pioneer [once was Easel] is the lowest of the bunch, Esprit and Pro stayed the same in price, Complete a whole new shiny baby in itself, and now Infinite all the way to XStream is enormous),

--but the question remains will V7 of all version will be the creme-de-la-creme than version 6 -- that's the true verdict here.

I just got my Dell XPS 410, Core 2 Duo, 2 Gig, GeForce 7300 LE/NVidia 128MB as a birthday present an will power up with 2 more Gigs to make it 4Gbs of Ram -- so keeping my fingers crossed.

We shall wait and see.

P.S.:  I'm anxious to know how the radiosity looks in the new version and will it be implimented to (if it's true) Pioneer, Esprit up to Xstream...

JB

 I hope Vue7 Ecosystem population will use all processors.  With Vue6 Infinite, each time I populate a large scene in my MacPro 8-Core I have to go get another cup of coffee and surf the internet for 10-15 minutes until my ecosystem populates as it only currently runs only on one processor.  For me, this is the biggest time-consuming bottle neck in Vue 6 Infinite that makes it inefficient to use in production work.

I'm getting really high-strung on caffeine and need a break.

The down-side of price increases is that an increased number of people will be tempted to download the program for free from the numerous sites around that don't have a problem with "sharing" software. (Not that I'd be tempted as I have a steady job.)
E-on then get nothing for their hard work developing the program.

I'm sure the e-on bean-counters and market strategists formulate this possibility into their price planning, just hope they also figured in the fact that the economy in now in recession and many people are doing it hard out there.

Vue 7 would have to have a whole lot of "must have, can't live without" features for me to spend the money for it.  Vue 6 works just fine for me as it is.

Ashley,
yup, ugly fact is the insane prices of high end apps a few years ago caused a hell of a lot of piracy as users who'd want to be legit, could NOT afford those barking mad prices,

remember they were all several thousand $ and WAY up and then they crashed ot "sane" levels, proving there had been gross over-pricing gouging us consumers.

it's stupid to over price things.

Thing is I can't really see that many "new" features, there are just updates to the features that already existed. And the vagueness of it all is rather distracting, no real screenshots showing what Vue can do, whether that be still or animations. Just scraps of information around the internet.

I am not as excited about Vue 7 as I was about Vue 6, I am 80% sure I will upgrade but to what version I just don't know, because as I said before its going to be sods law there is something in the version above you just need to have.

I just hope that Vue 7 is stable, but with pricing out now and little information on the actual product, especially as Siggraph came and went months ago, I would take the E-On PR person outside and shoot them.

Jon

All I can say is for the price of the upgrade there should be at least 5 new features. I know they have improved the Oceans, but what about giving us river and waterfall building tools, something really lacking with VUE

Sorry to reply as late but the renderosity mails was in the junk folder, don't know why since it used to work before...

@silverblade33 : ** is't cool that Vue works well on Windows, so perhaps e-on doesn't have good Mac programmers. It's often the case when a program is convert from windows to mac. They use their ugly GUI, I think they'd better use the Mac framework to make a real Cocoa application. I think most people use one platform mainly so a different GUI on Windows and Mac should not be a problem.
**
@melikia : is possible that Infinite is better debugged because pro use Infinite, but it seems weird to me (as a programer myself) to have two distinct applications (Esprit and Vue) when you can just activate some functions in Infinite. So when a bug is fixed on Infinite, it should be fixed also on Esprit. Maybe there are really two apps...

PS: the renderosity editor is really difficult to use, I can't disable bold as I want and the cursor jumps in weird positions... bugs, bugs always bugs...

i think pro studio 6 is built more along the lines of 5 infinite, as 6 infinite uses a different ecosystem generation, and pro uses the "older" version from 5.  There's a few other differences, but that's the major one that stands out in my head.

so - i think that technically, there ARE two separate programs.  There's Infinite 6, and Pro Studio 6.  Esprit is pro studio with modules locked away, and lets not get started on the poor folks with easel. 

i know, i know - makes no sense until you look at it from this point of view (or vue)...

If Pro Studio 6 is basically 5 Infinite with a few more bells & whistles... that means that INFINITE 6 was/is the top of the line - and the one they put most of their attention on/in.  its their money-maker.

I think that 7 might follow the same trends.  Pro studio & Complete will more likely resemble 6 infinite, and 7 infinite will get the coolest niftiest & newest features (as usual LOL).

of course, i could be dead wrong =D

Upgrading to 7 for me will depend on the price. Some of the rumored stuff seems interesting but I've already spent a lot on Vue 6 Infinite and I don't think just getting 1 or 2 more useful features is worth a lot of money.

2ni,
I find the Deviantart.com forum/chat vastly worse for bugs, ugh, it's terrible, sometimes crashes this browser which is unusual :(

I agree with Elfguy, they should be putting some major *WOW! *into v7 for those increases.

I'm really wondering why they put an image of Vue6 to their article of Vue7. Makes me suspicious.