For financial reasons I'm considering Complete as an alternative to Infinite (have 6 Inf at the mo).

I'm interested to know what you chose to buy and why, and whether you feel upgrading from 6 Infinite to 7 Infinite is worth the extra money compared to Complete.

I am not sure if the gap between Infinite and Complete is worth $300 when I look at what I'd get for $99 - still deciding.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Richard

Complete...money...that's all!

I went for Infinite because I'm a sucker for having all of it even if I won't use a lot of it, I just might one day!!
I use Poser content a lot and at the moment Vue7 has some serious issues with Shader imports, so much so that I have to go back to 6 to use the character pack I want to use.
I imagine just like Vue6 was eventually sorted, they'll get 7 sorted but at the moment......................!!

I bought Infinite but I didn't actually compare because at the time, when Infinite was launched, I couldn't find a detailed comparison chart, like there is today (I think there wasn't any). I wanted Vue7 and, like thefixer, I didn't want to take the risk of not having a feature I could want later.

But, looking at the comparison chart today, I would probably decide for Infinite anyway. These are the main arguments, for me:

• Infinite has "Perspective camera view". That is an important part of my workflow.
• Infinite has a lot more plants (that translates into money, and there are some really nice plants in Infinite package)
• Complete doesn't have mesh splitting nor baking. These two functions are very important in my workflow.
• Complete is limited to 4 CPU but octocores CPUs are just around the corner.

I'm still using 6 Pro Studio. Looking at the comparison charts there's not much Infinite has over Complete that I'd actually use. I do tend to think like thefixer, better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.

That said finance dictates that I'll upgrade to 7 pro and add modules as I need them, starting with the one that let's you paint eco-systems.

I chose Infinite over complete because it has:

• 90 bonus plants
• multipass rendering (though the feature did not work at start - have not tested with SR1)
• the standard 'flat" interface
• the possibility to change axis (I use Y as the vertical axis)
• unlimited undo (Complete is limited to 3 undos)

Last difference, it was available from the start!

FYI, the page detailing the differences between Infinite and complete no longer seems to be online:
But it is in Google's cache.
Just type: cache:http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_7_complete/compare.php in Google search box.

-Complete, can do without a couple of the features in Infinite, and financially as well.

• Question to Vue7 Infinte Users: can you still change the Exposure and Contrast for an Environment Map like in V6Inf????
• i've just noticed that this ability isn't in v7Complete, and I use it a lot in v6Inf

Rob

Quote - "Question to Vue7 Infinte Users: can you still change the Exposure and Contrast for an Environment Map like in V6Inf????"

Yes.

Attached Link: http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_7_complete/?page=19

Yes and no. You can still compare both versions in the link above. Just tick "Vue 7 Infinite".

thanks for your answer, Rutra - unfortunately there is no documentation on this in the comparison - if I had known about this before I might even have given e-on a bit more money and bought Infinite. Maybe it's an oversight.......  :rolleyes:

Rob

Quote - "unfortunately there is no documentation on this in the comparison"

Actually, there is. In the link I provided, you can see this under the section "Import/Export".
Exact text: "Exposure and contrast controls in HDRI images"

IMO, it's a strange place to have this, I would expect to find it under "Atmosphere" or "Lighting", which might explain why you didn't find it. :-)

aaaargh!!!! (tearing hair out!!)

Rutra - you're right, and you're also right that it's a strange place to have this.
I didn't look under Import/Export at all, doesn't really interest me.
I am now extremely annoyed at myself......

Rob

Quote - ...if I had known about this before I might even have given e-on a bit more money and bought Infinite.

Perhaps e-on will allow you to upgrade to Infinite minus the difference you paid.  : )  I know at least one person who was given a similar option. On the site, go to "Contact a Sales Rep." (under "Customer Care").  You never know 'til you try!  ;)

As for the original question, I echo thefixer: "I went for Infinite because I'm a sucker for having all of it..."  :P

Angelsinger, thanks for the info :-) sounds as if it's worth a try

Rob

Quote -

• Infinite has "Perspective camera view". That is an important part of my workflow.

What is that exactly? Does it mean you only have isometric view (i.e. no vanishing point) in Complete?

This is very handy for me because I tend to define the camera position I want fairly early in the creation process and create the scene around that, without moving the camera again. This optimizes a lot what I need to do to fill in what's within the camera angle and nothing else. Using the perspective view allows to view the scene from different angles without moving the camera, which allows for very precise work. Of course, even without perspective view you could save cameras and switch between those but it's not as efficient.

See image for example (it's Vue6, but Vue7 is equal).

In different economic times I would consider infinite, but now I think 'what if I pay all this extra money but never/hardly use the extra features'
I would like to have the multi pass feature and the extra plants...I would like python scripting although at the moment I dont know much about python...
Mesh splitting and baking could be nice but if I really need it, I could do it in V6i I think.
So realistically speaking I think it will be complete for me.

That's useful thanks.

The one thing that might really annoy me in Complete is the real lack of flexibility in the user interface, which I have grown used to in Vue 6i - why "advanced artists" might not want to set up their interface to ensure smooth workflow ...

And why only 3 levels of undo?

But I guess the Infinite price point has to be justified somehow by selectively creating weaknesses in the lesser package.

Rutra, what kind of mesh splitting are you talking about? because I just looked again and it says in the list of 'complete' features "Mesh splitting by material." That's the only type I know and used. Is there something else?

What is a flat interface?

The trees were a big selling point for me.  I did have some of them, but at between 9 to $14 each, that's a lot of the money for the upgrade right there.  The other things I wanted was baking to polygons and customizing the colors and shortcuts.  Sorry, but I really don't like the flat black interface...  That all being said - if it was a matter of money and a choice of not going to 7, then Complete offers a good choice.  Bottom line, I love my 7 Infinite!. 

ArtPearl, you're right, mesh splitting is indeed available in Complete, my mistake. Baking, however, is not.

Peggy, that's funny. :-) I never change any skin of any app. Not Vue, neither browsers, nor anything else. Not even Winamp, which has a gazillion skins. I really couldn't care less about skins. It's what's under the skin that matters. :-)

I do a lot of screen captures for my lesson plans - black just never looks right on the pdf and sucks up more printer ink... 

I love the original Vue nice pale blue interface colours, but that's just me :D

I went infinite because...well straight upgrade from V6I, and it was out earlier, and I like some of the things in Infinite that I end up finding out helps my workflow (usually MONTHS after I got it and find the damned things, lol! )
:)

At the time I made that choice, I went from Vue 5 to Vue 6 infinite because of ecosystems. They were only availabe in the infinite version originally.

Now - I am sticking with infinite because of the number of CPUs (I have two quads).

I'm probably going to go for infinite - I'd only start missing the features I didn't have and upgrade eventually so it's cheaper to just bite the bullet :)

I went for complete, I still have V6i if I need a feature other then that complete has what I need.

Biggest single reason for me; Vue Complete doesn't support more than 4 core PCs -- I have an 8 -core Mac Pro, so Infinite was really my only choice.  Single CPU 8-core PCs are just around the corner so...consider that (though an unlimited CPU plug-in for Complete may be offered in the future?).

The other reasons have been well articulated by others in this thread.

The new Intel Quad Core i7 cpus (920,940,965) which are available now are multi threaded. This gives you 8 cores effectively and windows sees them as 8 and so do applications. In Carrara for example you get 8 render tiles and it flies!
Unfortunately the Vue 7 Complete 4 CPU limit means you don't utilise the core i7 fully because it won't use all of the threads which is a real shame.

So if you have, or are thinking of getting, a core i7 system, you may want to go with Infinite although IMHO I think Eon are behind the times here and should remove the cpu limit.

"The new Intel Quad Core i7 cpus (920,940,965) which are available now are multi threaded. This gives you 8 cores effectively and windows sees them as 8"

smee440,

Which version of Windows do you have?  Vista Home Premium doesn't support 8 cores, so...?

LCBoliou,
The core i7s are quad core cpus with multi threading (= 8 'cpus' in the task manager performance view) and Vista 64bit Premium sees all 8 threads. Most of the reviews of the core i7s I have seen have been run on Vista Premium 64 bit.
As it happens I am running Vista Business 64 bit but I think Premium 64 bit handles the core i7 the same.

smee440,

Actually the i7 is a 4-core CPU with Hyperthreading for each core. ; )   I'm running a Mac Pro, 8-core 2.8 GHz Xeons, and Vista Business 64-bit (under Bootcamp), w/ 14 GB RAM.  I selected Vista Business, as Home Premium definately does not support 8 hardware cores.  I'm wondering if MS programmed Vista Home Premium to differentiate between Hyperthreaded (virtual) cores, and real hardware cores, and use the virtual cores, but not the hardware cores?

At any rate, the i7 Hyperthreading is much more efficient than the old P4 Hyperthreading, so they are a good bang-for-the-buck.  Nice to have motherboards with 6 DDR3 slots too.