I've been interested in purchasing Vue for some while and so I've just installed the V7 Pioneer Beta. (And, yes, I did manage to get it registered and running thanks to the valuable advice elsewhere on this forum!)

I've been playing around with it over the last few hours but I can't seem to import either Poser figures or objects from outside the package.  (I've already set up the relevant 'looksee' configuration routine to my Poser 6 directories on Vue's file/options page)

When I attempt to do load or import a character/object, V7P appears to recognise it, goes through the import routine but then an 'unable to read file' error message flashes up.

Am I doing something wrong or is the program so seriously restricted that this can't be done?

If the latter, then I'll definitely NOT purchase it as the integration of Poser with Vue is a prime requirement for me

Attached Link: http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/chart.php

I made this with Vue 7 Pioneer...

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/2209/cityemasteriz2.jpg

No modules.

Good job but what does that mean? Did you create the objects inside Vue or are these cornucopia objects or can you import objects into Pioneer without added modules? And if you have no modules, how did you eliminate the logo that should appear on the render?

Maybe the logo was cropped out, and the buildings made with primitives and good materials?

i cropped the logo out. i used materials that came with the core program. no imports (except honda logo). rendered in vue 7 pioneer. i found VUE 2 months ago. this is my 5th image.

Good job indeed. But not much help to ChrisV, to whom Poser integration is a must... :-)

By the way, the module 3DImport costs $129. That's a lot of money for one module, IMO.
I summed now the cost of all modules for sale at C3D and got around $990. That's more or less $100 more than Vue 7 Infinite ($895), which has all modules natively.

Pioneer is a good taste of 3D, but if you need Poser or any other type of imports, you have to have at least the 3DImport module.  If you look at the prices, the best prices are for the "bundles", Esprit, Pro, and Complete.  But if you are on a budget, $129 is easier to swing. 

Bottom line - 3D is an expensive hobby.  But, if you do it good enough it can turn into job offers.  Then the software starts to pay for itself...

Quote - By the way, the module 3DImport costs $129. That's a lot of money for one module, IMO.
I summed now the cost of all modules for sale at C3D and got around $990. That's more or less $100 more than Vue 7 Infinite ($895), which has all modules natively.

Getting modules one by one was economically reasonable in version 6; you payed more than straight upgrades, but the difference was not so high as to offset the possibility of diluting the expense.

In version 7, the price difference is so high that you'd better off saving money (e.g. it costs more to get import/export modules for Pioneer than to upgrade from 6Pro to 7Complete!). Actually, there are only 3 sensible (from the economical point of view) products: Complete, Infinite and XStream.

Bye!!!

sorry. wrong thread.

Many thanks guys for your feedback, especially Rutra.

I guess I'm going to have to look elsewhere for a decent renderer for my poser scenes. 

Any suggestions, or is Vue (with it's overly expensive add-ons to make it useful) the best?

I absolutely love Vue and I wouldn't change it for anything else. :-)

If you compare the full price of Vue Infinite with any other professional 3D package, like Maya or 3DS Max, you'll see that Vue costs much, much less (Vue Infinite costs about $900 but Maya costs $5000).

However, in the hobbyist area, Daz recently launched Carrara 7 and, from the features list, it sounds really promising (never tested it though). And it has a perfect integration with Poser, so they say. Carrara costs a lot less than Infinite (about $250, I think). Check it out at www.daz3d.com. I didn't find any demo (I was also interested because they claim to have some features that Vue doesn't have, like particles or embedded modelling, both things I always really wanted in Vue).

Correction:
I didn't mean to write that Carrara has a perfect integration with Poser, I meant to write that Carrara has a perfect integration with Poser content. The best to use with Carrara should be Daz Studio, not Poser itself.

Note:
You should be careful with what is included in Carrara 7 package. You know, Daz has a habit of selling their apps really cheap because the real money comes from add-ons and stuff. That could be a hidden cost, as high as several Vue modules all together.

On the e-on page for Pioneer it says:

Vue 7 Pioneer is for home use only. For commercial use, please consider Vue 7 Esprit or higher.

It also says, regarding modules for Pioneer:

You can go all the way up to Vue 7 Complete - at your own pace!

Complete has a commercial license, so do you acquire one as you add modules. If so, where along the line? The lack of a commercial use license is a serious hobble - I wouldn't spend one cent on a module for Pioneer without knowing that restriction was lifted.

I'm a Brycer interested in moving to Vue, but ambiguous wording makes me tread cautiously.

You seem to believe that "home use only" means that you cannot use Pioneer to create images for professional purposes. I don't think that's the case, I never read any such restriction nor about any such "commercial license". After all, it's impossible to distinguish an image made in Pioneer or Infinite, so that restriction wouldn't possibly be enforced and doesn't make sense, IMO.

I think their wording (poor wording, by the way) means only that if you consider doing some professional ("commercial") work, Pioneer is too limited for that feature wise, not that it lacks any special license.

Anyway, if in doubt just consult a sales rep, at www.e-onsoftware.com

Quote - You seem to believe that "home use only" means that you cannot use Pioneer to create images for professional purposes. I don't think that's the case...

That's exactly what it means, he is right to believe that.

I too am a Brycer looking into playing with Vue, but this 'non-commercial' licence (if it continues after the beta) is indeed a problem, quite a biggie as well if you look into this modular system close enough.  The way it reads right now means that folk could buy every module available for Pioneer (and I think that's a lot of money for what it is), yet at the end of it all, they'd still be crippled by a 'non-commercial' licence - just because they built-up from Pioneer.

If e-on don't either drop the non-commercial licence from Pioneer, or at the very least, add commercial priviledges (as per Esprit and upwards) to those that have purchased the 3DImporter and RenderUp modules, then folk are in for a very nasty shock if they build-up their module collection from Pioneer, and later want to use it commercially.

No matter what way you look a it; at this moment in time you can not use Vue or it's modules commercially unless you start with Esprit or higher.  That's gonna make for a very nasty surprise for the poorer folk who've built-up from Pioneer I think.

E-on need to sort that one out big-time IMHO.  I was going to ask them about it or post on their forum, but I'd feel silly for doing so because I personally think it's a deliberate move on behalf of their marketing.

I'd love to be wrong (I hope to be wrong).

Quote - No matter what way you look a it; at this moment in time you can not use Vue or it's modules commercially unless you start with Esprit or higher.

I think you're wrong, see this thread where someone asked roughly the same question -> http://www.cornucopia3d.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7900

Essentially it would appear that once you get the right combination of modules, your edition of Vue changes into one that matches that combination, i.e. just like previously Esprit + modules == ProStudio.

Carrara 7 Pro at least is quite complete. It even includes half a gig of Poser content, mostly Victoria and Michael 4, their morphs, some clothes and hair, and a bunch of animals.

It is not DAZ Studio, which needs modules purchased to be able to do anything fancy.

Thanks for that link, nruddock. Most useful.

Quote - ...I was going to ask them about it or post on their forum, but I'd feel silly for doing so...

Just to say: NEVER feel silly asking a question when you have the least doubt about the answer. ;)

Yah, I'm a fine one to talk, because I always feel shy asking something I think is 'obvious', or something I think I should already know... But sometimes, your query helps more than just you in the end, because there may be other 'shy' ones out there wondering the same thing.  ; )

And thank you, nruddock, for that helpful linkee. ; )

Well I do have to say, nealry all 3D apps are grossly to expensive.
DAZ shows the way: if you flog it cheap, they will come! ;)

But, for small outits like E-On, they need our money to pay for their families ot have lives.

I'd love it if all software and content is free, I'd give all my stuff away, quite happily, but...we live in a greedy, idiotic system (look at recent events), our system sucks, but it doesn't suck as bad as any other system, folk have to be realistic. I may loathe what we have created, and use my art to escape it, but I also know everything else is worse, much, much worse. 
So...shrugs :(

Anyway, if folk are serious about art, get Espirt or higher, it's well worth it. Just ocmpare the prices of say, DIY tools...a good tool box and power tools can easily set you back £500+. If you buy cheap crap...you pay for it, either in accidents, broken tools you have to constantly replace, or rubbish work.

The non-commercial license and CPU limits are incredibly bloody stupid though, I must say.
I bought Rhino at college, grossly over priced app, no way I could afford it without educational license, but...Rhino license was full commercial useage even for educatiion package!

Write E-On some letters, I'd suggest :)

I'm not sure e-on has thought this license thing through well-enough. Certainly, one should be able to create commercial work with Pioneer upgraded all the way to Complete. I'm certain it's something they've overlooked.

That said, I imagine the real reason for the clause is to protect e-on from a use of Pioneer which they didn't foreshadow or predict. This is typical lawyer speak for this sort of free give-away. I do think giving Vue 7 Pioneer away for free is brillant and hope they continue to do the same after it is released.

Here's a picture I created totally within Pioneer. I was able to save it and open it. You can too.

The mylar balloons and people are metablobs, the rest are primitives. I used GridModeler to create the spaceframe maps and exact placement of them on a cube. I was able to take the default ground texture and add one of the new hyper-detail fractal maps to it to create the ground plane. A couple of off screen trees provided the foreground shadow, along with a quad spot set to -100 to make it darker.

I rendered it out at the highest rez, with the highest settings Pioneer had to offer. The full rez version is here. 

It's a shame E-On has crippled Pioneer too much. Vue Easel was a much better deal and as an Easel reason I don't see why in the world I would even consider upgrading to pioneer. Suddenly my render size got limited a lot more then it was.... I can't import 3D models anymore..... No connection with Poser anymore...... There's an ugly logo in my renders..... Limited for home use only..... Render speed is 25% to 50% slower then in Easel 6..... The content included is very limited.....

What in the world was E-On thinking when creating Pioneer? I don't need Vue Esprit, Vue Easel suited me fine and now my upgrade path has dissappeared. If I want my old Easel functions back I'm supposed to buy two modules that will cost me $198???? I'm sorry to say so, but Vue Pioneer is a complete rip off for previous Easel owners.

How can something free be a rip off?

How? Pioneer is supposed to be Easels replacement..... but with Pioneer you cannot render images as large as with Easel. You cannot import 3D models anymore. You renders now have logo on them.

Pioneer as the replacement of Easel is a rip off, you loose quite some functionality and suddenly you've got ugly logo on all renders. To get rid of the logo's and to be able to import in Pioneer, you pay twice as much as Easel did cost. Whichever way I look at it, compared to Easel, Pioneer is a rip off.

Well, the fact is, there is no Easel anymore. E-on has simplified its product line and the pay for prodcut line now starts at Esprit.

Pioneer is not the replacement for Easel. If it were, it would be called Easel.

e-on is using a different sales model, where they give away a free product (Pioneer) and allow you to upgrade it bit by bit or product line by product line.

Easel doesn't exist anymore, but you can upgrade from Easel 6 to Esprit 7 for $129.

Quote - E-on has simplified its product line and the pay for product line now starts at Esprit.

e-on is using a different sales model, where they give away a free product (Pioneer) and allow you to upgrade it bit by bit or product line by product line.

If you check the price list, both for modules and bundles, you see that now the option upgrade-bit-by-bit is grossly uneconomical.

Yes, there has been a simplification, which amounts to:

1. forget about getting modules, get only bundles;
2. if you are a pro, either get Infinite or xStream;
3. otherwise, either get Complete or Pro (Esprit has no ecosystems module, which is required just to adjust basic things like ecosystems density and scale);
4. forget about an upgrade path from Complete to Infinite/xStream.

As I foretold a few a months ago in this forum (being afterwards the target of a cyber tar-and-feathers lynching from the hands of E-on fanboys), prices have gone sharply up, especially for newcomers.

Bye...

P.S.: I tried the public beta of Carrara 7 and I think that if you are a Brycer or Poser characters are the main subjet of your renders, Carrara is now a credible alternative to Vue.

alexoppo,

I agree the option of 'pay as you go' is much more expensive than bundles. Still, so is rent to own furniture, but some people still find it attractive.

I also agree with you regarding the lack of upgrade path from Complete to Infinite. While it's only a $99 slight to Infinite 6 users, it is considerably higher if you paid full price for Complete. I suspect e-on will have to provide a solution at some time. Hopefully sooner than later.

I don't think it's necessary to use the deragatory term 'fanboy' to describe folks on this board.

Good luck with Carrara and be sure to share some renders.

Quote -
I don't think it's necessary to use the deragatory term 'fanboy' to describe folks on this board.

If it is fair for some people (who are just a minority of the population of this board) to lynch me and then not admit they were wrong when facts unfold exactly as I had foretold them, then it must be fair for me to call them using the most derogatory term available for a family-friendly forum.

P.S.: quick guide for budding fortune tellers: always predict the worst. If things go the way you wrote, well, rejoice for being right when optimists were wrong. If they do not go the predicted way, it is because you had not been ENOUGH pessimist: in this case just pretend that it had been done on purpose not to make people too afraid of the future... and rejoice in looking a compassionate chap.

P.P.S.: Carrara 7 is still missing too many thing to be an alternative to Vue 7 if you are not interested in Poser characters so I have already made up my mind about the upgrade to Complete.

P.P.P.S.:  May be we have buried TG2 a bit too early... have a look at the images of this gallery.