I have come to the conclusion, that although vue has a few issues, its menu system and interface are among the easiest to use in any of the 3d programs I have used.

For example, at present I am playing with lightwave, to make a volumetric material, there are about 3-4 menus, each one having to be linked together - this becomes confusing very quickly and it becomes hard to remember which setting on which menu you changed and where that setting even is any more!

Poser - I know, completely different program - But everything about this program makes me want to tear my hair out - the camera movements, the posing system, everything is too fiddly for a club handed fellow like myself.

But with Vue its only a menu and everything is in its expected place.  Which is a joy.   Lightwave can do a lot of things that vue cant (its designed too - this isnt a complaint, vue can do lots of things that lightwave cant!) but what both can do (apart from the node editor in my opinion) it does it in a much more appealing and user friendly manner.

Dont mean to sound like a raging fanboy, but Vue does have its very good sides, and I think this is one thats worth mentioning

Are other people also thinking the same sort of thing with other programs 3ds, c4d etc?

I fully agree. I have limited experience with equivalent 3D programs but I did use Bryce for a few weeks and, even though it has much less options than Vue, it seemed more complicated and less intuitive. I could never fully understand Bryce's material editor, to tell you the truth...

I really like the Vue interface.  Then again, I quite like ZBrush and I'm getting the hang of Blender so go figure :)

I find Lightwaves node editor at least 60% more understandable than vues, not sure why it just seems to make more sense to me.

Its probably exactly the same principles but the idea of things connecting to other things seems to work better in my head. The standard material editor again is a billion menus to do something simple, and if you want to do "mixed materials" like in Vue you have to start fiddling with gradients and opacity layers etc etc.
 
Frank, Ive had a play with blender, love the idea of it being free but its just all so in your face!! menus on top of menus on top of menus! you must have the patience of a saint! :P

Ill try and get a comparison tommorrow of getting a volumetric material in Vue and the equivalent in lightwave.

I wish I hadn't looked at that lw s/shot.  My head hurts now :lol:

Seems the LW node editor has all the material properties grouped more tightly than in the FE. On the other hand, when there are many nodes for a material property, I think it looks terrible. Having all materials outputs on the bottom row makes it more clear to me, but then again, I'm not used to LW, only Vue's FE and C4D's material editor, which isn't node based, unfortunately.
I like the Vue interface, I'm so used to it, but there are so many tiny icons (hide from render, ignore when populating and such), and RMB actions that a beginner might find it hard to find his way around.

Among my favorite Vue features are the rendering quality, EcoSystems, Material Editor (including Function Editor), Metablobs, and Vue's Interface. And probably the least favorite feature(s) are probably the presets and the standard terrain editor. I find just about none of the presets usable in their current configuration. Especially the atmospheres and landscape materials. And the standard terrain editor, IMO, is not even as good as Bryce's which was created e-on's ago (pun intended!)

I do really like procedural terrains and am using them almost exclusively these days. :-)

 I find the interface really easy, I can concentrate on what I want to achieve rather than on the technicalities of which button to push etc.
My only problem with the interface of v7complete is the color scheme. Not in terms of artistic principles but in terms of being able to actually see what's on the screen. I can change the background of the viewing windows but not anything else. In particular in the function editor it is nearly impossible for me to see the little arrows for connecting the nodes- pale blue on white isnt the best choice...

ArtPearl,
with my version of Vue you can load different interface colours, I like the pale blue but my eyes are too sensitive at times for it. :/

I LOVE Vue's UI/design!! :) 
Although I'm a Nerdy Geek Deluxe (TM) :p I am an artist, I don't like having to fight the damn UI to achieve what I want.
FrankT, you have my respect!! Zbrush and Blender make me go "tharn"!
curls up like a rabbit before their maleavolent UIs! hehe

look at the material and model libraries Vue and Bryce have, now, do the "big" apps have that YET or how long did it take them to do likewise?!

Sorry not tried 'em in years, bar Lightwave, and my goodness, how retarded to have very expensive apps and you had to select an item in your hard drive folder to see a tiny preview of it...rather than showing it to you in the damn library as a nice big icon!
(I think Cinema has had an iconic library for a long while? )

I started with Bryce, and it's soooo similar to Vue, Vue is better in most ways, not always by huge degrees but it all adds up. I'd recommend any beginner to try them before any other app, unless they were a complete tech-menu-geek :)
I've encouraged or shown them and other apps, and in college where we had 3DMAX and so on, and generally, most folk preffer Bryce and Vue, quite understandably.
You can see and create things very easily and quickly, rather than having to fight to understand the UI, first.

Vue needs a good PC to work on, 3DMAX is very smooth to use, to be honest when you have lot of items in Vue it does "chug" unless you have a good PC...but good PCs are becoming easier to get, more common now.
3DMAX will also spit our animations in times Vue and especially Bryce could only dream of...BUT...

3DMAX is expensive as hell, and you need lots of expensive plugins ot get it good, also, those animations were "raster" animations, the quality wasn't good enough for stills...and it has an horrible interface not as bad as Blender, but ye gods...

You can do things so much simpler and faster in Vue. If vue could use other renderers directly inside Vue, it may help.
I use Maxwell renderer and unbiased renderers like that blows the pants out of anything else..unless you want "non-realism", which I often do, actually.

What I don't like about Vue or tweaks I'd like are (some as Chipp has said):

-I want ot see directly in the material editor the model I am working on, not a sphere or cube, but the actual MODEL I am working on the material!
yes I know you can use the preview window, but that's not as good. Bryce has had that feature for years and makes material manipualtion far more precise
(but it's Deep Terrain Editor is the pits!!! yikes, sort of like Vue's Advanced Material Editor but makes no sense to normal Humans hehe)

-The terrain editor needs massive revamp. As I've said for years, even adding the ability to let clipping brackets act as masks, preventing work on clipped off areas, would help. Bryce has had that for 10 years
It also MUST get the ability to make overhangs and caves, true 3D culpting is what we need.

-Easier way to get Photorealism. Chipp's a bloody genius, see his Interior Pak, but to get what I regard as Photorealism like that is beyond me!!
Oddly I usually preffer non-realism, I like a "Painterly" look for my fantasy stuff, I can't think of a way to improve that painter look but I know it could be done, hm.
But photorealism is a must. I just can't do Photorealism to any quality I like, so I don't try for it.

-Random camera on planet surface, nice feature of mojoworld, hit a button, randomly takes you to another place on surface, with fractal terrains it's good becuase you never know where you may find a beautiful shot!

-Planetary rings, (true) moons and space backgrounds. Again, Mojoworld has these, and while you can do it with add moons/imports, doing it natively would be very nice as Vue is now doing planetary renders. ( I mean actual 3D obejcts with advanced procedurals, not just 2Ds as 3Ds have correct shadows)
Improved stars are a must, Vue's default stars are horrible!
Mojo has some gorgeous space backgrounds that are true sphericals, so you can do space animations etc
this is my Mojoworld page to give you an idea what I mean:
http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/artofadreamer/htm/mojoworld.htm

-enlargeable parts of the UI, the rotate/move camera icons etc get very small on large screens which are more and more common.

:)

Quote - ArtPearl,
with my version of Vue you can load different interface colours, I like the pale blue but my eyes are too sensitive at times for it. :/

Yes, not being able to customise the UI is one of the complete<->infinite differences. I'm just questioning the wisdom of what they chose for complete. I had the ability to change the UI in v6 and never felt the need to, the default was well designed for visibility. I dont need a swish-pro interface, just a visible one.
(The pale grey on white  they chose for hidden layer in the world browser is another example of this poor design)
I understand they want to make infinite look like it has more features than complete, but this is just cruelty.