After look at the new things Bryce 5 gives to me , i think i wait for Bryce 6. I think the update from 4 to 5 it is not enought to pay it. I am so sorry to say that, i hope many more of this update but... Perhaps in the next one, i will think it is good for me to update my 4 vesion. One more thing, please, the color of the 5 version it is horrible, i thing the version 4 color is the way

I couldn't agree more. The difference between Bryce 4 and 5 is minimal at best. The Tree lab isn't enough to get to me to buy it. The metaballs don't really matter either since I have Carrara and Rhino and can make anything I need in those. The rendering speed is not much better than in 4, sure there is network rendering but that's only because it's so damn slow to begin with. I was really looking forward to Bryce 5, and now I'm looking back to Bryce 4. Bryce 4 will do what I need. Corel thinks they can fool us with a version of Bryce that is nothing more than a patch to Bryce 4, and they want to charge $319 for the full version, and $159 for the upgrade. That's what keeping me from getting it. Hell the new version of Vue 4 is only going to cost $199. Corel should rethink their pricing structure for Bryce, That's a pretty big price increase for very little improvement. There isn't enough there to justify the increase. We aren't stupid Corel, and you're not fooling most of us. For that kind of money there are a lot of other options that could expand Bryce 4's capabilities. I for one am extremely disappointed with Corel, but then again I never really like their products anyway,And I still don't. kaom

Although I agree with both of you, I still bought it anyway. The tree lab is cool, but this could have been a pro pack add on or something. Now the network rendering is really cool, and for me I have a MAC and OSX so this is a plus to have Bryce run native in OSX. I have 2 PC's and 2 macs and 3 friends with G4's so when I do render my animation project it is such a huge thing to have a render farm. Again this could have been an add on. Oh well I guess I am an idiot when it comes to buying new versions of my favorite apps. I will buy Carrara 2 when it comes out simply because it is a favorite app... PAGZone

Carrara 2? I'll be buying that the second it comes out, I love it too. But I understand you buying it, hey were all software geeks and we need our fix. kaom

I think Bryce could've had a lot more included, but as for updates, this is by far the biggest since animation came to version 3. It was the ver. 4 update that was lacking. The addition of a "tree lab" and metaball editor is quite big, in my opinion. The interface is basically the same but the little things, like preset categories, network rendering, and better rendering options makes it big in my book. I'm not saying it's a HUGE upgrade, per se, but considering a lot of companies (IE Microsoft picking up Visio) pretty much just repack it and offer minimal upgrades, I'm pretty impressed with what bryce 5 offers. -Brian

I HAVE GOT TO AGREE WITH YOU PEOPLE AFTER EVERYTHING I HAVE READ, THE FACT THAT THERES NOT MUCH SPEED INCREASE IS WHATS SCREWED IT FOR ME THAT WAS MY ONE AND ONLY HOPE FROM B5

I HAVE noticed a overall speed increase with Bryce 5, its not much faster, but it is faster. AS far as the UI goes, thats just a matter of taste. the tree lab is great and for persons who dont own rhino or carara, the metaballs are a great extra. All in All this is Corels first real stab at Bryce and ya have to give them some credit for the advancements they have made on their frst full version release of Bryce. Maybe Bryce 6 will just knock everyone's socks off now that Corel's engineers have a idea of whats going on under the hood, so to speak.

not to mention the new render modes, customizable preset menus, the improved lighting lab, gradiant and texture fills instead of the old solid colors. ANd even the beefed up and more featured packed terrain editor.

have not quiet decided yet.first due to bad exchangerate the price in germany is some higher.totally it would be about 220$.And i dont know if the advantages are worth the money.And for making some tree I dl xfrog yesterday.you get a full version thats working 30 days and that can export files as *.obj.

about the speed of bryce...you have to remember that bryce is a TRUE raytracing program! Even though the render speed is poor the output is excellent!!! For me this is what really matters. I could care less if I had to wait hours or days for my render to finish, as long as I know that it will look good. But if the render time is a priority then you can just do a network render of it. I know for Max there are a variety of sites that will allow you to use their computers to render a file and I'm sure with the new network compatibilities of Bryce they will be popping up all over the web...

Totally true Rocjockjared....lets see some of yalls websites and images, I use Bryce professionally everyday for a living, haven't had any clients bitch to much, so as far as production and outputting to broadcast quality, I really don't think a lot of you know what you're even talking about, I've been in this biz for almost 12 years now. Juuust My 2 cents worth.

clay...are you from texas???

I'm sticking with 4.0 but only because 4 works fine for my limited uses, 5 doesn't offer much new. But the price seems reasonable to me. Microsoft IS the world champ at underachievement, the Windows 9x's ar not a whole helluva lot different since Windows 95 OSR 2.1. but people lined up for 98. again for 98 SE, and quivered over ME. And XP is the supposed "must have" for '01 I think Corel will serve their market well. Real Radiosity is all it'll take for me...

not to get off topic but XP is going to have 64 bit support...(I know...something Macs have had forever!) but for us pc users it will be a massive difference especially with the Intel Itanium processors (64 bit as well...yeah I know...Macs have had if from day one!) coming out. As far as 95, 98, and ME go...there is not BIG difference...just more eye candy...something I can go without in an OS. No back to topic. Bryce 5 does offer many advantages. Metaballs for one. This shows that Bryce is actually starting to enter the modeling ring, other than basic booleans and the grayscale terrains and lattices. This is a MAJOR step forward for Bryce. Plus with the added Tree lab users can get more control over their vegetation rather than just downloading models and hoping that they work out. Plus with network rendering capabilities Bryce is taking a MAJOR step forward as well! This is generally seen only in the "big boys" of graphics (ie. Max etc.) I for one believe that the upgrade is worth the money. If nothing else the network render has me sold! Modeling I could care less about. I have carrara and 3DS Max for that. But I've gotta say...I just love the way Bryce renders! It is very distinct and has a wonderful elegance and warmth to it.

If network rendering cuts render time down by 20% or so i would seriously buy the upgrade. Not sure if your connection is a factor or not. Nobodys really knocking bryce people just have an opinion, the fact that i have only one pc have 6 fans blowing in my system and have to listen to it for a 3day render is a bit annoying. Maybe some one can give me some more input on network rendering and change my mind......!

rockjockjared - you've zeroed in on the essential point. There's something about Bryce renders that you simply can't find in any other app, be it the hobbyist ones we use or pro things like Maya or .... well, you name any. Don't get me wrong, Vue (use and like that, too), WB and all the rest can make superb pics - but they can't Bryce ;-) Personally, I had made a firm decision NOT to upgrade. Then I started checking out galleries here and just about everywhere else on the net to see which other app would be a better choice. When I was done, I orderede the Bryce upgrade ;-)

Attached Link: http://www.planet-3d.com/bmark.htm

As soon as I have the money I am upgrading, to many complaints, if you aren't getting it, why did you decide it was something you had to share...oh well, my renders never take more then a day or so and I do animations about 30 seconds long, and in my opinion thats pretty damn fast for a 3D animation, about 12 hours for modeling and animating and 2 more days for rendering, thats very fast in the production sense, plus its all high quality, everyone complains about the render speed, its because its a "true raytracer" it doesn't take shortcuts you could say, like other raytracers. You complain yet when Corel comes up with a nice simple yet wonderful solution you smash it down. Oh well. I would prefer to have a hybrid renderer rather then a true radiosity renderer, you think the speed is bad now, ha, wait till we get radiosity, so hybrid, thats what I want. As for metaballs and the treelab, vegetation...finally..and the metaballs my god so much more then modeling...create a bunch of paths, shape them like they look like water coming from a fountain, put a bunch of metaballs on the path...slap a nice water texture on them all, animate....ooooh a fountain...or create a bunch of slightly bumped paths..and have them shape with a stream bed you create in the terrain editor...or the same terrain and the same paths, a little tweaking of some colors, and add a lava texture instead.....ahhhh....droool.... cheers! someone try that for me so I can see how it comes out.... Nick

thip - I'm not sure about how much nework renders increase the render speed, and I'm sure that your nework speed does have a good deal to do with it. When ever I do get the upgrade (I think the UPS guy here hates me...I bug him a lot about it!) I will run some nework render tests. But I'm sure it will make a difference. I think I read somewhere that if you are doing a network render with two computers then the render time will be cut in half! Think that was on the Corel site. I'll keep you posted as soon as I get the app...if anybody has run tests out there please let us know! Jared

I for one am upgrading for my own reasons but one thing that seems to just jurk my chain is the prices the upgrade is being sold at. First morning it was released pc connection had it listed for $119.00. This was at 6am in the morning and by the time I got to work and was going to order it they were out. So Amazon sends me a deal they have it for $149 + shipping and because I couldn't find it anywhere else I ordered it only to find out they wouldn't receive their copies till July 23 or 27th. So Thursday night I hop over to Corel and ordered and cancelled the Amazon order and they sent it out on Friday. Now I come in here and see it for $99 dollars at Compusa. Why is there so much variations in the price of this version? Most software I've always purchased seems to run the about the same. Not a 1/3 differance from day to day.

Because Corel is scrambling to try and sell it, they realised that we weren't happy, next week it'll probobly be down to $49(what the upgrade should cost-cause it's barely an upgrade-more like a big patch).

"I think the update from 4 to 5 it is not enought to pay it. I am so sorry to say that, i hope many more of this update but..." "The difference between Bryce 4 and 5 is minimal at best." "Again this could have been an add on." "5 doesn't offer much new" "it's barely an upgrade-more like a big patch" "it's a very minor update" You've GOT to be kidding, right? You can do some amazing things with the new render (blurry reflections and transmissions, true ambience, depth of field) and lighting (soft shadows, shadow ambience, gradient lights) options, creating images that rival the high end packages. Optics options have also been added. You can control the ray depth and number of internal reflections in objects. The improved Terrain Editor, the ability to use maps at a resolution of up to 4096 instead of 1024 like Bryce 4. At the high resolution you'll see a lot more detail in your terrains and lattices. The sky integration is much better, it also has new options. There are 5 new mapping modes in the Material Editor, also volume shading and volume material shading, partial shadows for objects with volume materials. Multiple undo. User defined presets. These are just some of the new things in Bryce 5 without even mentioning Metaballs, network rendering, or the Tree Lab, where you can scan leaves from a real tree and use them on your Bryce trees, create not just trees but shrubs and plants. If these all these things don't mean anything to you, you're obviously not using Bryce to it's full potential Apparently some of you don't have a clue what a big improvement the new features are to Bryce, or what Bryce is about, if you did, you wouldn't be whining. Try reading the posts from Clay and rockjockjared again. Coldrake

on the subject of render speed. I used to wait 12, 13 hours for a 5 second render, then I paid $700 for a new box, motherboard and 1.1 Gig processor, I also got additional Ram ( I now have 640 MB). My renders are lightning fast. I can't wait to get home and install the upgrade. I think a few hundrd dollars on a new processor and memory (memory is dirt cheap now) is the way to go, any coments?

Lost Johnny, ram is ALWAYS good. It probably won't help out your render speed much, but whenever you start getting a lot of objects in your scenes this will make all the difference! What Operating System are you using? I'm guessing it's something NT based.?

Lost Johnny, You couldn't be more right,computer hardware prices are dirt cheap now, and they are faster than ever. That's a bonus for all of us. I'm buying a new computer soon, that's why I can't spend my money on software right now. I can't wait to build a new system, It'l blow my old one out of the water for half the price. My current system--- AMD Athlon 600MHZ cpu w/200MHZ frontside bus 448 MB SDRam ATI All in Wonder Pro 32 MB 2 Western Digital 27 GB Harddrives Pinnacle DV200 firewire card Yamaha Lightspeed 16x CDRW Soundblaster Live Now I can build a systwm twice as fast for half of what I paid for this. We are living in good time to buy computers. And yes I'll probobly end up buying Bryce 5 oneday, we all give in eventually. kaom

rockjockjared (spelling)? I use Windows ME. I confess I am one of those people who stands starry eyed at the door of the local electronics retailer waiting for the new operating system, so I can crash my old one and start from scratch, minus all my beloved photos of Jeneffer Love Hewitt and Rachel Leigh Cook, but that's another matter. ME works great now but I am having problems with firewire, I just bought Adobe streaming media bundle here at Stanford ($400 for Premere 6 After efects five, illustrater and something else... too cool)! I'm hoppng the firewire card have just installed will be compatable with adobe. ME is supposed to have the drivers for it, of course it doesn't, it's always somthing, that's cool though, Famous Babes has some new pictures of Jeniffer so I won't get bored.

Lost Johnny - LOL! I know the feeling about losing information when I rebuild! But I have a server that I use in the house to backup everything of any importance to me! It's just a PII 266 with 43gigs of space on it. But it's usefull for back up and one day network renders. You might want to CONSIDER going to a NT based OS. Win 2k and NT have better memory management along with some other nice features. kaom, I know how you feel about getting a new computer! I've been itching to get myself something better than what I currently have. I'm using a: PIII 600 128megs Ram 10gig HD 16meg ATI card Win 2k Unfortionately I'm doing my graphics on a laptop :( but it seems to work fine for now until I get some money and then I will invest in a new machine! Guess I should have put more money into the computer instead of the software!!! Oh well, I enjoy it...it can just be a little slow at times. Jared

How'd you get the Adobe mega-bundle for $400?? I imagine that is not the production bundle of After Effects, right? Even so, that's a great deal. How do you get it? It will cost me that much just to upgrade my 5.1c Premiere and my 4.1 Pro Bundle AE.

Bryce 5 is slower than Bryce 4 at rendering on a single machine. A test case on my machine ran 6:52 under Bryce 4.1 and 7:55 under Bryce 5.0 (on a 850 Mhz/256Meg laptop running windows ME). I hope its easy to set up the network rendering. That'll be exciting, except when the power goes out. Bryce 5 has crashed three times in the last two days. I can't remember the last Bryce 4 crash, but it is rare. Anyone else think that access to the menus is slower? But the trees are good. Bryce worlds were always so lifeless. But where the heck is the grass/weeds labs!

Huh,Huh,Weed Lab! That's pretty funny. But I know what you mean, some true vegetation would be nice. Too bad Vue D' Espirit doesn't export all that vegetation. kaom

Kaom wrote: That's just nonsense. Corel has nothing to do with it. It's the resellers that are scrambling to get your bucks. Spit