LonRanger, I think what it all boils down to is what you feel you will be most comfortable with. I think for you (someone who has never used Vue) it would be a good idea to wait for the Vue 4 demo to be released. That should be in a few weeks. You may even want to try the Vue 3 demo. Play with it and see if it's something you think you will like. As for rendering speeds, I really believe that Vue is faster by far. From what I've heard from Bryce 5 friends, version 5 doesn't render that much faster than version 4 if at all. And from what I've seen of Bryce 5 images, they look very Vue-like, so I would think that they make similar looking renders now since they both support soft shadows and blurred reflections. I cannot speak for animation, because I don't use it. I'll leave that question for those that are better informed :D. You seem to have plenty of power for either program :). Laurie