anyone else having trouble downloading b5 demo? doesn't down load helper file 1st like it states. goes right in to demo download,have tried 3 times best i could due so far was 95%.it stops an doesn't restart.i have a v90 modem an 765 processor on aol.com.any help or ideas?------------------thanks in advance

Oh...the dreaded 95%... Uhm, try at night? Or at least try at different times. It may be getting hit up big time by a ton of people. Maybe even try changing your dial-up number for AOL, if you can. Too bad this isn't http based, people could have used GetRight or something. Good Luck! I have a cable modem but, I'm gonna wait a few days before trying, anyway. AgentSmith

Where can i get th demo from to do some test against b4, and is it a fully working version. thanx.

I got the trial without problems. However, I found the render times were averaging twice as long as B4's so I immediately canceled my order. It arrived anyhow and I can report that the real program renders much, much better. On my PC it is only 5% or less slower than B4 and some B4 scene files actually render faster in B5. If you are using the trial to test render times I suggest it is a complete waste of time, at least for the PC version. However, it is still useful to preview other aspects of B5.

I managed to download it yesterday. As has been said, I never sae the "helper" file at all, just straight to the demo .exe file. Took about 6 minutes on my cable modem. I have to say I was extremely surprised to see it rendering so slowly, even a simpel terrain with a simple texture seemed to take twice as long as Bryce 4 with the exact same settings, so I definitely wasn't impressed. But, Jack if you say that it's not like that with the full version, I believe you, and I'm glad I read this because I was really disgusted with what appeared at first glance to be Corel completely ruining a good thing. Maybe I'll get Bryce 5 after all, but I want to wait to see what normal "regular" people (not beta testers) are doing with it and read what they're saying.

Mike: The "biggies" that everyone is talking about are the trees and the metaballs. While both are worthwhile additions neither is particularly interesting to me. Note I say "to me". Others will love these. But there are a whole pile of other improvements as long as you can ignore the look of the interface, which I consider to be the height of visual poor taste. Terrain resolutions can be much higher. The windows task bar is honoured. You can now actually categorize your presets (except for the skies- how could they leave that out?). The light lab is a large improvement and the material lab is also better. There are many other features I haven't mentioned and I suspect many more I have not yet discovered. I could go on and on. None of these items are earth shaking by themselves but taken as a whole I would say it is a good thing. For my needs B5 is not a "must have" upgrade and I'm not at all sure that the large price increase is justified. Others will, and have, raved about it and called it the best Bryce upgrade yet. Overall, I don't think you can go wrong by upgrading. For myself, I am interested but not excited.

Oops... I forgot but must mention network rendering and soft shadows. You can now spread your rendering time over multiple computers for dramatic speed improvement. But while one hand gives the other takes away. Soft shadows are finally available but will slow you dowwwwwwnnnnnnn...

thanks for the input,Iwas able to download early this am. looks nice so far.need to try more things before deciding to purchase or not.