I've spent the last 2 days wondering what's the difference between the free Bryce 7 version & the Bryce 7 that's on sale at DAZ.   Just recently started using the program,  so I'm not all that familiar with it. 

 The answer is probably in plain site somewhere & I'm just not seeing it..

The free version is for personal, non-commercial use only.

There is also the pro version which is also on sale.

http://www.daz3d.com/i/software/bryce7/comparison?_m=d

Quote - The free version is for personal, non-commercial use only.

And doesn't get free updates due to that.. ...

Thanks Much.. I thought the license might be the only difference but I wanted to be sure.  I did look at the Pro version but decided to just go with Bryce 7 for now. 

 I haven't had time to learn more then the basics so far but I really do like the program. Been wondering why it took me so long to get around to trying it..

Thanks Again..

Plus there's no documentation for it, but if you hunt around there's a fairly decent thread with hints and tips for it - on daz forums I think.

If you did decide to get the pro version I could hunt down that thread for you.

There are a few other things that you can't get in the free version, like:

Distant Lights, True Parallels, Light Domes and 3D Fill Lights, but I made a couple of light domes before those came out and I still use them, plus I made light sets using 3 point lighting, and I still use them too... so really you can manage without them.

The Pro does 'True Ambience' too, and that eats processing power, so I rarely use that, it also does displacement - very badly.

Object importing is still messed up, oh it'll import the model okay now, but the naming system is totally hashed up.  This is intensely irritating to me.

I love using the IBLs with all the new controls for it, you can even use the Bryce sky for your own internal IBL - and you can export it for use in other progs... I'm not sure if an exported HDR could be used in the free Bryce.... That would be interesting to know.

(further to this, I just tested an hdr image created in Bryce7Pro, and it works just fine in Bryce6.3, so I don't see why it shouldn't also work in the free Bryce7 (- which by the way is no longer free, I guess you got it just in time!)

Tone mapping the IBLs can give you some incredible loopy effects, and some nice normal effects too.

There's also a new particle emitter, but you can use that in the free Bryce too, according to Daz's comparison list.

Here's how:

http://www.youtube.com/user/WWWDAZ3DCOM#p/c/3CB43D9875EDD1C8

Myrtha, it probably took you so long to get Bryce7 because you were merrily playing with Poser and Daz, and making all those nice models of yours.

Which is what I'm trying to do now.... (Poser and DazStudio)

insert smillie showing evil twisted grin with a hint of maniacal desperation. Lol!

Thanks for the info Fran.  I opted for just plain Bryce 7. So far I've just been using the default lighting for images. I tried following a lights tutorial but mine sure didn't look like theirs in the end. LOL..  At least it doesn't look as confusing to me as Posers does.  I quit trying to figure those out a llllloooonnnngggg time ago.. Actually, I haven't found anything about Poser that I like & I hope you have better luck with doing the props for it then I did.

Quote - Thanks for the info Fran.  I opted for just plain Bryce 7. So far I've just been using the default lighting for images. I tried following a lights tutorial but mine sure didn't look like theirs in the end. LOL..

Oh?  Do you know which tutorial that was?  I often find that any tutorial that involves the IBL lab never EVER looks the same as the tutor's does, because they always use things that most people can't get without paying for them.  There are a lot of free IBL's/hdr images, that it would be so much better if they'd only use those.

Plus, the last 2 tuts I looked at also used models or scenery that were not available to everyone, either made by the tutor or bought somewhere, if only people doing tuts would use things that everybody could get hold of then everybody could follow them.

Quote -   At least it doesn't look as confusing to me as Posers does.  I quit trying to figure those out a llllloooonnnngggg time ago.. Actually, I haven't found anything about Poser that I like & I hope you have better luck with doing the props for it then I did.

Yes, I found out that Bryce was easier than Poser back when Poser was.... Poser3 or 2 and Bryce was Bryce3D, even though the controls looked similar, Bryce was always much the easier to use.

I don't think I am having better luck making props for it, I made a poser.cr2 file for a model, but although I could use it no problem, my tester had problems with it he said.  And the trouble is I have no idea what to do about it.

I think I'll have to forget about Poser, and just stick with Bryce and Daz.

Um... Myrtha, would a light dome be any use to you?  (For Bryce?)  I could let you have the one I made, if that would help.  You just stick a model in the centre under the dome, and raise or lower the dome to get the amount of light you want.

Haven't used the particle emitter yet but did have it crash in the dte yesterday, twice! That never happened to me before all the way back to Bryce 3d. Renders pretty fast but still has the same old file size limitations and white squares in the mats. If that happens try switching between user and installed a couple of times. That usually clears it up.

ArtByMivan,

No I never used to have the DTE crash Bryce before Daz 3d took it over either, but then we never had the ability to use particles or instancing or displacement or IBL before either... and even if only the IBL works at all as it should, or has it's own lab - well perhaps they'll get around to smoothing out the Instancing, Particles and Displacement one day.

Can you explain what you mean by 'white squares in the mats'?  I don't think I've ever come across that myself.

Quote - ArtByMivan,

No I never used to have the DTE crash Bryce before Daz 3d took it over either, but then we never had the ability to use particles or instancing or displacement or IBL before either... and even if only the IBL works at all as it should, or has it's own lab - well perhaps they'll get around to smoothing out the Instancing, Particles and Displacement one day.

Can you explain what you mean by 'white squares in the mats'? I don't think I've ever come across that myself.

By white squares I meant what happens to your images in the edit and create categories when they have too many files. If this happens in edit then generally if I switch between the user files and the installed files it clears up. I have also had crossover between the create files and the edit files; that is when having been in the create section and changing to the edit section the images from create show up when edit is selected. Great fun! Unfortunately I've already changed some of my old files to vers. 7 in the anticipation of purchasing the pro version. Probably will be my last upgrade. Going on 64 this fall.

Oh the libraries!  Yes, I remember that panic that used to cause me, there used to be a limit to the number of files you could have in any library... or No, I think it's the gigs that a library can hold.

Yes it's 2 gigs.

But in any case you can now add any number of new library categories and add new objects (or mats) to that.

However there is also a method to use to clean up old about to be full libraries, especially where you've deleted files - but as we know (to our cost!) Bryce only deletes the icon not the actual file.

Here's a link to where Rashad Carter explains how to do it:

http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=165850&highlight=bryce+library+sizes

I hope that helps.

And please don't say you're going to give up next year, remember what the commander says:

Never give up! Never surrender!

(ggg, one of my favourite films that is)

If you had only gotten here a little earlier. I just finished deleting all the the garbage and keeping only what I wanted. Wonder if the files will go ahead and delete without the links?

We gonna tryyyyyyyyy!

Quote - If you had only gotten here a little earlier. I just finished deleting all the the garbage and keeping only what I wanted. Wonder if the files will go ahead and delete without the links?

We gonna tryyyyyyyyy!

 

 

That didn't work. Will have to save all of my carefully selected mats and obj's in image files and then delete vers 7 and reinstall it to try Rashads method. It would be a helluva lot easier if we had the option of installing this stuff from the gitgo instead of having it forced on us. If that were the case I would not be using any booleans, primitives or most of the other garbage.

Ooh I like booleans, but I like even more making my own.

Did you look at the file size before and after you deleted?

If the file size was the same then all you probably deleted was just the icon in the library:

If Corridors was the same as Corridors (2) but had those 6 items deleted using the Delete button indicated, then looking at both files in Win Explorer, would show both files as the same size

(actually they are not, as one is the early "Corridors" Object Library, and "Corridors (2)" is actually a later one and those 6 files are later additions.

In fact I never EVER use that delete button, what I do is create a new library file/category, save each item that I want to keep, adding it to the new category until I have all the ones I want and then if I don't want the others at all, I'd delete the bigger category.

But I don't think I've done that since I first learned that deleting using that delete button inside a library doesn't delete anything but the pic. 

I use my "create a new category method" if I want to save some files seperately from the rest, usually to give to people, or put up for freebies etc

I hardly ever delete anything, unless it's a non-working object, or an embarrasingly bad material maybe...

Which is why I have such a huge objects library:

And my materials library is even bigger!!

Um... just wondering ArtByMivan, why do you need to delete vers 7?

Could'nt use Rashads method otherwise as I understand it. I.e. select and export . Stored stuff as items in image. After delete and re-install I will open those images and reload my objects and mats to the libraries. Sneaky but effective. Will type more in a couple of days. Using one hand method as thumb was not effective as tablesaw brake this morning. Oowie, oowie, oowie.

Mike

OK, back with new approach. I mis-understood Rashaids method. He means to delete from the program folder rather than from the program itself. That works then. Select the items you want to save and export them to a separate folder so they can be re-loaded. Then go to programs>daz>bryce>presets and delete the offending section. Re-open Bryce, select the section heading and click on the - minus key to delete the section heading. You can then reload the previously saved mats/objects in another heading or back into the same heading as you wish.

Mike

Oh yes, to delete a whole preset you need to find it inside Program files via explorer, not from inside Bryce.

Sorry I should have made that clear.

You know, that delete button inside Bryce's libraries should be renamed "Delete Icon Only".

Lol!

"Then go to programs>daz>bryce>presets and delete the offending section. Re-open Bryce, select the section heading and click on the - minus key to delete the section heading."

There's no need to do that, you can delete the *.obp file from Program Files/Daz3D/Bryce7Pro/Presets/Objects/Corridors, and if you've then got nothing you want to keep inside the folder called "Corridors" you can delete that while you are in Program files at the same time - no need to go back into Bryce for that.

Me I'd keep the folder (or category) and just export the new presets to the same folder like this:

I can now delete the category: "CorridorsSciFi (2)" as I have exported all the contents into separate presets, like "Doors" and "Corridor Accessories" etc etc

"You can then reload the previously saved mats/objects in another heading or back into the same heading as you wish." Not if you've deleted it as you said earlier. Lol!

Anyway, I'm glad you've got it sorted, now if I can just find some of that stuff called 'spare time' so I can tidy up ***my*** presets too... sigh.

 

"Anyway, I'm glad you've got it sorted, now if I can just find some of that stuff called 'spare time' so I can tidy up my presets too... sigh."

Say Fran, do you do Daz Studio and Poser also????? LOL, Just kidding. I think I might have them licked but it took major surgery.

Mike

I do use DazStudio and Poser a little yes.  But there I'm more the learner, as I know less about them.

I got Poser3d at the same time as I got Bryce3d way, way back. But although they looked similar Bryce was much easier to use,

a) it had more inside it, and

b) adjusting the movements were much much easier as well, for anything from changing the camera angle to moving an object.

I found movements in Poser very, very hard to be accurate with, camera movements swung wildly about, and I'd keep overshooting or undershooting the movement of objects, when needing accuracy. 

I now use Poser5 (the one that was free from Content Paradise a few years ago) and the movements are easier, and I must admit I do like the nice easy way you can add 'crunch' to a UV Mapped model using the Diffuse texture or a specifically created Bump map Texture for the purpose: in Poser5 when you add a texture to the Bump channel, the model looks all crunchy as if it really did have lots of nicks and scratches (I'm into Grunge and Rust a lot!) to me that's the one good thing about Poser5.

I've recently tried the Beta4 version of Daz Studio Advanced, and I really did enjoy playing with the bricks for making shaders, that was lots of fun, but it's no longer free.

Now that DazStudio 4 is released the Beta no longer works, and if you want to used Advanced you have to revert to DS3 for that. But while the beta worked I had a lot of fun with making shaders in the Shader Builder. But since the Beta died, I haven't even opened DazStudio. 

I can have a lot more fun much more easily in Bryce's DTE. (Deep Texture Editor) Not the most intuitive Lab to use, but you can have a lot of fun just experimenting with stuff in there, and there are even some tutorials on the DTE around.

Say, if you have Poser and DazStudio licked, do you use the Advanced Figure Setup Tools at all?  I wanted to know if it would be of any use to me - as a non-figure user.

I make most of my models in Wings3D, and then import them into Bryce to see what they look like in a render, but it seems that if I want to sell anything I have to make them useable in Poser by means of a .cr2 file. And DazStudio's Figure Setup Tools has a cr2 exporter. But I'm not sure about the Advanced Figure Setup Tools' usefulness to me.

The Bryce stuff and the obj files are all ready to go, but I need DazStudio versions and Poser versions it seems, and the cr2 I made in Poser5 is not working in a tester's Poser8.

I am not much of a user in either posing program. Still have my original CD's for both Bryce 3 and Poser 3 sitting on the shelf. My image interest lies mainly in the natural world and figures are used only to define the scene not as the primary object of interest. Guess I will have to get back to some figure posing for future images but as far as using all of the new gadgets, bells and whistles, I simply don't. It is sort of like our high tech giant TV in the living room with all of the myriad buttons on the controller. I focus on the on/off function and the channel selector function. The rest of the stuff might as well not even be there. I grew up in the fifties when the most sophisticated thing around was a clock radio and that was enough for me! Still have my original Sears Silvertone 7 Transistor Radio as well and that is probably at least 50 years old. It works!

Since DS4 is no longer free I guess that explains why the serial numbers were removed from my Daz account as well as the D'loads. Thats Ok as everything was saved to file all the way back to vers 1.4. As far as Poser I have vers. 3,4, 5, 6,and 7 on file. Bryce, I have every vers. from 3 on and also all of the KPT plugins for Photoshop which can be accessed from the DTE in Bryce including vers 7PLE. I made sure about that immediately upon downloading it.

If you get the new version of PD Paint, the Howler, you will go crazy with all of the stuff in there. Sort of like having all of the KPT filters, Xenofex, Alien Skin, Eye Candy, and a few others all in one program plus particle brushes.

Mike

Quote - I am not much of a user in either posing program.

Me neither, I do more modeling than ... using figures.

Quote - Still have my original CD's for both Bryce 3 and Poser 3 sitting on the shelf. My image interest lies mainly in the natural world and figures are used only to define the scene not as the primary object of interest.

Yup me too, not so much the natural world though, for me it's more textures and shapes, I'm very into shapes and patterns just now, but I also love rust and the patterns that can create naturally, especially when in contact with or on man made materials.

I mostly just use figures to give scale to my models and scenes - when I use them at all.

Quote - Guess I will have to get back to some figure posing for future images but as far as using all of the new gadgets, bells and whistles, I simply don't. It is sort of like our high tech giant TV in the living room with all of the myriad buttons on the controller. I focus on the on/off function and the channel selector function. The rest of the stuff might as well not even be there. I grew up in the fifties when the most sophisticated thing around was a clock radio and that was enough for me! Still have my original Sears Silvertone 7 Transistor Radio as well and that is probably at least 50 years old. It works!

Oh now I like modern technology, but sometimes it doesn't like me.

Quote - Since DS4 is no longer free I guess that explains why the serial numbers were removed from my Daz account as well as the D'loads. Thats Ok as everything was saved to file all the way back to vers 1.4.

Oh no, the basic or standard version is still free - even in release 4.  But the Beta had all the abilities active, so for the first time I could try out things that are only available normally for the Advanced versions.

Quote - As far as Poser I have vers. 3,4, 5, 6,and 7 on file. Bryce, I have every vers. from 3 on and also all of the KPT plugins for Photoshop which can be accessed from the DTE in Bryce including vers 7PLE. I made sure about that immediately upon downloading it.

KTP Plugins? Is that something to do with Kai Power Tools?  I used to have that once, you could morph a picture of your husband with a picture of your dog...  I don't know what happend to that but I didn't know you couldn get plugins for PhotoShop that would work with Bryce, how does that go?

Quote - If you get the new version of PD Paint, the Howler, you will go crazy with all of the stuff in there. Sort of like having all of the KPT filters, Xenofex, Alien Skin, Eye Candy, and a few others all in one program plus particle brushes. Mike

Howler?  I never heard of that before...

Hi Fran

By the way, thanks for the log I used in Aquila Bellator. I think that was one of your freebies from the distant past. Remember Lisa on Brycetalk? Yup, that long ago.

Bryce uses the same filters as the older Photoshop, and some others, that is the 8bf format. Go into the DTE and click on the A channel. When the screen with leonardo pops up click on the pink button in the upper left hand corner, second from the left. That brings up the pictures library with old Leo front and center. Between each of the picture panels is a small triangle that says "filter image." When you click on the triangle it requests you to direct it to your plugins folder. In most cases that would be something like C>Program files>Adobe>Photoshop>Plugins. Once that path is established you can use those filters on any texture in the DTE. One of my favourites was/is KPT Convolver and also Xenofex Lightening. that about sums up my technical expertise in Bryce.

As to the KPT or Kais Power Tools they had versions from 1 to 7 and also Convolver, KPT Goo, KPT Gel and maybe a couple others I missed. Xenofex also makes some cool filters.

PD Howler is the latest and fastest version of the old faithful Dog Waffle. After which came PD Particles and vers. 3,4 and now Howler. It is a paint program but in comparison to the others I have such as PSP, PS and the Corel Programs it is like a paint program on steroids. Very reasonably priced as well.

Mike

DAZ Studio 4 is free still. I have my Serial number on my account. Maybe a SERIAL KILLER? Sorry!!! Couldnt help myself! Too tempting.