I have Bryce 3, a few weeks ago I bought Bryce 4 (not knowing a few days later Bryce 5 was coming out). Now I still work in B3 because B4 is unacceptably slow. Is that really the case, or is it just me and big question: how fast is B5 compared to B3, esspecially with complex scene's?

There is no speed dif....providing the scenes are the same... you do Volumetrics, transparances things like that in B4,5 and yes it will be slower.. So I guess to answer your question...providing all is equal they are the same.

I wouldn't say they're all the same... I tried the exact same scene in B4 and B5 with the same render options and the B5 was wayyyy slower. :-( BTW, if you want to try it out for yourself, there is a 20 day trial version of B5 on the Corel website. That's where I got it so I could compare speeds. :o)

From what I read you can not compare speeds of Bryce 5 with the demo. I've heard/read that it is ALOT slower than the shipping product.

This is true, Bryce 5 Demo times are twice as long as the non-demo version. As compaired to Bryce 4, Bryce 5 renderded almost the same with all the settings being the same.

I also think version 3 is the fastest. I've loaded 4 and have been using it ever since. I've also tried 5 because a friend was stupid enough to buy it even though he's read all of the negative reviews about 5's render time. The only reason I haven't reverted to 3 is simply because I'm too lazy to go through the process. Yes, I realize it will only take minutes to dump 4 and reload 3. My opinion of 5 is that it is way too slow, slower than anything they've released, no matter what you hear or read.

I'm not saying it isn't slower, just that the demo version is supposedly not up to par. I can now agree that the demo version is slower as I just got my B5 installed and did some pics. Haven't tried any from B4 yet so I can't say if it's the same speed or not. I like the full version so far even if it is slower. As this is just a hobby for me I don't need super fast renders anyway. Would be nice though! :)

BR5 is plenty fast for me if you use a fast comp. IE 1.2ghz with ddr ram

I've found that if you reduce the value of Maximum Ray Depth from 6 to a smaller number the render time improves in some situations and is comperable to Bryce4. That, at least, is my experience. :-) TomD

Thanks. I'll try that. But what situations are you talking about?

Reflective/refractive surfaces. My understanding is - and I could be WAY wrong - that Maximum Ray Depth controls how many transparent materials that a ray is allowed to pass through before the program determines the final appearance/color of whats on the far side. So, when you have complex transparency situations, like you might get with an eye or with some of the layered Poser hairs, this can cut down how much time it takes to think about that stuff...now it may reduce the fidelity of the output, but I haven't really noticed anything. All that said, that's what I think is going on. I've seen a slight reduction in render times when I turn that down. I could be wrong as to exactly why. TomD