Unless you plan on carrying this to the highest level, when you buy you may find you only need the "Complete" version. They have a feature to compare versions on the E-on website that lists all features.

Go to Cornucopia3d.com to see the best gallery from users. Some are very nice and there are some very talented people there. Vue is capable of remarkable renders, but like all programs of that nature the learning curve is high. However the user interface in Vue is better than most and very user freindly.

Plan on at least 200 hours just to crack the surface. You get out of it, what you put into it.

As to the other software for content creation, it is very expensive and the learning curve is such you have to spend the money for quality tutorials.

First you have to decide if this is a hobby or you want to master the software's. You have likely seen renders used in movies and what not far beyond what you see in the forums. Vue will do that.

Vue is also limited by your computer. Vue will only do what your computer is capable of handling. The first mistake is usually people getting angry because their computers are not powerful enough to do what they want to do. That is not Vue's fault. To get the most out of any of this software requires very expensive Workstations with high end graphics cards. Gaming computers are better than nothing, but not designed for programs like Vue. At the least you really need one of the best GeForce GPU's and if you can afford it a professional card designed for it. All the processors you can afford, 64 bit and all the RAM you can cram in there. If you have it, Vue will use it all.