I haven't done my homework here so apologies ...

I recently upgraded my VUE Complete and was browsing through the examples when I saw a DEM landscape render. DEM's are real world data files representing landscapes. I had been struggling to create the San Francisco peninsula and the Bay in Carrara, and decided to give VUE a try. Worked great, Google found the DEM file and VUE did the rest. I found an old link showing that Carrara can import DEM, but I have not tried it:

http://www.carls-corner.net/tutorials/C4_DEM_GrndCntrl/C4_DEM_tute.htm

Anybody tried this? If its troublesome, I'm thinking maybe I can export the landscape mesh from VUE as an OBJ ... or something ...

I believe you need Digital Carver's "Ground Control" plugin to use DEM files. I looked into it a little bit a few months ago but I've never managed to even successfully download a DEM file (every site I found for them was either defunct, very confusingly setup or required a login) so I never bought the plugin and don't know how hard to use it is.

You can DEMs from the USGS site. Ground Control handles them rather nicely.

Thanks for the reply. I think I'll stick with VUE for now ... I can do the wide landscape shots there, and the closer shots in Carrara ...

Here is where I found the San Francisco DEM's, I downloaded the "San Francisco North" file, including the Golden Gate, the Peninsula, and Alcatraz Island, all of which are part of my animation. It downloads as a text file, which you have to convert to a *.dem file by getting Windows to delete the *.txt extension. Windows Explorer can do this if you kick it hard enough ...

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/EART/dem/dem.html

I have the Ground Control plugin. It works flawlessly, just load the DEM and it imports right away with no difficulty.

OK, $30 is affordable. If I get frustrated trying to get my Poser items into VUE (supposed to work with the latest VUE), I'll get it. I'm way more comfortable working in Carrara anyway. Although I have to say VUE does great landscapes. Here is a render based on a VUE tutorial in 3D World years ago:

http://pre01.deviantart.net/87df/th/pre/f/2010/307/1/3/vue_8_test_render_by_cplneverlast-d324163.jpg

Vue 2015 imports Poser models well too, but it doesn't recognise Poser 11, just 10/Pro2014 and earlier (when you set up the Poser importer for Poser 10 or Pro 2014 use the 2013 SDK).

wheatpenny posted at 10:01PM Thu, 22 September 2016 - #4284435

Vue 2015 imports Poser models well too, but it doesn't recognise Poser 11, just 10/Pro2014 and earlier (when you set up the Poser importer for Poser 10 or Pro 2014 use the 2013 SDK).

Right, I had trouble with whatever combination I had, but now I have VUE 2015 and Poser Pro 2014. Thanks for the tip on the SDK. But I still cannot animate Poser content in VUE, right? I.e. I can only import animations done in Poser itself?

This kind of problem is why I like Carrara, virtually all my Poser content loads seamlessly from Carrara's browser, and can be animated in Carrara. No Poser needed. Admittedly its mostly older content, e.g. Gen4 characters & clothes - I've read some newer Poser content is different.

A humorous aside, the first thing I put on a new machine is Poser 7, to get its Runtime for Carrara: M4, V4, etc., none of which I think is included in later Poser versions.