Wow, Vue Infinite has changed a lot since this thread was started.

Bryce is very capable, but it makes no sense anymore to compare it to Vue Infinite. Vue Infinite has moved into the studio realm, while Bryce is more for a hobbyist. For those who need Vue Infinites features, Vue makes sense. Expensive at first but after you get into the Maintenance plan it's annual costs are pretty reasonable.

Bryce is what got me interested too many years ago to admit. I loaded it a few weeks ago and realized I'd almost forgotten how to use the UI. Like all software, Vue becomes very intuitive after you have used it for a bit. The UI is very well thought out.

For a hobby though, I'd say cheaper versions of Vue are still superior to Bryce by far, as long as you have a capable workstation to run it on. It's not for a weak machine.

I've noted often people who complain don't understand how powerful Vue is and your experience will be very different if you don't have a powerful machine with great GPU with lots of VRAM and loads of RAM. Vue's performance is directly related to the quality of workstation its on. It's just not for an over the counter computer.