Yes, the rendering engine, while updated as wabe says, is not equivalent to one of the stand-alone rendering engines that cost more than $500.00 USD. But, that is to be expected. BUT, it sure is nice to be able to paint landscapes with plants again, to make stones and rocks, and make decent water for lakes, harbors and oceans. In most of the big-name software that I use (Maya and MAX), we can create clones of plant models and then "scatter" them to populate landscapes. But, these processes are nowhere nearly as good as Vue, and there usually is no mechanism for creating random variations in those clones. And, silly as this sounds, I need a lot of rocks and stones in my work. Now, I have a decent rock generator again. Finally, I need to be able to create better water than in this river harbor scene (draft quality rendered here in Maverick Render). So, short of requiring Realflow or Houdini, I'll be able to create more realistic eddies, ripples and direction changes in the water current around my boats.

I'm liking this and I'm grateful to have a current copy of Vue.