Thinking hard about investing in Vue, mostly for the sake of its excellent render engine. How easy/not easy is it to transfer Poser PZ3s, generated on a Mac, into Vue (meaning, if it's as big a pain in the ass as trying to texture multiple figures in Bryce, forget it). I've looked through the thread archive here and get what seem like conflicting answers. Thanks very much for any info you-all can provide.

Sorry Mosca to be unable to answer to you, as I don't have a Mac. I hope here will come somebody soon who can explain. The Vue patch 06 what just came out, seems to resolve the last problems, also for Mac, but as I cannot try it... Guitta

Sorry, but I can't speak for the Mac version, either. But if it's anything like the PC version, PZ3 import is as simple as importing any other format. Just import the file and everything--textures, bumps, trans, etc--comes with it. Some people have had problems with bumps but I never did. And they say that problem's been fixed. In any event, it's a lot easier than the horror you have to go through with Bryce.

Mosca, I am a Mac vue user and as of 4.0.5 there is no Mac PZ3 import, so the horror is identical to the one in Bryce right now. I don't think 4.0.6 fixes this either, I looked at the list and it wasn't there. The problem may be with CuriousLabs. I have heard they need to release a Mac OSX version of Poser or the Pro pack possibly before Vue can make this fix. I am not sure why either because old Mac files read fine in OSX - why wouldn't poser PZ3's be the same? I hope eon can clarify this for us, I too am dying for the Pz3 import feature - it would save a ton of time.

Heya Mosca, long time no see. ;) There is a problem with the .pz3 import on Mac. It has something to do with Poser not being written for OS X, or something like that. Word is either E-on or CL are working on something (maybe a patch) to take care of that, but I have no specific info on it. I'm sure it will be worked out, but it might take a while. The good thing is, the OBJ import works fine from what I hear, but yes, that would be similar to doing it in Bryce. Although personally I find that applying textures in Vue to be seriously less complicated than in Bryce (4, I don't know about Bryce 5), and the Vue way of naming imported groups and materials makes it way more obvious what's what. You might wish to ask E-on Software themselves before considering a purchase, if the .pz3 import is a very important thing to you.

Mosca, I can confirm all the statements above. Tough e-on told me in a letter that the Poser import would work with the next version which has been released yesterday 4.06, it actually still doesn't work that easy. :( You still have to use the roundabout way of the OBJ-conersion method. But to be fair I have to assume that it's much easier than Bryce, since the whole interface of Vue is much more user friendly than Bryce's. And I know what I'm talking about since I used Bryce for quite awhile ;) I'd recommend Vue since it's rendering engine is much faster than Bryce. Hoped that helped you a little to make a decision. Cheers, Phil

I agree with the above statement as far as render speed - Vue is faster than Bryce (and I've been using Bryce since version 1). Obj conversion is exactly what you have to do in Bryce, but at least in Vue all the maps come in already applied and you don't have to re-apply them. As far as being user-friendly THAT is in the eye of the beholder. I think Bryce's material editor is easier to use myself. The overall interfaces are very similar. They are both fine apps and right now Vue definitely has the edge in speed and animation abilities. It also has the edge in atmospherics - the volumetric skies look gorgeous and render MUCH faster than Bryce volumetric worlds. I now have both apps in my toolbox and I am very happy with that decision.

Thanks all--that helps a lot. I'll be a Vue newbie before too long, hanging around here and asking tons of stupid questions (and waiting for the upgrade!)