IMO Daz could care less about software. I brokered for them before they bought out Bryce 5 from Coral. As soon as they got Bryce they did a 5.5 update that basically put their name on the software. I immediately started brokering content for Bryce. There is not a lot of content too be made for Bryce (Skies, Materials, Terrains, Trees, other objects. ) The two guys who still broker Bryce product, are great and talented, ( they recently pointed me to the 7.1 upgrade at Daz ) But if I recall correctly, they are starting to Broker tutorial for Bryce. Which tells me, as talented as those guys are, there is only so much content people will buy for Bryce.

IMO what would save Bryce is for Daz or a competitor to do an upgrade that puts a plug-in or pathway into 3D gaming engines. So Bryce content, materials, animation, etc....can be easily broght into 3D gaming engines. That is where the big$$$$$ is in the industry now. I say Daz could careless about software, because these are some of the programs I have bought from them, that I can no longer download....Injection Magic, INJection Pose Builder 1.5, UTC Michael 3 Plugin, Universal Texture Convertor, The Tailor 1.5, Deep Paint 3D, Texture Weapons, ZBrush 2, Mega Software Bundle, Hexagon 2.5, & then some. There's only one item I out right sold too Daz that's still in the marketplace. ( The only one I made compatible with Daz Studio ) I refused to make anymore cause the software stinks IMO. {Poser Rocks} :)

Anyway that's my 2 cents of mindlessness.

Attached Link: Beer Time

My condolences for your loss Lyne, 17 years....guess he used up all nine.

Looks a lot like my daughters kitty. She kept asking for a cat...I kept saying no...

then one day ( 2 years ago ) one just showed up on our door step....

Guess a higher authority then me, thought she should have one.

Can't complain Tiger is a great cat.

If I recall correctly DAZ said it would be released some time in 2006, so my guess would be Dec 31, 2006

The light needs to Cast Shadows,  Set the light render options to Visible Object, Volume and Infinitive.

I use Ranged Falloff. This gives me control over how far the light is cast. When volume light over laps other lights in the scene weird things can happen. I also use gradients to set color and help control how far the light range is. (  but this can be very tricky ) Like AS said you will need some front light to make the viewed ( front ) of the objects visible. Range falloff will help keep the normal front lights from overlapping the back volume light.

Use a smoke object ( lick a giant sphere for the hazy smoke in the scene.

Volume light renders are very time consuming, so set the scene up with the back spot light using normal light.

Then afterwards set the light to volume and do plop renders to check the volume light in different areas.

Here's a scene I did awhile back which is close to what you are after.

If Bryce was to stay in one software company's hand for longer than an upgrade ( or half an upgrade ) Maybe it would only be  one year behind it's competition, instead of 3 or 4 years.

Nice work, I forgot about that one.....

I once tried the hand holding the crystal ball, but never got even close to it.

Reminds me of the topographical maps, I used to plan canoe trips  ( but back then there were no houses ). Only thing missing is the river. Nice work...

I usually just turn the wireframe res up high while I'm placing the imported mesh into position ( so I also have it high for motion too ). But once it's in place I either turn down the wireframe res. or turn it into bounding box display on the objects attributes menu. This helps keep the work flow running smoother.

Hold off about 2 or 3 months after the release of 6, I'll bet dollars to doughnuts DAZ will run some kind of special sale after the sales drop off ( because most of the current users upgraded ). Personally I'm debating on when I will upgrade. Most of what I have seen ( or heard about 6 ) doesn't have me jumping up & down for joy. I still use 5, because I find 5.5 just isn't stable enough for my needs. And I really don't like the way D/S imports the Poser figures. I like having complete control over all the mesh parts, and don't like the way D/S imports with material groups instead of individual body parts.

But I do get PC and Brokering discounts, so if the upgrade price is low enough. I might upgrade as soon as it comes out.  Hopefully with new code it will be more stable than 5.5, or I'll still be using Coral's 5.1 for most of my needs. Which now a days is mostly making stuff to sell at DAZ ....yup I sold out to the all mighty DAZ Buck...

What format are you exporting out of poser?

If there is no problem with the tex maps in poser there should be no problems with the tex maps in Bryce.

The best format to use is OBJ, I have seen problems with tex mapping when exporting as 3Ds out of Poser

( but I was not importing them into Bryce )

If your using OBJ out of Poser to Bryce make sure your mapping mode is set to Parametric in Bryce.

(( DAZ has said FULL DS animation support into Bryce,Which means Poser support which means animated everything...))

If you have to go through DS ( Poser to DS to Bryce ) then the poser animation support will have problems.

I don't use DS because EVER YTIME, I tried bringing something out of poser ( 4,5,or 6 ) into DS some part of the Figure is messed up ( cloths or props missing etc...)

The IBL looks interesting.

But when stating {exporting Bryce native objects to other file formats}. Does that include Bryce Trees? Trees and Terrains are what Bryce does best. Exporting Bryce Primitives is not that big of a deal. Why spend days doing metaball, Boolean models. When the same, more efficient, realistic model, can be made in a modeling program in 1/10th of the time. So the ability to export Bryce Trees would be a big plus, for pros as well as amateur. Trees and Terrains only take minutes to make in Bryce, compared to hours in modeling programs.

I sure hope more vegetation support is included in B6, along with the ably to export it.

IMO that feature alone would be a strong selling point to the 3D community.

I like most all Jazz old & new,  ....but when it comes to a band, Becker & Fagan of the  Steely Dan Band rocks my world.

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