I think I saw something about recovering tmp files in the new beta update. YOu should check that out.

Yes, I'm excited to see what they've added in 6 too! Vue's always broken new grounds with each release - I can't wait to see what it will be in 6.

I tried C5Pro but was very disapointed. The feature set is impressive alright. It promises a lot, but  in the end, I found it rather, um, shallow. Like an application that's trying to do everything but doesn't manage to do anything really well - it's stretched too thin. But it's definetely worth cojnsidering if you're looking at getting into 3D. If you're serious, I'd recommend Cinema4D or LightWave (they had a great deal with eon until recently).

My 2 cents :-)

Frankly, I'm getting tired of these people promoting Carrara on the Vue forum. It's a free world, for cripe's sake! Not everybody wants to use Carrara. I bought a copy but gave up on it pretty soon. It's not for me, but I'm happy if it works for you - provided you keep your joy to the Carrara forum. 

Believe it or not, some people enjoy Vue and are happy with the what e-on is doing.

Actually, there's a simpler way to do the Fresnel effect: in the transparency tab of the material editor, there's a slider that controls the "turn reflective with angle". That's how Vue calls Fresnel. You can even modulate the effect.

Wow! 2 bucks! Who could resist? Not me, LOL! It's clever marketing, because a lot of people will subscribe to Platinum only to get Hex2.

However, don't fool yourselves, this also means that no more development will ever go into Hexagon. This product is technically dead - which makes sense considering DAZ is primarily a content developper: better kill a product with a bright flash than let it fade slowly to grey like they did with Bryce. At least they learnt from that. Carrara is probably somewhere on the list too.

Should e-on and e-frontier worry? I'm not sure. They aren't in the same business. DAZ doesn't have a clue about software development, and they're smart enough to admit it. But this certainly doesn't mean that other software developpers should stop working their a**es off to improve the tools we love! Let's face it, I'll be the first to get Vue 6 when it's released! :-)

My 2 cents :-/

My experience with e-on tech support is also very good. A lot better than what I usually get from similar companies. Make sure you're as factual and explicit as you can in your reports. If you can't get a good answer, you can always revert to the update that worked for you.

The trick is to drive color using an object position node, like in the tut in the Infinite manual.

Difficult question really. Depends on what you do with Bryce and how you use it. I'd say Easel is the closest to Bryce, but if you're very proficient with Bryce, then maybe Esprit would be a better choice? In any case, whichever solution you choose, e-on offers smooth upgrade paths so you can always upgrade later if you find your version too limited.

Wow! Way to go, e-on! Vue 5 I is really a terrific product, but knowing ILM itself uses it, wow, that's a sacrament!

OK. Obviously you've made up your mind, and you'll never purchase anything from Cornucopia because you don't like the fact that they give us a choice. It's a free world. I respect your point of view, although I don't understand your reasoning. I don't see much to add to this conversation. Good luck.

Iloco, the way I understand it, copy-protection has to be handled by the software. There's no way the content can do that by itself. Obviously, you're free not to buy copy-protected content if you don't want it. But why would the fact that we're offered an option put you off buying anything from Cornucopia? I don't get it. We're all entitled to our opinion, and I'd just like to express the fact that, unlike others, I'm rather happy e-on and Cornucopia are offering us this option.

Bryce, LW and others don't offer a copy protection option. So you have to pay full price for your content, even if all you want to do is render it. Whether it was a good business decision from e-on is a good question. Indeed, I guess only time will tell. But I do know quite a few people who are glad e-on is offering this option so they can save a bit of money. I myself usually go for non copy-protected stuff, but I have occasionally gotten the cheaper copy-protected versions when I only needed an item for a render. Besides, if you find out that you need to export it later, you can always upgrade to the non copy protected version and only pay the difference. Pretty fair deal if you ask me.

If you import something into Vue, there's no problem to export it. Sure, if you buy a copy-protected item, you can't export it. E-on has been quiet clear about that. The way I understand e-on's reasoning is that some people are not interested in exporting their content to other apps, and e-on is simply offering them the opportunity to get their content cheaper. If you want to be able to export your content, well, don't buy copy-protected items. Go for the non-copy protected versions which are offered at Cornucopia, or stick to "generic" formats. E-on is just giving us more options. What's wrong with that?!

Vue is a nice piece of software that lets you create stuff that no other software does. It's also got a lot of otpions to connect to Max and other 3D apps. As such, it would be a very nice complement to your toolkit. As I see it, Carrara does a lot of things, but isn't brilliant at anything. Personnaly, I foud it rather disapointing. It's actually quite limiting, and my guess is that this is the reason why some folks find it more "stable". I'd go with Vue, if I was you.

#1 for the good laugh!