This in done in BR5, although it would work just fine in BR4. I didn't use any new techniques, just a few fun volume textures and a bunch of spheres...! TJ, I remember Starview! I miss that little app, it taught me sooo much, especially about Sirius and all the Orion stars. I recently found a similar star program and used it to map orion for a scene I was working on... Skymap Pro 7 I think, but it's on my machine at home so I can't be sure...! Still, for no postwork I was kinda stoked how this one worked out. Thanks for all the comments, everyone! Rochr, let's just say that all of my work happens on or around Shila, the so-called destroyed homeworld of the Saaur... Beauty in chaos!

Eric, I apologize, a while back I thought you meant you were modeling objects with Universe, the Starfield program! Why didn't you set me straight? Good stuff, and a great question for Bryce-physics! Have you considered making the texture map of the logo into an actual object? This would let you use the Mask options in the Bryce renderer. I did this with some books a while back, for the gold-leaf cover effects on the bindings...

What a great thread! You can feel the spark of violence and defensiveness at the mere thought of the Bryce God being usurped! That said, Terragen is clown shoes. I totally agree with Tempest, and if that pic wasn't already posted to show Eric what's up I'd do it myself! Compare the two, and Bryce easily competes, and in my opinion is much deeper. But it's all about the artist, as well... I've seen both of you two do awesome work! Enough whining, no more energy need be spent comparing, only creating...! Don't you people have lives? (laughs long and hard at hisself) Go RENDER STUFF!

(bows to you) You got it, it's the artist, not the tools that count. I wish I could paint more watercolors myself! I'm Norwegian, born in Korea... Viking Ninja by birth, Dragonrider by faith...

Aye, I've always held the opinion that I can smoke anything Terragen could ever make, given the available images here at renderosity, but that's just my ego talking. I don't know anything about EI animator, but isn't Universe just for making starfields and such? I have 1.62 on my work machine, and I can't imagine you comparing it to Bryce at all Eric so I'm curious if the new version is 3D or anything? Still, given BR5's sick rendering capabilities, even when I'm using lightwave as more than a test I'm sure I'll be rendering all kinds of stuff in Bryce still... It's simple, you schmucks at Corel who AREN'T reading this thread but SHOULD be : - Exponential growth! At least TRY and keep up with Nvidia! Is that too much to ask? I made a son, I'm sure thirty people at Corel can make us a KILLER Bryce 6. (again I apologize for all the damn commas!)

Aye, I'm with you on that Rayraz, the only way people "buy" top-end stuff like that is with a business loan or something, really, and I'll hopefully be in that position soon... (cackles at himself)

Aye, again I can't stress Corel's massive marketing mistake in keeping us here at Renderosity guessing. If I knew who their marketing director was, I'd fire him myself. Can anyone say "insider trading"? But we should remember that the Bryce team consists of many O.G. Bryce creators, and that Corel as a company merely publishes Bryce. If Corel's PR group sucks, that may not have anything to do with Bryce 6 as a product... But I don't need prescience to feel the coming disappointment. Corel is ****ing clown shoes... to paraphrase Ben Affleck.

Aye, I've used 3, 4, and now 5, and I currently use Bryce 4 at work (in my spare time of course! HAH!) and run Bryce 5/Lightning at home, and I totally agree with Eric. The Material Lab for example is nearly identical in 5, 4, and 3, so I find myself making textures at work and e-mailing them to myself for home use. I've found them both (4&5) to be nearly uncrashable; although I heard that 5 was unstable before the patch, I never used it without it. If Corel wants ME to buy Bryce 6, it better kick ass. Big Time. I found Terragen a joke, and Eric you silly monkey, one doesn't "move on" to Universe, that would be like "upgrading" Bryce to Photoshop! But still, Lightwave is in the trees, the air I breathe, calling my name...

Aye, I think C2 rocks, it's much more Bryce-like in it's camera powr and the way it functions, and it flows better than RDS 5 ever did....

Got it! 3 - Rochr 2 - ICM 1 - Lynn Dee! Good job everyone, damn deadlines, I was almost done! (I'll post mine later anyway, in open DEFIANCE of TIME ITSELF!)

I've never had a problem with soft sky shadows, under any circumstances. And I never, under ANY circumstances, use the default sky! Maybe one could upgrade to version 5.01 or whatever?

Aye, another good one is Amorphium Pro (Electric Image). It's got a clay-type modeler for realtime sculpting, a wax modeler for melted objects, bio-spheres which are much like metaballs, and all kinds of morphing and optics tools. It lack the severe power of NURBS or facet modeling, but it's pretty cheap.

Aye, BryceTech, it was a goad, you know a tactic to get you to say something! I have no ill-will towards you, nor meant any by any of this. I was just uncertain, and I'm stuck with Win 98 for now so it actually affects me or whatever. As the alleged "weeny-of-the-first-part" and a longtime overt enemy of Microsoft, and having just now got my LAN setup (gonna try Lightning out tonight), I am as bitter towards Corel as anyone could be, who doesn't know them personally. Damnit more commas. Bikermouse, all I did was snapshot Virtual Desktop from Hyper-Snap DX4, a silly little app I found on Cnet, then clip his comments in Photoshop, then into Bryce for the rest... Since our messages are white text on black here at Renderosity, the heightmapping was already done, so I just clipped the lower limit in the Terrain Editor and bang! ....(pauses without a comma somehow).... You guys rock, I'll see you in Lightwave Bryce Tech, it's not TOO bad I hear! (cackles)

(cackles!) Seriously, you guys made my day, that's why I come here and annoy the uc out of everyone! I'm not quite as O.G. as you folks, though, my first experience was with the TRS-80 and my "prime" was during the reign of the C-64. Doodle, man. Doodle. 16 colors! PIXEL LEVEL ZOOM! I remember Corel Paint, on the Amiga, the first version. I was astounded by the bit depth, I think it was 8-bit color! So when I heard Corel bought Bryce from Metacreations I almost expected a C-64 version...! (or at least a C-128 version...ah, the 1571 was a beauty, wasn't it?) Wind Lab, Plant Lab, Creature Lab, whatever they do I hope somebody remembers that the Unreal Engine is quickly approaching Bryce for power and that maybe it's time to include game-quality preview acceleration. Ahh... to dream! (p.s., if anyone thinks I'm using commas too often, please tell me now...) (grins)