Quote - I have been using Vue 7 Artist Series for a short time (months) and like it a lot.  However, I have to admit that my use of the function editor is kind of hit-or-miss.  The user documentation comes up a little short on explaining how to use it.  I'm wondering if someone can comment on how well the Function Editor is covered in the new books recently published?

Charles

Functions and Filters are covered in Chapter 9. It does a good job of giving you the basics to learn to use these and there is a lesson at the end as a short example. However, it is not totally in-depth, but enough to get you started. I think if you combine this with the video tutorial over at geekatplay.com it should be what you are looking for.

Quote - Did you look at the above links? it's a good source of bitmap textures. If you combine it with some simple procedural texture you might get a realistic looking result.

No, I have not see those. I will check them out and see what I can come up with that may get a good result. Creating smooth floors, brick walls, etc. is not so much of an issue, but I just can't seem to get a good result for pavement on roads/highways.

Thanks for the link.

Quote - So Jeff, what did you think? Well written?

Jon 

In a word, YES. My review will be up shortly and I also have it on the social network sites mentioned above. It was also sent out to my Twitter followers.

Having reviewed and examined the book the only thing I thought may be improved is a few more photos of some key elements they are talking about in the book. Otherwise, I thought it was another quality item from Ami and Vladimir at geekatplay.com and recommended.

If you want a link to my review and details when published send me a PM here.

I had it the first day it came out from Amazon.com Prime. In fact I sent Chip and email and will have my review up shortly. Also, I have it posted on my Facebook, Friendster and Twitter links reviewed there.

I have always liked the work they do over at "geekatplay.com" and think Ami and Vladimir do a real nice job and seem like professionals in their discussions.

I would also tend to agree that Vue should stick to what it does best as a Scene builder and let other programs do more specific work. As has been mentioned before, e-on and some other companies are having a downturn right now with the economy. For me, I would much rather have e-on focus on features of scene building and rendering than to add new model features. Also, I would like to see them stay focused on updates/bug fixes and also their Mac support with Cocoa re-write.

For modeling specific use, at this time, I tend to use Modo mostly with their great support. Also, I am trying out ZB 3.12B and both programs are much more capable for such things than Vue and I see them as two fully seperate programs each focused on different tasks.

Quote - I don't think that is the case with modo.

Yes, Modo is great and very well supported for Mac and PC alike. They have some great people over there and I have even talked with one of the main lead developers because he wanted my feedback and input on some things. This seems to be a company that cares much about their users and how they are using it, plus they actually LISTEN to them. So far I have been impressed with them much and also C4D guys over there.

Quote - We should really have a sticky for an ideal system for Vue, the question comes up so often and seems even more lately, it would be an ideal reference.

Jon

An "ideal system" varies upon whom you ask. It is much better to read reviews for yourself, listen to podcasts and read magazines like Maximum PC, Mac World, TWIT, Macbreak Weekly and Windows Weekly and see what you prefer to make an informed choice.

What one person may suggest is not what someone else may find most useful unless they are ONLY using it for just one program, like Vue, which no one surely does.

Quote - While not necessarily easy to find, 7.4 features have been posted on their feature comparison page for some time now. 

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/products/vue/vue_7_infinite/index.php?page=14&BaseProduct=Vue%207%20Infinite
It's getting more and more clear, the Infinite line is for professionals who can afford the subscription plan. To this end, they have made  pretty decent offer:

Pay now for the maintenance plan, and get immediate access to the 7.5 beta (by all reports suprisingly stable), then when 7.5 ships you also receive it. And then when 8.0 ships, you also get it as well. All for $395. Not too bad. And if you don't want any of this, then they will be rolling many of the 7.5 features into 7.4, which is a free upgrade to 7.0.

I have the beta 7.5, and it's not a rewrite of the whole application. Furthermore, I seriously doubt they would rewrite the whole application for 8.0, especially when they are talking about it being a free upgrade for those who purchase maintenance plans.

Chip,

I agree with most comments that it is acceptable pricing for what you get with the upgrade/subscription plan. Some people complain about their pricing of the program itself being unreasonable or out of line, but as I have stated before, I really don't think it is. The reason I say this is because e-on like most other companies are having some hard times right now and it may take a good 5 years or so to turn things around. Companies such as e-on that make specialty software feel it even more so because 3D art programs like it are not as mainstream as say Photoshop that has a lot more resources. Therefore, if they want to keep their head above water then making it the price it is for the high-end versions is understandable and so is the subscription program which I find within reason too. Otherwise, we may find ourselves going without for a while until another company buys them or takes over the program fully.

In terms of the re-write you mention, I do know that for a while now there has been some brief talk from e-on that version 8 may have an overhaul. To what extent it is not yet known or revealed, if they were even to do so with the downturn. Companies like this typically have only a couple of core programmers that are full time with others hired as needed. That is why I don't think too much may be done in time for version 8 like they may have thought before the economic downturn.

Quote - But doesn't the "conform to" only work for those clothes that are "super-conforming". I've come across so many outfits that are described as conforming, but you have to do as pjz99 said and actually copy/paste the morph values when you change them on the figure. Even then I sometimes get weird things happening.

To my mind, that's not 'conforming' at all.

I'm fed up with clothes.

Thanks, I'll give the copy/paste a try too and see how it works on some outfits. I agree with you that some cloths require a LOT of work and that is just for one figure. Also some poses will require you to re-adjust all over again or at least do more work. This is one area where there REALLY needs to be improvement in for most programs because many hours can be wasted just on clothing alone when it should be much more simple.

The "conform to" doesn't really give me a proper fit because of the custom body morphs most of the time. That's why I tend to use mostly WW to get a tight fit of the cloths like in the marketplace renders

Real life issues are WAY more important than any hobby like ours. Family and friends are all that matter. I send along my best for a good outcome and speedy recovery.

God Bless

Well, depending upon whom you ask everything is different because of each situation being unique. I started out liking to do digital painting back in my days with Commodore and used the early paint programs for the Amiga later on. Being a programmer I got into making sprites for computer games, but hated it mainly due to the limitations of the technology back then. I did not even get into 3D art until several years ago.

Now, the difference is, the internet changes everything. People can not only get books to learn from, but advanced video tutorials that are quite detailed and even on-line internet video chat room courses that are certified. You can get Apple, Microsoft, Sun, etc. official certification courses straight from legit universities. I think the key is that learning in general has changed whereas before all this internet explosion you were much more isolated and limited.

Now, it's almost a requirement that companies have some sort of major support plan for their product for users to learn them and keep those sources fresh and current. You have excellent sites like lynda.com that covers many subjects, not just 3D art. As for 3D specific, there is just much more of a user base group out there now more than ever which means more material to learn from combined with a wide variety of ways to do so (Video Tutorials, Books, Official Forums, etc.) Companies like Maxon, Luxology, Autodesk, etc. all have much more documented ways of learning their tools now and the user base expects them too.

So I think you are seeing the results of many years to get us to the point of people being able to learn much better, faster and more efficient just about any software program they choose rather 3D or others.

Quote - I've sent the test scene, but I've got an interesting new result. 

Apparently the texture crosstalk is only occurring if I select the option to allow re-posing inside Vue when I import the Poser scene.  I have been leaving that option selected the whole time and didn't think to try to disable it until now.  I don't see anything in the SkinVue user guide indicating that this option should not be selected, so I'm assuming that this is not normal.  But it's definite progress.  If I uncheck the reposing option, the SkinVue modifier works just fine on both characters in the same scene.  I've revalidated this with 4 separate scenes now with the same results each time.

allow re-posing = texture crosstalk
disallow re-posing = all's well

OK, that's interesting because since I haven't seen this yet, but with only two characters (not 3 or more). However, I NEVER had the option check for re-posing inside Vue. I always did my setup inside Poser Pro and imported the "pz3" into Vue. Don't know if that will benefit you but just thought I would mention that since it may help in further diagnosis.

I am curious to see the outcome of this too as I am doing multiple character imports inside Vue 7 Infinite from Poser Pro. So far nothing seemed to show up with 2 of them but haven't tested beyond that. Will be glad to see what turns up as the cause inside the Poser file and hopefully it can be fixed.

There seems to be a several issues with Poser and Vue still and also just the poser file format in general. Maybe someday Poser will get their file formats cleaned up some.

Thanks for keeping us informed dburdick.

Quote - Quote - "Yes, you did say "interesting", but I did educate you on Apple."

You transmitted opinions and some information (true or not, I'm not sure). Education is something more...

Quote - "What you think does not matter, if you read known technical magazines"

Some people take the printed word as the absolute truth. You shouldn't believe in everything you read because who ever wrote that can also be wrong. Think about it in a critical way (especially if you read statistics of a brand market share in a magazine of that brand... :-)).

Quote - "Sorry but your points were debunked (about Apple), not validated."

The main point, the question of this thread, was validated by you. A PC is the best choice for Vue. You wrote that yourself, see your post. Let me copy+paste here again, my statement and your response. This is too good not to be repeated: :-)
-- My statement
if I want to buy a computer for Vue, an HP i7 (for example) would be roughly equivalent to a Mac Pro regarding the main factors that are relevant for Vue, at a much lower price, and so it's a much better choice.
-- Your response:
If its VALUE over performance you are after and you ONLY wanted it for Vue and NOTHING else mattered at all, that may be true at this time."

Quote - "Does that mean you treat others at your work the same way you treated me here if you think their "attitude" is not to your liking or people with more experience like the CEO is "pulling ranks"?"

To tell you the truth, I don't often meet people who start a conversation by pulling ranks so this is a problem I don't normally have to deal with.

Quote - "signing off of this topic."

;-)

I keep trying to close out this thread and you keep taking everything out of context so I am forced to correct my words and place them into the correct context. It was unsubscribed to and I saw this written with my words so....

The thread actually states "the perfect Vue computer" NOT the Perfect Value Computer for Vue. Those are YOUR words and what YOU posted. I did say:

"If its VALUE over performance you are after and you ONLY wanted it for Vue and NOTHING else mattered at all, that may be true at this time."

**I said "may be true" and also that is NOT what the OP asked. Both of us are WRONG here and the PERFECT Vue computer would not have VALUE factored into it because it would cost a LOT more.

Here is the original OP question:

"I'm considering getting a new computer so I was hoping for some advice as to what would make the best computer for Vue....."

So to answer the OP, which is a sticking point with you, then it would be a Mac Pro with about 16GB of RAM. You would use it mainly in Mac OS and then duel boot to Windows for the few 64 bit apps that are not yet on the Mac OS like Vue. There was no mention of VALUE here.**

You conveniently ignore everything I have debunked in your posts with the FACTS and supported links so it's pointless because there is a need for you to win here and you can't admit to being totally wrong about anything.

So, I will be the bigger man here and just say I gladly yield to you, and wish you good luck.

Quote - Quote - "No problem, glad you found it educational. "

I didn't say educational, I said interesting. Who's misquoting who now? ;-)

Yes, you did say "interesting", but I did educate you on Apple. See all your posts where I took your statements on and debunked them with known FACT and supported them with references.

Quote - "Now, that you know I won the Apple debate"

Haha! :-) The debate was not about Apple, it was about the "perfect Vue computer", remember? That's the thread title. And, in the end I won the debate because you admitted that a PC was a better choice for Vue than a Mac. Let me quote you (hopefully not misquote): "If its VALUE over performance you are after and you ONLY wanted it for Vue and NOTHING else mattered at all, that may be true at this time."

If you read word for word what you said in all your posts you will see where you split this topic into two different ones as I already pointed out in a prior post. I also refer you to where I said it was NOT about Vue or Apple vs PC but rather FACT vs your person conjecture which you were trying to pass off on others.

**My quote:

"For me, it is not about Mac vs PC but rather people wanting to ignore known valid sources of technical information. This makes it difficult because just a few select people want to make conjecture based on their own personal views. What this leads to is someone reading this thread getting wrong facts and data which may lead them to believe those are true if no one challenges them factually."**

Quote - "I wonder if you will be professional enough to concede you were wrong about your Apple statements"
I still think I'm right about Apple in general but I don't want to discuss it further, sorry but I'm a bit tired of it and, in the end, it's useless because my point was already validated (see above). :-)

**What you think does not matter, if you read known technical magazines (I get 6 a month Windows, Mac and Linux), which I assumed you did being an "IT guy" then you would already know these facts and not try to insert information you make up because it is how you feel personally.

Sorry but your points were debunked (about Apple), not validated. You split the topic off from Vue when you started making those Apple statements, see above.**

Quote - "Also, an apology for making it personal and questioning my education background (something I didn't do) would be nice. "

I never questioned your education background. I trust you have the background you say you have and never questioned it. All I said is that someone's background is not relevant for a discussion. Knowledge and opinions should prove themselves right without the need to be reenforced by one's background. You probably never heard a Nobel prize winner validating his statements by saying "... this is like this and I know I'm right because I'm a Nobel prize winner".
However, I do apologize for not having made myself clear in this respect in our discussion. :-)

Regarding making it personal, you are right there, I did make it slightly personal in some points because I didn't like your attitude, for the reasons that I mentioned already ("pulling ranks") and I got a little bit irritated. I should have known better not to get irritated by things like this and for that I do apologize. :-)

**That tells me a lot about you then because there was no "attitude". You read into it only what you wanted to and made your own conclusions about me. Does that mean you treat others at your work the same way you treated me here if you think their "attitude" is not to your liking or people with more experience like the CEO is "pulling ranks"? I bet not given you would most likely be fired.

But I do accept your apology on this.
**
Let's shake hands! :-)

AGREED! Have fun and happy rendering. Best wishes to you, signing off of this topic.