I slurged and bought infinite after I had bought esprit. I have no regrets. For me the best feature is the ecosystems. For outdoor scenes...it just can't be beat. Good Luck.. Dragontales

I'd say there are many many factors that go into a realistic scene. Secondly, you have to define what you mean by realistic. Are you talking Photorealism? Or not so photorealistic but still believable? This was the kind of thing I suffered through for many years. I bough Vue 5 esprit in the hopes that It would help me gain what I wanted. Unfortunately, though it got me closer, it still wasn't close enough. I saved and got infinite. Now I feel complete. :) You can check my last few images and even though I feel they're not perfect yet, I'm much closer to what I want. The landscapes help complete my images. How do you get there? Well, if you haven't spend much time outdoors, then go out there. Take a digital camera and start studying how plants and rocks look. Go to where you can see a good bit of the horizon and see how you can create different terrains to create a foreground, midground and background. The foreground's ecosystem should be the most detailed as it's the one you see the most. For the mid, it can be a little less so. A bit more of the texture doing some of the work than the objects. For the background, you can use even less objects but the texture should be really good. The ecosystem tool is just phenomenal and by using different techniques can really bring that outdoor look into your computer. Hope that helps a bit. It really is an experiment thing. Before creating your own ecosystems, try the ones that come with the program. There's a lot of really nice ones in there. Then play with the settings. See what they do. Try replacing one of their plants in the ecosystem with a new one. etc. Good Luck... Dragontales

We should have this added to the backroom section. Who does that?

I too have encountered this problem. It doesn't happen all the time and I can eventually save the file. Just keep trying. It's almost as if vue is still doing something that hangs it up. But trust me, you CAN save it. I just wish I can remember what I did last time to be able to save it. If I figure it out, I'll let you know. In the meantime, see if this helps. When you render, it also generates an alpha and depth image. click over to one of those and try saving. It should let you do it. After that, go back to your color image and see if it will let you now. If that doesn't work, try hitting the escape key while the color image is up. Then try saving. Of course you should also make sure you have the latest patch. Not sure if they'll work, but I'm trying to figure out what I did last time. :) Good luck!! Dragontales

While your at it, could there be a way to add the nudity flag to the emails that get sent about a favorite artist posting an image. I check my email at work too, and you never know if that image has nudity or not. I still want the emails, but would like to know ahead of time if I could look at it at work or if it has to wait until I get home. Dragontales

I agree that leaving feedback isn't really what it should be here on Renderosity. For the most part comments are basically on the "wow" "that's great" "super" type. Constructive comments are hard to come by. I find that when I leave a constuctive comment, either the artist doesn't like it, or those that comment after always go against what I said. As if defending their "friend" from the evil critique. I too enjoy getting feedback and it really doesn't always make sense as to what gets commented on. I think the bottom line is that if it's nudity and the like, it'll usually get a lot of hits, but very few comments. My second to last image (pink girl) applies here. After that I posted a simple landscape in the vue gallery. I totally expected to get no comments, but it's my second most commented image. Go figure. I think the difference is that the poser gallery gets a lot of young males looking for nude girls, but aren't really looking to critiqe art. For me the Vue gallery usually only has serious vue artists and they're more willing to comment. The bottom line is to just make sure you do your art for yourself and not comments. Make sure to comment on artwork that YOU like or dislike and make that comment count (not just "wow") You'll find that people like to return the favor and you may build up a circle of "friends" who'll follow your work. Good luck!! Dragontales

No problem. Glad I could help.

Ok, that's kinda what I thought. Thanks for the info! Dragontales

Sorry for the confusion. I mean that when I use a vue plant, and then create another, it's not identical to the first. It "grows" it a bit differently. I was just wondering if the ones in freestuff would do that as well, or if the multiple copies I would make would all be the same. Thanks

Looks cool. The only thing missing is some blur to the shells to maximize the feeling of movement in the image.

I would say on the water drops that reflection could probably be turned off, or at the very least, use a reflection map. Unless you're going in really close, the reflections would most likely not be seen anyway. I could be wrong, but it may be worth a try.

What I do to get dynamic cloth in to vue is once it's been calculated, and I'm happy with it, I spawn a morph target for the dress/clothing then unclothify it. Turn the dial to 1 for the new morph and it works like a charm. Note - Only works for still images.

Do yourself a favor though. Install the Beta Update from E-on. I figured because I too just got my copy that it would be up to date...but alas it wasn't (even though the program's self check said it was). I spent two days tearing my hair out trying to figure out what was going wrong with my ecosystems only to find that I needed to install the Beta Update from the e-on site. It is probably the most fun program I've worked with in a long time. Good Luck with yours. Dragontales

SUCCESS!!!!! But not as you would think. :) I downloaded the materials you gave me, and I STILL had the problem. I had vue check if it was up to date and it said it was. However I went to the e-on website and cross-checked my version number with their Beta Update. The Beta was higher so I installed it. After that your material worked perfectly. So...my advice to anyone trying to work with ecosystems....Install the Beta Update. :) Thanks for all your help, It really means a lot that others are so willing to help out. Dragontales

Thanks guys (gals?) I'll try them out tonight after I get home again from work. If mazak's material messes up too, then I know I have another issue. How I'll resolve that is a mystery, but I'll cross that bridge if it needs crossing. Again, thanks for the help. Dragontales