Yeah I was surprised it took 4 hours. :) WCS is supposedly the most powerful one in the domain but I am still waiting to hear some news from 3DNature since Siggraph...seems they are hiding in their in-house generated terrain! ;0) Yeah I will make a comparison review soon and will probably have some new opinions on each software since we never cease to learn them. Cheers!

Thanks for the kind words, perhaps you could point me to your reviews so I take pride at looking at the flaws. :) Seriously, you should start sending hate mail to every software reviewers since so many don't cover most of the software...if you see a complete review on any site please let me know because I am still looking for the Holy Grail of Reviews. :) I guess it's easy to be on th eother side of the fence. Cheers!

Seems that constructive criticism isn't accepted in here...all my reviews got 100% of great comments from the readers and even the developers so I guess it's not that bad. I know that you both like Bryce but it's not a reason to bash someone that doesn't feel it's the best application out there. I feel the review was quite informative and again, please read most reviews that covers softwares on a weekly basis on the web and you will see that they generally don't criticize the softwares but rather lists their features. Being a landscape CG artist for several years it's hard to read that I don't judge as a CG artist since I do this on a daily basis. I will end this here, I am sorry if you felt I sort of attacked your beloved software, Corel certainly didn't see it as an offense by what they told me this morning. Cheers!

Hi Griggs, I played with Vue 4, WB 3 Pro and Bryce 5 for the past weeks and that's why I made these comments...I know Bryce has more features than what I mentionned but again, please point me to a more detailed review of Bryce 5 on the web. :) I know some use Bryce for more than creating terrains but, like I said, my audience is composed of mostly CG artists that already own much more expensive CG software and they want to use a software that is dedicated to landscapes, which is why I make the reviews. Cheers!

Griggs, The OS X version of Vue is almost ready. :) You are right about the gradient but it's not as evident as in Vue. Regarding the import/export I don't list them all in every review since most software have over 10 format types possible so I simply name the most popular ones. I agree Bryce does more than render landscapes but the review is meant for people looking for landscape softwares since almost all of my members/visitors already own either LightWave, Max, Softimage, Maya or another high end 3D software. I think I did one of the most detailed review of Bryce...even of Vue and World Builder. I think some readers got the bad impression that I hated Bryce, which is weird cause some that didn't like the demo told me that they are looking into it now and might purchase it. I will rectify the gradient mistake asap, thanks. :) Cheers!

Hey, thanks Varian for the typos...I guess my partner didn't see them when he edited my article! :) Mike, glad you liked the review...it might be a lot slower in the demo cause here it's not that slower than Vue except in highly detailed scenes where Vue might have an edge but both are similar. To give you an idea I rendered a 60 frames scene in about 4 hours. The scene had clouds moving quite fast over a terrain of more than 2 million polygons with a lake and it was set at Premium rendering with soft shadows, blurry reflections/transmissions and true ambiance with 64 rays per pixel at 320x192. Check it out...it's very basic though: http://www.cgfocus.com/animations/Lake.avi Regarding the trees I mentionned the lack of grass and animation of the trees, which is a bummer and you can't export trees to LW either. I will make a comparison between Vue, WB and Bryce in a few weeks and you will be surprised by the results! :) Now if 3D Nature could send me WCS as planned hehe. Cheers!

Hey Martin, the ad is impressive nice work! :) Cheers!

will do Mike...it should be ready tomorrow. :) IF someone can save a camera and send it to me it would be great...I need one to start shooting! ;0) Cheers!

I am reviewing Bryce 5 right now and I have some comments to add...since I have compared Vue 4, World Builder 3 Pro and Bryce 5 in the last weeks: -Vue 4 renders faster than Bryce 5 in most cases, except when you crank everything up...both gets extremely slow. -Vue 4 renders are more realistic by default, I find Bryce to have a cartoonesque render, even the atmosphere presets tend to have a surreal look. Once you ge the hang of Bryce 5 both software gets close although I think Vue has an edge in realism. -Both Vue and Bryce needs some tweaking in the viewports, they lack the controls that WB or Inspire 3D offers. Overall...well, read my review this week to find out more :) Cheers! ------------------------------------------------------- Jean-Francois Lepage CG Focus Focus on Computer Graphics http://www.cgfocus.com -------------------------------------------------------

Well, I exported a Bryce 5 terrain to LW 6.5b and it was OK except that the texture map was sort of dull even at 1024 as a BMP. I decided to mix this with my own mixes for terrains and it comes out really nice. I notice that Bryce 5 exports terrains in a better way than Vue 4 but as Vue it doesn't export DEM's 100% intact. Cheers!

Attached Link: http://www.cgfocus.com

I will experiment with the composition of vegetation on a LightWave scene later this week to see which package offers the best possibilities...there will probably be an article on this along with a tutorial. Oh! if you are looking for a good CG landscape software you might want to check out on my site around tomorrow, you won't regret it but I can't say more for now...we don't want to give away the surprise do we?! ;+) Cheers!

Attached Link: http://www.cgfocus.com/ArticleDetails.cfm?ArticleID=104

Hi Jean-Paul, I suggest you have a look at my Vue 4 review, I talk about the LightWave integration: http://www.cgfocus.com/ArticleDetails.cfm?ArticleID=104 Vue will export terrains but the polygon count is monstrous and the image maps are not that great...Terragen is a lot better in compositing with LightWave. Right now I am testing Bryce 5 and I just finished the review of World Builder and like I said a few times the best CG landscape software would be a mix of Terragen, Vue 4, Bryce 5 and World Builder (sorry I didn't try out WCS yet). I love Vue 4 but if you have LW7 you don't need Ozone at all since SkyTracer has a lot of neat new features and along with LW's radiosity and baking/HDRI it will allow you to make impressive scenes. :) Hope it helps, Vue 4 is a great software for the price. Cheers!

I guess I will use wireframe mode for now because everything is awesome...I can now rotate a LWO model of 250 000 polys with the same speed as with a 150 000 one with the 12.40. :) I am looking into an ATI Radeon 8500 or GeForce3 or even a FireGL card though...the GeForce2 doesn't cut it anymore. Cheers!

Mark, I installed the drivers on a fresh install of win2k to give you an idea. :) As I said earlier all my other applications runs like a charm so this wouldn't happen if the drivers were corrupted...especially in LightWave. :) Cheers!

Glad to see that most GeForce.x users experience the same...what drivers are you all using? I know that the 12.40 and 12.41 in both win2k and WinXP RC1 and RC2 were all working great but god were they slow! :) Cheers!