Check out geekatplay.com for some tutorials for begginners, and youll get a better idea of what you can do in Vue.

You dont NEED to have 3ds or something like that, but I think it improves the experience, depending on what you want to do with it..   If you want to make models, then vue is not for you (unless you want to play with metablobs!)

You can make your own landscapes and the such yes with the landscape editor, but i advise you to have a play on GaP and then come back with some more direct questions for us :)

Hope this helps, 

Rich.

Create a rectangular plane and populate that then move the rectangle as required?

You can set vues core affinity in the task manager (assuming you are using windows?)

Go to processes, right click on vue then select "processor affinity" or something (my current laptop is in swedish not sure the english translation sorry!)  then select which cores you want it to use.

Not sure about the poser/ram issue though sorry!

doesnt sound it, try playing a video game or something.   Might be worth giving dell a ring as well, and try sending e-on a ticket they have probably seen this a billion times before...

might be worth trying to go through all the steps again, just in case :)

i suspect possibly its that vue might not have been coded for this or isnt on the recognised list of high use applications for your card/driver etc.

check this thread...

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3519/p/19385116/19892300.aspx

i dont think its vue or the gfx card thats the problem! its windows thats deciding to use a powersaving mode instead of full power for the gfx card so its using the gfx card with is integrated in the board rather than the gt555 hence why you cant use openGL becuase your integrated card does not have gl2.1

Whats the exact model of your laptop? it will help me finding you a solution (if i can!)

Let me know if the "solution" above does anything.

Attached Link: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1733353

You probably need to specify that that program uses the main card, but im not sure how, let me look into it..

This is taken from a game forum, but i guess its the same issue...

Instructions: If you're using a newer laptop that you know has an NVidia graphics card, try checking your Optimus settings. Open the "NVIDIA Control Panel" from your start menu. On the lefthand side, under "Select a task...", open the "3D Settings" tree, and select "Manage 3D Settings". Now on the righthand panel, click the "Program Settings" tab. Under "1. Select a program...", click "Add", navigate to your Steamsteamappscommonmagicka directory and select "Magicka.exe". Under "2. Select the preferred graphics...", choose "High-performance NVIDIA processor", then (VERY IMPORTANT) click "Apply" in the bottom right.

obviously change the game .exe for the vue one!

When you click "video board info" what message do you get?

Could be that your laptop is reverting to a discrete video card rather than the gt555?

2.1 has been about for quite a while though and thats a brand new card from the latest generation.   Might be worth opening a ticket to e-on?

That card really should support openGL...

The following suggests it runs opengl 4.0 so you should be fine.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-555M.41933.0.html

Make sure (i guess you already have) all drivers are up to date etc etc, and have a look in the general options of vue and make sure that you are using openGL.

I use it rather a lot for business purposes, and I find that the later versions are very stable.    It really does depend rather a lot on drivers and hardware though in my opinion.

Which version(s) are you trying and what setup(s) are you trying it on? 

onyx tree thats the one! knew it was a black stone thing!

I got xfrog modeller, cant say ive had much use out of it (other stuff came up) but its very good when I do try use it.

as an addition, youll only get variable trees via solidgrowthe models

as far as im aware, these are only available on c3d..

vue will however add differenes to each of the instances, but if its not a solidgrowth, this will just be scale and rotation.

xfrog are great, but really very expensive, if you have the time, you may as well buy the program and make your own.  you could also go the other program which name eludes me, ebonytree or something?

there are some on c3d that are pretty solid too, i like jan walter schlierp(? sorry i dont know how to spell that) stuff.