Metaballs have been around for a long time, way before Bryce had them. Anyone remember the movie, "Terminator 2"? I think it was 1992. That's how old metaballs are, and everyone knows what Play (company who used to make Amorphium, I don't know if they still do...) was able to do with them. Bryce isn't just behind, but more than 13 YEARS behind, and you could never do the T-1000 in Bryce...

3DS going downhill? I seriously beg to differ, my friend. Take one quick look through the 3DS galleries here at Renderosity and you will consistently find the BEST 3D artwork available... Also, 3DS ships with mental ray just like Maya does. In my experience, 45% of the available job market goes to 3DS, 45% to Maya/Alias, and the remaining 10% goes to Photoshop/After Effects/Combustion. So far, Bryce has just held me back on the job market. It's a toy to any professional. But that's just from a few years of scanning through Animation World and the Web for jobs. I tried 3DS, and Lightwave, and in the end I got further in Maya than I ever could in either, the first time I used it. But to each his own! Now back to how much Metaballs RULE!

Oh yeah: Shinyary, you TRAITOR! Welcome to the crew, my friend... But don't give up on Bryce just yet. Nothing does landscapes quite like it. Except for Vue and Mojo and Carrara, of course... (grins) I'm loyal to my artwork, and all of yours. Not our particular paintbrushes, be they nylon fiber (Bryce, Vue) or Unicorn Sable fine-points (Maya, 3DSMax)...!

I'm NOT showing that image to bash Bryce at all. I love it for what it does, and it's helped me learn many of the basics about 3D imaging and rendering, and THEN some! But I did want to point out what's possible, in reality. If you've ever taken a high-school physics class, you'll know (for FACT) that calculations for physical interactions are ALL possible, and can ALL be calculated given enough time and energy, and "operations per second", in terms of CPU's. Political Opinion So while Bryce and DAZ are "busy" wasting our time with pathetic updates like 5.5x, many users are busy forwarding their careers and their talents with infinitely more powerful solutions. Sure, Maya was pricey and we're still paying for the licensing and mental ray stuff. Sure, nobody can just buy it out-of-pocket... End of political propoganda I guess I'm trying to say, never settle for anything, or anyone. There's always a better way, and a better tool to be had/found/created! And, barring THAT, there's always workarounds! Technical Blabber There are 2 emitters in this scene, one shooting blobbies up (which then are affected by gravity) and one spreading them across the floor. Both emitters shoot at rates of 1,000 blobbies per second. This animation is 300 frames, or 10 seconds, meaning that in this shot (frame 240) there are 16,000 metaballs in the scene. Try doing THAT in Bryce!

Aye, metaballs are pretty cool! I'm using Maya a lot more lately, and there's these things called "Emitters". They are particle-dynamic emitters, meaning they shoot out particles at adjustible rates, flows, directions, with gravity and all kinds of forces that affect them. Ultra-realistic, and very powerful... So in Maya 6, they allow you to shoot off "Blobbies", which are extremely adjustible Metaballs... This shot is part of a 10-second animation I'm nearly finished with, rendered in Mental Ray for Maya. These Blobbies interact gravitically, and flow along and collide with every surface, with dynamic and static friction, weight, and velocity as well as gravity! The only thing I've NOT found possible so far is surface tension, but I'm sure it's there somewhere... Maybe we'll see something like this in Bryce soon, I just thought it would be cool to show what's possible with Metaball mathematics!

Attached Link: http://www.booksfactory.com/writers/asimov.htm

(from a site at Bookfactory.com) "Selected novels, poetry, and short stories: * Nightfall (1941) * I, Robot, (1950) * Foundation (1951) * Davis Starr: Space Ranger (El ranger del espacio,1952) * The Caves of Steel (1952) * Foundation and Empire (1952) * Second Foundation (1953) * The Martian Way and Other Stories (1955) * The Naked Sun (1956) * Fantastic Voyage (1966) * Asimov's Mysteries (1968) * The Gods Themselves (1972) * Buy Jupiter and Other Stories (Compre Jiter, 1975) * Limericks (1975) * Asimov's Sherlockian Limericks (1978) * Foundation's Edge (1982) * The Complete Robot (1982) - Audiobook- * The Robots of Dawn (1983) * Foundation and Earth (1986) * Robot Dreams (1986) * Norby and the Queen's Necklace (1986, with Janet Asimov) * Prelude to Foundation (1988) * Nemesis (1989) * All the Troubles of the World (1989) * Franchise (1989) * Robbie (1989) * Sally (1989) * Robot Visions (1990) * The Complete Stories (1990) * Forward the Foundation (1993) * Norby and the Court Jester (1993, with Janet Asimov) Memoirs: * In Memory Yet Green: The Autobiography of Isaac Asimov (1979) * Asimov Laughs Again (1993) * I. Asimov: a Memoir (1994) Non-fiction and other: * Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (1964) * Asimov's Guide to the Bible (1968-69) * Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare (1970) * Asimov's Treasury of Humor (1971) * Worlds within Worlds (1972) * Asimov on Chemistry (1974) * Asimov on Physics (1976) * Asimov on Numbers (1977) * A Short History of Chemistry (1979) * A Choice of Catastrophes (1979) * Extraterrestrial Civilizations (1979) * Isaac Asimov's Book of Facts (1979) * Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (1982) * Asimov on Science Fiction (1982) * The Roving Mind (1983) * Asimov's Guide to Halley's Comet (1985) * Past, Present, and Future (1987) * Asimov's Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan (1988) * Asimov's Galaxy (1989) * The Tyrannosaurus Prescription and One Hundred Other Essays (1989) * Asimov's Chronology of the World (1991) * Asimov's Guide to Earth and Space (1991) * Atom (1991)" Aye, those are just a few of his more popular works. His articles, essays, and other books number in the hundreds...!

As far as I know, Isaac Asmiov has written more books (fiction AND non) than any other human in history. He's amazing, and one of the greatest pioneers of hyperspacial theory... Not only that, but he pretty much re-invented robots.

Aye, I'm stuck with 512 DDR for now, which means I'm stuck with Bryce. All I can really use it for is simple stuff... Perhaps I'll just use some 2D pict-object characters to finish up a couple of wonderful old scenes... My biggest file was just over 750, which caused many problems but back then I had a GB...

Look : Everyone knows that labs are WAY cooler than rooms. Rooms are stupid, and that's final. Nobody works in their ROOM. (looks around dubiously)

(laughs!) Here's a screenshot, Fran. Just something to shut these mockers up... And if I wasn't that clear, well here you go! The Material Lab is the texture mixer. The DTE is exactly what it says, a texture editor... "Uh... uh, your mucous membrane is the part of your brain that helps your remember mucous..." - Butthead

Aye, we're going to need screenshots, my friend! "Really bad" doesn't tell us anything about what's causing you problems, at all. Also, all of the Forum logos here in the Bryce section of Renderosity were done by members. So, you know that it's possible! Elefont works great, I use Rhino for modeling just about everything though, including lettering. So post us some pictures!

You don't necessarily need to cycle the texture in the DTE to get the loop right... You should just be looping the bump map in the Animation editor. BUT, if you do need to loop stuff in the DTE it is possible. The problem lies in Bryce not being very powerful or capable with it's animation. What will happen is that the changes you make in the DTE will not "key" properly, and you'll find yourself changing things in other keys for no apparent reason. The workaround is to save the texture in your library, a different save for each keyframe that is important. Then you can call them up, and Bryce WILL recognize the changes... Sounds nebulous, but you'll see what I mean if you try it. Get back to us on your results, I've done this many times with success and it's quite possible to do, although Bryce is hardly the best tool to do it with.

No, it's your texture's SCALE that is the problem here, Fran. You need to scale it up a bit, that's all... In the Materials Lab, not the DTE itself.

Aye, Erlik, I loved that book, but never finished it... I've never heard of anyone else having read it. I'm gonna have to go find it again somehow.

Atomics for propulsion? Now THAT'S dirty...