I wouldn't stand it if skill-less idiots critiqued. That's what they did.
That piece would have done better in scraps, as most unrobust pieces would be.

Well... you COULD use Naturalmotion's Endorphin and XSI 5. :/
You're asking for quite a lot, and unfortunately that lot can be done yourself through own modelling/Zbrushing/rigging/UVing/shader programming/animating.

You're paying for convineince and convergence of interfaces, not bleeding edge features.

Mazak, that's NOT a photochop, right? :D

Awesome.

Try not to get imported meshes into heavy ecosystems. Eran Dinur's eco didn't have imported objects, and most of them were trees (it was Cerdo Verde, right?) that V5I heavily optimizes, so that isn't taking much RAM.
Animation, as I can tell, isn't really different than stills. You just have to be smarter and get everything static done in the first place and animate in box mode. (That's for me, working on a Athlon XP 2500+ and 768MB of RAM)

It's supposed to be like Lightwave 9.
No major changes on client-side interfaces, but totally revamped rendering code.

Just asking, does this offer cover Vue 4 Pro? I do not want to be stuck in 4.
I remembered there was an upgrade path from V4P to V5PS, but that's gone now. :(

Quote - > Quote - Vue 4 upgrade paths are blocked out now. The deal didn't exist anyway- It was only for Vue 5 users upgrading to another version of Vue 5.

Wow, you're right.  Am I ever glad I took advantage of the Aug. 3rd deadline to upgrade/sidegrade from my Vue 4 d-Esprit to V5I.  A few days ago, that deal did exist.  By doing so, I am eligible to receive V6I for free.

Perhaps there will be another chance as I've read in various places talk of some "late upgrade" offer being offered closer to V6I's release.  Not being rich, I didn't want to take the gamble.  I hope I did the right thing but since it's done, I can't worry myself over it.

No- now you CAN'T even upgrade to Vue 5 from 4!

Everybody calm down...
Vue 4 upgrade paths are blocked out now. The deal didn't exist anyway- It was only for Vue 5 users upgrading to another version of Vue 5.

I like them, but they often make you unable to see inherent flaws in your scene.
I did a scene with some metaballed-function-driven fog, the preview didn't show any hints that Z-ordering was wrong with the ecosystem, and I just had to go into PS for correction.

Still, it's nice to look at (compared to rendering 640 in preview quality ;) )

Hi. Well thought replies, everyone!
Hmm, I'm getting the idea now... but what about harmony? Like garyandcatherine said on model flexibility, the endproducts are gonna end up much differently than the envisioned scene, especially with Vue. I'm gonna try porting some 3DS MAX scenes into Vue, and try to get most objects harmonize in a scene that's definately gonna be more than reflective spheres with infinite water planes.
jc, great point on the pointlessness on recreating real worlds. Most artists would be on the aim on emulating it to an extent. One of the things I just discovered was how inflexible and "unreal" the 4:3 aspect  ratio was (when filled fully) it was way too narrow for the focus area of the eye, which I figured goes around at the aspect ratio of a 35mm full frame photograph.
Big_empty_brain, I render FAR higher than Broadcast. My settings normally are Superior+ with G-buffer rendering at 2000-3000px in width (4:3/36:24). It's a pain in the *** with less than 1G of RAM, but since Vue 5 does fully support resuming the render (didn't quite worked well with 4) it does help alot. Still, there's more to realism than the rendering.

Oh, right, majority of Vue users don't use XSI or Maya.
e-on, we have a problem! :D

I love the function editor. For simple stuff I just SWITCH to the basic editor, do what I want with ease, then SWITCH back for advanced usage. Doesn't seem hard at all.