I've had the same issue.  Bryce 7 has some nice features but is buggy.  Hopefully some updates will be forthcoming from DAZ!

Poser works well, also.  I use both of them.

I don't have anything running in the background.  I habitually turn everything off.  I can put lots of polys in the scene as long as I import 'em as .obj's.  I'm just saying B7Pro seems to have some issues.  I don't think I will be buying a new 'puter just to run a $30 upgrade when all other programs are still operating just fine on my machine. 

For the money, Bryce 7 has some nice new features, but in duo's defense, it is buggy and does seem to require a powerful computer to do some of the same stuff that was already there in version 6.3.  I have not tested it extensively, but so far I have found these problems when running it on my machine (which is not new, but not a complete dinosaur, either):

It is impossible for me to import anything but a fairly low poly item through the DAZStudio bridge.  Any human figure I have tried (even nekked ones with no high poly clothes and hair meshes) will not fully import and cause Bryce to freeze up and stop responding.  In B6.3 I had some problems with the bridge, but overall it functioned much better than in B7 Pro.

I love that I can set the intensity of the sun in the sky lab, but I have found that after I make a few changes to the scene, the sun intensity resets itself to the default 100 setting.

And, with terrains, if I go into the Attributes box and reset ANYTHING (size, boolean functions, "hide", or anything else) the terrain jumps back to its default location and any rotation that was done is also lost and reset to default.

Am I the only one having these issues?

OK, I found the sample files.  They're under Documents and Settings/All users.  Apparently in response to a setup question, I OK'ed the files for all users, and that's how they ended up there.

I just looked.  I don't seem to have those scene files.  sigh...

Thanks RosemaryR

I found the volumetric slab!  It's kind of hidden.  Hold down the alt key before you click on the cloud plane.  (hurries off to watch the rest of the video...)

Poor ignorant me (that would be me, not Rosie!) has a question.  The answer may be buried somewhere in the excellent DAZ link provided by Rosemaryr, but because the thread is 14 pages long, I thought I'd ask here... :)

In the video tut entitled "Modify Volumetric Clouds", David Brinnen talks about using an infinite slab.  I have looked high and low in both B6 adn B7Pro, and can't find such a thing, although there is an icon for selecting it in your image at the bottom of the screen.  Where is this infinite slab?

Also, David B talks about sample scenes to be shipped with Bryce7Pro with sample(s) of these volumetric clouds.  Did DAZ supply those?  I can't find those sample scenes either! 

Thanks in advance

Bec

**Quote from Drew at DAZ:  "I'm curious to know of any software company that has the policy of buy it once and get every version after that free. If you know of one, let me know so I can study their business model and see how they make money."

**Well, there's a company called **DAZ **that gives away a software called DAZStudio and all its updates for free...

But I suppose we shouldn't be too hard on DAZ for not giving away Bryce updates for free.  Afterall, they do give DAZStudio (basic version) for free, and all their base figures for free, and lots of other nice free items over the years.  Not a bad deal from them at all.

65% off if you're a Platinum Club member.  50% off for everyone else which is just under $50 US.  So hopefully the upgrade will be less than $50... ?  At the least I hope they have some sort of sale promo when they release it.

The promotion is to buy Bryce 6.3 now and get version 7 for free when it's available.  Apparently the deal is not available if you already bought Bryce 6.3 earlier.

Maybe the standard will be free and the Pro will cost money?  ???

Great video short !  Thanks !

Thanks for the info!  I'm going to try this!