Bryce is usally a heck of a lot slower, and yeah I jumped ship ages ago ;)

Some tips on render settings (from Vue9 though)

http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/tutorials/htm/48.html

ususally as folk say, it's atmosphere settings that can make render times go crazy, so have the quality slider sin atmosphere at -1 or so! Unless you wish and need better, all kinds of tweaks you cna do, and sometimes high quality setting doesn't improve things

OR

one thing that makes renders slow hellishly, is if the camera is inside a volumetric object, say a cloud or a sphere with smoke etc, for effects perhaps

Good GAWD, that case is ENORMOUS! :P

keep expecting the frikkin thing to say "Hello Professor Falken, would you like a game of Thermonuclear War"?

still sorting it out takes time to reinstall THAT much data/apps!

Cool, long may that continue :)

Hey Vege'! :)

me too :P

how's your own health been, mate? if ya don't mind me asking?

Hey Paula hugs :)

and sorry for the typos et, symptom of the illness, amongst other things (dysphasia, too), my hands hurt like I've been punching brick walls, so it doesn't help with the typing :P
Just had hot shower and taken painkillers so get relief for an hour or two, so that's why at times I'm not as bad...just can't live in a shower, lol

Art and RPG gaming are the only things I've ever had any luck or success with in this life well, had good family, which probably is why I am what I am, rather than one of the huge number of ignorant, vicious nasty scumbags we call "Neds"...really tragic when you see sooooo many youngsters with absolutely no brains, self respect, decency etc, sigh.
Usually end up dead before they are 50 from knifings or alcoholism, pal's nephew died aged 28 form alcholism, because now, it's not just super strength dirt cheap booze, they mix it with Valium and Tramadol...dear God :(
And plenty who are innately good or talented, get nowhere because of the blights of poverty, fear etc that are endemic here. Many are too scared to "lift their heads above the parapets", to show they have talent, in the face of the scumbags omnipresent scorn etc.

My best mate, his Dad was a grade A asshole, my pal is incredibly talented artist (drawing), but to his dad that was "for poofs!" (i..e homosexuals) and beat him. ugh. And his Dad was a nothing, he wasn't a hard man he was just a wee frustrated bully. 
By comparison, my grandpa was huge man, hard as nails (ex-bouncer, and he literally could bend 6 inch nails with his hands) but was gentle and very funny and granny was one of the most sweet funny people I have ever know, a real laugh riot, so my family was full of humour, art, playing cards and games with each other etc.
Just cause yer poor doesn't HAVE to mean you are broken or worse...it is not easy though. Few folk have such good families in such trying situations
 Thing is, Marvel comics has a studio in Glasgow, and if my pal had been let live his dream (he adores comic art) I'm pretty sure he'd be earning a fortune working for Marvel or the like. At least now he's thrown off the crap of his Dad, and enjoys tattooing and taken up falconry, something he's wanted ot do since youth as well!
I'm not sure of a US equivalent, does Detroit have slums? Sort of if someone from decaying "rust belt" of US slum takes a falcon into his daughter's "show and tell" class :P
Really proud of my mate :)
A LOT we went to school with are dead.

Anyway back to art and RPG...
So those are only things I've ever had any luck with, being published, noted etc, and love writing tutorials etc to help folk :)
So being forced into not being able to do that...on TOP of having already lost damn near every other thing I did in life, sucked...big...very big.

Mum's in hospital again, oddly, that's a relief, because I know she'll get care and come out miles better. She has COPD or as I was taught, emphysema and heart failure (plus diabetes, spinal damage/partial paralysis and arthritis).
distressing seeing yer Mum suffer like that :/
Dad's dementia (not Alzheimers, different) increases, some times he's lucid, other times his mind slips back 30 years

Anywya back to more fun and origijnal topic ;)

Anything I have missed particulalry I should "gen up on"? :) I was playing aorund a wee bit  for short while with the Vue10 prerelease, but I'm well out of form
I bought Dax Phandi's book, and couple of tutorials by GeekAtplay form C3D
anything you'd recommend I look into?

still needs particle system and unbiased rendering ;)

Ta! :)

Well, it shouldn't drian but after years of use the CMOS batteyr can, it keeps the BIOS set, so if it drains, you may have to reset the BIOS (drives, date etc) every time you start the PC up!

CMOS battery is cheap and easy to replace, used to make/fix PCs but stress is literal poison ot me now, sorting those PCs out ended up with me sick and sweating like I had run a marathon in the Sahara, urf
But fixed 'em enough that cousin's kid and my bets mate can get use out of 'em for a while, but no way I'd trust those rigs for much longer.
And as said the sheer "weight" of my scenes, even when optimized was at the limitsof that PC, so really needed 16+gig RAM system and the motherboard in that one only could take 8 max

well I have ot say reinstalling is, usually fingers crossed! so much easier nowadays :) Windows 7 I have to say is again fingers crossed! usually so smooth and with cable broadband updates are so fast
compared ot the old days, having to go through BIOS, partitions, tearing hear out sorting weird conflcits and THEN you had the joys of instlaling as well :P
VESA drivers....shudders

trying to fix/upgrade horrible, lousy computers liek HP, Compaq's etc was horrendous, argh!!! they deliberately designed those damn things ot use non-standard parts and systems, to make you use their overpriced upgrades
ie, the hard drive cradles were non-standard you simply couldn't fit in a normal hard drive without special parts...so we used bits of wood, epoxy you name to get around that crap ;)

Quote - Careful arrow1, you get slapped around on here if you say anything bad about Vue...

puts on Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden, and casts a hex on TheFixer!

*"Binary, bytes n' bits!
Bugger up any who say Vue is a load of tts!"

hehe :P

waves at Paula :)

Had hard drives fail way to often, also if connected to your PC, and running, they wear out...or if you get a virus...

so external HDs should only be connected/powered when doing back ups ;)

I don't trust hard drives after several nasty incidents! :P

hence I like nice, hard back up ;)

Bruno,
yeah sorry mate, health sucks plus mum/dad are...well...ttheir health is worse than mine.

edit removed Dumb Question #14567!

as usual found answer 10 seconds after posting

ok, very late reply, sorry not aorund much due ot health issues

but "subpar renderings"?

please check my site and Geekatplay for settings for renders :)

Alas I use Infinite, so not sur eon any differences/limits
I too started with Bryce a looooong time ago ;)

http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/tutorials/htm/index.htm

My Vue materials

http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/vue_mats/vue_materials.htm

3D Models (mostly of fantasy ships/seige wepaons etc)

http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/artofadreamer/htm/3dmodels.htm

:)

oops, damn, 2nd link was wrong, here's right one

http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/skyrim/skyrim_mods2.jpg

CobraEye

Well, in that case you never played Elite space games  ;)
well techically yes yer right, as Skyrim quests are waaaay more involced as best Elite had was pretty simple, but was 1st to have random generated quests, now they're much better of course plus the main ones are very well done

however for a better STORY, but it's the entire game, is Deus Ex, Human Revolution. So it's kind of like more tightly better woven, but much more limited versus huge sprawling "explorathon with quests" that is Skyrim. "Blade Runner" versus "lord of the RIngs" as it were. Each is outstanding but different

Elder Scrolls games, like Fallout games and the "X Beyond the Frontier" and "elite" games are "sandbox" games, vast, and most of the fun's about exporing, i try and do as much wlaking between quest areas in Skyrim as I can, as you get tons of random encounter,s beautiful visuals etc :)
looking forward to the next "X" game http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Rebirth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LabrDe4XJo0

As said in previosu thread, IMHO, games are vaslty superior now to Hollywood, in so many ways. Fed up with the mostly "processed bland cheese" of Hollywood now, "pretty boys and girls with no character, plots with more holes than a collander" etc, hehe
"Avatar" was gorgeous but was an absolute disgrace for a plot for example

Deus Ex Human Revoultion is incredibly subversive and wouldn't be comprehended or allowed by most of Hollywood now
"If you want to make enemies, try to change something!" was it's tagline and part of it's theme, absolute brilliance
Once, film led with asking questions, now, it's mostly formulaic/too smooth dross.

ok see if I can uplaod some screenshots I did with FRAPs ;)

 OK, this shows how the ambient occlusion and HDR helps
http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/skyrim/skyrim_mods1.jpg

and this shows how luscious it is outside ;)

http://www.silverblades-suitcase.com/skyrim/skyrim_mods2.jpg

drags self out of skyrim

LOL ;)

Ok, I upgraded form a 240 to 560 Nvidia and yes, it does make a difference, 240 cannot relaly do Ultra settings ;)

but £160 was too much really for a video card but hey, it was Xmas prezzie to myself :P Normally wait to they are udner £100

had to strip my damn PC 's HD cages down and reconfigure my hard drvies positions, because as always, recent video cards are grossly oversize, this one takes up THREE expansion bay slots, jeesh, so needed ot move the hard drives to fit it in

If you wait a few years, like my 240 nvidia, they get tiny, and more powerful/less power used

Highly recommened following mods:

Makes ore veins glow, as they're hard to spot, normally
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=193

Post Process injector for high saturation, looks gorgeous
http://skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=131

To get rid of clouds, let you zoom in and rotate (even upwards!) on the 3D map
add this to end of your skyrim.ini file (in my documents/games/skyrim, usually and of course BACK UP YOUR ORIGINAL .INI FILE!)

[MapMenu]
sMapCloudNIF=0
fMapWorldMaxHeight=150000.0000
fMapWorldMinHeight=8000.0000
bWorldMapNoSkyDepthBlur=1
fWorldMapDepthBlurScale=0
fMapWorldZoomSpeed=0.3700
fMapWorldMaxPitch=400.0000
fMapWorldYawRange=400.0000

I recommend turning off all antialiasing and turn on FXAA in the options when you start Skyrim as it's much less resources using than AntiAliasing

latest Nvidia beta drivers have Ambinet Occlusion!!

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-11-29-new-nvidia-geforce-drivers-for-skyrim-mw3

Advanced Shaders, can only use ONE of them, I went with HDR one as other is much same as FXAA post process injector, dynamiclaly affects light/shadows so they work properly, ie, dungeons/nights are darker

http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=822

Advanced Nigh Sky, I chose blue
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=85

HD textures:
http://www.skyrimnexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=607

ok, the post process Injector itself isn't too big a hit on FPS, but, the HDR one IS  and so is Ambient Occlusion, and combined they're a MASSIVE hit on FPS so don't try unless have 560 card or SLI etc
Combined it's all just freaking awesome!
Alas, since it's post process, it doesn't show on screenshots so I can't show you :(
(I don't have paintshoppro or photoshop etc for screen grabs on this rig, keep art/game rigs seperate)

and now...back to Syrim ;)