... and ...If I could get just a little bit technical, for a moment, ... when Microsoft decides to cease support of certain very basic programming libraries that underlie Windows, which they have in the move to Windows 10, a lot of other software developers are just SOL! (for speakers of languages other than English, a profane way of saying "out of luck!") I'm maintaining a dedicated machine for Vue and Maya that runs Windows 7 professional because that operating system supports some utility programs that are absolutely critical to my Vue work. But which went the way of all flesh awhile ago, and since the companies that made them no longer exist, the software aren't going to run on Windows 10, either. This is going to be a very chill, cold next year for me as a Vue model developer. But, this kind of thing happens, and it is not the fault of E-On Software.

There is a difference between what is for sale, and "support," yes? So, only a few current versions are for sale, and now support is limited to versions only going back to Version 11. I'm with TheBryster in that this doesn't strike me as "the greatest act of theft of any software house". Almost all software vendors have to cease support for really old versions of the software, in no little part because operating systems (such as for Apple and for Windows) evolve, and hardware becomes obsolete. It becomes impossible for a software house to "support" early versions which work only on now-unsupported versions of Windows for example. Or which can't function on the only currently available nVidia graphics drivers and hardware, for another example. I think we have to be realistic about this.

As another example, as a vendor of Vue "stuff," I'm having trouble trying to make some products available for Vue version 7. I know a good person on a very limited pension who has only Vue 7, and has been pleading with me to make some of my stuff work on that old Version of Vue. I'd love, love, love to be able to do this, but I can't even buy the hardware pieces to make a computer, let alone the old version of Microsoft Windows need to make this possible. (And I build my own computers, so if anyone could do this, it ought to be me!) But it is frankly impossible for me to build a rig that will run Vue 7, even though I've kept the software (since I go back to "Vue 1.00). I don't even want to think about the kind of nightmare it would be to try to port some of my products back to that old version.

So, I agree that this constant modernization process is painful and hurts a lot. Really a Lot! But, dang, some things are just not possible nor reasonable!

Maybe, maybe not. Too early to be so pessimistic.

It is great to hear that the old vendors will be active on the New Cornucopia3d. There are so any talented plant, landscape and atmosphere makers that were vendors there. This is very good news, indeed!

Minor note: Clark and I collaborated on many model sets on C3D under the name "Buzz and Woody", as well as under our own names. Here, we're probably just going to put out some 400 models sets under the name "Forester" as a Rendo Exclusive vendor. No plans to go back to C3D - as it's future is uncertain. (All model sets upgraded to fit with the latest version of Vue, as well as backward compatible to Vue Version 9. Let us know if you want anything special.) But it may be that someone here is an old mod on C3D and has better insight as to the long-term plans for C3D. ??????????????????

Not any of my business really, but as a hardware junkie, I'd say that 750 watt PSU is way too little for rendering with 32 GB of RAM. By the way, modern video cards will consume well more than half of your power wattage - they are the biggest drain on the PSU.

There was a recent announcement from the owners (can't remember where I saw that) that they planned to publish the site again in the fourth quarter of this year. As I understand it, the E-On Software was sold to Bentley in 2015, but the original owners retained Cornucopia3D. It will probably come with completely new vendors for 3D models, with the initial set being freelance hires by the owners. Not sure what will be the status of plant makers like "RealmsArts", who is now operating independently under a different name. I am not a "Facebooker," but I know that Tony ("RealmsArts") and some of the other plant makers have active pages there. Perhaps you can find out more there if you have a Facebook account.

As one of the original vendors there, I am slowly putting all my old, but now updated models here. Clark Cook is doing the same. Some of the original 3d model vendors are starting to migrate here as well - we like the Renderosity staff and management very much.

Autodesk Max and Autodesk Maya are now available for a single month's rental, if you wish. At a very reasonable price.  Max has much less learning curve than Maya.

Aside from the minor quibbles with Benjamin's major point, there are two alternatives you might want to explore before purchasing a new machine. One would be to consider submitting your scene to a commercial renderfarm, and just paying to have them make your animation final product for you. Would cost less than a new machine. The other, suggested by Benjamin, is to invest in a major change in software. This means purchasing Cinema4D, or renting Autodesk MAX or MAYA for a month, and purchasing Vue Xstream to go with these. Of course, this is the expensive alternative, probably more expensive than a new machine.

Hmmmm, I mostly agree with you, Benjamin.

But disagree on a couple of minor points. First, his scene is heavy on water and sky. Almost all of the compute time and a good share of temp storage space probably is devoted to rendering the sky and sea. About twice the amount of RAM would certainly help shorten the rendering times for anyone who has a lot of water in a scene, or a lot of water and sky. As you say, his video card is not the problem (changing that out would make no significant difference). In theory, he has a decent enough CPU, but my personal opinion is that his motherboard is not wonderfully fast, so he could purchase replace his motherboard with a gamer-type board from Asus, MSI or Gigabyte (finding the board that is compatible with his existing CPU). Replacing the motherboard probably would entail also putting new RAM (compatible with the motherboard) in it, but he needs more RAM anyhow. And, then anyone rendering an animation in Vue should be rendering to individually saved frames and then using one of the many available applications that compile individual frames into an animation. (Some of these are free, and pretty good applications.) I don't do tons of animations in Vue, but some...  Personally, I've found that a motherboard that supports SATA 3.0 (6Gbs transfer speed) and that is rendering to a solid state drive to have boosted my rendering speeds noticably. (In my case, I built a MSI board with the Samsung EVO Solid State Drives for both the C: and the D: drives. I render out to the :D drive, but I suspect that some of the increased speed is due to having all drives on this particular machine be solid state.) 

Try to obtain the model you wish in *.obj file format, rather than in the *.3ds format shown in your screen above.

Make sure you are "importing" the model, rather than "loading" it.

Make sure that the associated texture files are located within the same directory as the model. (Texture files and the *.obj model must be together in the same directory.)

Somehow, this does seem to work, Bruno. At least in my experience.

The basic purpose of a normal map is to create displacement in a render.  

The depth of the displacement can be controlled using the depth of the bump map setting.

In general, if you are using a normal map for displacement, you might also want to put a specular map (if you have one) in the place where bump maps usually go. And just a very small depth setting for the combined normal and bump map. Unless you are making massively eroded rocks or something.  

There is this....   http://www.quadspinner.com/helios/

Probably too expensive for most folks. The lower priced version is still under development, it appears, the trial version is not available, and no updates to the web site for the last three months.  

Turbosquid has some things. A few good pieces. Some other things that are very poorly made and/or are overpriced. But, things I have not seen elsewhere.

Thank you Paula. Just trying to be a good citizen.