Although the problems with Bryce leaving something to be desired, I can't fault DAZ for having and honouring their 30 day money back guarantee.

I've just got off the phone after talking to a very helpful sales representative who happily converted my purchase into gift certificates that I can now spend on some content.

Other software companies would probably have shrugged their shoulders and quoted the EULA clause at me with all that "no warranties, expressed or implied" nonsense in it.

Not wanting to sound unduly pessimistic or negative but this sort of problem, especially in the light of the Bryce 5.5 fiasco which sent me into the arms of Vue 5, is surely a sign that DAZ are still not ready to be a software company. Vue has its problems too, I might add, but fundamental problems like this just shouldn't happen.

A missing serial number is the least of my problems. The 1.3.1 installer appears to install a Release Candidate version of 1.4.13 Studio. Starting Bryce gives this: The Procedure entry point ?DzScene__clear@@YAXPAVDzScene@@@Z could not be located in the dynamic link library dzwrapper.dll I'm somewhat miffed that I paid for a Bryce upgrade welded on to the side of software that is not even considered to be of release quality yet.

Thanks, that seems to be conclusion I'm coming to. I can't quite believe that after 10 updates, Vue is still so flakey. It makes me look back at my aging Bryce 5.01 with fond and stable memories....

Quote - WinXP is 32bits, and so doesn't allow more than 2gigs of ram per application. This extra gigabyte will only be useful if you are running more than one app at the same time.

Yes indeed. This was why I was wondering if the /3GB switch would help by giving Vue a 3GB virtual address space. I understand that applications have to designed to take advantage of the larger address space, any one know if this is the case ?

I've removed the glowing material from the scene and the latest re-render worked fine. I guess that's something I'll have to avoid in future.

I'm using Pro Studio. So does a VOB file also retain links to the texture maps? That must seriously affect their usefulness and portability.

Well done Joe. In the tradition of lazy journalists the world over, I have to ask: How does it feel?

I've been very happy with Hexagon, easy to get into and understand. After trying demos of Silo and Hexagon, I found Hexagon was most intuitive. Try all the demos before you buy.

When I've seen this happen, it's either the red gun (mostly likely) or perhaps a loose cable connection. I had a OEM Trinitron CRT monitor years ago that had this intermittent behaviour and after spending money getting its electronics fixed, ended up having the problem again and replacing it. You could try booting Windows hitting the F8 key just before it gets going and choose the VGA boot option. That will load Windows with the default VGA driver and you could see if that fixes it - that could point to a driver problem. If you find red fades in and out while you work, that probably means the gun is gone and it's time to get that LCD panel you've always wanted.

Opting not to have a public beta has to be a mistake. Surely the experience of the 5.5 release has shown how significant issues escaped the scrutiny of the closed beta. I for one will be taking a 'wait and see' for this next release. I'm starting to think now that with other worthy products out there, sinking resources into trying to get Bryce up to par is money and effort that might have been more usefully spent elsewhere, but I'm happy to be proved wrong. As for the interview, it read too much like those cosy marketing pieces.

I like your plan but there's one small flaw.... We write boring business solution software for people who work in exciting sectors like finance....

Thanks for the feedback. I'll take a look at the demo and investigate some of the features you've mentioned.

Thanks for replying, Is dynamic hair a feature of Poser 6 and specially created hair products or can any hair figure or prop be dynamic, simply by being used in the later version? Similarly, is dynamic cloth something I'll see in my existing clothing assets or will I have to purchase new clothing with this capability ? Does a Poser 6 figure import any differently (or better) than a Poser 4 figure?

Thanks for the advice folks, I've seen some performance improvements by pulling back on render quality in GI. As it turns out, the picture itself is not really working for me so I've abandoned it. Nevertheless, it's been a useful exercise, I've gotten a better feel for the rendering options and how to use it. Thanks again.