It's really sad to see e-on only further alienate their already niche user base with stuff like this. IIRC, the reason they went to manual activations was because their site was hacked and/or imploded, and they chose not to reimplement the back end infrastructure that was lost. 

I LOVE Vue, and while I haven't been artistically very active of late, I do still use it for commercial illustration work pretty regularly. I prefer the old versions of Vue as they are far more reliable, plus I have more options as far as render sizes, exporting models, etc., but I do have a current license for Creator which brings me to this mention from the latest email:

"We can't wait to see the ideas and projects you will use our tools for with these new integration options. Note that this will come alongside a EULA change, limiting the Creator product line (VUE, PlantFactory and PlantCatalog Creator versions) to “Personal non-commercial use only”."

This is obviously problematic for someone like myself who does use it commercially, but coupled with the fact that I run PC's into the ground pretty regularly, paying to activate the Vue Infinite licenses that I already own after major upgrade or replacement is a real nail in the coffin IMHO. I mean, it's not a surprise, as the writing has been on the wall for some time now, but it's still pretty disappointing as a long time user.

On a related note, it's great that they are finally giving users on all license levels access to Unreal integration, but I've already been working in Unreal, and I am loving it on its own, and may just continue on down the Unreal path which is not only free to use, but allows for commercial use for most users like myself.

I've drawn some loose puddle shapes in Illustrator, imported the shapes into Cheetah 3D to extrude them and saved the extruded meshes out as .obj files for importing into Vue. If you're lacking a 3D app that can import vector files, use Vue's type tool and import the shape there - it's not as precise, but for organic shapes like this, it shouldn't be a huge deal.

Assuming you are working with a flat surface, you can pull the puddles shapes up just a click above the top and end up with a relatively believable puddle. You may need to turn off shadows depending on your lighting setup, but i've had pretty good luck with using this method.

SkinVue is a Python script that you run from within Vue. In short, you run the script, choose a supported figure (V3, M4, Genesis, etc.) run the script and then through SkinVue's interface, you can adjust the settings to get things exactly how you like them: http://www.cornucopia3d.com/purchase.php?item_id=9247

As for scale, from Poser it more or less comes in at real scale. When I bring in a figure from Daz Studio, I end up having to wing it as the scale goes out the window. I'm sure there's some sort of formula between programs that you can use, but someone with more knowledge than I will have to chime in on that. And yes, by real world scale, I mean a real person's height, so M4 could theoretically be 6ft or so.

First thing I do when importing a .obj file is try to bring it to real world scale - this often alleviates many bump issues or at least lessens them. Second thing I do on human figures is applying the SkinVue script. This works not just on imported Poser files, but exported .obj files, as long as the .obj file contains a supported human figure mesh with it's materials in tact i.e. no merging of identical materials on import. I'm not sure what version of Vue you are running, but SkinVue is a lifesaver as it not only fixes many of the annoying issues with imported skin textures, but makes them come alive with realism.

Are you rendering to screen by chance? I only ask I that happens to me when rendering to screen, but not when rendering to disk… no idea why :/

I'm still holding out for some basic modeling tools. I know there are plenty of great modelers out there, Cheetah 3D being my favorite go-to app, but for simple things, it would be nice to not have to leave Vue.

Vue's material handling is very basic and object based, so unless predefined mat zones are present, it treats every object as a single material, hence the results you are seeing.

You would really need to map the cube in an external program or at a minimum, assign material zones to each side, though this too would need to happen in an external app. Alternatively, you could rebuild the cube using six thin cube panels right in Vue and then apply the materials of your choosing to each individual panel - I use this trick all the time as it's faster than going into another app for simple objects.

Not sure if you could call it's output fractal or not, but Groboto is an addictive and fun program for generating what I would call mechanical fractals. It generates some crazy high-quality meshes that look great in Vue and IIRC, it's pretty cheap and/or there may be a free version.

I'm running both Vue 6 and Vue 9.5 under Lion with no issues on two different machines, so you shouldn't have any issues.

Sounds like there is some issues with the mapping, but if they render ok in Poser, it can't be too wonkie. I've had this happen before with a few LWO models, so to fix them I opened the models in another app (Modo) and exported them as OBJ files which miraculously fixed the mapping scale issues.

I'd be curious to see what would happen if you exported the model from Poser as an OBJ or something to see if that helped to correct things when bringing it into Vue as otherwise you're probably going to have to go into the material editor and tweak the scale of the maps manually until they start to look right.

A lot of times I want the lighting that might come with a specific sky, but I am planning on painting my own and/or using real life photos in my final image, so I just include an alpha channel in my render settings. Using said alpha, I can then quickly delete the Vue sky in Photoshop (or whatever image editor you use) so that you can easily drop your own background image into place.

I've found that most Vue trees simply don't hold up to close ups, so you're not alone in what you are seeing. While there are some great high-poly/high-detail Vue .veg trees out there, I tend to gravitate towards static models, most of which are Poser props. These not only have more detail for close ups, but I find I have much more control over their placement in these high-vis placements in my scenes.

I've pulled most of the SW models I've used from either SciFi3D or Vanishing Point. SciFi3D's models are typically in standard easy import formats like Lightwave, Wavefront, etc. and are very high-poly, high-detail models - great for close up work. VP's models are mostly all in Poser format and lower detail, but still great models which can easily be stacked up in larger scenes. Hope this helps!

This is something I've noticed as someone who still uses Vue 6, but steps out into the new versions for their faster rendering capabilities. While it may not be all one thing, I've found it to be the lights and fringe atmosphere settings that cause the problem. My guess is that with each version of the app, Vue's light engine gets tweaked and therefore something that looks spectacular in an older version doesn't always look as good in later releases.

Just my .02, but what I've started doing is building my scenes and setting up .vob objects in Vue 6 and then lighting them in the latest release which seems to eliminate any surprises.

Quote - JCD, it's very unlikely it will include 10.5, but 10, yes.

Perhaps, though one can only hope as I got both 9 and 9.5 out of my last maintenance plan. I went ahead and renewed to get the discount with a few days to go… now lets just hope we don't have another backsliding release that takes us a few steps back as they seem to be on a role.