Check if "Autoexposure" is turned on in the Post-render options, and if so, turn it off. That's often the culprit with black renders. Keep it turned off, btw. - I never use it :)

The ecosystems and the eco-painter are the very essence of Vue, if you want to make landscapes. Also I strongly recommend Complete, then you don't have to worry about what you can and can't do.
If you get the FREE DAZ Studio, you can import you own rigged meshes etc. like the pre-animated ones at C3D, with much, much more potential. 

You may try these, by me and free - not SolidGrowth, but popular :)

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/freestuff/details.php?item_id=63910 

I haven't experienced 'lack of customer support' (Vue), on the contrary, the few times I've had to contact tech support, it has been swift. If you read the different forums and Facebook sites, they are often full of dissatisfied users (DAZ, Cornucopia, Renderosity or whatever) - because people are more likely to express dissatisfaction than the opposite.
It's a bit like you always hear about people being treated badly at the hospital, giving you the impression that all doctors are bad. But you seldom here about the many, many more cases where the treatment works...
(Of course it's very relevant to know about the pros and cons)

Quote: "Vue does seem to give me more realistic renders right out of the box and the artwork I've seen created with view does in my opinion surpass what I've seen of Bryce. It should be kept in mind though that a free program like Bryce will attract a lot more hobbiests and experimenters where as Vue, with it's higher price, would attract more professionals and semi-professionals."

About the pricing and quality - if Bryce had something to offer anyway near what you get from Vue, more 'semi-professionals' would use it, I guess.
Even the free Vue Pioneer offers beautiful realistic skies (rendered at a reasonable time) and use of pre-made ecosystems.

(Actually, I find it incredible that this discussion keeps coming up smile I'll quote from memory what another Vue'er wrote on Facebook, when DAZ made Bryce 7 free: "About Bryce, don't bother. If you have Vue, it's not worth the download time".

I don't know if a similar discussion DAZ Studio vs. Poser exists, but I think it would be much more tricky. IMHO the Studio is a quite powerful contender, prefer Poser though, because I know it better... ) 

I too used Bryce (5) for starters, but soon made the shift to Vue, and found Vue much more powerful and intuitive (!) to use.
I have Complete, and wouldn't recommend lesser.
There's always been this sort of religious war Bryce > Vue, to settle things a bit (in favour of Vue of course) just visit the respective galleries here, and see what people do with it.
A high level Bryce work would be an average Vue one...

I have 7 and 8 running on my computer, no problems. I like some features in the Vue 7 terrain editor, so I usually start my scenes in that before finishing them in 8.

You may have "Clear OpenGL data before render" turned on - if so, turn it off. Vue will have to update/reload the OpenGL data otherwise, hence the time lag.

Sorry for not getting back here sooner. I just want to fill in, that if you select several bones at once (ctrl-click on pc), like e.g. the whale's tail above, you get a sort of easy-pose effect, bending it smoothly. At least I've done so with an imported DAZ horse (the tail).

DAZ Studio collada export allows the figures to import as "rigged meshes" in Vue. So most Poser figures can be poseable in Vue as well, and with a lot more bones than the C3D ones (at least the ones I know). Of course it's best to work on expressions etc. in Poser or DS, but it is possible to e.g. adjust the eyes etc. directly in Vue with those. The C3D ones are primitive in comparison, IMO.

The poseable figures work in Vue 8 and up. I have Complete, and I have a few, they are poseable.

The Vue human characters are very primitive/simple compared to Poser ones (or DS), you can't change their expressions etc. But of course that makes them simpler to work with, not so many options to consider :)

You might consider using the Poser Collada export, and reduce the texture maps size in that proces. That's what I've been doing lately, works like a dream, much less resource drop etc. You'll have to tweak the textures a little to make them look good in Vue (bump, specular) but that's needed in most cases anyway.

If you want to repose your characters inside Vue, maybe consider setting up the lot in Daz Studio instead. Then you can import the Collada as a rigged, posable mesh into Vue without the Poser dynamics hosting problems.

Just made a test with the Road Maker in Vue. Looks really promising, BIG thanks!

Funny, I just looked at some of my old Bryce renders and saw that I used some software called Shapemaker. Now I'll go and have a look, thanks!

The main reason for the decline in teh acitivity in this forum I think is the fact that most of the very active members have left Renderosity, I name "wabe" and "rutra" as examples. Walther Beck aka "wabe" left and the Vue FaceBook group got started, and I joined soon after. But it's not working as a forum as such right now, more like discussions and "see me and my work" kind of thing (which includes my activities). The active mebers of the FaceBook group are sort of the hard core Vue'ers ("the usual suspects") and the pictures uploaded there reflect that. But a lot of them get posted at C3D and here as well (mine do, so far).
Don't expect the FB group to replace the forums e.g. here and at C3D.

I've seen some great renders with the Lux/Studio combo. But, as mentioned, not superior to anything you can make in Vue.
I think the main issue here is the declining technical knowledge and "readiness" among the Vue users, becoming more and more like the Poser and DAZ people, just rendering purchased items with purchased atmospheres, and SkinVue e.g., and having no idea what they are actually doing. If you have access to the full render engine in Vue, you can make very convincing results, provided you take the time and energy to dig into the options and features.

So people see "something" brilliant made with an application, and think: "I HAVE to get that one!" not realizing that the outcome has more to do with the artist's skills and talent than the software capabilities.
Example: If you scroll through great artist HowieFarke's gallery, you'll get the impression that Carrara is a superior nature/landscape rendering program. But if you then look at what other artists make with the same software, you'll see very little evidence of this - except the renders involving ready-made HowieFarkes preset scenes :)
I'm not suggesting that the software is irrelevant, of course, just emphasizing that often you're better off mastering the tools you've got than always looking out for something else :)