I noticed the 12.0.288 (Win) download is labeled 12.0.289? Is this correct?

Everbody doesn't do it.  Ask Zbrush users how much they paid for the last couple upgrades.  I'm on a fixed income so this is the end of Adobe products for me, at CS3.

..... And that's why I asked the question to begin with, becuase I can see quite a difference between the various downscaling algorithms and was wondering how Genuine Fractals (Perfect Resize) stacks up.

Quote - I think the main reason theres not much information on reduction is because its relatively straight forward compared to image expansion.

Theres no guess work or 'invention of data' involved. All the available algorithms even simple 'Nearest Neighbour' can give quite good results.

 

 

edited to correct the spelling of neighbour! :biggrin:

Hmm...... I'll have to think about that a bit, but intuition tells me an image, whether scaled up or down, requires "decisions" of what color to apply, remove, or change for new/neighboring pixels.

In Photoshop, the same algorithms new or can be applied scaling up or down.  Perfect Resize uses a different algorithm to scale up than PS does, so I was assuming it would (use that algorithm) scaling down.

 I know this doesn't help this situtation, but I've done so many dumb things on my computer I finally decided that those people that say "back-up, back-up...." may have a point.  But you also have to have some plan during your work -- not just a backup at the end of the day.

I'm working on a covered bridge model in Lightwave.  I just did my 107th. incremental save.  It's so easy in Lightwave (Shift-s) that it's second nature now.  At the end of the day I zip up the versions and copy the zip to a different drive.

I guess a good question here is, is there an easy way to do incremental saves with Lightwave? Maybe an action or script?

Maybe someone here can offer up a good incremental file save solution that's easy to use.

Actually, the 3D graphics modeling market answers the question of whether or not Bryce is a useful modeling application.  It's also possible (and challenging) to do complex calculations on a four function calculator.

Bryce has it's place in terrain modeling, just as Zbrush has in character detailing.  Now days, there's so much specialization that even expensive packages suffer in one aspect or another, like animation or texturing.

Sadly, Bryce seem to be falling further behind these days.  I wish this wasn't true, since it's one of my all time favorite programs and I still grab it for quick tests.  But if DAZ was really developing Bryce I could see spending the time to master it.

That being said, I mean no lack of respect to those who use Bryce to make those great renders we see here and at other sites.  It's really the artist, not the tools.  I guess I'm trying to say Bryce is not a good program to learn modeling with, but it is a good and satisfying program to make nice 3D renders.

I was a big fan of Genetica until their latest upgrade policies.  I had purchased v2 and participated in the v3 beta.  When I went to upgrade to v3, I found it cost more to upgrade than for a new user to purchase the full product ($50 more.)

Of course I could buy the whole product again, but I guess it is the principle that product loyalty  should mean something.

It's a good application -- just a personal thing for me as to why I will no longer support it.

Another alternative is to use a plug-in.  I like Vertus Fluid Mask 3 (  http://www.vertustech.com/  ). However, these are not free and I would only recommend them if you are doing a lot of this type of image processing.

A lot depends on what type of scenes you want to render.  Right now, for pure terrain, I think Terragen 2 has the edge.  It's still in beta but some of the scenes I've seen are so close to photo-realistic that it would be very difficult to approach with Bryce or Vue.

I'm not a big believer in  "all-in-one" applications (modeling, terrain generation, texturing, etc.) but then you can make some great scenes if you have the talent and persistence.

There are some very nice programs that are reasonably priced that one can make a nice suite from: Silo, Blender, Make Human, Gimp, 3D-Coat, Terragen, Genetica come to mind.

Yes, and the CS3 update also installs and runs great on my winXP x64 system.

Thanks!  Yes, that's a bit much for a sidegrade, since I have CS3.   At the time I upgraded to CS3, I wasn't aware that the was going to be a Lightwave plugin for PS Extended, so I passed.  Don't see how Adobe can expect to sell CS3 to Extended sidegrades a that price, especially when probably a small number of user's like myself would be interested.

Guess I'll wait for the next version. 

I have a somewhat similar question and thought instead of starting a new thread, I'd place it here.
I have CS3 and wasn't interested in Extended at the time, but now I'd like to upgrade to  Extended.  Does anyone know if there's such a thing as a CS3 to CS3 Extended upgrade?

I searched the Adobe site but didn't see anything .and they (Adobe) don't seem to like Email contacts.

Quote - I have seen this programme - never used it - cant afford it but it looks interesting

http://www.vertustech.com/fm_overview.htm

Has anyone else tried this programme

Eddie

Yes, Fluid Mask does a nice job of "removing" parts of images, but as mentioned, it's not cheap.  I use it a lot with good results.  A lot depends on the image.  A seagull flying against a clear blue sky is easy to remove.  But against a white, cloudy sky would be more of a challenge.

Also, a lot of times you can work in a lower render quality and then set the quality higher for the final render.  You probably should try some small "plop renders" at the final render quality because a lot of textures change significantly when render quality changes.

Is there a Windows x64 version?  I saw the Linux 64 bit release, but not the Windows.