As a professional user I only pay for usability with respect to the software I'm using (FormZ, Lightwave, MAX). FormZ and MAX are way more expensive in Euro's. I did not even blink an eye for paying the higher price since these programs are base packages I need for doing my work. In regards to other software the prices are also competitive, even with this high price.

Vue5 Infinite however is NOT a base package. It simply is some plugin which I may add to my toolset. I even can do ALL things in the software mentioned above: with help of HDInstance for Lightwave and VRay, FinalRender and Maxwell for MAX I can even do the same thing like the EcoSystem in Vue. These products are offered in Dollars, even if most developers are based in Europe. If I put this against the EURO price of V5I, I can only conclude that I will throw away a lot of money. I may be wrong of course and there REALLY are professional users which are gonna use V5I as a base package, but I seriously doubt that. I know some professional users who are either hospitalized or visiting shrinks after a week in Vue4Pro ;)

Then there is the real EURO-DOLLAR issue. All Europeans are aware of the LOW dollar exchange, and by that are focused on buying as much as possible in this currency. Instead of taking advantage of the greater willingness of these people to buy more goods just because of this fact, some companies discourage this behaviour by offering their product against a 1:1 ratio. With me it does ring a bell, that I should at least investigate its value more thorougly. If V5I was offered as a downloadable version for $595 worldwide, I just would have bought it without blinking an eye (again:)). I wonder what's the reasoning behind this, since there are lots and lots of companies that offer their products worldwide in $$.

Finally I have some other thoughts about E-ON's motives. I don't know ANY professional that buys point-zero softwares against regular prices BEFORE it is released. Most companies at least have an INTRODUCTION OFFER for some months, which would draw a lot of these users accross the line. This really makes me wonder if V5I is not just a smart marketing trick to make more money from less professional (I'm NOT saying hobbyists;)) users. It would make all this much more plausible. Maybe V5I is a great product, but V4Pro was a big JOKE :D I even passed to take over someone's Vue4Pro license for 100 DOLLARS !!!!

Message edited on: 02/12/2005 04:44

Thanks all for your opinions. It seems VuePro's trees are way too complex for exporting or simplifiyng. I'll stick with my current tools untill some demo materials are coming. Carrara: nice product, bad trees!!!

Hi and thanks for your answers till now.

To state things more clearly: I want to use VuePro ONLY for its trees/plants and the terrains, more specifically...the maps. Rendering will always be in LW or MAX since they are simply much faster, especially when doing complex char. or forensic animations. I have a lot of image collections with trees but they are only usefull if doing stills. For animation purposes I definitely need 3D trees and I know from Treedesigner and XFrog you can get perfect trees below 100K. And if you remove the "inside" of the tree carefully you can easily get a perfect 30K tree. Onyx does not add to the two others I mentioned here, except for animation studies in MAX and ElectricImage; selecting branches with accomp.leaves is hell in OnyxTree too.