I am considering purchasing Bryce 5. But my question is, will all the models, mats, skies and everything I have now that I am using with Bryce 4 work with Bryce 5?

Yes. AgentSmith

Hmmm, I wonder when the next version of bryce is to be released? I hate when I buy software and the next version comes out soon after. There were rumours that the realease was just around the corner.

I heard betatesting hasn't even started, why doesn't Corel say anything?

Corel is notoriously more silent than the CIA, lol. Brycetech's complaint was that the new Bryce (Bryce 6, Bryce Pro) was going to drop support of older windows operating systems. Good for the speed of the program, really bad for anyone owning Windows 95/98/ME. Corel is going through some financial re-shuffling. I wouldn't doubt that Bryce would be put on a back burner to a certain extent, for a short while. That's just a complete guess on my part, but Corel's biggest products (seem to be) Corel Draw, and Word Perfect. Then you have their newer product iGrafx. I don't believe Bryce is their biggest money maker. So, perhaps Bryce's progression into a new version has been slowed a bit by all this. Like I said, all just a wild guess! But, we DO know that some new version has been worked on to some point. Let's just hope that it will be progressed further some time in this new year. AgentSmith

I've talked to too many people who bought b5 only to continue using b4. If you need the treelab and the other additions, go for it. I personally don't think b5 was much of an improvement over b4... everything needing fixing was ignored, while things I have little or no need for were added. Most reports I've seen say b5 is less stable than b4, which is rock solid. I do like the idea of higher res terrains, but that's about it. Note, this is personal opinion only. I'm waiting with crossed fingers for b6.

Well personally I'll never go back to B4. B5 just has too much to give it up. Metaballs themselves are worth the upgrade as well as improvements in the light lab, etc. So far there isn't anything I haven't been able to work around.

I won't go back to B4 at all. Love B5. Hope you have a honcho CPU and if you don't, then keep the render options low and it works just like B4. Only real addition is treelab. The lighting lab merely collected the lighting controls in one place. Some user improvements in the terrain/lattice editor, but no additional tools there. Matlab is the same. I hardly do metaballs in B5, though I've seen some great work. Reason is the metaballs in Metasequoia still are far superior. But its a start. Doubt B6 will be out any time soon, and even if it does come out in the next half year, the learning curve in B5 will be worth it. Best wishes to you. B5 is not a huge improvement, but a good one none the less.