Okay I have the option of getting Bryce or Vue D'espirit does anyone have a preference which one of these programs are better in terms of creating backgrounds for Poser images. I would appreciate any comments and suggestions on which one is better. Thanks in advance.

My opinion is Vue is better with Poser. You can import entire Poser scenes (PZ3 files) into Vue simply. It's also easier to arrange the scene with the surroundings and Vue Renders faster. Right now Vue needs Poser 4 to import a PZ3 file, but I hear they are working on an update for Vue so it can work with Poser 5. You can import now a Poser 5 PZ3 file into Vue as long as you have Poser 4.

I agree with Sirkrite. Also there is alot of help and content available. Check out the Vue forum run by Guitta, it's great and most helpful. Also Vue is very user friendly. I have Bryce, World Builder, and Vue, Vue is definitly the best. They have a free demo at Eon, check it out. It'll help convince you. Bill

Vue. I have both, and only use Vue (between the two) if Poser is involved. Vue seems more dedicated to Poser support than Bryce at this time, and haven't seen any reason to suspect that may change any time soon.

looks like I'll have to be the voice of dissention here. I don't like Vue, for me it's less intuitive than Bryce, full poser support would be nice but the pz3 importing in Vue is more aimed at animators. By the way there's a trial version of Bryce too so you can try both & compare them at your leisure :)

I'll chip in a vote for Vue as well. In addition to the direct import of PZ3 files with all the textures correctly applied for you, the materials in Vue were much easier for me to get my mind around than the Bryce method. -- Mark

Vue. The cooperation between Vue 4 and Poser 4 is just soooo sweet! And, Vue4 can do just about anything that you can do in Bryce 5. And Bryce 5 is more expensive and much harder to use. And I have to disagree with c1rcle (sorry ;o))...I think Vue is definitely MORE intuitive than Bryce. But, like everyone else said, download the demos and judge for yourself :o). Laurie

I've had Bryce since version 3 ... Bryce is an incredibly versatile program, used by lots of artists for things other than just atmospheric images ... go check out the work of Peter Sharpe and do some searches on Bryce artists that could give you some insight on the program. I myself have Bryce 5.0 and love it ... but I have been thinking of investing in Vue as well ... what can I say, I'm a hoarder. :-) And I do love many of the Vue images I see in the galleries. Each probably has their own advantages and disadvantages over the other. I would suggest downloading trial versions of both and exploring tutorials and work of other artists on both programs before investing in either one. It's a crap shoot depending on other's opinions of programs sometimes.

Thanks a lot for your advise I am downloading demos as I type :)

I liked very much Bryce 5, but I have two problems this. First/ I can't import Poser animations to Bryce (in Mac not run Natural Pose). Second/ the render is many slow. For created one animation about 200 frame, Bryce use 36 hours! After the video is bad, the Quick Time mov is only one image colour gray. I have many problems in th animation in Bryce. The quality of image, for pictures only, is excellent.

I'm afraid you'll have to be a bit open-minded with the Bryce 5 demo. The real thing renders MUCH faster...so don't be discouraged by the render times which are very slow in the demo. I've use Vue myself, but much prefer Bryce. I find it easier and much more versatile. And to get the same quality of render in Vue as Bryce it usually takes longer in Vue. Though Bryce 5 has many extra render options that can slow things down. With the latest version of Grouper making it so easy to go between Poser and Bryce, Vue's got little advantage there. You still have to load the transparencies yourself, but Grouper will gather up all the textures and Bryce loads them on import.

I not use the Bryce demo, I use Bryce 5 for Mac.

6 of one, half dozen of the other. Both are great products with their own advantages. Vue works better with Poser (4 that is). Bryce seems to do better on materials. Vue renders faster. Bryce seems to do lighting a little better. Both are great programs. The learning curve is less for Vue. If you're lazy like me, then go with Vue. If you like a bot of a challenge and want to research and really get into it, maybe Bryce. Ask in the Bryce and Vue forums about the things they really like about the product. You'll get enough opinions there to help you make an educated decision. What I'd really like to see is Vue with the ability to pose and bone figures. That'd be REALLY something.

I'm sorry, Estruch, I was referring to Jenai who said he is downloading the demo. I'm afraid I have no idea what your .mov problem is :(

The Bryce pictures in my system they are excellents. Is possible problem in the codecs, but I have many problems in the animation.

I think the vegetation looks more realistic in Vue than in Bryce. I have both, but if you are going to be importing a lot of Poser figures into one of these programs I would go with Vue. I think Bryce is a better program than Vue, but importing Poser figures is a real pain. I wish Vue would improve the object placement tools. I don't like having to click X, Y, or Z every time I want to move something. Also, Vue doesn't seem to allow viewing the underground which I use all the time in Bryce for underground scenes (caves and tunnels). I also think that Bryce is easier to use in constructing buildings. In my opinion, but programs are excellent except for a few features between the two. If you can afford it, I'd go for both but you might want to try out the demos first. It all depends on what you are going to do with the programs.

I vote for bryce but mostly because I can find more stuff for it. So it depends upon what your going to do with it. Grouper works great for me . Kromekat made some great woodland items for bryce. Just another thing to conciter before you buy, see what add-on's are available .

I vote for the two, Bryce and Vue

In Carrara also can be created landscapes, you likes Carrara?

In Cinema 4D XL can be mattered Poser's animations and later to add to them decorated natural... You have proven it?

In seeing the works from both programs, I noticed that each of them have different styles. Vue art seems to look more like a painting whereas Bryce has a different feel. Just make sure you know what kind of look you're going for in your art.

Rely on the demo's. For me, at the beginning, it came down to the interface. With Bryce, it was automatically like second nature for me. With Vue, I struggled almost in vain. You have to decide what works best for you in your hands. After that, if you were to learn the hell out of either program, there's not much you couldn't do. BUT, you do have to consider Vue can import Poser files directly. I'm a Bryce die hard, but that fact can't be overlooked. Bryce can import meshes, it's just more work. AgentSmith

I'm a diehard brycer since version 3. While there are some advantages to the pz3 in vue, I hate the interface and am not impressed with the quality of the renders. I'd rather struggle a bit more with import, etc, and have a better product to show. Take a stroll through the galleries and the hot 20's and see which program you like better in terms of the final product. I agree that Vue is more user friendly for the Poser animators. However, there is Natural Pose and Susannah for Bryce to help in that area though admittedly, I have not used them.

I have not used Vue D'espirit. However, note that if you choose Bryce, there are a number of little oddities that must be taken care of during import, such as bits of clothing that are hidden in poser that must be deleted, setting transparencies manually, etc. that make it kind of a pain to import poser figures into Bryce. It can certainly be done of course; just be prepared to spend a some time doing it and learning how. There are a number of tutorials and freeware programs out there that are (or should be, I haven't actually tried several yet) extremely helpful in reducing the workload.

The primary reason I chose Vue was simply because I couldn't figure out Bryce's interface from the Demo. The Vue demo only took me a half hour to figure out and create my first image. I just put Bryce on the same "never gonna be able to wrap my brain around it" list as TrueSpace (which sits on the shelf in its little box never to be opened again). Kate (who HATES the trackball interface. ARGH!!!!)

{Kromekat made some great woodland items for bryce. } - Thanks for the plug! - but actually, the products I make (textures and obj models) can and are used in all apps - a large proportion, if not most, use my stuff in Vue, whereas I use and display the same products mainly in Bryce. I recently bought Vue, but haven't had enough time to really explore, but so far I feel a little frustrated by the controls. Both apps have very definite strengths though, and ideally, like different brands of paint or pastels, should both be used for different purposes! - If I want to get an idea out fast, and achieve a realism, or an illustrative look, I use Bryce. If I really wanted to do a great, convincing, and often painterly landscape, I would turn to Vue! - Try both!

I normally scream at nonstandard interfaces, but Bryce is a big exception. One thing that people who don't bother to learn it don't understand is that the edit controls allow you to manipulate the objects WITHOUT touching the scene. How many times in other programs have I gone to rotate one thing and ended up messing something else. Besides which with the default scene angle, the controls direction match the direction objects move in the scene. You don't even have to think about x,y,z right away when you're first starting out. The controls are there for a reason..and a damn good one. No other 3D program I've ever tried is as easy to use.

Well, I never could figure out how to do anything in bryce other than click on that little mountain thingie at the top and have a wireframe mountain show up in the viewing window. Couldn't move the mountain, couldn't find the camera controls to move the camera, heck I couldn't even find the camera at all. Couldn't change the viewing angle - totally useless. Just like the TrueSpace interface. Impossible to wrap my brain around. Spent days trying to do anything in Bryce and never managed to make a single render (couldn't figure out which doohickey was for rendering) but had an image rendered in Vue an hour after I installed it. Go figure, huh? Kate (who just got an offer for a free upgrade to TrueSpace 4 something and is gonna pass cuz TS 3 was such a waste of time)

KateTheShrew, do you still have your copy of Bryce, and what version is it? Maybe we could get you going on that. Its actually pretty easy to use once you know how. If you wanted to move the mountain (you can move any mountain!) in version 5 (this may or may not apply to earlier versions, haven't tried them), you would click on the word "Edit" at the top of the screen (you see "Create", "Edit", "Sky & Fog". They are three separate menus, and you start in the "Create" menu. Now you have the edit controls.
The middle control (a little box with arrows sticking out of it) lets you move stuff. hover the mouse over one of the arrows sticking out of it (there's two each for the X, Y and Z axes), and click and drag. Or, if you prefer to specify exact numbers instead of using the mouse, click on the letter "A" to display attributes of the currently highlighted object, then you can enter values in the position fields.
I actually haven't bothered with individual cameras other than the main camera or main view that you are already using. To do that, simply drag the trackball around.

And yeah, yeah, I know, trackballs... sorry Kate. Why do you hate it again?

Heh. All I ever had was the bryce demo. It didn't come with instructions. And the biggest reason I prefer Vue is all I have to do is click on the mesh in the window and just drag it to where I want it. Or click on the rotate tool and drag it until it turns the direction I want it to go. Or I can haul it up in the air, move it over a table and hit the "drop" button and it lands on the table. hehe. Which is much easier to do when I have all 4 views open instead of just one. :) Kate (who already spent her money)

Whoops, meant "why do you hate trackballs, again?"

LOL I hate trackballs cuz they make my thumb cramp... oh, you meant UI trackballs not real ones... nevermind giggle I hate the UI ones cuz I can never manage to move anything in a straight line in just one direction. Even in Poser. Makes me nuts. :) KateTheOftenKranky

It's wierd how the Bryce interface does this to some people - it really is the easiest, and most logical way to navigate and move things I've yet used. Oh yes, they look strange, and if your used to 'normal' traditional UI's than I know how the Meta ones can be daunting, but if you persevere beyond the 'I just cant do it', you'll wonder how you ever used another system! ;)

yeah, Kromekat, I think it's all about what you're used to and how the individual brain functions. For me, the trackball system is the least intuitive thing out there, whereas for others it's like falling off a log - easy as pie. I guess I'm a "hands on" type person in real life, so it's more logical to me to just pick something up and put it where you want it (like you would do in real life) where for someone else it makes more sense to slide things around. I think that's one of the reasons I never really got too involved in VRML - the controls were more like the trackball and I got tired of hitting those little arrows and instead of moving a few inches wound up completely out of the scene I was viewing and off somewhere else. :) Now, if I could just figure out the stupid TrueSpace interface - it's not like Bryce OR Vue - not even close. g KateThe"manual is no help"Shrew