I like using the new tree generator in Carrara 3, but wonder how they stack up with trees generated in Bryce 5 and Vue d'Esprit, both in terms of quality and render time. Anyone here had a chance to compare trees on these programs?

Vue's trees are more like image maps with a detail mesh where needed. Not really sure how they "Work" but they are a little less system intensive. Bryce 5 trees are nice in that they include roots, there options as far as tweaking the trees are about the same as Carrara 3. The nice thing about Bryce and Carrara's trees when compared to Vues is that you can actually edit them easier then Vues. That my two cents. Brian

Thanks for your reply. James

Vue's plants are created in SolidGroeth, a proprietary system peculiar to E-On's software. Vue Pro has an editing system but allows customisation of existing plants only. Vue 4 allows changes to mapping and nothing else. I've found SoldidGrowth render times in Vue 4 are not that much quicker than imported 3DS plant models. One reason I opted for Carrara 3 over Vue Pro is the former's plant function the options for which are staggering. More sleep lost in the coming autumn months ;-) If Bryce is really dead, then Carrara and XFrog offer the only affordable ways to make editable plants, from scratch, at reasonable cost.

Sorry, I meant SolidGrowth. My fingers can't spell.