Attached Link: http://www.bryceformac.com

Many thanks for your comments. Some of you did some research and found my old gallery, how did you find it?

Some simple questions answered here now...

1. Yes... PC's too
2. No, this is NOT a working, real version of Bryce
3. Yes, this is a REAL thing. I am formally designing the new Bryce, in the hope that when I present the proposal to Corel/Eovia, it is taken onboard. If you go to my site, you can read into the details more about the mission.

I have talked, to certain length, about the source code. Its going to cost over $1Million USD to buy the rights to the code. So no, I am not going to do that. I have spoken to Eric Wenger, Kai Krause, Antoine Clappier (Eovia CEO), and Corel/Vector. I have the official support from Eric, Kai, and Antoine is very interested in what I have to offer with regards Bryce.

I own a design and production company, and I do have the resources to produce the designs and feature ideas for this new Bryce.. after all, they are only designs.

The reason I have the site, is so I get as much feedback and ideas as possible. Afterall, I don't want to present this ro a developer such as Eovia if it isnt what the users want.

Yes, anyone could do this. I am no more special than any of you wonderful Bryce users, but to be honest, I am not going to wait any longer. Something needs to be done, and I figure its best to just START something than to dream about it.

Some of you like the interface some of you dont. It will change over time no doubt, but it will be set in stone and finalised in the not TOO distant future.. or we will be forever dreaming.

I'll be on here as much as I can, but my forums are probably a little more user friendly, so if you have ideas, suggestions etc, please post them up on bryceformac.com.

We WILL get Bryce back into action, with the petitions, and with this proposal, the developers and publishers won't have any reason not to!

Hope to hear from you all soon

Warm Regards
Scott Richardson

Well, I for one would be much happier if you talked to Ken Musgrave (Mojoworld) instead of Eovia. BTW, don't forget the existing petition to save Bryce.

I LOVE the idea of having attributes always open and on the side! This interface is awesome! Would take a little bit of time to get used to WHEN it comes out but I really like it. Good color scheme, too. Good Luck!

Is this Pendulum one of the Bryce Gods? Why haven't we heard of him before? Where has he been hiding? How can we help him get $1mil? Will Bryce 6 be a free download/upgrade? Can we change the B6 colour scheme? Does it have a BAD IMAGE self-destruct appelet? Or Collision alert? I think we may be about to enter heaven....... The Bryster

Don't forget to add some features such as : Basics 1 : Deformation tools (bend, bulge, spin etc..) and a spline modeler 2 : Elevation map on objects 3 : particule generator / editor (smoke, sparks, fur, grass etc...) 4 : post render effects (volumetric light " much faster on post render than calculated") flares. textures 1 : add a glow (or self illumination) channel in the texture editor 2 : Add a translucence channel in the texture editor 3 : add a menu in the specular channel with the choice between regular specularity, anysotropic etc... 4 : Add a menu in the reflexion channel with the choice between world reflexion or image map reflexion. 5 : A 3D texture morph fonction. others 9 : Add a background and backdrop image/color import in the sky editor 10 : A DSK fonction ( compatibilties with most of the 3D plug-ins ) and a develloper interface 11 : devellop a 10 time faster render engine 12 : don't change the price! 13 : we will be glad! Cheers!!!!!

Ooooops.. and of course a REAL and fine Boolean operator (so we could export our bryce models in any formats) and finaly give it an other name .. such as light wave, 3ds, maya etc etc LOL!!!!!!! ............. ;-p

Well lets add, 14) Be able to composite/blend/shellac materials 15) support Linux 16) be able to export everything as a mesh (3DS/DXF)(trees/plants/the 'skin' from a set of metaballs) 17) improve the star field generation 18) metaball support of volumetric material 19) metaball 'skin' to be able to boolean with other primitives

forgot this one:- 20) be able to assign strength and gravity to a metaball. strength = the metaballs surface tension, i.e how much it wants to stay round gravity = how much it draws the skin from other metaballs

what about a NURB and subbdivision modeller too and a 3D paint set of tools?

awesome! its great to hear some good news. I think of te biggest features for me would to be able to export as something other than .obp, like .obj:)

absolutely great news!!!

Looks great so far, similar to vue. 2 thoughts, (1)hidden expandable menus(like poser)(yes I know, you can slap me later) but it allows for a larger work area. (2)real boolean.

I wonder if asking for more modeling features would make Bryce 6 more expensive? Removing the small bugs that we have stumbled over would be good. Would like certain light settings to stay off when you turn them off.

why not mixing Carrara Studio v3 and Bryce for Bryce Carrara version 1 at an upgrading price of 99.00$. Carrara Studio v3 is already 80 to 90% Bryce. Plus the vertex and spline modeling, a particle generator and an excellent rendering time. I'll upgrade yesterday!!!

While I applaud your efforts, I'm a little concerned over the Eovia idea. They're in about as bad of a financial condition as Corel is, if not worse.

what, no command lines? :)

Camera & object Motion blur. VIDEO AS TEXTURES PLEASE !!!!!!! (just like images as textures, just using video files so the "image" changes with each frame. :) ) Interlaced animation rendering. (So I don't have to render full frames at 60fps then throw out half the data I waited for to interlace to 30fps for TV) Also, provide for adjustable bevels/chamfurs(sp?) on Bryce primitves. Looks & sounds fantastic !!!!!!!!!!! Thanks for picking up the torch! Have fun.

Oh yeah.... (now that you got me started!) Render to image sequence with alpha channel (so you don't have to always make a seperate "Mask" render) Then in 6.5 or 7 (dare to dream) add the ability for the alpha to account for object transparency.) :) Have fun.

Better animation would be good too. Using morph targets and anything else to improve the animating. It wouldn`t really be too hard. Bryce 5 already has the main animating things they would just need some additions to make it great.

I realize that this is a Mac post, but please consider saving Bryce for PC as well. We're a fairly large part of the market and just as rabid as the Mac community about Brycing.

Actually, it's not a "Mac thread" Check out Scott's first numbered "simple question answered". :) Have fun.

A better modeller and a faster renderer would be enough to me, but with an interface like this, i honestly wouldnt buy it! Keep the old one, it works well!

..and yesterday, and while standing on one foot..;) hey, if you can pull it off, go for it.

Well, when the caption says "bryceformac" I assume they are talking about the Mac platform. Silly me.

But, now that I read the whole post carefully, I see that he does mention PCs. YAAAAAY!!

How about this? You select an object and then hit say CTRL+SHIFT This brings up a counter on the selected object. Now select a second object and move it towards the 1st. The numbers (BUs) on the counter reduce until you are as close as you need your 2nd object to be. This might help when moving complicated groups/families or just single items under difficult conditions.

padawanNick you can already use videos as textures technically. True you can't just select a video file and make it the texture but you can take frames from the video and add them as textures manually at the correct keyframes and Bryce will interpolate the in between frames. (ie I change the texture every 5 frames Bryce will interpolate frames 2-4, 6-9, etc.) The more keyframes you use the smoother the animation will be. I did a sample of this on my website.

I am delighted that Scott has picked up the torch and is trying to carry it forward. If you visit his site and do some checking, you will see that proposed new features include a spline-modeler, and the ability to sculpt a terrain or lattice horizontally as well as the usual vertical. I could get use to the new, more glitzy interface, especially if you could resize the work area. If folks could drag toolbars where they wanted, close tool-sets not currently in use and set their own color-schemes I think that some objections to the new interface design would be a moot point. I would jump to buy Bryce 6 tomorrow with just the proposed changes.

Take all of the above on board and make sure it can make a decent cup of tea and it'll be a world beater. Right, $1 million. How many of us are there? Probably not a $1 each I'm guessing. But you couldn't find a better bunch of alpha testers.

Cool Scott! Best of luck. I do have one question - what about Brain Wagner? Just my opinion but without him involved, meaningfull devolpment of Bryce is going to be really difficult. I remember when Corel fired the whole Bryce development team only to turn around a month or two later and rehire Brian, Todd Bogdan and Josh Bates. I figure when they finally looked at the code they realized they couldn't do anything with Bryce without them! Best; Dan

This is a great charge to lead with. Nothing gets anyone's attention more quickly in any business than concept graphics. (or, a million dollars, whichever comes first) Great to see your initiative! AgentSmith

Hello Scott...glad you're here and thanks for letting us know about your new website. I am an avid user of Bryce5 ever since I discovered it a short time ago after using other programs... I found Bryce to give me what I wanted and the control I needed...not to mention how simple it is to use once one has learned from the masters. grin I'm looking forward to the new interface as I see it will be even easier to use. Regards, Helen

If this gets off the ground, itll be fabulous! I guess I can get use the UI but it seems like its been ergo dynamically created for left-handers. To add to the ongoing wish list here, I think its important to ask for automatic backup. Nice to have someone take the bull by the horns. Ill be looking forward to the outcome.

OK, wow, lots of replies in such short time! I'm in Oz, so I'm generally sleeping for some of your day time, so excuse my delays.

Many of the features you asked for, I AM adding to the designs, I just have not announced them yet as I have not publically uploaded the screenshots yet.

But... quick responses:

1. Windows & Sidebars - can be moved anywhere if need be, or set to auto appear as you mouse over that area, so if you mouse over the left side, the camera controls slide out quickly. Also, You can set the attributes window to auto slide when you click an object, or even set if if you click an object's [A] button. There will be lots of interface preferences.

2. Colour Scheme - like Carrara, you can change the colours using just TWO colour boxes. I am using my fav colour, aqua with a grey to make the darker areas. You could use any colours you want.

3. Pricing - This won't be a free upgrade, and honestly, I really don't mind if the price is jacked up to a normal level again, because the publisher's need to make money from this, so it stays alive, and I think the amount of extras will warrant the price - its going to be much more than just bryce from now on!

4 - Deformation Tools - Yes, they will be there, u will see them in further screen shots.

5 - Particle Generator - ALREADY there in my screen shot. Although I have not publically given a description, you see the little plane with grass on it... that is a highly sophisticated vegetation tool, which lets you grow grass on a terrain for example. It works by using a grass model from the presets and applying it all over the terrain - you can control randomness etc within the vegetation lab. OK, but since it uses model presets, you could.. for instance.. use models of huts, bug trees, people, anything you want, as it essentially works like a particle system. So, now you can grow hair on a head etc.

6 - Anisotropic Materials will be there. Most, if not all of the modern day lighting and texturing techniques will be there.

7 - Background images. Yes, you can disable the sky and use an image if you please, also accepts HDRI images!

8 - Faster Rendering Engine -trust me, this is one of my big gripes with bryce. It WILL support dual processors, and all the latest chip technologies, ie: Hyperthreading and the G5 processor etc. But the actual engine will need to be revamped, and this is something that the developers will need to work on, rather than me!

9 - Booleans... while they are not going to change a whole lot, there will be a function to merge the boolean group, which makes the objects into 1 object which can then be exported...

10 - exporting... yes you will be able to export all your shapes as regular file formats, although I don't know why you would want to leave Bryce

11 - Modeling... ALREADY there is a spline modeler, its the little glass icon. The spline modeler is teh quickest and easiest way to make custom shapes. Hell, I bet almost everyone here has to frequently open up another 3D app just to use a spline modeler! No there will not be a NURBS or Subdividion modeler, perhaps in the next version of Bryce but not this one.

12 - Metaballs, what was going to happen is that each ball has a colored ring around it when you are working with it. This shows its gravity field. You can expand or shrink this field my easily clicking and dragging it, and this will control how powerful the attraction is to another ball! SIMPLE!

13 -Animated Textures - a MUST.. yes! As you will see from upcoming screenshots, all objects, materials, movies, and... ahem.. SOUNDS will be located in a presets window which you can easily access any time. So, yes, movies can be textures, or even just a channel of a texture, not just the colour. Imagine a texture with a movie as its bump channel!! NICE!

14 -Brian Wagner, I honestly didn't know about hiim. If anyone has contact details shoot them my way!

I'll post this up on my site too, so its always available!

Regards

Scott

3 words, Poser animation importing.

A little tidbit on the metaballs: would it be possible to see how the metaballs will interact WITHOUT rendering every time you make a little shift? That drives me crazy! (Yay! Animated textures!)

Oh yes, sorry I didn't mention it before, but yes, direct importing of Poser Files, with animation. QUESTION TO YOU ALL... It has dawned on me that there might be certain legal things for me to think about... does anyone here think what I am doing is in any way illegal, or is likely to get me in trouble? As far as I know, anyone is freely available to go and make screen shots and come up with ideas of their own? right? I intend on showing Corel these designs too. Its just that someone else in another forum said they reckon I will get a cease and disist order from Corel?? Do you think this could happen? Scott

(quote) As far as I know, anyone is freely available to go and make screen shots and come up with ideas of their own? right? I intend on showing Corel these designs too. Its just that someone else in another forum said they reckon I will get a cease and disist order from Corel?? Do you think this could happen? (endquote) Scott, Anything can happen when dealing with Corel. But I'm sure if presented the way you have here and on your site, they will take notice for sure. If they don't they're absolute fools!

and when they take notice, do you think they will just get us to stop what we are doing, or do you think they will let me keep making designs and finish my proposal? Scott

Well, IANAL, but:

they might be able to issue a cease and desist order, cause you're mucking with their property.

OTOH, until you actually do something like selling or distributing a program based on Bryce 5, they might also not have any basis to do that.

But as I said, IANAL, especially not a corporate one, so if you have any acquaintance who knows something about the matter, consult them.

BTW, take a look at this earlier thread about the Bryce 6 wish list. There's also a link to a wish list of mine inside.

thanks for that.. will do :) I am going to try to talk to someone at Corel.. officially :) Wilt let you all know how I go Scott

The idea is great. But I think that you should have made sure this was a done deal before you get everyones hopes up. You probably will get a cease and desist order. I doubt youre the first one to do this. I'm sure someone has tryed this before and nothing came of it. You may actually be on a long list of people who are doing this. I hope everything works out, and if it does, I agree with Rochr as the interface that Bryce has now should stay. Good luck.

I dont think I could possibly make this a done deal with Corel. That's not the point. The idea IS to get people's hopes up, so much that Corel notices. If I get a C&D order, then I will continue to work on the designs without the public eye watching, and present them to Eovia as a new Carrara of some sort. But I really hope I don't cross any boundaries with what i am doing. At the end of the day I am only trying to do good for Bryce. So, you like the old interface. There is a lot about it that I like too. But many of the labs need reworking to use screen space effiently etc etc. Scott

Perhaps you should have a talk with Eric Wenger, Kai Krause and B. Wagner first to see what you can and cannot get away with when approaching Corel. If anyone should be able to guide, it's them.

OMG! listen to yourself people.almost everything you list as new features you want,are already in a program called Cinema 4D,heck even the free C4D ce is close to what everybody is asking for.Yikes!Bryce is great and all,and I look forward to seeing a new version,but it was never intended as a uber modeling program.Just a cool terrain making app with a cool sky lab and such.BTW,if you do use the free cinema4d you can import your bryce terrains as well.

hey all! Some news. Just spoke to someone quite high up in Corel. He asked me to email him with details. I said I don't want to be crossing and legal boundaries, and he was very sympathetic with me... ALSO.. he was very positive about what I was doing.. and he said: "its great to see, and to know that there is that kind of support for Bryce" He is now going over the lengthy email and will be passing it around to the necessary people in the Bryce Team and others. Quest.. I have already spoken to Kai, and to Eric, however I am going to talk with Eric some more. However, I feel a lot better now that I have spoken to Corel. They will get back to me soon I hope! Regards Scott

did you happen to point him to the save bryce petition? hehehe It's now got a total of 1176 signatures (just checked) in roughly 2 months? (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) Looks great to me! I know that there's still alot to be worked out as far as expenses goes, but I'm just wondering if you have any idea of roughly what this will cost in the end? we lookin at $100 or $3000?

The cost is something the publisher will work out.. but it won't cost $79 like it does now. I would be more keen to think it will be closer to what it used to be, a few hundred. Scott

Scott, I'm so happy that you talked to someone at Corel about this. I'm sure keeping my fingers crossed and anything else I can still cross -at my age. lol!

Which reminds me, Scott. What did Kai have to say about the subject??

Lots of these wish list features seem similar to what 3DSM has also. $79.00 is what Corel finally decided to bring it down to clear out their shelves of it. I've been with Bryce since it first crossed over from the Mac plateform to PC and I never paid anything near as low as $79.00 for any of the versions.