I saw Orio's post down below about Vue 5 pre-ordering now. I've also been (sort-of) able to surmise who among you are beta testing this thing, and I know that y'all aren't allowed to release details about the testing process or pictures or any of that... But, how about it anyway? I won't tell anyone. How is it? :)

LOL...I wish I knew also, been scratching my head about it..I have Pro and never use it, but I may just want to upgrade to 5.....Sharen

Remember, Vue Pro 5 is also announced for the end of the year :)

• agiel - www.linfa.net

why 5 when pro is still beta with the bugs. It makes no sense. How did they get to 5 when its predecessors are in beta. Does 5 still have the same old bugs with terrible viewports. Terrible.

I have preordered Vue5. I don't think the sidegrade cost is that high so I did order it. Mainly because I love to play around with 3D stuff. However, based on the experience with Vue4Pro i do not expect anything to actually work....

quote : "However, based on the experience with Vue4Pro i do not expect anything to actually work...." Me neither, halas. That's why I'll wait, probably at least 6 months or even more, which should be enought for e-on to release a patch or two (enough to correct 50% of the bugs, while adding new ones, as usual). Moreover, sure radiosity sounds neat, but do I really need it? Other new features do not appeal me that much either. My own lack of enthousiasm distrest me, yep, but e-on should really, really work of more stable releases and less software protection methinks. - Fenrer, cold washed.

"sure radiosity sounds neat, but do I really need it?" If you make landscapes, and if Vue's GI engine shall work as supposed, you WILL need it (if for nothing else, just for the difference it will make in the rendering of the shadows in the vegetation and on the Poser characters). I personally just can't wait! :-) I would have never been able to resist for more than 3 months withouth it!

Radiosity is one of the things I have been missing in Vue. Actually several of the wishes has ben fullfilled. Still missing seems to be. 1. A darktree material plugin. 2. The possibility to use animations(avi mpg etc) as texture maps in materials. 3. Particles for explosions, smoke, rain, etc.. 4. Bone rigging inside Vue (will probably never happen);) I'm really looking forward to the new material editor as the old one was more of a technicans way of doing it that an artists way (as in the Darksim tools).

"1. A darktree material plugin." I would love that but unfortunately for this to happen the whole core engine of Vue should be transformed into a plugin based application, and I don't know how many chances there are that this can happen. "I'm really looking forward to the new material editor as the old one was more of a technicans way of doing it that an artists way (as in the Darksim tools)." Actually, this is the only part that makes me scared. I was perfectly comfortable with the old material editor. Powerful and easy. I don't know how you can judge the old one as technicians way, and be comfortable with Dark Tree - I know darktree and for me it's the other way around - Darktree is terribly "technician", while Vue's (the current) is friendly - to make a mixed mountain material you just add another then adjust the altitude and slope sliders and that's it. Just find another 3D program that lets yuo do this so fast and well!

They would really only need to add a plugin interface if they not intended to do the 'Simbiont' implementation themself. The main 'technical' part is when you work with the functions. In Vue you rather put them on top of each other and what you can se is the combined result of then, while in Darksim you would have an image of what each function does before combining them.

I don't know about the radiosity thing... Just as an example: I've been using LightWave 7 for about a year now, and one thing I've noticed is that there's alot about LW that e-on seemed to try to incorporate into Vue 4, like the parameters on tools and such. It makes me think that e-on looks at LW and thinks, "Yeah, we should do that..." Anyway, LightWave has exceptionally good lights, and particularly the volume lights are much better than Vue's, with (predictably) more options and more control. Granted, Vue 4 is a bit more intuitive and novice-friendly, but lIghtWave is much more advanced. But I'm mentioning that because LightWave also does the radiosity thing, and it does it very, very well. So, if Vue 5's radiosity compares to LightWave's in the same way that Vue 4's volume lights compare to LW's, then I'd probably be disappointed, although I'm willing to bet that Vue 5 will render radiosity quicker than LightWave does. Of course, LightWave is LightWave, and Vue isn't LightWave, and is about an eighth of the price. ;) Let's just say I'll be surprised if e-on pulls off a professional-quality, competetive radiosity engine in Vue 5... Radiosity aside, the "area light" idea (found in LightWave), would be a great idea for E-on to explore. Area lights make for some really realistic shadows, for one thing, and can be a reasonable substitute for radiosity effects.