Hey all, well, I've been hanging to be able to discuss the new Carrara with you, and now is the time to do so. I am a landscape, environment and skies specialist, and in these areas, the new Carrara 4 is REALLY REALLY powerful. We have a new terrain engine which is extremely powerful. It allows you to add layers upon layers of terrain filters, such as fractals, effects, ridges, canyons etc etc you name it! What is more, the texturing engine for the terrains is equally as powerful, allowing you to do some really detailed and realistic altitude and slope based texturing! The terrains can be VERY highly detailed to, and with the advanced fractal noise generator, you can create sme extremely realistic landscapes "very mojo world" if you ask me. The new Realistic Sky editor is amazing. The color and color perspective of the haze and sky is so realistic. Sunsets look really natural, late afternoon looks, well, JUST like late afternoon. The new clouds are far more detailed and realistic than the normal sky settings, and you have greater control over how the clouds look and feel. Overall, I know I will be able to do some wicked new artworks in Carrara 4 based off just these new features alone. I will let others discuss the MANY other new features with you though, as I have not spent as much time as the others. If you have any questions, dont hesitate to ask me :) Scottie

The better terrain was a selling point for me.

www.youtube.com/user/ShawnDriscollCG

Hmm, good sales talk. But how about showing us some images?

Yes....Pics please.

I just posted an image I did using the C4 Beta,it makes use of the new realistic sky . With c4 standard or pro users are going to be able to make much better skies.

How's this:

It's cheating a little, the structure was built in the Terrain Modeler using a new plug-in included with the C4 version of Ground Control that will let you use Master Shaders to apply a bunch of displacement operations in the Terrain Modeler. It's uses a simple tile shader to build the wall and uses Veloute to shade it. This image is a single terrain object!

Regards,
Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
3D plug-ins for Carrara
http://digitalcarversguild.com

Eric Winemiller
Digital Carvers Guild
Carrara and LightWave plug-ins

Now I see why the purchase of GC for Ver 3 won't be dissapointed! Looking forward to it!

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

My site has a bunch of shots of the new stuff with the interface and a lot of the new features. Its in the gallery. http://www.vizualds.com If anyone has requests on what they'd like to see or questions. Ask away! Brian brian@vizualds.com

This quick little image shows both the new skies, clouds, terrains and a new, cool little tool that is now in the Depth of Field options - RayTraced DOF.

This new DOF option runs a little slower but it's real-time instead of post render and it gives superior results - including blurring through transparency!

Very cool mark...Ya know im going to love that tool!

That Dof is a cool feature! Nice render Mark! Are the controls for the new Dof diffent? Looking at Vizualds, Carrara 4 seems to have a bit more then Eovia let on. Seems like it might be a good upgrade.

Message edited on: 09/22/2004 04:50

I agree with ayodejiosokoya: the program is starting to seem a little more valuable than at first glance. Is it just me or does Eovia seem a little disorganised lately?

Message edited on: 09/22/2004 07:20

Both regular and raytraced DOF have the same simplified controls now - a single slider. No, Eovia is not disorganized - quite the contrary. As discussed in an earlier thread, many 3d shops are releasing upgrades on a similar schedule. To keep some competitive edge, Eovia does not publically discuss all it's features ahead of release to prevent imitation. There is some aggressive competition to bring high-end features to modestly priced software packages. Eovia likes to be a little ahead of the pack instead of being a "me too" developer. This is a solid upgrade for both Pro and Standard. If you do anything professionaly with Carrara, than the Pro version is must-have. You'll be seeing some more images and capabilites shortly I'm sure... ;)

Thanks for the images, Eric, Brian and Mark. They are impressive, indeed I believe that single terrain object would be visible from Space, Eric! ;-) C4 is certainly starting to look more interesting. I can see that keeping things under wraps is perhaps important to avoid your competitors nicking ideas but it doesn't do a lot for your existing customer base's confidence. Especially when, if you pre-order, you're cheerfully told that your credit card will be billed immediately. Personally I think that Eovia are disorganized, at least as far as their existing customers are concerned. Generally I find out anything useful on this forum long before I hear from Eovia.

If I do manage to get some commercial work and manage to get my ageing pc upgraded, I think I might consider the upgrade more seriously. Amapi Designer 7 keeps calling me! (But it still says my name wrong! :) )

Hmmm I am tempted!! I will order a copy on my next paycheck!!

Thanx for the sneak peak! Makes me feel better about dropping my cash down... not that I wouldn't have... Eovia hasn't let me down with pre-booking yet! :D

Have there been any enhancements to the radiosity render engine?

Some enhancements to the rendering engine in general. From what I heard they had to rebuild a lot of the rendering engine for alpha channels, and the new phong shader. Rendering seems a little faster.