I have raydream studio 5.5 other than the "brycian" camera controls... how much different is carrara than raydream? same features? just curious, I hear that carrara will be upgraded mid year, and Im curious how much more I would have to learn to make it work like I can now.. Ive always hated raydreams camera options..and I like the idea of bryce camera controls in it...but Id like a bit more info from those of you that use it.. thanx BT (brycetech)

BT, I used RDS for a few years and it was hard for me switch over to the Carrara interface. I forced myself to use it and now that I am use to it..I like it better than RDS. As far as differances in RDS and Carrara: 1) Carrara has the MetaBall modeler built in. With RDS its a plug in. 2) Four Elements is standard with Carrara and a plug-in with RDS. 3) Carrara is very stable on my WIN98SE PC. RDS crashed every 15 minutes (if I worked it really hard). 4) The Shader tree has some new and better features. 5) The Vertex modeler works better in Carrara than RDS, IMHO. 6) The new GUI is much better, IMHO. ;) Im sure there are more things that Im not thinking of right now. If I come up with some I'll post them back. The new Carrara site has some information about upgrading from RDS to the "New" Carrara...You might wait and see how the product develops. They are talking about some really nice improvements down the road..but you never know. Im enjoying Carrara. Its a nice product. Clint

thanx for the reply clint the first 2 things you mentioned come with rds5.5..so Ill skip them the crashing thing..lol..rds does love to do that huh? I have a memory manager that is wonderful for Bryce..it cant do crap for rds..things still lock up if you dont shut it down (and I do have the patches) I forgot, does carrara have the four window modeller? I think it did, and that would most definately be a great improvement. how about camera memory options? you can of course save camera settings...is it easier in carrara than raydream? thanx BT

Havent played with the Camera Memory. Yes - the modelers give you the ability to use 1,2,3 or 4 windows. Its much easier to use than RDS is. Clint