Hello there, I have some questions and need some suggestions. Hope you dont laugh at me ! :P Okay here we go - as I know every 3d program have their own render engine and its determining result of the image after final render. So - this means exactly same scene looks different for example, after a Bryce render and a Cinema 4D render. Same scene, same textures, same light conditions and different result. Don't worry I will not ask why ! :D But... When I create a scene on Bryce and add a radial light with cast shadows function, render slows down dramatically. When I do the same thing in Cinema 4D nothing happens, I mean its not slowing down. Imagine whats happening when I create a radial light dome on Bryce for simulate radiosity ! I know that Lightwave can render global illumination scenes in minutes. It took days, even weeks in Bryce or Vue. But one of my friends told me that the render engines of Bryce and Vue are more powerful than high-end applications like Cinema 4D or Lightwave - and thats the reason of this programs success. Is it right or they are just easy to use ? Frankly its very easy to setup a scene in Bryce or Vue. Thats why I use Cinema 4D for only modeling... So should I keep using Bryce and Vue for setup and final render my scenes or should I jump to a high end application to make eveything in same program. I have Cinema 4D, I am planing to buy Lightwave 8.0... Thanks for taking time to read...

When Bryce was relatively new to the market, the thing you said about the render engine was true. Bryce does things in its default mode what others would do only after enabling and adjusting their premium settings. But for a long time Bryce has sat while others kept evolving. So now Bryce is at a big diadvantage (rendering speed, new material types/properties, and lighting effects.) Also Bryce can't handle morphs or import sequences, so it is a long way behind on animation. What Bryce still has going for it is what I consider a really great interface design. The controls are well placed, intuitive, and aren't all that difficult to use. The others still seem to have a thing to learn from Bryce when it comes to material and object libraries. This means you can see what the settings will do when appied, and they're ready to be used without much learning.

Attached Link: http://www.blender3d.org/cms/Blender_2_35a.482.0.html

It also depends on what type of renderer the application is using. Bryce uses a ray tracing engine which requires more calculations than the default renderer in Cinema 4D(not sure what type it has). Most of the high end apps can turn on ray tracing and they will slow down.

As far as high or mid-end apps - EIAS - Electricimage animation system - has a fast engine even when it raytraces. The images it produces are excellent. A higher learning curve than Bryce of course - a totally different workflow. The beauty of Bryce is everthing is already there under the hood and it is up to you to find the depth of it. I use both, and even Carrara and Vue once in awhile. The real beauty of Bryce is what some see as its fault. The reason it is slow is there are very few render parameters to tweak. All the other apps (except EIAS) start with low quality render settings to make it look like they are fast. Bryce has always traded speed for beauty - which means less time tweaking (more tiome waiting) and prettier images from the start. In the end the time pretty much balances out, and you always have a pretty image. That, the seductive ease of use, and the every day discovery of depth is why we all love Bryce. Scott

Mental Ray 4 life!

"Bryce and Vue are more powerful than high-end applications like Cinema 4D or Lightwave" *Bryce could be more accurate, as it is a true raytracer, where other rendering engines approximate refractions, shadows, etc. (which is where their speed comes from) "When I create a scene on Bryce and add a radial light with cast shadows function, render slows down dramatically." *I bet you are using soft shadows, which takes a raytracer a LONG time to calculate. More realistic, but slower. "I have Cinema 4D, I am planing to buy Lightwave 8.0..." *Invest some time in Cinema 4D, it is a VERY capable package!!! AgentSmith