What resolution can this program resolve to and what size of print would it equate to if printed at 300dpi? On the all how would you rate this program for being capable of developing with and would you also consider the learning curve to be extremely steep for someone with no 3D experience?

as far as prints go most magazines prefer 3000 upwards pixel images. but there are others here with more experiance of large scale printing. on the 'learning curve' question, i remember many years ago when i first tried Bryce release 4 i found the interface simple, uncomplicated and easy to master. My son (11), years later, became quite adept with minimal tuition. And when you do get stuck there is always this forumn which i have found to be the most accessible and informative group. And many lessons have been learnt here. So yes i would say it is very easy to master.

Experience is no substitute for blind faith.

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Max resolution Bryce can achieve is 65535 x 65535 pixels, when rendering to disk. At 300 dpi that's 218+ inches per side, or 555 cm. Also, it would be a 4GB file, just for the render. I know, I tried. :-) Large size printing goes at much lower resolution. For something five metres long it can go as low as 25 dpi. Yes, twentyfive. Depends on what the printers want. Poster size can be printed at 150 dpi and that would be something like 3700x2700 pixels for a B2 poster (50x70 cm). Learning curve is very shallow. As rj said, Bryce is very easy to master. OTOH, as I said a couple of times here, it's not as easy to be a master in Bryce because the curve is also quite long. But the shallow learning curve draws you in much easier than the sharp cliff that waits for you at the beginning of work in max or Lightwave.

-- erlik

Phil as for the learnig curve for beyce i can honestly tell you that for someone with no 3D experience Bryce is one of the easiest programs to learn. I have been using it now for over 12 months and there is still things i haven't learnt to do with it yet but i can now say i at least no how to use the program. If you want to see how far i have come with it, being a learner myself just click on my name and then look in my gallery..i admit i'm no great artist ;)

I have opinions of my own -- strong opinions -- but I don't always agree with them.

 

OK - I have not fired up Bryce for a long time, but have kept up with the upgrades. I do a lot of printed matter though. If 300 dpi is the level of quality you want, you will find that 240 dpi will produce results so close your eye will not be able to tell the difference. That difference of 60 dpi can make a huge difference in file sizes and render times. Bryce's #1 quality in my humble oppinion is that it will sit quietly in the background rendering for days and you can do whatever on your computer without it crashing. The learning curve is probably the lowest for this type of software. Unless you have a good reason for something more capable its the right program to use. If your working up to something with higher end rendering capabilities, its still the best place to start. It will introduce you to most aspects of 3d rendering in a very friendly manner. All in all Bryce is a masterpiece and its most fortunate that DAZ saved it.

When you start Brycing it's hard to stop doing things in it. The Interface is SuperFast with a pleasant, antialiased look so you can easily test your ideas and materials/textures. The problem is that you can be stuck at Bryce and get too lazy to learn other, more advanced softwares :-)...you will always think "...but in Bryce it would be so easy to do that!" so you won't learn about displacement maps, Global Illumination, UV Mapping and so on.