Sorry for another 'jump ship' post, but sadly it is relevant to Bryce.

I had been debating rejoining the DAZ Platinum Club since they started their big sale of all DAZ original items. Enough interesting stuff had built up over the years and with the sale discount and PC discount it became even more interesting. I missed the sale closing date due to a real life temporary cash flow issue, but luckily they extended it to the end of June. That pretty much clinched it - Platinum Club it was.

And then they brought out their newly acquired Hexagon modeller at $1.99 for PC members (offer 'till the end of May, then up to $269). And now there is their new ‘Poser crossgrade' offer (ends May 31st) of Carrara5 and TransPoser2 bundle at $141.93. With a PC membership (which I was getting anyway), this means I can get Carrara5, TransPoser2 and Hexagon for less than a hundred bucks. I simply can't turn my nose up at that, especially given that Carrara5.1 is widely regarded as well sorted and stable (unlike Vue) - and (looking at the videos at the Eovia website) accessible for fairly normal people (and me).

Just check this incredible feature list:
http://www.eovia.com/products/carrara5/carrara_full_features.asp

Remember wanting radiosity, photon mapping, caustics, HDRI, motion blur, area lights, subsurface scattering, ambient occlusion? It’s all there, and that’s just a selection.

OK, take away the few items marked "Pro only" (the Pro package is $549 regular or $444.69 in the sale, +30% less with PC discount). But then add back in the full Poser6 compatibility and even more modelling capability from Hexagon (the Carrara modeller is a stripped down Hexagon). Since I’m not interested in animations I can live without the irradiance baking and graph features in the Pro version. I’m getting all that scrumptiousness for about fifty Grande Britannia pounds.

Yip-fracking-eee, or what?!

With this offer, it’s actually cheaper to buy Carrara5 and then get Carrara5 Pro as an upgrade than it is to buy the Pro version straight out. So even if you decide you want the few extras later, you still win.

There must be lots of potential Bryce6 customers taking up this amazing offer (the DAZ servers are being thrashed – nine hours to download 334Mb!). Some of these may still get Bryce6 when it eventually arrives, but I suspect most won’t. Bryce6 won’t get near Carrara5, and people will want to realise their learning curve investment in the latter.

 

I’m not passing this up to wait for Bryce6. Unless DAZ extends the end date for this superb introductory offer, you have 10 days to consider the future…