I've just read Drac's latest thread, and it resonated with me. Although I can't prove it, I'd originally entered this forum today with the intention of starting a new thread to the effect of "Since the change-over, some of the friendly, chatty, helpfulness seems to have gone out of the forum" (or words to that effect).
In fact the forum has become a bit dull (IMHO).

So as a boost to forum "contribution-ness" (if that's not a word, then maybe it should be)...

I've just got the (free) version of Bryce 5.0, after years of using Bryce 3D(It Moves). (It was at a price I could afford..)

What great new things do have I there to play with and what tricks can be played? (It's the free version, so no manual, and although I've found a PDF version on the web,it's not the same as something you can hold in your hands and catch the detached pages just before they fall into the beer-spill on the floor).

I know that B5.0 has the tree-lab (one of the main resons I got it), and meatballs (misspelling intentional), additional stuff in the terrain editor (still haven't explored it all) but there's probably a lot more that's new to me (there's probably quite a bit left of B3 that's still new to me, if it comes to that).

All and any stuff posted very welcome, pics and all, even mini-tuts, or take the thread over and venture into Wonderland:-))

Let yourselves run wild with enthusiasm..:-)  (as if..)

Cheers,
Diolma

The suggestion I will keep making until I am blue in the face is to pop over the Amazon.com and get  a copy of Susan Kitchen's book "Real World Bryce".  I think it's about $25.00. which is not bad, and the only thing it doesn't cover is the tree lab.  That was the only real change between versions 4 and 5.

Thx, rickymaveety, but I don't have a spare $25 (I'm unemployed and unlikely to get re-employed at my age, and have a mortgage to keep up..)

However, your suggestion is a good one. For anyone else listening in - get the book!

Cheers,
Diolma

Why not try a Google search BRYCE FREE TUTORIAL and see what pops up...

In the spirit of all the great times I've had here in the Bryce Forum......I'm willing to mail you my copy of the Bryce 5.0 Manual. I haven't had to open it in the last few years, so it's really just collecting dust.

IM me with your address.

Here are a few links with tons of info, most of it for B5

---

http://stevesartgallery.bryce-alive.net/tutorials/bryce/keyboard/shortcuts.html

http://www.bsmooth.de/BSolutions/#DTETE

http://www.clydesight.com/brlitefx/index.html

http://www.users.bigpond.com/kceg/index.htm

Rod

@ ICM

Where on God's green earth did you get a B5 manual????   I purchased boxed B5 fm Corel.  It only had a quick start book.  By the time I realized there was more to this program than booleaning a hole in a terrain, Daz had the rights and fm then one it was PDF only. 

Agree about the Kitchen book...BUY IT    It is truly the bible of bryce.  And like the Holy Bible you read it once, glean what you can understand then go back a year later read thru again and find new stuff.

Diolma, just skip one payment on either your Porsche, BMW, or Jag and buy the book.

 

It was a Corel box purchase(PC/MAC). 360 somethin pages.

It's buried close to my Poser manual, in a storage space..:| Have the pdf files though. I'm pretty good about forgetting to look at it (I just found out about the spray can render last week..;)

You've got booleans (an arcane subject that was about as far as I got in the manual originally, about page 27 or so..;) but I think the older versions had that as well.

There are literally thousands of mats (I should know, I've downloaded most of them..;) some can be applied to trees as well.

I dunno..I'm still my same irreverent self; I guess when Drac and others went backsliding off to other forums..;) Well, once Bryce 6 arrives, things should perk up.

You mean you actually read drac's post !?!? How quaint. After the first paragraph I just fell asleep. I woke up when I fell out of my chair,......then I forgot what I was doing in the first place. As far as Bryce 6,..........we'll see.

Hmmm... maybe I expressed myself badly..

I've actually already found a PDF version of the B5.0 manual (it's now sitting there, on my HD, no pages have fallen out, yet..)

What I was rather hoping for was not links to the manual, but stuff that isn't in the manual. Those neat little tips'n'tricks that allow you to do things by using the various tools in the "wrong" way, ways to get around some limitation of B5, the "hey, that's a cool new use of..." type tips etc.

Also, ('cos it sometimes helps), the reason why such-and-such a tool/set-of-parameters work the way it/they does/do. (Manuals are notorious for explaining how something works but not why you should use it...

OTOH, if you want to continue and turn this thread into a "manual discussion", that's fine too. I'm not proud:-)) (I really do mean that - I'm not trying to be flippant or sarcastic.)

Cheers,
Diolma

Don't ya hate trying to learn off a pdf?

As far as that pdf goes, do quickly review the few pages it would have on the metaballs and Tree Lab, although you will find more info about those two things here on the www, than you will in that manual.

Trees are tricky, best place to initially get familiar with the tree lab, imho, is still brycetech, look here and allow a little time for that shockwave flash thing to load up, the whole tutorial is worthy of being in your favorites - http://www.brycetech.com/tutor/bryce/tree1.html

http://www.bsmooth.de/BSolutions/   easter eggs for those hidden things

 

BRYCE 5 TREE TUTORIAL BY DIMITER DIMITROV here a R'osity tuts for tree lab wierd manipulations

The problem with PDFs is you either need 2 monitors, 2 puters side by side, or a whole lotta patience flipping between Acrobat and Bryce...

Another reason to have as much RAM as possible, lol.

I remember before I got the boxed ZBrush, I had downloaded their manual and printed the entire 503 pages out....cost me nealy $50 (in ink, paper and a binder big enough to hold it, lol.)

The real thing is much better.

Many thanks all!

Links bookmarked!

(I had read the BSolutions one before, but as quite a lot of it didn't apply to Bryce 3 I hadn't bookmarked it..)

Yes, I hate trying to learn from PDF's (or any other "paperless" medium).
You can't hold them open on your knee, flip to another page (with your thumb marking where you were) to refer to another part of the manual then flip back again.
You can't put shiny bits of paper between the pages that you refer to most often.
You can't crack the spine to the book automatically opens at the "most visited" page.
You can't curl up in a chair (just before bed, or even in bed) and read a few pages to put yourself into "sleepy" mode.
You can't read a PDF whilst sitting in a restaurant. (Unless you have a laptop, and even then, ever seen what spilled mulligatawny soup does to a laptop's keyboard? - not a pretty sight..)

You can't .... oh, what's the point? I expect I'm preaching to the converted..:-)

Cheers,
Diolma

And my cat can't sit on top of a PDF when I'm not paying enough attention to her, like she can with a book, although, she has been known to sit on my mousing hand after walking back and forth in front of the monitor wouldn't work.    ;)

been there, done that..have a psychotic siamese that sits right in front of the (who, me?) display..;)

hehe, Yeah, I hear ya! 
I was really surprized when Tigger sat on my hand, as I was moving the mouse around, and then got that 'gotcha, I one upped you' smug look on her face.  She's too smart for me!

She's also taken up to scratching the sides of the whatever manual I'm reading, if other things haven't worked.  And if that doesn't work, I get a claw on my arm and a howling cat in my face! Eventually, I give up.

Someone should animate that, or make it into a rendered cartoon....

To be honest, I don't really know what was "new" in ver. 5 except for the Tree lab. I jumped straight from ver. 2 to 5.  lol I think most of the shortcuts are the same. I envy you guys who used ver 3 and 4 and got so profisient in using shortcuts, and modeling with latices etc. :)

When it comes to the tree-lab, there was a challenge here,hmm.. I think around 2 years back. AS might lead you to the right  date. There were lots of cries for "help" and some very helpful guidelines along the way to our final "products". I posted a tutorial on how to make "flowering trees" here, as a result of the challenge. :)

Have you downloaded the 5.01 patch? if not, you need to do that, it comes with lots of tree presets. Also, do a search for Alvin. He posted some great trees in the freestuff here.

Hmm... what else? lol I'm in the midst of teaching a Bryce beginner's class at www.lvsonline.com, so I'm a bit "bryced out" at the moment. (Not to speak of having a bryce render directed to my HD... it's now been running for 24 hrs, and is only 35% done). We have more than 30 fresh Bryce users this semester, and I'm gonna point them in this forum's general direction.

Just as a PS.. I think the renderfarming is new in Bryce 5 (Bryce lightening). I have never had much success with it. Not sure why. So I keep rendering on just one macine. lol

Ouch... where are my manners.... extending hand  Hi, I'm Britt, A stranded Norwegian viking in the US. Partly living in Florida, and partly where I'm at the moment, in the Smoky mountains. :) Nice to meetcha!

Britt

nodding to Conniekat and Pakled Uhm... would you like to borrow an 18 lb cat who likes to play with the keyboard? g He's not very good with touch... but he uses all four legs...

g

Britt

Attached Link: Robin Wood's Bryce Tutorials

> Quote - Hmmm... maybe I expressed myself badly.. > > I've actually already found a PDF version of the B5.0 manual (it's now sitting there, on my HD, no pages have fallen out, yet..) > > What I was rather hoping for was not links to the manual, but stuff that isn't in the manual. Those neat little tips'n'tricks that allow you to do things by using the various tools in the "wrong" way, ways to get around some limitation of B5, the "hey, that's a cool new use of..." type tips etc. > > Also, ('cos it sometimes helps), the reason why such-and-such a tool/set-of-parameters work the way it/they does/do. (Manuals are notorious for explaining how something works but not why you should use it... > > OTOH, if you want to continue and turn this thread into a "manual discussion", that's fine too. I'm not proud:-)) (I really do mean that - I'm not trying to be flippant or sarcastic.) > > Cheers, > Diolma

I printed out my pdf of the manual - which helped a bit but I echo all the other people on the 'Bible' - it is very much worth getting.  Try searching on ebay, and even online bookshops like Amazon do second hand copies of some books - that's how I got mine.  (can't remember how much it was)

As for tuts on Bryce, try Robin Wood's tuts, they are excellent.

And I think Brycetech still has some tuts available... yeah he does, lots of 'em.

Here: http://www.brycetech.com/

Enjoy.

Thx, Fran:-)

Actually I think I've already got those two bookmarked already, but I've BM'd them again (just in case).

Hmmm... Maybe I should start a new thread called "What are your favourite Bryce tricks"?

Cheers,
Diolma

Yup - gonna do that...

Cheers,
Diolma