I don't seem to be able to get an answer to this question on the Cornicopia forum; perhaps someone here can help me.

We use Vue6 for film and television production. We need a more robust renderer as all our work is animation.

Of the 3D packages available for the Mac, which one gives the best renders of vue scenes?

1. • Maya
2. • LightWave
3. • C4d

Also: Which one has the best xStream integration, or is it better to build in Vue and then export to a render app?

If you understand french, follow this link, theycompare Vue integration in different apps, and a video shows the workflow:
http://www.tdt3d.be/articles_viewer.php?art_id=115

I would have to go with Maya and Renderman. Most of the 3D movies from ILM to Dreamworks and not excluding Pixar are using Maya mostly and ILM uses Vue X-Stream also. I personally like Lightwave and when you look at Battlestar Gallactica you will be amazed at what can be done with it and it cost the same as Vue 6 Infinite. It's great for TV.
 P.S. I also work for TV

  I only speak tourist French, but seemed to get what he was saying. Great resource, thanks for the connect Bruno. 

I get what you're saying Thelby, there does seem to be a lot of support for Maya based production chains. Lightwave is a lot easier to use, but Maya has the high-end mind share.

Thanks for the input guys.

i have it for maya and cinema 4d --

personally, the render engine is stronger with maya than c4d.  however, the c4d integration is very much less buggy.  the opengl in Vue works better in cinema4d than it does in vue!!!!  opengl doesn't work very well in maya either.

now if that doesn't matter to you maya has much longer rendertimes but much better final quality.  with that said, i have been working with cinema4d b.c. its less problematic has very good open gl support and figured i could just do post processing work and use vray for my renders...

I'm not certain any of these would accelerate your workflow.  Vue XStream still uses Vue to render the Vue elements, so you wouldn't find any acceleration there at all.  If you're considering a professional package, all three are excellent in different ways.  Maya has mental ray though, which is a big plus if you're doing realism.  C4D is steadily creeping up to "high end" status.  Lightwave is a great program (one of my first!) but has many limitations and much less web support, and will likely be the first of the three to fall off the planet entirely...

There are many pros and cons.  You'll find Maya support everywhere, but on the technical end Autodesk / mental images are notorious for not caring about their users.  It also has a much higher learning curve then, say, every other package available, combined. 

I agree that Maya's learning curve is a bit daunting. I'm too much of a generalist to make the commitment. 

Sounds like C4D is worth looking into. I'll download the demo today.

Thanks for your suggestions.