I guess the best question to ask is, "What can Vue not do as compared to Bryce and DAZ Studio?" It seems to me that Vue specializes in plant variations, and seems to borrow from DAZ and Poser with characters.
Vue has a few features where nothing can compare to it in it's price range.
- EcoSystems:
Massive population of just anything. It can be Plants (which each will look different compared the next), stones (also with variations) or objects. You can control population, density etc etc, and Vue can handle some really massive polygon counts, I've rendered scenes with a lot of stones and plants that hit 19 billion polygons (like my entry in the Stonemason contest).
- Massive multilayer materials:
You can create materials using the materials editor which are layers in many layers where the blend and mix are depending on many things like elevation, tilt, rotation, time etc etc
I prefer Vue when making outdoor scenes, but beware, you will need at least Vue Complete to do all this and it is expensive. Plants are pretty expensive too and most 3rd party plants are derivates from base plants which you will need first.
Vue is not in my opinion as good as Poser, Bryce or DAZ Studio to render figures/people in close ups, I've seen some really brilliant closeups by some very talented artists, but for that Vue is not the best solution.
Vue can't really be compared with Studio: it doesn't offer the same character posing options as Studio (if you want characters in view, you need to pose them in Poser or Studio and import them). Similarly, Studio doesn't offer the landscape generation features found in Vue.
Vue to Bryce is a better comparison, as they're focused on the same kind of thing (i.e. landscape generation and rendering).
My feeling is that current versions of Vue are more powerful than Bryce, and better able to generate 'realistic' landscapes. Vue's trees and atmospheres are probably more advanced. However, to get the most out of it you end up buying one of the more expensive versions (the makers offer a variety of versions, running from a basic free version all the way up to the "I have more money than God: please help yourself to my credit cards and charge what you want" package aimed at professional concept artists, advertisers and filmmakers).
A lot, of course, depends on the person driving it. Bryce experts like Horo or David Brinnen can do amazing things with Bryce, so you certainly can't say that an image made with Vue will always look better than one made with Bryce.
Yes, I agree, Bryce is very good (if they only could make it work on Mac OS X 10.7 or later).
What I feel is more difficult with Bryce than with Vue is to make large forests or areas of nature. maybe I lack some great plugins.
That image really made me wanna dive into making a rain forest image in Bryce, hopefully the next PC entry is something that can work in such an environment.....
Comments
Vue has a few features where nothing can compare to it in it's price range.
- EcoSystems:
Massive population of just anything. It can be Plants (which each will look different compared the next), stones (also with variations) or objects. You can control population, density etc etc, and Vue can handle some really massive polygon counts, I've rendered scenes with a lot of stones and plants that hit 19 billion polygons (like my entry in the Stonemason contest).
- Massive multilayer materials:
You can create materials using the materials editor which are layers in many layers where the blend and mix are depending on many things like elevation, tilt, rotation, time etc etc
I prefer Vue when making outdoor scenes, but beware, you will need at least Vue Complete to do all this and it is expensive. Plants are pretty expensive too and most 3rd party plants are derivates from base plants which you will need first.
Vue is not in my opinion as good as Poser, Bryce or DAZ Studio to render figures/people in close ups, I've seen some really brilliant closeups by some very talented artists, but for that Vue is not the best solution.
Vue can't really be compared with Studio: it doesn't offer the same character posing options as Studio (if you want characters in view, you need to pose them in Poser or Studio and import them). Similarly, Studio doesn't offer the landscape generation features found in Vue.
Vue to Bryce is a better comparison, as they're focused on the same kind of thing (i.e. landscape generation and rendering).
My feeling is that current versions of Vue are more powerful than Bryce, and better able to generate 'realistic' landscapes. Vue's trees and atmospheres are probably more advanced. However, to get the most out of it you end up buying one of the more expensive versions (the makers offer a variety of versions, running from a basic free version all the way up to the "I have more money than God: please help yourself to my credit cards and charge what you want" package aimed at professional concept artists, advertisers and filmmakers).
A lot, of course, depends on the person driving it. Bryce experts like Horo or David Brinnen can do amazing things with Bryce, so you certainly can't say that an image made with Vue will always look better than one made with Bryce.
ANd even Bryce users who are not David Brinnen and Horo can produce some reasonable renders , using some imported content (via DS or Poser)
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/media/folder_242/file_2418112.jpg
And imported DAZ 3D content
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/index.php?&ACT=50&fid=38&aid=57384_oAMp7wD3iZFzVeyzB1WR&board_id=1
Yes, I agree, Bryce is very good (if they only could make it work on Mac OS X 10.7 or later).
What I feel is more difficult with Bryce than with Vue is to make large forests or areas of nature. maybe I lack some great plugins.
That image really made me wanna dive into making a rain forest image in Bryce, hopefully the next PC entry is something that can work in such an environment.....
Thanks. :red: