Has anyone played with or used Bryce in any serious way? I bought a copy back when it was in release 5 and I thought it was ok.
Some of the images coming from 7 Pro look pretty impressive. I could never get anything created that was any good when I toyed with version 5.
What are your thoughts?
I started making landscapes on the Amiga 500 using a demo of Vesta (Now Vesta-Pro) and was introduced to the world of fractal based landscape creation, whilst living in the UK as I did for a great many years this software taught me about random seed number generators and 2D Camera and target positioning (Similar in many respects to the system in Terragen Classic) one year, I was watching TV and during a program about developments in technology and came across a segment on a landscape generator that was in development at the time.
This software was Bryce, However I could at the stage that Bryce was released as full commercial software (Under the development of MetaCreations at that time) not able to afford it: however once Metacreations went under and the Bryce Source Code and development rights had been acquired by Coral I managed at that stage to afford version 5.0 (The Version I still have).
I have created many images with Bryce some I still have, in the interim period I got on the internet looking for a more realistic alternative to Bryce, time and again people on different forums all seamed to be talking at length about an application that [At the time] I'd never herd of, called Terragen which I only really got serous about in 2003, though I'd been using it off and on prior to this.
Since 2003 I have come a long way, and primarily am a Terragen Artist though for film work I may have to learn Vue (Gulp!!!).
Regards to you.
Cyber-Angel
You can get a good preview of most of the Bryce 7 capabilities downloading the PLE version. I personally did never make head or tails about the Bryce material engine and so I have completely put Bryce aside. In any case, Bryce is just a pale ghost in comparison with heavyweights like Vue or TG2.
Yes, Bryce was always somehow neglectable compared with Vue or TG, but it seems they catched up: volumetric clouds as far as I can tell, AND they have a particle system!! I don't know how good it is, but this is a great idea.
Yeh, I started with Vista, then along came Bryce and I was knocked for six. I found it's basic modelling tools very intuitive, and loved delving into its Deep Texture Editor. The new 7 pro version looks cool at first glance, and at 50 bucks it's got to be a bargain.
John
It's fifty bucks only, but as far as I can tell you only get what you pay for in this case. The gallery images don't look good, I think.
And the particle system, hmmmm... here's a video tutorial http://www.youtube.com/user/WWWDAZ3DCOM#p/a/3CB43D9875EDD1C8/8/W-XVYh4O-hk
I wasn't impressed. I wouldn't know what to use this for, because it looks so unrealistic.
Frank
They seem to have made a reasonable effort (for the price) instancing, volumetric clouds among the headlines though by most accounts it is buggy. I still use B4 (still the fastest version) and shall be saving my money for TG2. You gotta love the DTE!
Some great comments and observations.
Thanks.