Has anyone tried it yet? How is it? Looks like it has some cool features.
Don’t know enough to talk about any software, but I would like
to say something about Vue 5.
Have had Vue 5 for a couple of months.
Besides trying my hand at that, I have a couple of other
programs I am trying to learn.
All that said.
Throughout this and other forums, one topic that continues
to surface is renderers and rendering.
Vue 5 has the ability to render hdri and Image based lighting.
They even give you a few hdri examples to work with. This feature
alone is worth about 100 dollars, which is what the examples would
cost you to buy.
To make it easy, Vue 5 is worth the purchase price for it’s
rendering abilities alone.
If you have Poser, you will finallly see why those high resolution
textures are so good, when they are rendered there.
Skin is lifelike, textures take on photorealistic aura.
Have tried the same scene in Maya’s Mental ray and Vue.
You wonder why mental ray is even discussed.
Did I mention it’s terrain abillities?
Poser 5 also works with it, without a need to purchase a separate plug-in.
( If you are considering Poser 6 be cautious, rumors of conflict with
Vue)
Don’t know if I helped you or made if worse.
Luck in any case.
Ps. zbrush stuff come out pretty good there too:D
I pre-ordered Vue Infinite - I’m still waiting on it as the man in distribution had a heart attack the day near when it was to begin shipping so they are struggling to get it out but tryiing hard. That said, I also pre-ordered Poser 6 but itisn’t here yet either
. But to address the issue between them - They are kind of business partners and rely on each other from sales to a degree. They are both new prodcts but because of this interdependence, I’m cerain that this problem willl be solved fairly quickly!
bicc39, I feel your pain!!! I have Cinema 4D, Vue, LightWave, Rhinoceros, Poser, Bryce, XenoDream, UltraFractal, AfterEffects, Dogwaffle, ZBrush…
Wanna come by and help a poor software junkie learn??
(btw, I’m into landscape-nature type stuff - anxious to see what ZBrush will
do for me)
Jim
Jim: thought I was the only nut in town.
As you will probably agree, the books alone are worth
a small fortune, There is a book for Lightwave that you
have to be a body builder to lift.
I had a fortune cookie whose message applies to this.
" smattering of everything, knowledge of nothing"
I do believe our fortune is our handicap.
So many programs, so little time.
Luck
Take a look at this thread and particulary all research of Juandel !
And landscape of Sarabel !
Explore the entiere thread, there are more than the first page showed!
Sarabel Gallery
Another Style
Alpha technique by Kid of 50
Pilou
Thanks for the feedback guys. I guess time will tell how these apps will work together. If I hear more, I’ll drop a line.
why shoud this apps not working together?
here a pic (nudity! 
)with girl from poser modified in zbrush -export as an .obj and make some ecotest in vue (400 mill. polys!)-
souleat, in vue 5 you can import a poser 5 file.
According to what I have been reading vue will not
as yet import a poser 6.
You exported from Poser as obj file, into zbrush as obj file
and into vue as obj file, this should in theory work all the time.
Problem with poser as obj is hair, clothing, texture, etc.which as
obj file does not compute.
“this should in theory work all the time” -Yes but theorie and practice arent always the same! so i make a test (the poser figure only to have fast an big object…)
i know that the textures (for poser figures) are a problem but i use always a
cleaned figure (delete the innermouth,teeth,eyelids … in other 3d prog -most TS 6.6) and textur new in zbrush.
want to show also the new ecosystem which is really a novity and very usefull!
(altough you can paint also thousands of objekte in zbrush but the Antialiasing…
and positioniering is slower)
“You wonder why mental ray is even discussed.”
If you didn’t manage the same scene in Mental Ray, it’s because you didn’t know what you were doing… plain and simple.
hey reactor…
can you show us an example of both? and perhaps help some of us out with settings?
@ reactor:
hmmm…
what is the use of a piece of software - here MentalRay - when you have to perform strange rituals to get anything worth mentioning?
Vue is putting everything right on your finger tips - MentalRay…???
I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to show you much… I use Mental Ray in XSI, and not in Maya, or 3DSMax. It’s the same beast, just controlled differently in those programs. In order to get the most out of Mental Ray you need a fairly solid understanding of what’s going on behind the scenes… and usually a lot more tweaking of options. What this means, in the end, is that you have a huge amount of control over what it is you’re doing, but it can take more time to get something that looks good… until you get good with it, that is.
Programs like Vue and Poser allow you to put together something quite quickly, (and things might look good) but then as far as I’m aware, both are set up for people who don’t understand some of the more in-depth rendering ‘goings on’. Mental Ray is capable of a lot though… Sharktale was rendered with it, for example, and because of the amount of control it offers, it’s why many people use it for production purposes.
“…control”…
I had no control over the way that my car - any car - had been built.
In spite of this I can drive anything, from used Japanese to Rolls.
I like to have tools.
A hammer.
No handbook for that.
The same goes for some software: I want results NOW.
For this I do not have to know HOW exactly a rendering process - just to stay on topic - is running. The machine does this.
Any tech-mumbo-jumbo is putting up a barrier between my imagination and following an idea.
But, that’s only me:D!
Any tech-mumbo-jumbo is putting up a barrier between my imagination and following an idea.
Not being able to do exactly what you want can do that as well. Sometimes you need control, since rendering is a very complex thing. Only with control can you do things like Sharktale, which was rendered with Mental Ray. I believe they said they loved it because of the amount of control they had. But, each to his own. There are programs for those who want it, and programs for those who don’t. I hope you enjoy whatever allows you to make the art you want 
Hey Souleat If you have the render time, could you post the same or similar scene using the highres texture map applied to the ecosytem model with maybe a little GI thrown in? I’m would love to see.
Anyhow, I myself am going to wait to see what ZBrush 2…? has to offer before I purchase any new apps.
Reactor
If you didn’t manage the same scene in Mental Ray, it’s because you didn’t know what you were doing… plain and simple.
If ever a truer word were ever spoken. Totally 100 correct.
Now a brief followup.
Mental ray is a renderer. It has been mentioned more than a few times,
in more places than here. For those with only a few programs ( or maybe just
this one) Mental ray is an abstract term
Now if you happen to have it, the norm is that you have a program with it.
such as XSI, Maya, etc. If you have zbrush, the Vue program, that this
thread is about ,and the program with Mental ray, that is a lot.
Now we will throw into the equation the poser scenes mentioned here, along with the ability to import them.
We are talking about, at the max, the knowledge of about 4 or 5 programs
at best. Also the ability to make the kids play nice together.
Speaking for myself and I believe a few others, unless I work with each one
on a daily basis, I grow rusty.
Speaking again for the amateur, average slob hobbyist,I like the programs
at certain levels.
If we consider that if ray tracing,Hdri, caustics, bump, ambiance and a few
dozen features of Mental ray renders are thrown into the pot the possibilities are endless, as is the time for those renders to appear. Not to mention the
infinite number of possibilities with a few dozen sliders.
To conclude.
I imported Poser scenes into Vue 5 and did what I consider the “average
hobbyist” would do to effect a render. I inserted the same scene into
Maya with basically the same lighting and rendered it with the"average"
setting. Did I take each and every feature of the twenty of so tweaks in
Mental ray and redo them at each fractional setting, alas no.
I congratulate and would love to learn from the people that do.
To date, however, with the books and tutorials I have read for the scenes
I have done, Mental ray renders, vs the ones I have seen in Vue, I will repeat
Mental ray, doesn’t even come close at triple the rendering time.
Another factor,although I doubt it ,is that perhaps the mental ray in Maya
is a little bit inferior to the mental ray XSI
Again to repeat.
If you didn’t manage the same scene in Mental Ray, it’s because you didn’t know what you were doing… plain and simple.
Totally correct.
One fast question, have you ever rendered a scene in Vue 5
with hdri and used the same hdri in mental ray for the same scene?
Would love to compare notes.
I’m a render noob when it comes to the high end stuff. I started with POV in the early days and then didn’t do much. NOW I am looking at stuff like ZB, my XSI Mental Ray and VUE5 and think my head is exploding. I LOVE ZB and VUE5 as it allows me to get to results and to learn new terminology and effects quickly. Then apply it to Mental Ray. Without ZB2 and VUE5 with their ‘simplified’ controls I would have had a much harder time to get into my Mental Ray settings.
I am amazed by the speed and quality of the ZB2 renderer. I rendered an image in vue5 last week and (well I pulled out all the stops) it took 1.8 hours for a scene with complex materials (Chrome)… 2GHz P4 640x480 resolution. Thinking about animations makes me feel sick already… My PC’s screaming UPGRAD :o EEEEE!.
Cheers
LN
Mental Ray in XSI is exactly the same as in Maya, except that Maya now has 3.4 and not 3.3 (which isn’t a whole lot different…). XSI allows for more control over shaders, but that’s about it. I’ve personally had no problem (speed wise) rendering HDRI images in XSI… but the question is, what are you rendering? What level of antialiasing are you using, and what type of lighting? Since Mental Ray allows for greater control, it’s actually possible to get a great deal more speed out of something like XSI over Vue, because you have the ability to tweak things so you’re not wasting resources where you don’t need them to be used.
I am amazed by the speed and quality of the ZB2 renderer.
That’s because ZB2 isn’t doing as much as other renderers. Anyhow, you really should render in whatever gives you the results you want to see. This isn’t a “Mental Ray is better because…” discussion. Mental Ray is popular for a number of reasons, but untimately if you don’t have the time to learn, anything will do. I’ve seen amazing renders out of Truespace 4. You may also note many renders from the more basic programs tend to have a certain look to them. Take C4D, or Carrara for example. Each render I’ve seen that comes from them has a look to it I just don’t like. Personal choice, obviously… and that’s because there’s a lack of control with the program. You get it the way it’s set up to work, and that’s it.
You should use what works for you, even if it takes longer. But, my point is, Mental Ray in Maya, XSI or 3DSMax has more tricks up its sleeve than Vue’s renderer ever will. If you can take on the challenge of learning it, you’ll be well rewarded.
Up front, let me thank my hosts. This is a zbrush forum. What I will try
to show in no way involves zbrush.
Also, I am not an impartial judge, have done daily comparison tests for weeks,
This interests me greatly, I truly want Mental ray and Maya to render
these scenes the best for selfish practical reasons.
I created an average figure in poser, with texture, hair, etc.
Imported that figure into Vue 5.
Used the same image for it’s image based lighting feature ( my own)
Render was at an average setting. No tweaking of brightness, quality, etc. No light was moved or adjusted. What you see is what I got.
Render time was about 10 minutes. The image could have been improved immensely with tweaking, but that would not have been fair to the test.
Also on both these images, no after work whatsoever.
Under the name bicc39 at renderosity there is basically a collection
of crap.
There are however three or four images using Vue that I like.
The only thing that they have going for them is the quality of the renders
from Vue 5.
I will repeat what started this in the first place.
Vue 5 is a fairly good investment for it’s rendering capabilities alone.
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