Vue 11 Studio

Digitale Natur für 3D-Künstler

Vue 11 Studio ist eine fortgeschrittene DigitalNatur-Anwendung mit mächtigen Vegetations- und Renderingfeatures für ambitionierte 3D-Künstler.

Kostenlose 3D Tutorials, Anwenderstories und Inspiration im software3D-Blog

Der Hersteller e-on fühlt sich verpflichtet moderne Funktionen und Verbesserungen für alle Nutzer und Kunden anzubieten, die ihre Leidenschaft an Digital Nature teilen.

Dazu zählen unter anderem erhebliche Fortschritte, die in der neue Version eine Reihe von wichtigen Verbesserungen wie schnelleres Rendering, Illumination Caching, Terrain- und EcoPainter Verbesserungen, 360 ° Populationen, interaktive EcoSystem Populationen,

 sowie Partikel, zusammen mit bedeutende Verbesserungen bei der allgemeinen Rendering-Leistung mit sich bringen.

EcoParticles

Wie beschrieben ist dieses neue Technologie ideal für die Kreation und Animation von Regen, Schnee, Wasserfällen, Explosionen, Feuer, Rauch, Tornados, fallenden Blättern, Insektenschwärme und viele mehr. Jedes Objekt kann als Partikel-Quelle (Emitter) genutzt werden.

EcoParticles im EcoSystems

EcoParticles können auf jedes Material wie dem üblichen EcoSystem-Material aufgebracht werden. Damit können Anwender tiefgreifende Kontrolle über die zeitliche Ausbreitung der Partikel übernehmen. Sie können die Geschwindigkeit, die Richtung, Kollisionseigenschaften, und „Lebensdauer“ der Partikel einstellen. Ebenso können Sie einstellen wie ein Partikel auf externe Einflüsse reagieren soll.

Neben all diesen physikalischen Einstellungen können alle bisherigen EcoSystem Einstellungsparameter für die Partikelpopulation genutzt werden.

Benutzerdefinierte EcoPainter Pinsel

Wie bei den Pinseln im Terrain-Editor hat nun jeder EcoPainter-Pinsel ein eigenes Dialogfeld, welches alle einstellbaren Parameter anzeigt. Die EcoSystem Auswahlfunktion ist nun auch Teil des EcoPainter.

So können Anwender die Auswahlfunktion auch benutzen, um Arbeitsinstanzen direkt im EcoSystem Painter Dialogfeld zu definieren. (Die EcoSystem Instanzenauswahl ist nun erhältlich in Vue xStream für 3ds Max, CINEMA 4D und Softimage.)

EcoSystem 360° Population

Vue kann nun auch EcoSysteme automatisch aus allen Richtungen (auch unterhalb von Objekten) besiedeln.

Dieses Feature funktioniert mit allen Objekten von der normalen Kugel bis hin zu komplexer Geometrie wie bei Steinen, Autos, Häusern etc. Alle verwendbaren EcoSystem-Einstellungen werden unterstützt.

Geeignet für Stills, aber besser bei Animationen

Obwohl die neue EcoParticle Technologie große Auswirkungen bei Stills hat, macht es sich bei Animation atemberaubendes Feeling.

Ihr könnt ganz einfach einstellen wie sich eure EcoParticles während einer Animation verhalten mit Hilfe von Parametern wie Größe Variation, Wachstum, Opazität Variation, Geschwindigkeit, Durchfluss und flow.

Zusätzlich könnt auch festlegen, wie und wann eure EcoParticles wieder verschwinden. Stellt dazu entweder ihre Lebensdauer ein oder lasst sie zu einer anderen Spezies der EcoParticle umschalten.

Jeder EcoParticle Parameter kann präzise gesteuert werden. Steuert sogar Effekte damit (erfordert das AdvancedGraph Modul)

Emitter Presets

Vue 11 ist mit einer Sammlung von EcoParticle Emitter-Presets ausgestattet, damit ihr den Dreh besser bekommen um mit dieser neuen Technologie.

Integrated Selection Tool

Das EcoSystem Selection Tool ist jetzt Teil des EcoPainter. Jetzt könnt ihr die Auswahl-Funktion, um mit Instanzen zu arbeiten definieren und dass direkt im EcoSystem Painter Dialog.

EcoSystem Technology Enhancements

EcoSystem Fast Population

A new population mode is available in the General tab of the Material Editor, called "Fast population mode".

Each parameter modification (e.g. instance density, scale or orientation) is instantly applied to the population and refreshed in the viewport.

Once you are happy with the look of your population, you can optionally press the "Accuratly reposition on surface" to precisely place your instances on your geometry.

EcoSystem 360° Population

Vue can now automatically populate EcoSystems from all directions including below objects.

This feature works on any kind of object from basic spheres to complex geometry such as rocks, cars, houses... and all applicable EcoSystem settings are supported.

Terrain Technologies

Terrain modeling is an area of active R&D at e-on as we continue to improve Vue's powerful terrain technologies in response to user feedback.

Terrain Fractal 2 Node

Vue 11 introduces a new version of the original Terrain Fractal node.

Terrain Fractal 2 generates a higher diversity of natural looking shapes, and rough areas of rocks and cliffs are more convincingly integrated in the relief. An optional stratification can also be applied to create an effect similar to what a separate "Strata Filter" node would achieve, but with more control and higher variability, producing natural looking localized effects thanks to the knowledge of some of the fractal's internal values.

Terrain Color Pattern Node

This new node is a fractal function designed to create extremely realistic color patterns as observed in nature. This node is typically used to drive the material editor's functions.

It produces a mix of smooth and rough variations of color similar to the distribution of grass patches, rocks or sedimentary soil.

New handling of materials in the terrain editor combines the power of procedural materials with the ability to manually paint details (this is also compatible with procedural terrain zones).

Spline Roll

It is now possible to add roll to the spline keypoints using the local rotation gizmo. This new tool provides more control over the shape of your splines, for instance for the creation of leaning roads or roller coaster rails that bank along bends.

Automatic Path Finding

To complement Vue's Automatic Path Finding, Vue 11 introduces Spline Resampling.

Spline Resampling will create new spline keys while keeping the original spline path, and drop each point onto the underlying surface.

Render Stack with Comparison Tools

Vue 11 features a powerful render comparison tool that allows you to easily stack your renders, test various postprocesses on the same image without losing any information, and compare them using easy to use and intuitive visual tools.

Improvements on the Render Stack

• Each render in the stack can be removed individually.
• The Automatic stacking of renders can be optionally disabled when rendering only an area of the full picture, or when rendering in preview mode.

Faster Rendering

Significant internal optimizations made to the Vue rendering engine result in dramatically accelerated rendering especially on very dense EcoSystem scenes. You will enjoy speed boosts of up to 30%.

Lighting

• Global Illumination.
• Global Radiosity.
• Fast in-depth computation of reciprocal object lighting for accurate indoor lighting.
• Radiosity engine optimized for: Indoor or infinite scenery.
• Global ambiance.
• Ambient occlusion with user definable occlusion range.
• HDRI support.
• Image based lighting.
• Background and environment mapping.
• Sub-Surface Scattering: Absorption.
• Sub-Surface Scattering: Multiple Internal Scattering.
• Easy GI single slider Global Illumination render quality setting.
• Adjustment of Global light intensity.
• Indirect lighting can be ignored on specific objects.
• Influence of specific lights can be ignored from the Radiosity solution.
• Advanced control over the indirect lighting engine.
• Separate map option for background, IBL and global reflection map channels.
• Shadow and volumetric light optimization for dramatic increase in rendering speed.
• Light gels with realistic projection modes.
• Adjustable light shadow density, negative lights.
• Enable diffuse and highlight on a per-light basis.
• Custom light intensity vs. distance profiles.
• Lights can affect specific objects only.
• Variable light color based on distance to light.
• Area light panel for soft, natural lighting.
• Light emitting objects.
• One-click conversion of objects into light sources.
• Fast, fake caustics in the shadows of transparent materials. Caustics realistically depend on the Index of Refraction.
• Accurate computation of caustics in the shadows of transparent objects.
• Realistic optional "spreading" of the light spectrum in caustics (rainbow-prism effect).
• Per-light adjustment of the quality of soft shadows.
• Complete lens flare system.
• Controllable lens flares per light.
• Lens flare editor.
• Lens flare reflections editor.
• Polygonal reflections.
• Point light, Quadratic point light, Spotlight, Quadratic spotlight, Directional light.
• Lens Glare effect simulates internal lens diffusion.
• Lights can be disabled with a single click.
• Accurate accounting of backlight when computing GI.
• Improved handling of highlights in GI by better accounting for the interaction of illumination with bumps at the surface of objects.

EcoSystems

• EcoSystem patented technology to easily distribute millions of objects in scenes.
• Use preset EcoSystem materials to automatically populate your scenes with millions of objects.
• Create EcoSystems from multiple objects.
• Create entire forests of trees.
• Create forests of trees blowing in the wind.
• Scatter millions of animated objects.
• Mix EcoSystems with standard materials.
• Mix several EcoSystems together depending on environment (slope, altitude.
• Automatic placement of EcoSystem population according to a user defined SmartGraph density function (that can depend on position, altitude, slope.
• Advanced coloring control to vary the colors of the population over the EcoSystem.
• Accurate control over the orientation of the EcoSystem population.
• Accurate control over the size and variation in size of the EcoSystem population.
• Automatic decay of EcoSystem density near foreign objects.
• Optional size reduction and color decay at low EcoSystem densities.
• EcoPainter technology: paint instances directly onto objects.
• Add, remove and resize EcoSystem instances interactively.
• Select individual instances or groups of instances and move/rotate/resize them interactively.
• Paint size, color or density of EcoSystems using a pressure sensitive tablet.
• Convert EcoSystem instances to real objects for editing, move them back to the EcoSystem later.
• Paint EcoSystems as individual material layers or on a global basis.
• Paint EcoSystems using standard EcoSystem population rules.
• Adjust the population rules of the Global EcoSystem: Optional.
• Layered EcoSystems to control individual EcoSystem populations.
• Control "affinity" between EcoSystem layers.
• Refresh dynamic EcoSystem population previews anytime with Preview button.
• Paint EcoSystems from all sides, in any view.
• Dynamic EcoSystem population technology for potentially unlimited populations.
• Dynamic EcoSystem density adjustments for improved control of density on slopes.
• Easily control the intensity of the coloring applied to EcoSystem populations.
• Control the intensity of the EcoSystem coloring through the function graph.
• Multi-processor EcoSystem population.
• Ability to drag multiple objects from a browser into the EcoSystem population.
• EcoSystem 4 technology.
• Advanced flicker reduction algorithms.
• Advanced memory management algorithmsfor large dynamic EcoSystem populations.
• Render animated dynamic EcoSystem populations with smooth density variations.
• Individually control the phase (animation offset) of animated elements in your EcoSystem populations.
• Automatic addition of variations of animation phase to SoliGrowth based EcoSystems.
• Control the animation phase of any type of animated object, including pre-animated meshes.
• Control animation phase on a per SolidGrowth instance basis through the function graph.
• When loading an EcoSystem layer, the layer is automatically added to the underlying material instead of being loaded with a transparent sub-material.
• EcoSystems can be populated along a spline.
• Areas defined by Splines can be populated with EcoSystems.
• Splines can be used as EcoSystem masks.
• NEW! EcoSystem instances can be aligned dynamically along the spline direction.
• NEW! Control EcoSystem spline instances' orientation and variability.
• EcoSystem instances can be controlled based on the EcoSystem density so that instances can automatically lean out on low density areas.
• NEW! Stack EcoSystem instances on top of each other.
• NEW! EcoSystem stacking is accessible from the material editor.
• NEW! EcoSystem stacking is accessible from the EcoPainter.
• NEW! Maximum number of stacked instances is user definable.
• NEW! Invert the EcoSystem selection by a simple click of a button.
• NEW! Objects can be dropped onto EcoSystem instances using the Drop or Smart Drop options.
• NEW! EcoPainter settings (brush size, flow etc...) can be set on a per material basis.
• NEW! Instances color can be reverted directly from the EcoPainter dialog.
• NEW! VOB files created from a Dynamic Rock or a SolidGrowth plant will automatically generate variations when used in an EcoSystem.
• NEW! All standard EcoSystem configuration parameters can be used for particle instance population.
• NEW! Create your own EcoPainter brushes using a combination of Effectors.
• NEW! EcoSystem effectors brush collection (lean, rotate, raise, lower, move etc.
• NEW! Standalone EcoPainter brush editor dialog.
• NEW! Publish specific EcoPainter brush parameters directly to the main EcoPainter dialog.
• NEW! EcoSystem Selection tool directly available in the EcoPainter tool.
• NEW! EcoSystem Fast population technology to interactively edit EcoSystem populations.
• NEW! 360° EcoSystems: EcoSystems can be populated from all directions including below objects.
• NEW! All standard population settings are applicable to 360° populations.

EcoParticles

• NEW! Complete particle system custom tailored for Digital Nature.
• NEW! EcoParticles can be added to any material (like a regular EcoSystem).
• NEW! Speed, direction, collision properties and duration of life of the particles can be easily configured.
• NEW! EcoParticles can be influenced by external influences (wind, gravity etc.
• NEW! Effector objects can be added to influence EcoParticles locally or globally (e.g. to create effects such as tornadoes, jittering, attraction etc.
• NEW! Rich collection of function nodes to control EcoParticle behaviors.
• NEW! Control physical properties of particles, such as mass, velocity, gravity, collision, wind influence, elasticity, attachment forces and more.
• NEW! Make particles fall, collide, bounce and interact with external forces.
• NEW! Automatic collision maps allow the creation of material and particle effects that depend on collision history.
• NEW! Sub-particles can be emitted over the lifespan of each particle, upon collision or upon death of the particle.
• NEW! Animation specific EcoParticle parameters such as size variation, growth, opacity variation, velocity, flow and more.
• NEW! EcoParticle emitter presets.

Vegetation

• Ultra-realistic SolidGrowth vegetation: 70+ species.
• Compatible with modified plant species.
• Easy-to-Use Plant Editor for plant customization.
• Instantly create variations of existing plants.
• Plant Editor and Leaf Editor let you modify existing plants or create entirely new plant species.
• Create and save new plant species as stand-alone files for future use in your scenes.
• Support for SolidGrowth HD extremely detailed plant species.

Rendering

• Advanced radiosity algorithms that dramatically reduce low frequency blotches.
• Generate high-quality indoor and outdoor renders.
• Bucket rendering for lower memory requirements and improved spatial coherence when rendering.
• Indirect lighting calculation can be easily re-used between "tweak" renders.
• Option to update the Indirect lighting "on demand" only.
• NEW! Illumination Caching compute indirect lighting only once for an entire animation.
• NEW! Illumination Caching dynamically refines the indirect lighting solution.
• One-click displacement mapping.
• Dynamic render-time displacement to handle extremely large "displaced" polygon counts.
• Optional dynamic geometry smoothing to avoid sharp polygonal edges.
• Automatic camera exposure option compensates for the h3 variations in illumination between noon and sunset.
• Natural film response.
• Post-render exposure control.
• Use an image or animation as a backdrop for your renders.
• Rendering Presets: OpenGL, preview, final, broadcast, superior, ultra, user settings.
• Render size limitation: Limited by memory only.
• HDTV render preset.
• Pictures larger than screen resolution can be rendered to screen.
• Custom render size.
• Option to lock custom aspect ratios when selecting render resolution.
• Navigation inside the rendered picture using pan controls.
• Alpha and Z depth directly computed during the render process.
• Ray-traced depth of field.
• Realistic Hybrid 2.5D depth of field.
• FastHybrid depth of field technology.
• FastHybrid depth of field technology allows hidden object become visible through the blur.
• Ray-traced [soft] shadows.
• Advanced soft shadow computation to produce perfectly smooth soft shadows.
• Ray-traced [blurry] reflections and refractions.
• Blurry reflection and refraction settings for each material independently.
• Fake [blurry] reflections using reflection maps.
• AccuShadows shadow mapping technology for faster [soft] shadows.
• Exclude ground from Alpha map option.
• Objects can be easily hidden from render.
• Hide objects from render and disable lights by clicking their icon in World Browser: Optional.
• Global and per-material reflection maps.
• Rendering in unlimited color depth.
• Optional details in render information panel.
• Panoramic rendering with adjustable rotation angle.
• Spherical panoramic rendering.
• Multi-processor panoramic rendering.
• Rendering in all views (including orthogonal rendering).
• Render in views can be set to a different quality than normal rendering.
• Stand alone renderer handles rendering while you work on the scene.
• Network rendering of animations.
• Network rendering of pictures.
• Rendering across hybrid network of computers (OS X and Windows).
• Fail-safe HyperVue network rendering.
• Interactive Network Rendering.
• Advanced Caching technology to optimize responsiveness of network rendering.
• Number of render nodes (RenderCow) licenses included in product: 5.
• Maximum number of render nodes: Up to 5.
• SmartCow automatic node detection and activation.
• Hotplug render nodes to add/remove nodes during render: MacOS X and Windows.
• NewCow automatic updating of render nodes.
• NEW! Rendercows can be paused directly from the tray icon.
• NEW! Rendercow CPU affinity is automatically synchronized with the Windows task manager.
• Render area can be temporarily disabled.
• You can lock the render area to avoid accidental modifications.
• Render blow-up option.
• Geometry anti-aliasing.
• User definable geometry anti-aliasing: Up to 64 rays/pixel.
• HyperMipMap material anti-aliasing (including procedural materials).
• User definable anti-aliasing strategies to optimize speed vs. Smoothness.
• Advanced render memory management algorithms to allow the rendering of very large images.
• Post processing to adjust color, contrast, saturation, gamma.
• Ability to load/save independent post-processing settings.
• Ability to resume an interrupted render.
• Abort rendering on mouse-click in render area: Optional.
• The total amount of RAM allocated to displacement mapping is adjustable.
• Images can be saved to disk at regular (user definable) intervals during render.
• Dual destination render option (e.g. display to screen while rendering to disk).
• Render displacement on arbitrarily large terrains.
• Improved rendering of indirect lighting in preview mode.
• Automatic adjustment of render buckets to optimize rendering of small images on multi-core systems.
• Customize input gamma on a per-texture basis: Set input gamma to 1 or 2,2.
• Anti-aliased Z-depth buffer: Optional.
• Accurate accounting of cloud radiosity in indirect illumination.
• Relighting technology allows real-time adjustment of lights after rendering.
• Adjust contribution of sunlight without re-rendering.
• Adjust contribution of the Atmosphere without re-rendering.
• Advanced adaptive precision computation for the rendering of skymaps.
• Render algorithms for thin translucent and backlit materials with realistic shadows.
• Advanced flicker reduction algorithms.
• Advanced shadowing algorithms help remove undesired shadow artifacts on terrains and meshes.
• Advanced bicubic interpolation algorithms produce smooth gradients.
• Efficient Pause and Resume Render options with the stand alone Batch Renderer.
• Mixed materials alpha channel can be edited.
• Edge-based anti-aliasing to complement the previous color-based anti-aliasing scheme.
• Edge-based anti-aliasing can be individually used and fine tuned using its Quality slider.
• NEW! Dramatic changes in the structure of internal scene processing allows for faster rendering: Up to 30% faster compared to Vue 10.
• Improved statistical samples distribution allows for a quicker Depth of Field and Motion Blur computation.
• Physical Water shading engine.
• Set absorption and scattering parameters for body of water.
• Physical water shader produces photoreal underwater caustics.
• Underwater caustics focus can be adjusted to make them appear at maximum sharpness at specific depth.
• Easily create visible shafts for underwater lights.
• Physical transparency model that accurately reproduces how light interacts with particles of matter inside transparent materials.
• When rendering in radiosity, Vue warns you if there are luminous materials in the scene.
• Point lights can create dark shadows even in Environment Mapping mode.
• NEW! Load a video or an image sequence to the environment map control in the Atmosphere editor.
• NEW! Shadow parameters (cast shadows, receive shadows, only shadow, etc ...) can be controlled per-object.

Animation

• Animation output resolution: Limited to 1920 pixels wide.
• Camera animation.
• Animate objects, materials, atmospheres, clouds, waves.
• Import animated Poser characters.
• Intuitive Animation wizard for easy animation setup.
• OpenGL rendering of animations for quick proofing.
• Dynamic Motion Reaction™ easy secondary movement setup.
• Option to ignore time spline when computing motion (e.g. to look forward even when moving back).
• Customizable Dynamic Motion Reaction effects.
• Easy setup of cloud movement using direction and speed of movement controls.
• Rigged Mesh support.
• Control animation phase on pre-animated mesh EcoSystems through the function graph.
• Full support for Inverse Kinematics.
• Animated post-processing effects.
• Camera switcher lets you switch cameras during render (ideal for storyboarding).
• Spin and vibration effects.
• Twinkling stars.
• Timeline with animation preview.
• Easily change the duration of an entire animation.
• Allow clipping of time slider to animation duration.
• Animation properties in the Timeline.
• Spline time control.
• Field interlacing, non-square pixels, flicker reduction.
• Enhanced time spline editor.
• Indirect lighting evaluation mode that reduces pulsation effects.
• Automatic keyframe creation.
• Auto-keyframing can be disabled.
• Copy-pasting of animation keyframes.
• Keyframes can be created for single properties only.
• Ability to add property keyframes by double-clicking in the property timeline.

User Interface

• Productive, uncluttered interface layout.
• Neutral interface with stylized design.
• Customizable interface colors via presets.
• Re-posing of Poser meshes directly inside Vue.
• Direct re-posing of rigged meshes.
• Access polygon mesh options for Rigged meshes.
• Rig mesh reposing can use Inverse Kinematics solver.
• Support for mesh morphs.
• Select and manipulate bones directly in views.
• Manipulate bones numerically using the Skeleton editor.
• Support for wired helpers.
• Highly optimized mesh skinning for fast refresh during animation scrubbing.
• Efficient memory management: multiple instances of identical objects are stored only once in memory.
• Automatic object instantiation.
• Interactive alignment tool.
• Accurate alignment and drop operations.
• Quick color selection tool with customizable color presets.
• NEW! Improved low saturated colors in the Color Selector for more natural colors.
• Custom previews can be used to represent saved items.
• Drag items (e.g. objects, materials...) into your scene from the non-modal browsers.
• Unified light editor.
• Place an image in the background of the OpenGL views for reference.
• Change the size of the animation preview in the Timeline.
• Merge scenes.
• Repeat last operation to create an array (extend or subdivide).
• Alt + move object creates a copy of the object.
• Gizmo object manipulators (optional).
• Adjustable gizmo size.
• Spherical abstraction gizmos.
• Dynamic spherical terrain unwrapping allows easy object placement.
• Local, global, camera and parent manipulation modes.
• Multiple object renaming.
• Fully multi-threaded interface for fast response.
• One view/4 view layout.
• Real-time scene preview.
• World Browser scene management.
• Organize objects in layers: Unlimited layers.
• Enhanced World Browser with direct access to materials, texture maps and imported objects for efficient management of complex projects.
• Display material hierarchies with direct access to sub-materials.
• Easy replacement of textures throughout the entire scene.
• Library tab in World Browser shows all objects used several times.
• Easily modify all instances of a reference object using the Library tab.
• Scatter-replicate tool.
• Scatter replicate tool creates variations of plants, terrains, rocks.
• Replication tool with configurable position/size/orientation offset.
• Random scattering and replication of objects.
• Automatic instantiation of scattered/replicated objects.
• Summary of materials to quickly access all materials in the scene.
• Resizable material summary.
• Drop button to easily set objects on the surface of underlying objects.
• Smart drop rests the dropped object on the surface of the underlying object.
• Undo-Redo: Multiple undo-redo.
• Centralized Undo-Redo include editor-specific operations.
• Resizable viewports.
• Dockable Timeline.
• Trackball-type camera operations and advanced camera management grouped into Camera Control Center.
• Each camera possesses a target object for easier aiming and setting of focus point.
• Camera targets can be linked to other objects in the scene (e.g. to automatically keep that object in focus).
• All cameras can appear on screen.
• Camera group manager in World Browser.
• Resizable World Browser and Scene Preview.
• Sort objects by size, name or type.
• Lock or hide entire layers.
• Run Cornucopia3D third party Python scripts.
• Compatible with Python version: 2.7.
• Directly access frequently used scripts.
• Picture printing with user definable DPI resolution.
• Consistent Real-world unit system throughout the entire application (Material Editor, Terrain Editor, Function Editor.
• Real units for object sizes.
• Display measurements as real-world units (metric or Imperial).
• Coherent display of real-world units.
• Centered or relative to opposite corner object resizing.
• Mesh splitting by material.
• Spotlight view through for accurate aiming (OpenGL only).
• Full-screen mode.
• Non-modal object editors.
• Objects can be locked or hidden individually in OpenGL views.
• Incorporation of texture maps in scenes.
• "Only show active layer" preview option.
• Object replacement by other objects.
• When replacing plants, use the geometry of the replaced plants to generate the new plants.
• Automatic detection and creation of new browser collections.
• Ability to lock browser collections to avoid accidental modifications.
• Cloud layers can be easily hidden/restored.
• Linear and angular snapping grids when moving and rotating objects.
• Content files accessible from all system accounts.
• Easily change the location of your content folder after installation.
• Disable/bypass Visual Browsers completely (e.g. when browsing images).
• Intelligent re-titling of files when saving under new filename.
• Use preset MetaNodes to easily assemble elaborate SmartGraph graphs.
• Group parts of SmartGraph graphs as MetaNodes.
• "Publish" specific MetaNode parameters for easy access from the level above.
• Build your own MetaNodes library of commonly used graph snippets.
• Create custom interfaces by publishing function graph parameters.
• Control published function graph parameters at top interface level.
• Ability to fix the altitude of the camera above the ground.
• Press "Ctrl" to slow down the controls in the Camera Control Center.
• Dedicated water editor to easily create and adjust infinite water planes.
• Go from still to stormy waters with a single slider.
• Easily add true displacement to the water surface.
• Customize the look of water surfaces using the MetaWater materials.
• Support for 3Dconnexion tracking devices (SpaceNavigator, SpaceExplorer, etc).
• Automatic renaming of Standalone- and HyperVue-generated frames if overwriting.
• Global EcoSystem visible as proxy object in World Browser.
• Select and delete Global EcoSystem instances with one click.
• Format specific options accessible through a special button in Save file box, and no longer prompted for each time.
• Adjustable separator in Timeline to change width of animated items list.
• Material preview option which displays materials mapped onto a small terrain object.
• Name of atmosphere appears in Atmosphere editor caption.
• Name of edited function appears in Function editor caption.
• Visual motion browser lets you select rig poses or animations visually.
• Preview motions/poses before applying them.
• Typical motions directly accessible from skeleton rig editor.
• Customizable camera altitude locking (above terrains, above other objects, etc).
• Default views are automatically adjusted according to internal units.
• Automatic Smart-Saving technology that saves your scene in the background.
• User defined Auto-Save time intervals.
• Auto saved backup files are accessible directly through the application menu.
• Push-button scene snapshot technology.
• Scene snapshots are no longer deleted automatically when the maximum number of auto-saved files is reached.
• User-triggered scene snapshots are differentiated from Vue's AutoSave file in the “Revert to Snapshot” menu.
• Non destructive texture resizing in the Link tab of the World Browser.
• Option to restore full size version of downsampled images.
• Double-click texture map in World Browser to view at full resolution (using external viewer).
• NEW! Choose a specific external image viewer from the Operations tab of the Options dialog.
• Missing textures are identified as broken links.
• Automatic range adaptation in Function Graph.
• Slopes can be expressed in the -180°;180° range.
• Manually adjustable EcoSystem population threshold before triggering a warning.
• Freely move layers up and down in the World Browser (even if they are closed).
• Edit fields automatically expand to accomodate large numbers when editing.
• Edit fields display rounded values (but retain original values).
• Ruler indicating the scale in each viewport.
• Abitilty to orbit and pan the camera simultaneously.
• When nothing is selected in the scene, orbiting is done around the object in front of the camera.
• Brush picture is visible when painting with a pinned mask in Terrain Editor.
• Move Infinite terrains using the manipulation gizmos.
• Import settings are preserved when importing multiple objects of the same type.
• “From main View” aspect ratio in render options to render to screen using the same aspect ratio as the main view.
• Select the slot into which a material snapshot will be saved.
• The scatter/replicate dialog now remembers previously entered parameters, which can easily be restored.
• The aspect ratio can now be set on a per camera basis inside a single Vue scene.
• When changing the aspect ration in an animated scene that contains cameras with various aspect rations, Vue will offer to automatically switch all cameras used in the animation to the new aspect ratio.
• EcoPainter dialog can now be folded to a more compact version.
• The RenderCow dialog shows the IP address it is using in the About menu.
• Drag and drop bitmaps directly into the 4 views and in the material editor.
• Object preview identifies pre-animated meshes by displaying a corresponding icon.
• Render Stack with comparison tools.
• Stacking of your renders is done automatically or on demand.
• Stacked renders are stored with alpha, depth, relighting and diagnosis passes.
• The size of the stack on your hard drive is fully controllable.
• Easily compare different versions of a render using the render comparison tool.
• Difference tool to show differences between 2 renders.
• Difference Boost tool to dynamically exagerate differences.
• Ability to create Lightweight Clones of your renders to compare different post-processing options.
• Cloning process only duplicates all post-processing options (including Relighting information) while remaining non destructive for other buffers.
• NEW! Each render in the stack can be removed individually.
• NEW! The Automatic stacking of renders can be optionally disabled when rendering an area.
• NEW! The Automatic stacking of renders can be optionally disabled when rendering in preview mode.
• Move the render display dialog while Vue is rendering.
• Replace multiple objects simultaneously.
• Drag-drop objects into a scene drops the object at the position of the mouse cursor.
• NEW! Copy/cut/paste/delete cameras like other objects, through the world browser.

System Resource Management

• Robust threading architecture.
• Texture virtualization allows rendering with extremely high resolution texture maps.
• Geometry virtualization allows rendering of polygon-intensive objects.
• "Purge Memory" command to cleanup memory and reduce fragmentation.
• Automatic memory monitoring system attempts to preserve scene integrity after memory allocation failures.
• Optional compatibility mode minimizes hardware compatibility issues.
• Automatic software updating (optional).
• Video-board compatibility checking.
• Automatic checking of OpenGL driver compatibility.
• Embedded error-reporting feature to help reduce time-to-fix.
• User definable maximum video board memory usage.
• Automatic configuration of OpenGL options for optimized previewing on your video board / driver.
• OpenGL monitoring system that will continuously check OpenGL activity and video resource usage, and will attempt to intercept any OpenGL driver issues before they happen.
• OpenGL monitoring system automatically backs up your scene before issueing a warning when the system detects that the OpenGL driver is misbehaving.
• Updates are downloaded in the background.

Miscellaneous

• Multi-processor rendering: Respectively 4/8 CPUs on 32/64 bit OS.
• Hundreds of preset atmospheres, objects, materials.
• Terrainscapes preset terrain material library.
• 64 bit version optimized for Windows and Mac OS X Cocoa.
• License valid for commercial use.
• Adjust the time after which the beep sounds when rendering completes.
• Improved accuracy of the evaluation of remaining render time in HyperVue.
• Automatic activation system avoids juggling with multiple forms and serial numbers - requires an internet connection during activation.
• Automatic activation system requires a Cornucopia3D account.
• Inline help: PDF Manual.
• Documentation: 600 page manual.
• Media: 1 Application CD + 1 Extras DVD.

Auto-Sense Dynamic Import Update

Imported objects and materials can be dynamically updated. If you modify an object in another application, Vue will automatically update that object in the scene.

Vector Data Import

Postscript, encapsulated postscript and Adobe Illustrator data can be imported to be used as base shapes in the 3D text editor.

Collada File Import

Vue supports the open-standard Collada file format and is able to import Collada objects with full texturing information as well as rigging and animation.

3D Import Filters

• 3DS: 3D Studio™ object file format, Conversion of Max animated objects to Vue format (using the included plugins)
• 3DMF: 3D Metafile object file format.
• COB: TrueSpace™ object file format.
• DAE: Collada animated object file format.
• DEM: USGS Digital Elevation Model. Terrains are placed according to information in the file (ideal for importing multi-part DEMs).
• DXF: AutoCad™ object file format.
• LWO, LWO2: LightWave™ object file format.
• OBJ: Wavefront™ object file format (with automatic MTL library conversion).
• PZ3, PZZ: Smith Micro™ Poser® static/animated scene import (requires Poser 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or Pro).
• RAW: Raw geometry file format.
• SHD: Shade™ 6 object file format.
• TGA: 16 bit RG encoded Targa altitude map.
• WML: VRML object file format.

Vector data import

• PS: Postscript.
• EPS: Encapsulated Postscript.
• AI: Adobe Illustrator 3.2

Animated Texture Map Import Filters

• MOV: QuickTime movie format (Macintosh only).
• AVI: Audio Video Interleaved animation format (Windows only).

Vue is a 32 & 64 bits application, designed for the Windows® 32/64 bits XP, Vista and Windows 7 and Intel Mac OS X platforms.

Like all 3D packages, it is highly demanding in terms of computer power. Although the application is totally multi-threaded to ensure the smoothest possible response, you have to realize that there is a lot going on when you work in Vue.

Please note that using Vue on a system carrying the below specification may result in slow response time and longer render times!

Please read further on for recommended minimal specification for an optimal Vue experience.

Macintosh

• Mac OS X v10.5+ 32/64,
• 2GHz Intel processor or faster,
• 1GB of free RAM,
• 200 MB of free Hard Disk space,
• 1200x768 in 65K colors/16 bits (24+ bits recommended).

Windows

• Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7 32/64,
• 2GHz Pentium IV or better processor,
• 1GB of free RAM,
• 200 MB of free Hard Disk space,
• 1200x768 in 65K colors/16 bits (24+ bits recommended).

Note:

Vue 11 Complete now includes an automatic configuration tool that will set all OpenGL options just after install, for optimized previeWing on your video board / driver.

The folloWing boards/chips will perform using the new Shader engine:

(1) Requires a Vue 9 build superior to 9005724. Resizing editors, or really heavy scenes may generate some instability.
(2) Support for Shaded Billboards on Windows requires a Vue 9 build superior to 9005724.

(3) Warning!