The release of Vue 8 marks e-on's on-going commitment to provide substantial, cutting-edge features and improvements to our valued users and customers who share our passion for Digital Nature. With this new release, all aspects of the program have been improved in the areas of natural scenery creation, precise artistic control, performance, immersive integration and content.

New Natural Scenery Creation Capabilities

Revolutionary 3D Terrain Sculpting Editor

Powerful 3D Sculpting Brushes

The Vue Terrain Editor is vastly improved with the addition of powerful 3D sculpting features for carving and molding terrain features and shapes. Paint overhangs, caves, and reliefs with the power and ease of 3D brush strokes. The 3D sculpting brush contains several types of brush behaviors including the ability to sculpt, inflate, extrude, free form, invert, and smooth. The intensity and tip profile of the 3D sculpting brushes can be adjusted by using falloff filters and bitmaps can be used to customize the shape and influence of the brush.


Localized Infinite and Procedural Terrain Scultping

Combine the best of both worlds with the ability to locally sculpt features on finite and infinite procedural terrains. Let Vue automatically generate infinitely detailed expanses of terrain, then fine tune or completely rework localized areas of the terrain to suit your requirements. Touch up zones can be nested to provide unlimited artistic control. Sculpt in roads, paths, and caverns while perserving the procedural details around the localized features.


Revolutionary Smart Subdivision Technology

Using innovative dynamic refinement techniques, sculpting actions refine the terrain mesh based on the localized application of the 3D sculpting brush, automatically adding polygons only where they are needed, thereby optimizing the mesh density and increasing overall performance.

Paint freely at any level of detail, the smart subdivision technology automatically selects the appropriate LOD for you. Paint with brushes that are the equivalent of millions of polygons in real-time!


Scene Context Sculpting

The terrain editor now supports sculpting in context of the entire scene, allowing terrains to be edited and shaped around scene elements.

For example, the terrain mesh can be sculpted to add reliefs around architectural elements and scene objects that are located in and around the terrain.

Large Amplitude Micro Displacement Engine

Separate Bump and Displacement Channels

Displacement can now be manipulated independently of the bump channel which delivers greater performance and more refined artistic control.

Displacement depth and scale is now accessible directly from the material editor and can use any procedural or texture map function as its input.


Cloned Displacement

The historical Vue method of using the bump channel to drive displacement is also preserved for those who wish to use this simplified but powerful displacement method.

Cloned displacement combines the bump noise into a composite noise to drive the bump and displacement output in a unified fashion.


Displacement in any Direction

Displacement can be adjusted to move in any user defined direction - horizontal, vertical, along the normal, or any combination. In addition, the displacement magnitude is adjustable in all three X, Y, and Z dimensions.


Normal Mapping

Vue 8 now supports the use of RGB normal maps to drive the bump channel. Normal maps can produce very finely detailed surface features and is widely used in CG and game applications.

Displacement Smoothing

High frequency artifacts can now be removed from displacement using displacement smoothing. The level of smoothing is fully range adjustable.

Atmospheres and Terrains

Spectral 3 Atmospheres

Vue 8 extends the realism of clouds and atmospheres with the introduction of Spectral 3 atmospheres.

Spectral 3 improves the quality and realism of internal cloud shadows, shadows projected on clouds, shadows projected onto objects, as well as the quality of godrays.


New Strata Terrain Fractals

The addition of new Recursive Strata Terrain fractals optimize the creation of richly detailed stratified, terrain features.

These fractals are fully user adjustable and can be applied in combination with any Vue noise function to produce a wide variety of appearances.

Planetary Rendering

Infinite Procedural Terrains

Vue 8 supports truly infinite procedural terrains that extend forever. You can move the camera as far as you like, the terrain continues; you will just uncover new parts of it! 

Spherical and Planetary Terrains

Vue 8 can render entire planets! Simply create a procedural terrain and Vue will easily convert it into a planet.

There are now 3 types of infinite procedural terrains: 

• flat terrains, ideal for close-ups,
• spherical terrains, ideal for mid-range shots,
• and planetary terrains, ideal for long-distance shots of entire planets.

You can easily switch between the different types of infinite terrains, although the terrain geometry may be modified in the process.

Easy Planetary Navigation

The trickiest aspect of planetary creation is the ability to work in a coordinate system that is not easily understood. For instance, how would you line up trees at the surface of a planet?

Thanks to the new spherical abstraction gizmos, it's incredibly easy to move around or align elements at the surface of a planet. Vue dynamically unwraps the surface of your planet so you can continue to work in your views as if the terrain were flat. Just line up objects and Vue will automatically move and rotate them so they fit neatly where they should be at the surface of the planet!

Real-World Spherical Clouds

Vue 8 features the ability to import cloud maps to recreate real-world skyscapes over entire planets.

Use any cloud density map, including daily maps from the internet. Add cyclones where you need them by painting them in! Then load the cloud density data using the dedicated tool and Vue will generate the corresponding clouds.


Animated EcoSystem Populations

On top of creating EcoSystems with populations of animated elements, it is now possible to create populations that evolve over time.

This way, you can create such effects as a forest expanding to gradually cover a mountain, or the receding of vegetation at the border of a desert.

Artistic Control and Performance

Content Additions

A number of new content items have been added or extended which take advantage of the new Vue 8 features including: 

• TerrainScapes material library for creating a variety of terrain landscapes
• Metanode-based displacement materials for creating rocks and stones
• Metanode-driven color functions and materials for terrain and rock colors
• Metanode-adjustable sand, grass, and soil materials
• Terrain Countour Mapping material with associated Python program for producing altitude legends 
• Finite and infinite procedural terrain presets utlizing the new Strata fractal filter

Other New Features

• Direct access to the alpha channel from the material editor
• When saving an image, format options are accessible via a button, and not prompted for each time
• Material-specific control of anti-aliasing and sub-ray quality parameters
• Improved object drop accuracy
• New planetary mapping node with ability to set the location of origin (latitude & longitude) including “global origin” in Options panel. Cloud maps are correctly centered and aligned according to this setting.
• New reference system for more precise control of parent-child object relationships
• Default to ease-in ease-out for orientation keyframes
• Added adjustable separator in animation timeline window to change the width of the animated items list
• Material preview terrain option which displays a material mapped onto a small terrain object
• Name of loaded atmosphere appears on Atmosphere Editor caption
• Name of edited function added to Function Editor caption
• Added dual destination render option - display to screen while rendering to disk
• When rendering to disk, image can be saved at user defined intervals
• Save/reload complete object graphs.

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.

ATMOSPHERE

• Atmosphere presets: Over 160.
• Ultra-realistic spectral atmosphere model.
• Choice of 4 different types of atmosphere models.
• Volumetric clouds, lights, materials (visible rays, with optional dust).
• Spectral Volume Cloud layers for extremely realistic cloudscapes.
• NEW! Extremely detailed Spectral 3 cloud system (for cloud layers and MetaClouds).
• NEW! Realistic cloud shadowing on objects as well as internal shadowing.
• NEW! Automatic detail refining for very close-up clouds.
• NEW! Cloud anisotropy setting for advanced control of internal light scattering.
• Fast indirect lighting in Spectral and Spectral 2 clouds.
• NEW! Create spherical cloud layers at the surface of your planets.
• NEW! Import real-world cloud density data to recreate existing cloudscapes.
• NEW! Add tornadoes using your favorite paint tool.
• God rays in clouds.
• Fly through clouds.
• Cloud layers near ground simulate fog.
• Realistic "peaking" of mountains through clouds.
• Create multiple layers of overlapping clouds.
• NEW! Efficient model for cross-shadowing of objects on clouds.
• MetaClouds individual cloud formations.
• Library of MetaCloud models.
• Predefined cloud shapes: Over 140.
• Unlimited cloud layers.
• Customize the shape of MetaClouds.
• Stars, rainbows, ice rings.
• Individual lights can illuminate spectral cloud layers and MetaClouds.

ECO SYSTEMS

• 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.
• EcoSystem 2 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.
• Layered EcoSystems to control individual EcoSystem populations.
• Control "affinity" between EcoSystem layers.
• Paint EcoSystems from all sides, in any view.
• EcoSystem 3 Technology dynamically populates EcoSystems for potentially unlimited populations.
• Dynamic EcoSystem 3 density adjustments for improved control of density on slopes.
• NEW! Multi-processor EcoSystem population.

VEGATATION

• 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 new, extremely detailed plant species.

TERRAINS

• Solid3D real-time terrain modeling.
• NEW! Sculpt terrains in all directions.
• NEW! Create overhangs and grottoes.
• NEW! Sculpt, inflate, free form and smooth brushes.
• NEW! User definable brush tip profile.
• NEW! Automatic subdivision of terrain geometry when sculpting.
• NEW! Adaptive subdivision adds polygons only where needed.
• NEW! Edit terrains in context (view entire scene in editor).
• NEW! Option to view terrain clipping planes in editor.
• NEW! Option to display the terrain with a shiny surface to enhance details.
• NEW! Constrain painting and effects to clipping zone.
• NEW! Option to display the terrain in wireframe mode to view polygons.
• NEW! Create edition "zones" to modify procedural terrains locally.
• NEW! Create nested "zones" to build massive detail where needed.
• NEW! Paint material distributions at the surface of terrains.
• NEW! Import, view and edit distribution maps in the Terrain Editor.
• NEW! Terrain effects optionally affect material distribution map.
• Preset terrain styles: 8.
• NEW! Erosion types: 9.
• Geological algorithms: 12.
• Glaciation, alluvium and dissolve erosion effects.
• High definition data in standard terrains.
• Procedural terrains with infinite details.
• NEW! Infinite procedural terrains.
• NEW! Planetary terrain rendering.
• NEW! Flat, spherical and planetary procedural terrains.
• NEW! Switch between flat, spherical and planetary terrains (geometry may be affected).
• Combine image data with procedural functions using dedicated blending nodes.
• Ability to switch from one form of terrain to another easily.
• Skin terrains.
• Symmetrical terrains.
• Pressure-sensitive tablet editing of terrains.
• Customizable brush shape for terrain editing.
• Control distribution of materials on terrains from within the procedural terrain altitude function.
• NEW! Control procedural terrain altitudes based on relationships with other objects.
• NEW! The altitude of procedural terrains can be dynamically affected by other objects.
• Realistic procedural terrains thanks to new dedicated natural effects noise nodes.
• Infinite and local procedural terrain style presets to easily create each-time-different terrains of the given style.
• Library of procedural terrain presets with associated materials.
• Create your own procedural terrain style presets.
• Efficient displacement mapping of infinitely detailed procedural terrains.
• Procedural terrain preview in function editor.
• NEW! Multi-processor procedural terrain construction.
• NEW! Stratified terrains thanks to the recursive strata filters.

MODELING

• Primitive and Boolean modeling.
• 3D Text edition tool.
• Customizable text beveling, extrusion... and material effects.
• Import Postscript and Illustrator data into the text editor.
• Optimized memory management for handling large polygon meshes.
• True Metablobs organic modeling from all Vue Boolean primitives.
• Adjustable Metablob envelopes and contribution.
• Welding of multiple meshes into a single mesh.
• Random rock generator.
• Multiple planets (moon and other planets of the solar system).
• Create billboards that always face the camera (with a 'force vertical' option).

RENDERING

• New 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.
• 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 strong 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.
• Pictures larger than screen resolution can be rendered to screen.
• Custom render size.
• 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.
• 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.
• NEW! 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.
• NEW! 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.
• 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.
• Render area can be temporarily disabled.
• 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.
• Improved anti-aliasing strategies produce much smoother results.
• Optimized render memory management 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.
• NEW! The total amount of RAM allocated to displacement mapping is adjustable.
• NEW! Images can be saved to disk at regular (user definable) intervals during render.
• NEW! Dual destination render option (e.g. display to screen while rendering to disk).

MATERIALS

• NEW! Material presets: Over 550.
• Level(s) of material Edition: 4.
• Basic material editor with possibility of importing images as textures and bump maps.
• Advanced procedural material creation/mixing.
• Advanced Material Editor.
• SmartGraph function Editor.
• Control all material parameters via function graphs.
• Advanced SmartGraph input nodes: screen position, angle of incidence, distance to camera, distance on ray, depth in object, distance to object below, incident light angle, light direction, light color, reflected direction, etc.
• Time dependent noises (including animated 'Open Ocean' water node).
• Browse material hierarchy inside material editor, with direct access to sub-materials and layers.
• Layered material system.
• Add names and comments to SmartGraph nodes.
• Individual access to identical material zones.
• Change material settings for several materials simultaneously.
• Stack layers according to alpha, slope, altitude and orientation.
• Alpha (non refractive) transparency channel.
• Color and alpha map editor.
• Rendering of Poser characters using the Poser shading tree.
• Perfect blending of lighting and GI with Poser shading tree.
• Optional texture mip-mapping.
• Global control over the level of mip-mapping.
• 16 bit texture support.
• Materials can be mixed seamlessly.
• Mixed material can be set to react to environment properties (slope, altitude and orientation.
• Material mapping modes (World and Object mapping): standard, cylindrical, spherical, parametric .
• Easy access to all materials in scene.
• Direct access to all materials inside multi-material objects.
• Direct access to all texture maps and imported objects.
• Rotoscoping (Use animations as texture maps).
• Detailed function output observer.
• Detailed node previews in function editor.
• Baking of procedural materials as texture maps.
• Adjustable maximum ray depth and Total Internal Reflections.
• Anti-aliasing can be disabled for given materials.
• Receive shadows material option.
• Shadow only material option.
• Backlight option (for one-sided materials only) for realistic backlighting of opaque materials.
• Mixed/Layered materials displayed as hierarchies in World Browser.
• Volumetric materials.
• Volumetric materials with internal volumetric color and shading.
• Hypertextures.
• Luminous and Glowing materials.
• Easy highlighting of sub-materials and layers to visualize the influence of each material in the final render.
• Ability to map textures only once, controllable independently for each axis.
• NEW! Control materials based on the properties of other objects.
• Highly realistic natural material effects thanks to dedicated noise and coloring nodes.
• Easily control bump or displacement amplitude based on slope.
• Option to re-evaluate contribution of materials based on displaced surfaces.
• "Foam" output in Open Ocean node to easily control the distribution of foam on water surfaces.
• NEW! Separate bump and displacement channels.
• NEW! Constrained displacement (horizontal, vertical, etc).
• NEW! Ability to control the direction of displacement through the material graph.
• NEW! Displacement smoothing to eliminate noisy displacement artifacts.
• NEW! Normal mapping.
• NEW! Recursive strata and constrained strata filters for stratified effects.
• NEW! Direct access to the alpha channel in the Advanced Material editor.
• NEW! Per material texture anti-aliasing quality boost.
• NEW! Per material simplification of sub-ray effect calculation.
• NEW! Planetary mapping node with ability to set location of origin (latitude and longitude).

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.
• 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.
• NEW! 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.
• Advanced flicker reduction options.
• 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.
• Graph display of animated parameter values in Timeline.
• Accurate control over tangents and tension of animated parameters curves.
• High precision animation curve control.
• Access to individual coordinates in animation graph.
• Step, linear and smooth interpolation modes.
• Automatic ease-in/ease-out keyframe option.
• Animate rotation using quaternions or Euler angles.
• Fast Hybrid 2.5D™ motion blur.
• Separate animation channel for camera exposure.
• Automatic simulation of breeze on plants.
• Strong wind effects defined on individual plants or groups of plants.
• Advanced breeze customization with OpenGL preview.
• Animated wind intensity and direction.
• Omni and directional ventilators for local modifications of plants.
• Ventilators can be made to influence EcoSystems.
• Plant geometry key framing for spectacular animated life cycles.
• Ability to mark objects as never becoming animated.
• Object linking and tracking - forward dynamics.
• "Scene graph" approach allows advanced relationships between objects.
• Access and control object properties using SmartGraph.
• NEW! Save and reload entire object graphs in a single file.
• Loose forward dynamics for "real world" linking and tracking.
• "PID" and "Delay" controllers in SmartGraph for improved realism in object interactions.
• Time display as: SMPTE.
• NEW! EcoSystem populations can be made to evolve over time.
• NEW! Create custom rigged mesh animations.

USER INTERFACE

• Productive, uncluttered interface layout.
• Re-posing of Poser meshes directly inside Vue.
• NEW! Direct re-posing of rigged meshes.
• NEW! Support for mesh morphs.
• NEW! Select and manipulate bones directly in views.
• NEW! Manipulate bones numerically using the Skeleton editor.
• NEW! Support for wired helpers.
• NEW! 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.
• 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.
• NEW! Spherical abstraction gizmos.
• NEW! 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.
• 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.
• Directly access frequently used scripts.
• Picture printing with user definable DPI resolution.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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 new MetaWater materials.
• Support for 3Dconnexion tracking devices (SpaceNavigator, SpaceExplorer, etc).
• NEW! Automatic renaming of Standalone- and HyperVue-generated frames if overwriting.
• NEW! Global EcoSystem visible as proxy object in World Browser.
• NEW! Select and delete Global EcoSystem instances with one click.
• NEW! Format specific options accessible through a special button in Save file box, and no longer prompted for each time.
• NEW! Adjustable separator in Timeline to change width of animated items list.
• NEW! Material preview option which displays materials mapped onto a small terrain object.
• NEW! Name of atmosphere appears in Atmosphere editor caption.
• NEW! Name of edited function appears in Function editor caption.

REAL TIME PREVIEW

• High-speed OpenGL real-time preview engine.
• NEW! Choice of 3 OpenGL engines: shader based, fixed pipeline and software provide optimal quality/compatibility options.
• NEW! Shader-based OpenGL engine maximizes efficiency and visual accuracy on high-end GPUs.
• Completely threaded OpenGL architecture makes the best of multi-core systems.
• Fully customizable OpenGL previewing options.
• Realistic OpenGL preview of plants, planets, lens-flares, texture map atmosphere... with instant and detailed feedback.
• Dual-resolution OpenGL preview for faster response.
• NEW! Preview specular highlights in real time.
• OpenGL preview of EcoSystem instances as billboards, boxes or full geometry.
• NEW! Preview EcoSystem instances as shaded billboards.
• User definable radius around the camera in which EcoSystem instances appear at full resolution.
• NEW! Dynamically populated EcoSystems around the camera can be viewed in viewports.
• Textured OpenGL preview.
• OpenGL and Wireframe preview modes.
• OpenGL Preview of Boolean operations.
• OpenGL Preview of Metablobs.
• Threaded previewing of procedural terrains with dynamic LOD.
• Anti-aliased real-time OpenGL preview.
• Automatic selection of preview color based on procedural material color.
• Show objects as box, wireframe, shaded or smooth shaded.
• Axis preview in viewports.
• OpenGL and rendered plant preview in Plant Editor.
• NEW! Sky preview with clouds.
• NEW! Realistic MetaCloud preview.
• NEW! Realistic sun shadows.
• NEW! Colored EcoSystem instance preview.
• NEW! Dynamic plant display optimization.
• Decimated object preview for faster previewing.
• Selected objects appear with a red wireframe.
• Parts of selected objects that use the current material appear highlighted.
• NEW! Selection wireframe always appears on top of other objects that are in front: Optional.
• Selected objects are "ghosted" in red.
• High quality texture and terrain previewing.
• NEW! Rendered images can be displayed in the background of all viewports.

IMPORT / EXPORT

• Static Poser scene import.
• Support for Poser dynamic clothes and hair.
• Animated Poser scene import.
• NEW! Support for Poser 8.
• Compatible with Cornucopia3D cost-effective copy-protected content.
• Cornucopia3D items are identified in the Visual Browsers using a small icon.
• Cornucopia3D content display options in Visual Browsers: "All", "Best Selection" or "None".
• Import options dialog to control imported object position and sizing.
• When loading objects, option to automatically drop them to the ground.
• 2D Import: BMP, BUM, DEM, GIF, HDR, Jpeg, Pict, PNG, PSD, TGA, TGD, Tiff, Vistapro DEM.
• Animated 2D import: Sequence of pictures, MOV (Macintosh only), AVI (Windows only).
• Vector data import: Postscript and Illustrator up to 3.2.
• Textured model imports as: 3DS, 3DMF, COB, DAE, DEM, DXF, LWO, OBJ, PZ3, PZZ, RAW, SHD, SKP, VRML.
• Textured and animated Collada file import.
• NEW! Support for rigged Collada meshes.
• NEW! Support for Sketchup 7 (Win 32 only).
• 2D Export: Tiff, TGA, Pict, BMP, GIF, Jpeg, PNG, BUM, DEM.
• Export high dynamic range images (including skydomes).
• Export 48 bit color images.
• High Dynamic Range 2D Export: HDR.
• Embed alpha information in Tiff and PNG formats.
• Object export (with textures).
• Optimized object and texture map exports.
• Textured object export as: 3DS, C4D, COB, DXF, LWO, OBJ, SHD.
• Sky exports as sky-boxes or sky-domes.
• User-definable mesh and texture map resolution for exports.
• Automatic re-importing of externally modified texture maps and 3D objects.
• Advanced unwrap algorithms for low-distortion UV mapping.

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.
• NEW! User definable maximum video board memory usage.

MISCELLANEOUS

• Multi-processor rendering: Respectively 4/8 CPUs on 32/64 bit OS.
• Hundreds of preset atmospheres, objects, materials.
• NEW! Terrainscapes preset terrain material library.
• Optimized for PowerPC and Intel Macs.
• 64 bit version optimized for Windows XP64 and Vista 64.
• License valid for commercial use.
• Inline help: PDF Manual.
• NEW! Documentation: 600 page manual.
• NEW! Media: 1 Application CD + 1 Extras DVD.

Vue 8 Complete is optimized for 32 bit and 64 bit Windows systems. On the Macintosh platform, it is optimized for Power PC and Intel processors.

Macintosh 

• Mac OS X v10.4 and 10.5 (up to 10.5.6),
• 1.25GHz PowerPC or Intel processor or faster,
• 512 MB of free RAM (1GB recommended),
• 200 MB of free Hard Disk space,
• 1024x768 in 65K colors/16 bits (24+ bits recommended).

Windows 

• Windows XP32/64(Pro and Home)/Vista32/64,
• 1GHz Pentium III or better processor,
• 512 MB of free RAM (1GB recommended),
• 200 MB of free Hard Disk space,
• 1024x768 in 65K colors/16 bits (24+ bits recommended).

An OpenGL accelerated video board is not required, but is a big plus.

Internet access is required to use this software.

Supported Video Boards

The following boards will perform using the new Shader engine. Other boards may not perform using the Shader engine, but will perform using the older fixed-pipeline one. In any case, Vue can perform in software OpenGL regardless of the video boards.

Windows:

• All boards with NVidia Quadro, GeForce8/9 and GT200 chips,
• ATI FirePro V8000 series with up-to-date drivers (i.e. not on original CD)

Boards with ATI Radeon 4800 series with updated drivers will work, but can suffer small performance issues. New ATI 5800 series remain untested at this point.

Macintosh:

• All boards with NVidia GeForce and GT200 chips,
• All boards with ATI Radeon HD and 4800 series (10.5.6+ required).

Boards that are not on this list may work with Vue, but haven't been extensively tested. If you run into any OpenGL issues, try disabling background draw and antialiasing in the Options panel. Worst case scenario: you can always run Vue in software OpenGL mode.

 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 or Pro).
• RAW: Raw geometry file format.
• SHD: Shade™ 6 object file format.
• SKP: SketchUp™ object file format (up to v7, Win32 only).
• TGA: 16 bit RG encoded Targa altitude map.
• WML: VRML object file format.

3D Export Filters

• 3DS: 3D Studio™ object file format.
• C4D: Cinema 4D™ object file format.
• COB: TrueSpace™ object file format.
• DXF: AutoCad™ object file format.
• LWO, MOT, LWS: LightWave™ file formats.
• OBJ: Wavefront™ object file format.
• SHD: Shade™ object file format.

Note: object animation information (motion, scale and orientation) can be exported as 3DS or LightWave MOT/LWS files.

EcoSystem materials cannot be exported.

Vue skies can be exported as sky-domes (spheres) octa-spheres or cubes for use in other applications. If you have the RenderUp module, they can be exported as HDR high dynamic range images.