Review: Vue 7 Infinite
November 23rd, 2008 | Published in Book Reviews, Featured, Reviews | 11 Comments
The new radiosity engine in Vue 7 works great indoors and out.
On November 4th, 2008, E-on Software announced the availability of Vue 7 Infinite, which was probably just about the worst news day you could have picked to announce something. The US Presidential election was being decided that day, so if you haven’t heard that a new version of Vue is out, it’s not surprising. There is plenty in this new release to be excited about. Vue 7 xStream was also released the same day, but I will focus here on Infinite, since that’s the version I know and use.
What’s new with Vue?
Vue Infinite is a 3D scenery generator which is powerful enough for Hollywood studios (both of the latest Pirates of the Carribean and Indiana Jones movies used Vue) and yet it will run on your humble home computer. The entry-level version of Vue (now called Pioneer) has actually come down in price, from $89 to $49. To me, it’s just amazing that for fifty bucks you can buy software of this quality and power. While it’s true that the flagship products Infinite and xStream have gone up in price, E-on has recognized that a lot of their customers want the Infinite toolset but don’t have any interest in animation. For them, a new version called Vue Complete is available. (Actually, as of this writing, only Infinite and xStream are out, but the others should be available shortly.) E-on also seems to have realized that, while this release is good, it’s not a slam-dunk must-have, and so they have added a stunning 160 Solid Growth plants to help you make the decision to upgrade. And 20 of those plants are high-definition, using the new Solid Growth 4 technology.
In addition to the boatload of new plants, there are some other good reasons to upgrade. Here’s a quick rundown:
EcoSystem 3 technology: dynamic population, EcoSystem painting from any angle
Dynamic population means you no longer have to use materials to represent distant forests. Now can just assign trees to the new Infinite Terrain object and Vue does all the work for you. It renders only what needs be rendered, at the level of detail it requires. The new version of EcoSystem also lets you “EcoPaint” in any of the viewports, not just the top camera view. This, combined with the greatly improved Open GL display, makes it much easier to place objects in your scene exactly where you want them.
Spectral 2 cloud technology: highly realistic volumetric 3D clouds and cloud layers
The clouds in Vue 7 are truly remarkable. Clouds had been one of the weaker elements in Vue, but no longer. With the Spectral 2 clouds and the infinite terrains, Vue 7 establishes itself as the premiere 3D scenery generation software. There’s really nothing else like it.
New Radiosity engine optimized for Indoor and infinite scenery
Vue takes on the great indoors. Having mastered infinite scenery, E-on has now improved the radiosity engine in Vue so that it runs 4 to 6 times faster than Vue 6, and gives better results, both indoors and out.
Water Editor
This lets you control the appearance of water in your scenes. Create waves, and foamy shorelines. The waves are not curling yet, but we’re getting there.
Improved SolidGrowth 4 plant technology with high definition species for your “hero” plants
The high definition plants look more realistic in the way they “grow”, allowing you to move them close to the camera.
Infinite terrains
In Vue, all prodedural terrains are “smart”, in that they are only detailed near the camera. Version 7 introduces an “infinite” procedural terrain, which is really just a very large, 200km square terrain. Also new is that you create these by selecting a preset, much like you do for skies. Vue 7 extends the range of focus in your compositions beyond just the middle distance. Now you can do closeups as well as grand vistas, using the infinite terrain technology.
You can read much more about the new features of Vue 7 here on the E-on website.
Time Has Passed Them By. Created entirely within Vue 7.
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December 11th, 2008 at 2:41 am (#)
Woo hoo. That’s my trailer model I modeled and sell over cornucopia3d.com. Hey, I’m famous now.
December 13th, 2008 at 6:40 pm (#)
Not much of a review . Just like Vue6. Looks pretty in print but implementing and employing Vue is a tragic nightmare. Let’s hear how Vue7 REALLY measures up?
December 13th, 2008 at 7:14 pm (#)
@Gary Miller –
Famous? Not hardly! Your trailer was the inspiration for the whole piece. I needed to create a place for it. Great model.
@Jona
Not sure what you mean by “tragic nightmare.” Sounds a bit grim. Vue 7 is a joy to use, so I’m not sure what you mean. Care to elaborate?
December 15th, 2008 at 12:00 pm (#)
It really is quite sad that E-on felt the need to produce Vue7 when Vue6 is STILL buggy as hell, integration is a nightmare and image production really is hit and miss despite all the good resources available.
Even more tragic is E-on’s ability to miss it’s own deadlines for realeasing the other Vue7 products and don’t even get me started on pricing….
Sorry to say folks but steer clear of Vue7 for a while, at least until they do a bit of housework…
December 16th, 2008 at 7:31 pm (#)
Thanks for the review. I Just received Vue 7 and I must admit it’s rock-stable.
Hardly had Vue 6 to crash though since they release the 6.6 (and I’m with xStream).
Also, I just received e-on’s newsletter stating that the rest of the line was released, so I don’t see why they missed their deadline at all?
On top of this Pioneer is free as open Beta, and you can keep it after the beta.
Well I must say it’s a smart move from e-on!
January 30th, 2009 at 1:20 am (#)
I have tried using Vue 7 Xstream on 3ds max, and it crashes all the time. Tried the update and still so many problems were encountered. Hope the people from view can improve on the integration aspect of the software. Such a wonderful program though. Creating out of this world environments have never been so easy with it. The standalone program though is far more stable than Vue 6.
January 30th, 2009 at 12:07 pm (#)
@Rolex –
Sorry to hear you’re experiencing problems with Vue 7 Xstream. I don’t use that version, but I have been hearing good things about version 7. You may want to stop by Cornucopia’s forum to see if others have had your problem. It’s at http://www.cornucopia3d.com. Very helpful, friendly folks.
Thanks for stopping by!
Bob
April 5th, 2009 at 6:04 am (#)
i did research on this product and think I will ask for it for a birthday present (I’ll be 16!) I probobly won’t have much trouble with bugs, most software people say is buggy usualy works fine for me (including Windows Vista!)
May 24th, 2009 at 3:45 pm (#)
@Barondando,
you have no idea…
June 15th, 2009 at 5:09 am (#)
Hi, have just started using Vue 7 Pioneer, this is my first attempt at using software like this and I have to say I found it a bit difficult at first, however the video tutorials on Cornucopia3d are excellent, I pulled the flv files from my temp internet folder and use a Flash Video player to view them when I want.
Made my life so much easier and now I am experimenting with importing my own textures, great piece of software that just makes me want to go out and buy every add-on that I can.
Superb, thenk you E-on.
Would highly recommend it.
p.s. Have just downloaded Vue 7 Infinite PLE as well, looking good.
December 29th, 2009 at 1:51 am (#)
Bah… Yes, good landscapes.. etc…. everyone seems to be parroting on about that…. but what about modelling capabilities…..can you model… a screwdriver .. for example… or a car… a boat….. a house?