Vue 4 Professional from e-on Software

Written By Vikki Olds January 15, 2004   The Vue 4 Professional interface is extremely pleasing to look at but it's the power behind it that is so great. The interface is fully customizable and multi-threaded so that time consuming tasks can run in the background without you having to stop and wait for it. Vue 4 Professional sports unlimited Undo/Redo operations, allows user defined keyboard shortcuts, default startup folders and more. Below is a screenshot of the interface. Vue 4 Professional supports multiple processors, as many as you have, and is optimized for HyperThreading and G5 processors. Vue 4 Professional produces/renders very high quality professional images. Along with ray-tracing which can be very time consuming, Vue 4 Professional has several other render engines to speed up render times without much loss of quality. AccuShadows is an alternative to ray-tracing that renders soft shadow maps for light sources. Hybrid 2.5D enhances motion blur rendering and depth of field effects much faster than the norm. Vue 4 Professional also includes the HyperMipMap procedural texture anti-aliasing engine. You can use reflection maps instead of ray-traced reflections. Create your own vegetation with the SolidGrowth 3, a vegetation synthesis and rendering technology. SolidGrowth automatically animates plants. SolidGrowth 3 is based on random growth technologies, no two plants will ever be the same. With the plant editor you can create your own variety of plants by modifying the existing ones. Below there are screenshots to show how quickly you can create your own variety of tree. The default plant loads up at first but then you can open a dialog to select a new species. Once you have your new species you can use the sliders on the left, (and if available for the type of plant) the sliders on the right. After adjusting the sliders you have a new plant all in just a few seconds. Once you've got a nice plant you can then add wind to it to animate it. You can apply wind to one or a group of plants. Solid3D is a 3D terrain modeling technology. You can model terrains and see them updated in real time as you model. Vue 4 Professional has airbrush style tools and a special effects brush that allow you to paint effects onto your terrain. You can create rocks randomly with a click of the mouse. With the Volumetric Atmosphere System you can create beams of light, fog, haze, animated clouds, rainbows and much more quickly and easily. Features List (from the e-on website) Optimized Interface Efficient, Uncluttered Interface Layout Fast Multi-Threaded Interface for Swift Response Object Decimation for Faster Scene Setups Real-time Scene Preview Solid3D Real-Time Terrain Modeling Technology Enhanced World Browser with material, texture map and imported object lists for efficient management of complex projects Objects can be organized in layers, or sorted by name, size or type. Unlimited layer count Easy access to all materials in scene (including clouds) Complex materials displayed as trees enabling direct edition of remote sub-materials. Direct access to all texture maps and imported objects. Texture maps can be easily reloaded, replaced globally, exported... Direct access to all materials inside multi-material objects. Separate animation channel for camera exposure. Objects can be made non-animatable (to prevent them from becoming automatically animated) 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) Cloud layers can easily be hidden or restored. Easy setup of cloud movement using direction and speed of movement controls. Pictures larger than screen resolution can be rendered to screen. Navigation inside the rendered picture using pan and zoom controls. Time can be displayed in seconds, SMPTE or frames inside the Timeline. Enhanced TimeSpline and filter editors allows precise control using pan/zoom, snap to keyframes/grid, selection and modification of multiple keypoints, etc. Render Blow-Up to render a scene detail at final render resolution. Resizable world browser and real-time scene preview. Previewing of materials can be limited to the active window. Increased Productivity Automatic software updating (can be disabled) Real world units for object sizes Customizable user interface and user-definable shortcuts Automatic detection and creation of new browser collections. User definable startup scene (loaded as a starting point for all new scenes) List of default folders when searching for texture maps. Customizable linear and angular snapping grids when moving and rotating objects Complex meshes can be decimated upon import and subsequently re-imported at full resolution for final rendering. Spotlight view-through option for accurate placement and aiming of spot lights. Scatter/Replicate tool can automatically generate variations of the replicated objects (e.g. rocks, terrains, plants great for creating forests, stone fields,...) Objects can be replaced by other objects either preserving the new object's proportions or fitting the source objects dimensions (e.g. use a cube for setup, then replace cube with a building for final rendering). Texture maps can be incorporated inside Vue files for easier archival/distribution. Texture maps and objects can be synchronized (they will be automatically reloaded if they are modified outside Vue Pro) Pressure sensitive tablet terrain editing. Hundreds of Preset Atmospheres, Models, Scenes, Materials... Advanced OpenGL Previewing Ultra-fast OpenGL preview with instant and detailed feedback. Automatic checking of OpenGL driver compatibility. Realistic plant and planet previews. Texture map preview. Lens flare and atmosphere previews. Automatic selection of preview color based on procedural material color. Automatic mesh decimation to speed-up instant previewing. Full-screen mode maximizes viewport surface. Resizable viewports. Panning and zooming specific to each view Axis preview displayed in viewports "Only show active layer" preview option lets you concentrate on the current layer. Fully customizable OpenGL previewing options. Non-OpenGL previewing option. Full Object and Scene Export Options Import fully textured models from other 3D applications. All objects (including vegetation, the result of a Boolean Operation...) can be exported. Exports under Discreet 3DS, Wavefront OBJ, LightWave LWO, Cinema 4D C4D, Truespace COB, AutoCAD DXF, Shade SHD file formats. All materials (including procedural materials) can be rendered into texture maps for export. Exported objects are UV mapped using advanced flattening algorithms. This UV information is used to generate the texture maps. Independent texture maps for color, bump and alpha material channels. Sky-box/sky-sphere rendering of the atmosphere for export as a 2D texture map. Automatic creation of mapped atmosphere primitives (cube, sphere or octahedron) for export. Entire scenes, including all objects, lights and atmosphere can be exported as 3DS, LWS. The resolution of the exported meshes is user definable. The resolution of the texture maps generated is user definable. Object animation information (motion, scale and orientation) can be exported as 3DS or LightWave MOT/LWS files. Objects can be converted to polygons inside Vue Pro (e.g. for faster rendering of complex Boolean operations). Several meshes can be welded together into a single, more complex one. Objects can be marked as not being exportable to prevent third party exports. Advanced Rendering Options Ultra-Realistic Volumetric Atmosphere Model Volumetric Clouds, Materials, Lights Soft Shadows, Rainbows, Ice Rings, Stellar Objects... Advanced anti-aliasing customization and massive super-sampling options. Animate Cameras, Lights, Objects, Materials, Atmospheres, Clouds, Waves, Wind... Broadcast Quality Animations. Dynamic Motion Reation for Easy Animation Setup. Advanced Animation Controls (Keyframing, Timesplines, Forward Dynamics, Spin, Vibration, Motion Blur, Interlacing, Flicker Reduction, Non-Square Pixels...). Primitive and Boolean Modeling. Only shadow new material option renders only the shadows cast by objects Enable diffuse and highlight components for each light independently. Fine tune light intensity based on distance from source. Modify color of lights based on distance from source. Lights can be made to affect only given objects (or all but given objects) Spherical panoramic rendering with adjustable vertical and horizontal rotation angles. Adjustable and animatable amount of motion blur. Motion blur can be applied to object deformation. Cameras post processing filters to adjust color, contrast, saturation, gamma... Animatable post processing filters Camera switcher lets you switch cameras during render (ideal for storyboarding). Spin, vibrate and twinkling star effects. Compatible with Mover 4/5 to import animated Poser characters. Rendering Efficiency Solutions Optimized Rendering Technologies AccuShadows Shadow Mapping Technology for all types of lights (including directional lights) for faster soft and volumetric shadows. Fully customizable shadow map including soft shadow behavior. Reflection map support for faster rendering of reflective materials. Global reflection map option to toggle use of reflection maps across the entire scene. Choice of ray-traced or Hybrid 2.5D motion blur for faster rendering of animations. Choice of ray-traced or Hybrid 2.5D depth of field. Shadow and volumetric light optimization for dramatic increase in rendering speed. Procedural material and texture map smoothing technology efficiently reduces noise in texture animation. Objects can be hidden from render. Multi-processor rendering support for unlimited number of processors. Optimized for G5 & P4 HT. Synchronization With Major 3D Applications Automatic synchronization of camera and light animation with the following applications: 3DS Max 4.2+, Cinema4D XL7+, LightWave 7+, Maya 4.0+, Softimage XSI 3.0+. Vue Pro camera animation automatically adjusted to ensure perfect matching with source application. Easy to use synchronization plug-ins for 3DS Max 4.2+, Cinema4D XL7+, LightWave 7+, Maya 4.0+ and Softimage XSI 3.0+ generates camera and light scripts for use in Vue Pro. Synchronization data incorporated inside scene for simplified archival. High End Compositing Options Full support of industry standard G-Buffer professional compositing information. Rendering export as RPF file format for advanced compositing options in e.g. Combustion, After Effects... All G-Buffer channels supported including Z Depth, Material ID, Layer ID, UV Coordinate, Normal vector, Non clamped color, Sub-pixel coverage, Render ID, Color, Transparency, Velocity, Sub-pixel weight and sub-pixel mask. G-Buffer channels rendered into multiple G-Buffer layers. Global or object-based "render occluded" option renders parts of the scene hidden behind opaque objects for increased compositing flexibility. Access to all G-Buffer channels and layers directly inside the render window. Plant Edition and Animation 30+ Ultra-Realistic SolidGrowth 3 Plant Species Easy-to-Use Plant Editor for Plant Customization Plant Editor and Leaf Editor let you modify existing plants or create entirely new plant species. Instantly create variations of existing plants. Save new species as stand-alone files for future use in your scenes. Animate plant modifications for spectacular effects. OpenGL and rendered previewing of plants in editor. Global animated breeze makes all plants instantly spring to life! Advanced breeze customization options with OpenGL preview for realistic global effect. Strong wind effect can be applied to individual plants or groups of plants. Animate wind intensity and direction. Advanced Network Rendering Network rendering over hybrid OS X and Windows rendering nodes. Fail safe HyperVue network rendering management. Render still frames and animations across a network of computers. Network rendering of single (large) images or multiple animation frames. Add or remove render nodes during render. Automatic detection of new render nodes using Apple's RendezVous technology (OS X only). Automatic updating of render nodes via e-on's unique NewCow network update technology. 5 Render Nodes included, cheap render node expansion kits available. Python Scripting Execution of predefined Python scripts from within Vue Pro. Directly access frequently used python scripts via menu. Dozens of predefined Python scripts. Create your own Python scripts to customize Vue Pro's behavior. Create New and Unique Render Effects. Hundreds of Python-aware functions to interact with Vue Pro. Access to internal Vue Pro structures and functions. Python console available for direct input of Python commands. User-definable Python objects allow for creation of custom geometry and look. Dozens of Predefined Python Scripts. Import/Export File Formats 3D Import Filters 3DS: 3D Studio object file format. COB: TrueSpace 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: Curious Labs Poser static scene import*. RAW: Raw geometry file format. SHD: Shade object file format. TGA: 16 bit RG encoded Targa altitude map. 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: entire scenes can be exported as 3DS or LightWave LWS files only. Object animation information (motion, scale and orientation) can be exported as 3DS or LightWave MOT/LWS files. Objects can be marked as not being exportable to prevent third party exports (Polygon meshes imported from Vue d'Esprit 4 or Poser cannot be exported). 2D Import/Export Filters BMP: standard Windows bitmap, uncompressed. PICT: standard Macintosh picture file format. JPG: Jpeg compressed picture file format. TGA: Targa picture file format. TIFF: Tagged Image File Format. GIF: Compuserve GIF color mapped bitmap. MOV: QuickTime VR Panorama. BUM: Poser bump map. DEM: USGS/SDTS Digital Elevation Model. IFF: Image File Format PCX: PCX picture file format PNG: Portable Network Graphics file format PSD: Photoshop Image File Format. QTVR: QuickTime VR panorama. RLA: Run Length encoded version A file format (stores partial G-Buffer information). RPF: Rich Pixel Format file format (stores all G-Buffer information). Animation Export Filters MOV: QuickTime movie format. AVI: Audio Video Interleaved animation format. RM: RealMovie format. Mpeg1: moving picture expert group, version 1 animation format. Mpeg2: moving picture expert group, version 2 animation format. Independent Frame animation in all supported picture file formats. Render time on the above image was 3 minutes 11 seconds with my machine. You really should head on over to e-on software and check this out! Pricing $599.00 Requirements Windows Pentium III or better Win NT4/2000/XP 512 MB Free RAM 250 MB Hard drive 16 bit 1024x768 Video Display CD-ROM Drive Macintosh G4 or better class CPU Mac OS X v10.2 or better 512 MB Free RAM 250 MB Hard drive 16 bit 1024x768 Video Display CD-ROM Drive Copyright (c) 2004, Vikki Olds, All Rights Reserved