Feature List for Vue 9 Infinite

Feature List

Following is the complete feature list of Vue 9 Infinite. "NEW!" indicates a new feature based on a comparison with Vue 8 Infinite.

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.
• Illumination baking.
• Illumination baking quality adjustable on a global or per object basis (adjustable map resolution and quality boost).
• 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.
• Show illumination samples in final render.
• 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.
• NEW! Accurate accounting of backlight when computing GI.

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.
• Extremely detailed Spectral 3 cloud system (for cloud layers and MetaClouds).
• Realistic cloud shadowing on objects as well as internal shadowing.
• Automatic detail refining for very close-up clouds.
• Cloud anisotropy setting for advanced control of internal light scattering.
• Fast indirect lighting in Spectral clouds.
• Create spherical cloud layers at the surface of your planets.
• Import real-world cloud density data to recreate existing cloudscapes.
• Add tornadoes using your favorite paint tool.
• NEW! Use animated planetary cloud density maps.
• 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.
• 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.
• NEW! Position, scale and rotate cloud layers using the standard manipulation gizmos.
• NEW! Button to randomize cloud patterns.
• NEW! Support for planets with arbitrarily large atmospheres.

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.
• NEW! Paint EcoSystems using standard EcoSystem population rules.
• NEW! Adjust the population rules of the Global EcoSystem: Optional.
• Layered EcoSystems to control individual EcoSystem populations.
• Control "affinity" between EcoSystem layers.
• NEW! 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.
• NEW! Easily control the intensity of the coloring applied to EcoSystem populations.
• NEW! Control the intensity of the EcoSystem coloring through the function graph.
• Multi-processor EcoSystem population.
• NEW! Ability to drag multiple objects from a browser into the EcoSystem population.
• NEW! EcoSystem 4 technology.
• NEW! Advanced flicker reduction algorithms.
• NEW! Advanced memory management algorithmsfor large dynamic EcoSystem populations.
• NEW! Render animated dynamic EcoSystem populations with smooth density variations.

Vegetation

• Ultra-realistic SolidGrowth vegetation: 170+ 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.

Terrains

• Solid3D real-time terrain modeling.
• Sculpt terrains in all directions.
• Create overhangs and grottoes.
• Sculpt, inflate, free form and smooth brushes.
• NEW! Pinch, Plateau, Flatten and UniSlope brushes.
• User definable brush tip profile.
• Automatic subdivision of terrain geometry when sculpting.
• Adaptive subdivision adds polygons only where needed.
• Edit terrains in context (view entire scene in editor).
• Option to view terrain clipping planes in editor.
• Option to display the terrain with a shiny surface to enhance details.
• Constrain painting and effects to clipping zone.
• Option to display the terrain in wireframe mode to view polygons.
• Create edition "zones" to modify procedural terrains locally.
• Create nested "zones" to build massive detail where needed.
• NEW! Convert a zone of a procedural terrain into another terrain.
• NEW! Zone extraction optionally creates a void in the source terrain.
• Paint material distributions at the surface of terrains.
• NEW! Paint material distributions with unlimited number of materials.
• NEW! Use material masks to constrain painting to existing distribution masks.
• NEW! Material distribution masks independent from material mapping mode.
• Import, view and edit distribution maps in the Terrain Editor.
• Terrain effects optionally affect material distribution map.
• Preset terrain styles: 8.
• Erosion types: 9.
• Geological algorithms: 12.
• Glaciation, alluvium and dissolve erosion effects.
• High definition data in standard terrains.
• Procedural terrains with infinite details.
• Infinite procedural terrains.
• Planetary terrain rendering.
• Flat, spherical and planetary procedural terrains.
• 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.
• NEW! Extract parts of procedural terrains into new terrains.
• NEW! View bitmap textures in terrain editor to sculpt from photo references.
• Pressure-sensitive tablet editing of terrains.
• NEW! Reset 2D and 3D painting independently.
• Customizable brush shape for terrain editing.
• Control distribution of materials on terrains from within the procedural terrain altitude function.
• Control procedural terrain altitudes based on relationships with other objects.
• The altitude of procedural terrains can be dynamically affected by other objects.
• Realistic procedural terrains thanks to 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.
• Multi-processor procedural terrain construction.
• Stratified terrains thanks to the recursive strata filters.
• NEW! Rocky mountain fractal.
• NEW! Full user control over Rocky mountain fractal patterns.
• NEW! Rocky mountain fractal can be used to drive material distributions.
• NEW! Decal and Smear terrain brushes.
• NEW! Retopologize terrains to optimize sculpting over vertical areas like cliffs.
• NEW! Lock material masks to prevent sculpting in the locked areas.
• NEW! Create standalone masks (not associated to a material) for precise sculpting/painting.
• NEW! Global Freeze mask can be used in combination with other masks.
• NEW! Extend terrain canvas option adds "more terrain" around your terrains.
• NEW! Automatic Terrain Zone creation when extending the canvas (to preserve the sculpting).
• NEW! Contextual terrain brushes influenced by slope, altitude and orientation.
• NEW! Create custom terrain brushes.
• NEW! Organize your brushes and create libraries of your favorite ones.
• NEW! Preset brush settings can be easily overriden.
• NEW! Easily access your preset brushes with a single click.
• NEW! Optiomized sculpting automatically selects between 2D and 3D effects.
• NEW! Ability to restrict sculpting to 2D only.
• NEW! Terrain altitudes are consistent with actual terrain size.
• NEW! Randomize terrain fractals with a click of a button.
• NEW! Terrain Editor displays real-world units.

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.
• Advanced memory management algorithms 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).
• NEW! HyperBlob technology.
• NEW! Apply standard displacement mapping to HyperBlobs.
• NEW! User defined level of subdivision on HyperBlobs with automatic intermediate LOD computation according to distance.
• NEW! Automatic “shaving” technology to delete all disconnected parts from the HyperBlob.
• NEW! Optional smart Catmull-Clark subdivision of quad-based geometry.
• NEW! Optional generic Loop subdivision of polygonal meshes.
• NEW! Control realtime preview and render time level of Catmull-Clark / Loop subdivision.
• NEW! Automatic mesh subdivision can be limited to a user defined value.

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.
• 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.
• NEW! HDTV render preset.
• Pictures larger than screen resolution can be rendered to screen.
• Custom render size.
• NEW! 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.
• 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.
• Multi pass rendering (separates renders into the different rendering components - shadow, diffuse, ambient, etc.
• NEW! Multi pass rendering components rendered in High Dynamic Range.
• Create separate pictures for Diffuse, Specular, Shadows, Ambient, Refractions, Reflections, Background, Indirect Lighting, Post-process.
• Per layer, per object or per material multi-pass masks (fully anti-aliased): Color and alpha.
• Create a separate color and alpha mask of clouds.
• Generate color and alpha masks for Global EcoSystem instances.
• Create layers for additional render information such as Z depth, object ID, material ID, global alpha mask, normal vectors.
• Export all channels and masks into a convenient Photoshop PSD multi-channel, multi-mask file.
• NEW! Export multi-pass renders as a EXR 32 bit files with each pass stored in high dynamic range format.
• Full support of G-Buffer compositing information.
• Store all anti-aliasing and rendering channel samples on separate G-Buffer layers.
• Render occluded objects (on a per object or global basis) to render hidden parts of the scene.
• Render export as RLA or RPF for advanced compositing options.
• 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.
• NEW! Interactive Network Rendering.
• NEW! Advanced Caching technology to optimize responsiveness of network rendering.
• Number of render nodes (RenderCow) licenses included in product: 5.
• Maximum number of render nodes: Unlimited (through RenderCow pack expansions).
• 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.
• Customizable command-line render launching sequence.
• RenderNode optional stand alone renderer for integration in large render farms.
• NEW! RenderCows can be configured to use any number of cores.
• Render area can be temporarily disabled.
• NEW! You can lock the render area to avoid accidental modifications.
• Render blow-up option.
• Geometry anti-aliasing.
• User definable geometry anti-aliasing: Up to 1024 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.
• Create custom render effects using user-defined python callbacks.
• Ability to resume an interrupted render.
• Generate detailed network rendering logs.
• Real-life camera aberrations (cushioning and barreling).
• Abort rendering on mouse-click in render area: Optional.
• Easy-to-use camera mapping for retro projection of renders onto simplified geometry.
• 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).
• Generate detailed log files during network rendering.
• NEW! Generate render diagnosis buffers to optimize your renders and avoid bottlenecks: Optional.
• NEW! Display per-pixel render time, number of sub-rays, anti-aliasing samples, shadow rays, recursion, final gather samples, etc.
• NEW! Render displacement on arbitrarily large terrains.
• NEW! Improved rendering of indirect lighting in preview mode.
• NEW! Automatic adjustment of render buckets to optimize rendering of small images on multi-core systems.
• NEW! Full input, output and display gamma control.
• NEW! Customize input gamma on a per-texture basis.
• NEW! Easily override default output gamma.
• NEW! Quick calibration tool to easily adjust the display gamma setting.
• NEW! Anti-aliased Z-depth buffer: Optional.
• NEW! Accurate accounting of cloud radiosity in indirect illumination.
• NEW! Relighting technology allows real-time adjustment of lights after rendering.
• NEW! Adjust contribution of sunlight without re-rendering.
• NEW! Advanced adaptive precision computation for the rendering of skymaps.
• NEW! Render algorithms for thin translucent and backlit materials with realistic shadows.
• NEW! Advanced flicker reduction algorithms.
• NEW! Advanced shadowing algorithms help remove undesired shadow artifacts on terrains and meshes.
• NEW! Advanced bicubic interpolation algorithms produce smooth gradients.
• NEW! Efficient Pause and Resume Render options with the stand alone Batch Renderer.

Materials

• 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.
• NEW! Consistent unit system in Function Editor.
• NEW! Function Editor displays real-world units.
• NEW! Option to reset material to default with each creation.
• 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).
• NEW! Math nodes in the Function Editor: 48.
• 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.
• NEW! Mixed materials can react to environment and alpha controls.
• 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.
• NEW! World Browser option to show only the materials of the selected objects.
• Rotoscoping (Use animations as texture maps).
• NEW! Forbid animation option in Material Editor.
• 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.
• 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.
• Separate bump and displacement channels.
• Constrained displacement (horizontal, vertical, etc).
• Ability to control the direction of displacement through the material graph.
• Displacement smoothing to eliminate noisy displacement artifacts.
• Normal mapping.
• Recursive strata and constrained strata filters for stratified effects.
• Direct access to the alpha channel in the Advanced Material editor.
• Per material texture anti-aliasing quality boost.
• Per material simplification of sub-ray effect calculation.
• Planetary mapping node with ability to set location of origin (latitude and longitude).
• NEW! Material mapping can be absolute, relative to sea, by object or by material.
• NEW! Sea level input node in graphs.
• NEW! External dependency inputs can provide dimensions in real-world units.
• NEW! Multi-materials let you change all the materials of an object in one single operation.
• NEW! Drag-drop and copy-paste multi-materials between objects.
• NEW! Move groups of keypoints in the color map and filter editors.
• NEW! Invert entire color maps or filters.
• NEW! Copy paste keypoints in color maps or filters.
• NEW! Control the hue, saturation and brightness of entire color maps or groups of keypoints.
• NEW! Assign colors to graph nodes for improved readability.
• NEW! Mixed materials can be used as layers.
• NEW! Button to randomize material fractals.
• NEW! Altitude node produces altitudes in the range of -1 to 1 on each object.
• NEW! Material Editor displays real-world units.

Animation

• Animation output resolution: Limited by memory only.
• 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.
• NEW! 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.
• Automatic synchronization of cameras and lights: With 3DS Max, Cinema 4D, Maya, LightWave & Softimage XSI.
• Synchronization data incorporated into scene for easy retrieval.
• Save synchronization data to file for manual loading into Vue.
• Animation export as AfterEffects.
• Import motion tracking information.
• Dynamic Motion blur anti-aliasing reduction.
• 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.
• NEW! Ability to add property keyframes by double-clicking in the property timeline.
• NEW! Ability to add property keyframes by double-clicking in the animation curves.
• 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.
• Action safe and title safe frames and field grids (user configurable).
• Motion-blur on animated mesh deformations.
• Fast Hybrid 2.5D™ motion blur.
• Accurate dithered motion blur.
• Adjustable and animatable amount of 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.
• Save and reload entire object graphs in a single file.
• NEW! Object graphs can express dimensions in real-world units.
• NEW! Object graph parameters can be published for access at top interface level.
• NEW! Direct access to published object graph parameters at top interface level.
• NEW! Published object graph parameters can be animated directly in the TimeLine.
• NEW! Option to show materials in the Timeline.
• NEW! Published material parameters can be animated directly in the TimeLine.
• Loose forward dynamics for "real world" linking and tracking.
• "PID" and "Delay" controllers in SmartGraph for improved realism in object interactions.
• Option to output temporary images when network rendering an animation as independent frames.
• Optional display of time code on frames (on a separate layer when rendering as multi-pass).
• Automatically hide time code when rendering to final or better.
• Option to disable or customize padding of frame files.
• Time display as: SMPTE, frame #, time.
• Optional automatic illumination baking of meshes.
• Motion blur on tree deformation.
• Separate animation range and render range.
• EcoSystem populations can be made to evolve over time.
• Create custom rigged mesh animations.
• NEW! Animate cloud layers using the standard animation tools.

User Interface

• Productive, uncluttered interface layout.
• NEW! Neutral interface with stylized design.
• NEW! Customizable interface colors via presets.
• Fully customizable interface colors.
• Automatic adjustment of interface shortcuts and colors to mimic other 3D applications in your toolkit.
• NEW! Adjustable panning, rotation, etc shortcuts in editors.
• Re-posing of Poser meshes directly inside Vue.
• Direct re-posing of rigged meshes.
• NEW! Access polygon mesh options for Rigged meshes.
• NEW! 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.
• Custom previews can be used to represent saved items.
• Perspective camera view.
• 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 axis conventions.
• Change order of rotations.
• 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.
• Customizable view navigation shortcuts.
• 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.
• View option menu commands with optional shortcuts.
• Gizmo option menu commands with optional shortcuts.
• Animation option menu commands with optional shortcuts.
• Quick Render option menu commands with optional shortcuts.
• 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.
• Ability to reorganize the view panes.
• Resizable viewports.
• Dockable Timeline.
• Access to all G-Buffer channels and layers in interface.
• Save individual G-Buffer channels directly from the interface.
• Access to all render passes and masks.
• Access to vertical and horizontal camera fields of view.
• 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.
• Python scripting.
• Run Cornucopia3D third party Python scripts.
• NEW! Compatible with Python version: 2.7.
• Directly access frequently used scripts.
• Python console for direct input of Python commands.
• Python functions to add, modify and remove EcoSystem instances.
• Python nodes that can execute Python code inside graphs, with user definable inputs and outputs.
• Picture printing with user definable DPI resolution.
• User-definable startup scene.
• NEW! 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.
• Set internal units to change the overall scale of scenes.
• Centered or relative to opposite corner object resizing.
• Mesh splitting by material.
• Object decimation for faster scene setup.
• Spotlight view through for accurate aiming (OpenGL only).
• Full-screen mode.
• List of default folders when searching for texture maps.
• Option to recursively search for texture maps in texture folders.
• Optional independent panning and zooming of views.
• Non-modal object editors.
• Objects can be locked or hidden individually in OpenGL views.
• Baking of objects to polygons (including Boolean operations).
• Incorporation of texture maps in scenes.
• User-definable keyboard shortcuts.
• "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.
• NEW! 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.
• Customizable linear and angular grid snapping when moving and rotating objects.
• Multiple scene file backup tool.
• Macro recording and playback to automate repetitive tasks.
• Easily access frequently used macros using Macro QuickLaunch dialog.
• Easily access recently created macros.
• Content files accessible from all system accounts.
• Easily change the location of your content folder after installation.
• Rename individual render passes (e.g. "Maple Tree 527" -> "Hero Tree").
• 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.
• NEW! Create custom interfaces by publishing function graph parameters.
• NEW! 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.
• Run several instances of Vue simultaneously.
• Support for 3Dconnexion tracking devices (SpaceNavigator, SpaceExplorer, etc).
• Automatic renaming of Standalone- and HyperVue-generated frames if overwriting.
• Automatic renaming of RenderNode-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.
• NEW! Visual motion browser lets you select rig poses or animations visually.
• NEW! Preview motions/poses before applying them.
• NEW! Typical motions directly accessible from skeleton rig editor.
• NEW! Customizable camera altitude locking (above terrains, above other objects, etc).
• NEW! Default views are automatically adjusted according to internal units.
• NEW! Automatic Smart-Saving technology that saves your scene in the background.
• NEW! User defined Auto-Save time intervals.
• NEW! Auto saved backup files are accessible directly through the application menu.
• NEW! Push-button scene snapshot technology.
• NEW! Non destructive texture resizing in the Link tab of the World Browser.
• NEW! Option to restore full size version of downsampled images.
• NEW! Option to dump all texture maps to a specific folder.
• NEW! Double-click texture map in World Browser to view at full resolution (using external viewer).
• NEW! Missing textures are identified as broken links.
• NEW! Automatic range adaptation in Function Graph.
• NEW! Slopes can be expressed in the -180°;180° range.
• NEW! Manually adjustable EcoSystem population threshold before triggering a warning.
• NEW! Freely move layers up and down in the World Browser (even if they are closed).
• NEW! Edit fields automatically expand to accomodate large numbers when editing.
• NEW! Edit fields display rounded values (but retain original values).
• NEW! Ruler indicating the scale in each viewport.

Real-Time Preview

• High-speed OpenGL real-time preview engine.
• Choice of 3 OpenGL engines: shader based, fixed pipeline and software provide optimal quality/compatibility options.
• 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.
• Preview specular highlights in real time.
• OpenGL preview of EcoSystem instances as billboards, boxes or full geometry.
• Preview EcoSystem instances as shaded billboards.
• NEW! Optimized previewing of EcoSystems billboards.
• User definable radius around the camera in which EcoSystem instances appear at full resolution.
• Dynamically populated EcoSystems around the camera can be viewed in viewports.
• Control minimum size and maximum number of dynamic EcoSystem instances previewed.
• NEW! Dynamic filtering of EcoSystem shaded billboards to improve accuracy and reduce flickering in realtime preview.
• NEW! Adjust EcoSystem display quality on individual population elements.
• NEW! Control displaying at full quality of EcoSystem instances near the camera on individual population elements.
• NEW! Limit overall EcoSystem instance preview quality with a single command for faster navigation in complex projects.
• Textured OpenGL preview.
• OpenGL Preview of Boolean operations.
• OpenGL Preview of Metablobs.
• Threaded previewing of procedural terrains with dynamic LOD.
• NEW! Normal Mapping accurately displayed in OpenGL Preview.
• 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! Automatic caching of shaded billboard data for faster vegetation preview.
• Sky preview with clouds.
• Realistic MetaCloud preview.
• Realistic sun shadows.
• NEW! High accuracy of realtime OpenGL sun shadows.
• Colored EcoSystem instance preview.
• Dynamic plant display optimization.
• Decimated object preview for faster previewing.
• Minimum setting for preview frame rate (dynamic preview simplification to maintain frame rate).
• Control over OpenGL clipping planes.
• Selected objects appear with a red wireframe: Optional.
• Parts of selected objects that use the current material appear highlighted: Optional.
• Selection wireframe always appears on top of other objects that are in front: Optional.
• Selected objects are "ghosted" in red.
• Selection wireframe color is user definable.
• Highlighted material selection wireframe color is user definable.
• Bone highlight color is user definable.
• High quality texture and terrain previewing.
• Rendered images can be displayed in the background of all viewports.
• Camera mapping preview in real time preview.
• NEW! OpenGL viewports reflect camera exposure and gamma settings: Optional.
• NEW! Planes are visible from all sides in the OpenGL views.
• NEW! Accurate OpenGL display of materials in world coordinates.
• NEW! Status bar can display poly count, free system resources, and used GPU resources.
• NEW! Ability to hide all layers in the World Browser.
• NEW! Ability to copy-paste objects into hidden or locked layers.
• NEW! Manual deletion of empty layers in World Browser.
• NEW! Easily restore default installation folders at install time.
• NEW! Optimized Full Quality Near Camera option for faster high quality previewing.
• NEW! Optimized handling of complex group hierarchies.
• NEW! Adaptive grid level that changes scale with the level of zoom.
• NEW! More detailed grid display/division options.
• NEW! Gradual movement of the camera away from objects when using mousewheel.
• NEW! Mouse zoom towards point under pointer.
• NEW! Nudge step proportional to zooming level.

Import/Export

• Static Poser scene import.
• Support for Poser dynamic clothes and hair.
• Animated Poser scene import.
• NEW! Support for multiple Poser SDKs: up to Smith Micro's Poser 8 and Poser Pro SDKs.
• NEW! Option to limit the resolution of your character's bitmaps during import.
• Convert objects from Max into Vue format (requires 3DS Max).
• NEW! Unrigged objects are exported from Max as standard Vue meshes.
• Compatible with Cornucopia3D cost-effective locked 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.
• Motion tracking import: MatchMover (RZML, RZ3), Boujou & SynthEyes (MS).
• 2D Import: BMP, BUM, DEM, EXR, GIF, HDR, IFF, Jpeg, PCX, Pict, PNG, PSD, RLA, RPF, 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.
• Exposure and contrast controls in HDRI images.
• Textured model imports as: 3DS, 3DMF, COB, DAE, DEM, DXF, LWO, OBJ, PZ3, PZZ, RAW, SHD, SKP, VRML.
• Textured and animated Collada file import.
• Support for rigged Collada meshes.
• NEW! Collada IK information is automatically imported when converting characters to Vue's rigged mesh format.
• Support for Sketchup 7 (Win 32 only).
• 2D Export: Tiff, TGA, Pict, BMP, GIF, EPX, PSD, Jpeg, PNG, PCX, IFF, RLA, RPF.
• Export high dynamic range images (including skydomes).
• Export 48 bit color images.
• High Dynamic Range 2D Export: HDR, EXR.
• 32 bit resolution, floating point EXR import and export.
• 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.
• Scene export: 3DS, LWS.
• Sky exports as sky-boxes or sky-domes.
• Camera animation export (e.g. to After Effects): Maya MA.
• Object animation export (motion, orientation, size): 3DS, MOT.
• User-definable mesh and texture map resolution for exports.
• Automatic re-importing of externally modified texture maps and 3D objects.
• Objects can be marked as not being exportable.
• Advanced unwrap algorithms for low-distortion UV mapping.
• NEW! Advanced vertex merging algorithms allow fast and smooth exporting of terrain meshes.

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.
• Degraded display mode (dynamic simplification of OpenGL preview when resources become critically low).
• Optional limit on OpenGL polygon count.
• Automatic suspension of mesh simplification, Boolean/Metablob preview and background draw threads when system resources become critically low.
• Automatic software updating (optional).
• Video-board compatibility checking.
• Automatic checking of OpenGL driver compatibility.
• Option to clear OpenGL data before rendering.
• Embedded error-reporting feature to help reduce time-to-fix.
• User definable maximum video board memory usage.
• NEW! Automatic configuration of OpenGL options for optimized previewing on your video board / driver.
• NEW! Updates are downloaded in the background.

Miscellaneous

• Multi-processor rendering: Unlimited number of CPUs.
• Hundreds of preset atmospheres, objects, materials.
• Terrainscapes preset terrain material library.
• NEW! 64 bit version optimized for Windows and Mac OS X Cocoa.
• Floating licenses: With optional License Server.
• Licenses can be used as floating licenses when installed in the optional License Server.
• License Server can run as a service.
• Automatic detection of License Server.
• License valid for commercial use.
• Inline help: PDF Manual.
• NEW! Documentation: 700 page manual.
• Media: 1 Application CD + 1 Extras DVD.

©All material in this website is
copyrighted by Paula Sanders 2001-2010