Vue 5 or Vue 5 xstream?

[Bugga_Guy]

I have been given some Spending cash for new software and I have really fallen in love with Vue for future animations. I have tried both programs vue the stand alone program and Vue 5 xstream (plugin for max).

 

My problem is I cannot decide which is better as they both have pros and cons.

 

Vue 5 - renders pretty fast and has very simple interface can do things like easy texture baking, but you need a max to model objects and import into it.

 

Vue 5 stream for max is great cause you still use max as the native modeller, however you can only use mental ray as the renderer making the render time take sooooooo long!

 

Is anyone using vue that can give me a few tips which is better, or can vue 5 xstream be customizable to go faster (I am not a mental ray user)

[alikashan]

watching the thread and listening.

[Simon Moir]

I believe you have to own a license of Vue Infinite for Xstream to work anyway, if that solves the dilemma.

[Bugga_Guy]

Not really. If you want to do animations you have to buy seperate nodes. If you go with Vue's render you have to buy render cows. If you go with xstream you have to get xstream nodes for max which cost a bit more than getting render cows. I don't believe you need stand alone vue for xstream, judging from the trial software.

[Devin Johnston]

Xstream is simply a bridge between Max and Vue and let me tell you that it's a very week bridge at that. Just trying to sink up cameras between the two programs which is exactly what it's supposed to do is almost imposable.

[Bugga_Guy]

Apparently you can import a camera/lighting into Vue (along with a model) using only Vue (stand alone) allthough I haven't been able to figure that out

[Devin Johnston]

The only thing that I've been able to import has been the camera but due to scale problems which I still haven't figured out the footage didn't match up. I've seen quite a few posts on other forums about Xstream and how difficult it is to use. I'm hoping in Vue 6 they have fixed these problems.

[anthony cortez]

You're all right about Vue being such a buggy program. I wrestle with it every time I have to use it for a project. As far as the camera synch issues, by default, when you synch your max camera to the vue camera using the utility, Vue scales your camera by 10x, you manually have to go into your Vue camera settings and adjust the scale to 1.

 

You don't need XStream to combine 3d Max scenes with Vue scenes. You can render out RPF passes out of Vue and composite it using your favorite compositing program. The only advantage of XStream is that you get to see your Vue scene within Max, therefore helping you out with your camera view composition.

 

Finally, even though they say you can render with Max/Mental Ray, the Vue scene objects are still being rendered within Vue.

 

I do like the results you can get out of Vue. For me, I usually only try to use it for background trees. Good luck.

[Bugga_Guy]

Thanks for the explination! I don't really understand what you mean about the camera though. I haven't been able to find a way to properly scale anything in Vue (except for by eye). I guess I need to further investigate how to do this. I didn't realise there was a seperate utility that you have to use in max.

[Simon Moir]

I agree with Anthony that Vue is buggy (and we did have to buy Infinite for xStream to work by the way, render farm issues aside). I haven't yet had the patience to use it in a real project. I'd like to give it one more chance though, release 6 looks interesting... What is it you need it to do that couldn't be achieved in Vray / Mental Ray etc?