Anyone use E-ON Software's Vue 7 xStream for Max?

[danb4026]

I have been reading about this software and it seems to have some very interesting features. I don't think it is compatible with Vray yet, but it is with MR.

 

Anyone have any experience with it? It's not cheap....$1,200. That's for the version that does everything...atmospherics, plant growth, environments etc.

 

They also have a less expensive product called Ozone, that is purely for atmospherics, skys, clouds etc. for $200.

[rmccoy]

I haven't played with 7 yet. I downloaded the trial version of 6.5 and was pretty impressed with what you get straight out of the box. I would suggest getting a trial version and playing with it some.

[TheAllusionisst]

7 is a pretty nice improvement, with the initial playing around, it seems that some sort of gamma correction is needed for the Vue 7 xStream portion as I haven't found a solution for getting a real good match of the Vue part versus the Max portion of the scene. However, I am by no means an expert.

[3dp]

if you dig around various forums you'll find the vue integration into max has been it's strength and it's downfall as in the previous version it was flimsy

i have it on my software list for 2009 as long as i can have proven to me that the integration in max 2009 is solid and it's soemthing i will be looking into early next year

[Brian Cassil]

Is there a demo for 7 xStream?

[danb4026]

The demo version is Vue 6 xstream and I am having problems with it. The renderings are all screwed up with black streaks everywhere.

[Devin Johnston]

My experience with Vue6 was that it's almost imposable to import geometry and have it scaled properly. That is the main problem with the older version and it's a real shame if they haven't fixed this because the program has such great potential. I didn't like the interface either it was just way to clunky, the native render engines were good but nothing like Vray.

[Brian Cassil]

I really hope they have plans on a demo version for 7 then because I really want this to work but, as others have noted, we too had some real issues with getting prior versions to fit into our workflow. I cannot recommend software to upper management until I have tested it within our working environment.

[Nic H]

id like to give a demo a try as well, see how it goes with vray and other geometry.

a new version demo.

 

ozone looks good though, atmospherics in max are just really really out of date.

[Nic H]

ahh just watched the demo vids and looks half baked as far as integration goes, somethign about having 2 render engines going (host and vue) at same time, also no vray integration.

 

will be great in a few years i think.

[Billabong]

ahh just watched the demo vids and looks half baked as far as integration goes, somethign about having 2 render engines going (host and vue) at same time, also no vray integration.

 

will be great in a few years i think.

 

 

I thought they had Vray compatibility in 7, damnit, what is the holdup

[danb4026]

Yes, it's not Vray compatible. They talk about total transparency when it comes to integrating with Max and MR, but the demo version isn't at all.

 

I cant pay for something when their demo doesn't even function properly.

[Brian Cassil]

but the demo version isn't at all.

 

What demo version? Are we still talking about Vue 7 xStream? I thought we just concluded that there was no demo version for 7 or did I miss something?

[danb4026]

No, there is no demo version of 7. The demo is the Vue 6 xStream Leaning Edition. My point was that based on the demo I have, the only one they provide, I would not buy. They should offer a somewhat "working" verison as a demo, but they don't.

 

I was thinking about the Ozone version just for atmospheres, much less expensive. But no one can tell me whether it works or not.

Edited December 4, 2008 by danb4026
left out

[dean@pikcells]

I totally love vue, its just a shame we dont have many projects that warrant using it.

 

we successfully used vue 6 infinite along with vray to create some impressive looking hill side images of a apartment hotel. the building and landscape formation was made and rendered in max, then exported and imported into vue, and used the building as a mask. we then rendered the vue scene and composited together.

 

the scalling takes some getting around, but it's well worth it. the sync facility too is great, being able to match cameras and light sources make compositing a vray scene with vue a doddle.

 

as for xstream, i liked the idea, altough it does need refining.

[Devin Johnston]

I'd like to see the results can you post them?

[dean@pikcells]

they may be on our website.

 

i also used it in a project at uni a couple of years ago. goto http://www.deanpunchard.co.uk and look at the CALM project. that was a mix of mental ray, vray and vue.

[jasonluckett]

For me vue 7's integration into max is half-baked, a big disappointment as it's just a pain to go into vue and import your max objects to paint onto. The main reason for the upgrade was as according to the demos the possibility of directly painting your vue landscape into your max scene, this does not work properly, it's not an open gl / direct x thing either. Also the still slightly small library of plants and trees is ever so slightly cheeky. The licensing issue is shall we say slightly annoying, IT took our it department 2 weeks to get it working.

 

Aside from that if you are prepared to use vue outside of max then it's still a great program, just don't expect integration into max to be consistent. Maybe a further release and it might work properly.

[Nic H]

sounds like hell

but has anyone used ozone? especially with vray or used it to produce render passes as a stand alone and comped them in?

[danb4026]

I have the same question...has anyone had experience with Ozone and its integration with Max?

[TheAllusionisst]

This is just an example of my first try using Vue 7 xStream within Max. I am not well versed in it, this is just what I came up with checking out version 7, the image is meant to show what can be done with it inside of Max rendering with mental ray by a novice. The scene is from a recent challenge at 3DAllusions.com ( http://www.3dallusions.com/forums/design-challanges-charrettes-themed-challenges/2760-charrette-11-modern-house-part-one-exterior.html ) and the model is by Branko Jovanovic.

 

The plain scene is pure max and the version with trees and plants is using Vue 7 xStream integration inside of Max creating a hill in the background and populating it with an eco-system and the plants sprouting out of the ground are a Vue eco-system painted onto a Max geometry. Problems that I ran into are that I couldn't get clouds/sky into the scene after doing the work on it, but I could swear I got some when I first started. Secondly no real control over Vue items as far as color brightness, saturation, could really use a gamma control for the Vue items in the scene.

 

This just shows what I could do my first try out of the box (No, there isn't a demo, I beta tested the previous XSI version and thus got a deal on purchasing this one), yes there are limitations and quirks, but there may be answers to those once I figure things out, when I get some free time I will finish my investigation. The other side of it is, I just love playing with Vue and doing landscapes, it is therapeutic! Hopefully this answers some questions.

[danb4026]

Nice....let us know how it goes. I just can't justify the investment when you dont seem to have full control of the additional aspects of your scene.

 

But it really does look good.

[Devin Johnston]

What were your poly counts in that scene and how much memory did it use?

[TheAllusionisst]

I will try to open up the scene later and see if that info is available, the Vue stuff is procedural and in Vue and not Max, or perhaps saying inside of Vue which is running in Max and the plants are procedural so there isn't a lot of hit geometry wise. The two scenes render out pretty much the same, the Vue items didn't seem to add much to the render time.

 

I did this when it first came out a month ago when I had some free time, I haven't done a thourough jub of checking things out and have been too busy to check. It just seemed like a lot of questions were being asked so I thought I would throw out my initial experience with it, my view on it is kind of observational and I didn't scientifically compare render times and resources used, I just played with it on one computer while working on another, those observations didn't notice much of a difference on the system response time or render time, it definitely is a lot faster rendering inside of Max than what it was like rendering in Vue 6 and older, it is quite slow when it comes to rendering.

 

I will try to take a look later, but since Vue is running inside of Max and I think the Vue stuff is kind of referenced, I don't know if the sytem will provide poly counts and system resources would also be including Vue running as well and not just the content in the scene.

[vladin]

The "scale problems" comes from the fact that Vue units are in dm (0.1m).

Ergo, when importing objects into Vue, you should scale objects 10x (to turn them into metres) and then it all rocks!