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

[Tommy L]

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!

 

What a bizarre unit to use! Surely it cant be that difficult to give a unit option?

all the regular usual ones like inches, feet, centimeters, meters.....decimeters.....

 

Kind of like saying "Well, we were going to release Vue in both Spanish and English, but we didnt want to confuse matters, so we just released it in French".

[TheAllusionisst]

I have gotten a couple of people asking me if I could provide any more info on xStream and thus I thought I would just post my recent trials and tribulations in regards to Vue 7 xStream. I am by no means an expert, this is just what I have gleamed from banging my head against the wall for a week!

 

I actually started a project that I thought was made for xStream, one of my favorite pieces of architecture, Thorncrown Chapel by Fay Jones. However, I ran into mental ray memory problems once I got past the amount of trees indicated in the image (poor quality test render). I have just worked out (with the help of Jeff Patton) the kinks in using mr proxies and am pursuing the project using that method.

 

You can see my trials and tribulations here as I work through it:

http://www.3dallusions.com/forums/mr-max-wips/3144-thorncrown-chapel.html

 

Basically for smaller scenes the Vue xStream route works well, but my site is very large and I plan on interior shots as well and want a pretty in-depth scene and I just seem to run into memory problems with my poor 32 bit system.

 

By tweaking the system settings, specifically the exposure settings, I was able to get richer colors with just mr lighting (refer to Jeff's Blog, these settings also affect color richness so to speak http://www.mrmaterials.com/jeffs-blog/63-lets-help-put-an-end-to-our-low-contrast-renders.html )

 

If you turn on the Vue sunlight system, it affects the lighting of the vue content and by adjusting the Vue Atmosphere you can then adjust the lighting on the vegetation, or so it seems going that route.

 

I think there is a way to use the Vue sky and not the physical sky I am using, but since I was running into memory problems after this point I did not mess with settings anymore.

 

My consensus is that for scenes with not a tremendous amount of trees, you can get great results, the scene enclosed has trees to the left and behind you and is set up so that inside you have landscape surrounding you and thus a lot more is involved than what is shown. But I had memory problems trying to get a full and dense scene and was really searching for a solution for this project for not only interior shots, but for possible animations. Hence, I am pursuing mr proxies for this particular project.

Edited January 7, 2009 by Russell L. Thomas