Bryce 4 - Love it or hate it... (Corel Bryce 4 in general)

Member Name: captainbob

Product:	Corel Bryce 4 in general
Date:	14/10/00 (149 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Intuitive Interface good for beginners, cheap

Disadvantages: Slow rendering, limited modelling

Love it or hate it, its got some pretty powerful features once you get beyond the bizarre interface?

Actually, I?ve never really had a problem with it in that respect. Sure, it?s unusual, and has had a lot of stick from people who just don?t get on with it, but that shouldn?t detract from what it is capable of in the right hands.

Its original creator, Eric Wenger, designed the prototype to create organic, natural landscapes, and there can be no denying that he succeeded admirably.

The quality that is possible is utterly breathtaking (just take a look at the packaging artwork - Martin Murphy works absolute wonders!), but it does also have limitations, which is only to be expected from a package that costs just a couple of hundred pounds instead of many thousands.

The rendering engine produces very good results but is staggering slow, compared to say, something like Max (and I?m talking days here!) with very complex scenes.

Also, it lacks some of the more professional modelling capability, being limited to primitive shapes combined in boolean fashion. But it can import most file types so you can download stuff from the web, or build objects in other apps (be sure to track down some shareware modelling programs like sPatch).

The real features however, lie in the manipulation of textures and materials to create some stunningly lifelike (or completely un-natural!) textures to apply to the scenes you create to really make an image really come to life.

As for me, well, I?m only just beginning to tap into its potential but hey, practice makes perfect!

I was more than a bit concerned when MetaCreations sold off Bryce with a lot of other things (Poser has thankfully returned to its creators), but hopefully Corel, or who they sell it to (rumours abound in plenty!) will understand the needs of the dedicated user base, and continue to push and develop such an interesting and powerful product to new and great
er heights.

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