Vue 8 Pioneer - Feature List

Vue 8 Bundles

Vue 8 Esprit, Studio and Complete represent pre-bundled, cost-effective alternatives to the modular approach of Pioneer:

	Vue 8 Pioneer	Vue 8 Esprit	Vue 8 Studio	Vue 8 Complete
	Free	$199.00	$399.00	$599.00
Description	Lets 3D-newcomers and casual artists easily create realistic 3D landscapes	Serious creative power for 3D artists, with full 3D import capability	Extended creative power for advanced 3D Artists	Complete natural scenery solution for expert 3D artists and small studios
Contents
Core application
Content Starter Pack
RenderUp
3DImport
Botanica
DeepAccess
LightTune
HyperVue
EcoSystem
EcoPainter
KronosFx
AdvancedGraph
Exporter
Zephyr

Following is the complete feature list of Vue 8 Pioneer. "NEW!" indicates a new feature based on a comparison with Vue 7 Pioneer.

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.
• Adjustment of Global light intensity.
• Indirect lighting can be ignored on specific objects: With LightTune.
• Influence of specific lights can be ignored from the Radiosity solution: With LightTune.
• Advanced control over the indirect lighting engine: With RenderUp.
• Separate map option for background, IBL and global reflection map channels: With RenderUp.
• 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: With LightTune.
• Custom light intensity vs. distance profiles: With LightTune.
• Lights can affect specific objects only: With LightTune.
• Variable light color based on distance to light: With LightTune.
• 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: With LightTune.
• Complete lens flare system.
• Controllable lens flares per light.
• Lens flare editor.
• Lens flare reflections editor: With LightTune.
• 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: With DeepAccess.

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.
• NEW! Extremely detailed Spectral 3 cloud system (for cloud layers and MetaClouds).
• NEW! Realistic cloud shadowing on objects as well as internal shadowing.
• NEW! Automatic detail refining for very close-up clouds.
• NEW! Cloud anisotropy setting for advanced control of internal light scattering.
• Fast indirect lighting in Spectral and Spectral 2 clouds.
• NEW! Create spherical cloud layers at the surface of your planets.
• NEW! Import real-world cloud density data to recreate existing cloudscapes.
• NEW! Add tornadoes using your favorite paint tool.
• 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.
• NEW! 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.

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: With EcoSystem.
• Create entire forests of trees: With EcoSystem.
• Create forests of trees blowing in the wind: With Zephyr.
• Scatter millions of animated objects: With EcoSystem.
• 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: With EcoSystem.
• Advanced coloring control to vary the colors of the population over the EcoSystem: With EcoSystem.
• Accurate control over the orientation of the EcoSystem population: With EcoSystem.
• Accurate control over the size and variation in size of the EcoSystem population: With EcoSystem.
• Automatic decay of EcoSystem density near foreign objects.
• Optional size reduction and color decay at low EcoSystem densities: With EcoSystem.
• EcoSystem 2 technology: paint instances directly onto objects: With EcoPainter.
• Add, remove and resize EcoSystem instances interactively: With EcoPainter.
• Select individual instances or groups of instances and move/rotate/resize them interactively: With EcoPainter.
• Paint size, color or density of EcoSystems using a pressure sensitive tablet: With EcoPainter.
• Convert EcoSystem instances to real objects for editing, move them back to the EcoSystem later: With EcoPainter.
• Paint EcoSystems as individual material layers or on a global basis: With EcoPainter.
• Layered EcoSystems to control individual EcoSystem populations: With EcoSystem.
• Control "affinity" between EcoSystem layers: With EcoSystem.
• Paint EcoSystems from all sides, in any view: With EcoPainter.
• EcoSystem 3 Technology dynamically populates EcoSystems for potentially unlimited populations.
• Dynamic EcoSystem 3 density adjustments for improved control of density on slopes: With EcoSystem.
• NEW! Multi-processor EcoSystem population.

Vegetation

• Ultra-realistic SolidGrowth vegetation: 10+ species.
• Compatible with modified plant species.
• Easy-to-Use Plant Editor for plant customization: With Botanica.
• Instantly create variations of existing plants.
• Plant Editor and Leaf Editor let you modify existing plants or create entirely new plant species: With Botanica.
• Create and save new plant species as stand-alone files for future use in your scenes: With Botanica.
• Support for new, extremely detailed plant species.

Terrains

• Solid3D real-time terrain modeling.
• NEW! Sculpt terrains in all directions.
• NEW! Create overhangs and grottoes.
• NEW! Sculpt, inflate, free form and smooth brushes.
• NEW! User definable brush tip profile.
• NEW! Automatic subdivision of terrain geometry when sculpting.
• NEW! Adaptive subdivision adds polygons only where needed.
• NEW! Edit terrains in context (view entire scene in editor).
• NEW! Option to view terrain clipping planes in editor.
• NEW! Option to display the terrain with a shiny surface to enhance details.
• NEW! Constrain painting and effects to clipping zone.
• NEW! Option to display the terrain in wireframe mode to view polygons.
• NEW! Create edition "zones" to modify procedural terrains locally.
• NEW! Create nested "zones" to build massive detail where needed.
• NEW! Paint material distributions at the surface of terrains.
• NEW! Import, view and edit distribution maps in the Terrain Editor.
• NEW! Terrain effects optionally affect material distribution map.
• Preset terrain styles: 8.
• NEW! Erosion types: 9.
• Geological algorithms: 12.
• Glaciation, alluvium and dissolve erosion effects.
• High definition data in standard terrains.
• Procedural terrains with infinite details.
• NEW! Infinite procedural terrains.
• NEW! Planetary terrain rendering.
• NEW! Flat, spherical and planetary procedural terrains.
• NEW! 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.
• Pressure-sensitive tablet editing of terrains.
• NEW! Reset 2D and 3D painting independently: With 8.4 update.
• Customizable brush shape for terrain editing.
• Control distribution of materials on terrains from within the procedural terrain altitude function: With AdvancedGraph.
• NEW! Control procedural terrain altitudes based on relationships with other objects: With AdvancedGraph.
• NEW! The altitude of procedural terrains can be dynamically affected by other objects: With AdvancedGraph.
• Realistic procedural terrains thanks to new 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: With AdvancedGraph.
• NEW! Multi-processor procedural terrain construction.
• NEW! Stratified terrains thanks to the recursive strata filters.

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.
• Optimized memory management 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).

Rendering

• New 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: With KronosFX.
• Rendering Presets: Preview, final, superior – With RenderUp: OpenGL, broadcast, ultra, user settings .
• Render size limitation: Full HD, with logo – With RenderUp: limited by memory only, without logo.
• Pictures larger than screen resolution can be rendered to screen.
• Custom render size.
• Navigation inside the rendered picture using pan controls.
• Alpha and Z depth directly computed during the render process.
• Ray-traced depth of field: With RenderUp.
• 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: With RenderUp.
• AccuShadows shadow mapping technology for faster [soft] shadows: With LightTune.
• Exclude ground from Alpha map option: With RenderUp.
• Objects can be easily hidden from render: With DeepAccess.
• NEW! Hide objects from render and disable lights by clicking their icon in World Browser: Optional.
• Global and per-material reflection maps: With RenderUp.
• Rendering in unlimited color depth.
• Optional details in render information panel: With RenderUp.
• Panoramic rendering with adjustable rotation angle.
• Spherical panoramic rendering: With RenderUp.
• NEW! Multi-processor panoramic rendering.
• Rendering in all views (including orthogonal rendering): With RenderUp.
• Render in views can be set to a different quality than normal rendering: With RenderUp.
• Stand alone renderer handles rendering while you work on the scene: With RenderUp.
• Network rendering of animations: With HyperVue.
• Network rendering of pictures: With HyperVue.
• Rendering across hybrid network of computers (OS X and Windows): With HyperVue.
• Fail-safe HyperVue network rendering: With HyperVue.
• Number of render nodes (RenderCow) licenses included in product: 5 with HyperVue.
• Maximum number of render nodes: Up to 5 with HyperVue.
• SmartCow automatic node detection and activation: With HyperVue.
• Hotplug render nodes to add/remove nodes during render: With HyperVue, on MacOS X and Windows.
• NewCow automatic updating of render nodes: With HyperVue.
• Render area can be temporarily disabled.
• NEW! You can lock the render area to avoid accidental modifications: With 8.4 update.
• Render blow-up option: With RenderUp.
• Geometry anti-aliasing.
• User definable geometry anti-aliasing: With RenderUp: up to 64 rays/pixel.
• HyperMipMap material anti-aliasing (including procedural materials): With RenderUp.
• User definable anti-aliasing strategies to optimize speed vs. Smoothness: With RenderUp.
• Improved anti-aliasing strategies produce much smoother results.
• Optimized render memory management to allow the rendering of very large images: With RenderUp.
• Post processing to adjust color, contrast, saturation, gamma.
• Ability to load/save independent post-processing settings.
• Ability to resume an interrupted render.
• Abort rendering on mouse-click in render area: Optional.
• NEW! The total amount of RAM allocated to displacement mapping is adjustable: With RenderUp.
• NEW! Images can be saved to disk at regular (user definable) intervals during render: With RenderUp.
• NEW! Dual destination render option (e.g. display to screen while rendering to disk): With RenderUp.
• NEW! Render displacement on arbitrarily large terrains: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Improved rendering of indirect lighting in preview mode: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Automatic adjustment of render buckets to optimize rendering of small images on multi-core systems: With 8.4 update.

Materials

• NEW! Material presets: Over 550.
• Level(s) of material Edition: 3, 4 With AdvancedGraph.
• Basic material editor with possibility of importing images as textures and bump maps.
• Advanced procedural material creation/mixing.
• Advanced Material Editor.
• SmartGraph function Editor.
• Control all material parameters via function graphs: With AdvancedGraph.
• 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: With AdvancedGraph.
• Time dependent noises (including animated 'Open Ocean' water node): With KronosFX.
• 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: With 3DImport.
• Perfect blending of lighting and GI with Poser shading tree: With 3DImport.
• Optional texture mip-mapping.
• Global control over the level of mip-mapping: With RenderUp.
• 16 bit texture support.
• Materials can be mixed seamlessly.
• Mixed material can be set to react to environment properties (slope, altitude and orientation.
• 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: With DeepAccess.
• Rotoscoping (Use animations as texture maps): With KronosFX.
• Detailed function output observer: With AdvancedGraph.
• Detailed node previews in function editor: With AdvancedGraph.
• Baking of procedural materials as texture maps: With Exporter.
• Adjustable maximum ray depth and Total Internal Reflections: With RenderUp.
• Anti-aliasing can be disabled for given materials.
• Receive shadows material option.
• Shadow only material option: With RenderUp.
• Backlight option (for one-sided materials only) for realistic backlighting of opaque materials.
• Mixed/Layered materials displayed as hierarchies in World Browser: With DeepAccess.
• 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.
• NEW! Control materials based on the properties of other objects: With AdvancedGraph.
• 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.
• NEW! Separate bump and displacement channels.
• NEW! Constrained displacement (horizontal, vertical, etc).
• NEW! Ability to control the direction of displacement through the material graph: With AdvancedGraph.
• NEW! Displacement smoothing to eliminate noisy displacement artifacts.
• NEW! Normal mapping.
• NEW! Recursive strata and constrained strata filters for stratified effects.
• NEW! Direct access to the alpha channel in the Advanced Material editor.
• NEW! Per material texture anti-aliasing quality boost.
• NEW! Per material simplification of sub-ray effect calculation.
• NEW! Planetary mapping node with ability to set location of origin (latitude and longitude): With AdvancedGraph.
• NEW! Material mapping can be absolute, relative to sea, by object or by material: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Sea level input node in graphs: With 8.4 update and AdvancedGraph.
• NEW! External dependency inputs can provide dimensions in real-world units: With 8.4 update and AdvancedGraph.
• NEW! Multi-materials let you change all the materials of an object in one single operation: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Drag-drop and copy-paste multi-materials between objects: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Move groups of keypoints in the color map and filter editors: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Invert entire color maps or filters: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Copy paste keypoints in color maps or filters: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Control the hue, saturation and brightness of entire color maps or groups of keypoints: With 8.4 update.

Animation

• Animation output resolution: Limited to 720 pixels wide, 1920 With KronosFX.
• Camera animation.
• Animate objects, materials, atmospheres, clouds, waves.
• Import animated Poser characters: With 3DImport.
• Intuitive Animation wizard for easy animation setup.
• OpenGL rendering of animations for quick proofing: With KronosFX.
• 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.
• Animated post-processing effects.
• Camera switcher lets you switch cameras during render (ideal for storyboarding).
• Spin and vibration effects.
• Twinkling stars.
• Timeline with animation preview.
• Easily change the duration of an entire animation: With KronosFX.
• NEW! Allow clipping of time slider to animation duration: With KronosFX.
• Animation properties in the Timeline.
• Spline time control.
• Field interlacing, non-square pixels, flicker reduction: With KronosFX.
• Enhanced time spline editor: With KronosFX.
• Advanced flicker reduction options: With KronosFX.
• Indirect lighting evaluation mode that reduces pulsation effects: With RenderUp.
• Automatic keyframe creation.
• Auto-keyframing can be disabled: With KronosFX.
• Copy-pasting of animation keyframes: With KronosFX.
• Keyframes can be created for single properties only: With KronosFX.
• Graph display of animated parameter values in Timeline: With KronosFX.
• Accurate control over tangents and tension of animated parameters curves: With KronosFX.
• High precision animation curve control: With KronosFX.
• Access to individual coordinates in animation graph: With KronosFX.
• Step, linear and smooth interpolation modes: With KronosFX.
• Automatic ease-in/ease-out keyframe option: With KronosFX.
• Animate rotation using quaternions or Euler angles: With KronosFX.
• Fast Hybrid 2.5D™ motion blur.
• Separate animation channel for camera exposure.
• Automatic simulation of breeze on plants: With Zephyr.
• Strong wind effects defined on individual plants or groups of plants: With Zephyr.
• Advanced breeze customization with OpenGL preview: With Zephyr.
• Animated wind intensity and direction: With Zephyr.
• Omni and directional ventilators for local modifications of plants: With Zephyr.
• Ventilators can be made to influence EcoSystems: With Zephyr.
• Plant geometry key framing for spectacular animated life cycles: With Botanica.
• Ability to mark objects as never becoming animated: With KronosFX.
• Object linking and tracking - forward dynamics.
• "Scene graph" approach allows advanced relationships between objects: With AdvancedGraph.
• Access and control object properties using SmartGraph: With AdvancedGraph.
• NEW! Save and reload entire object graphs in a single file: With AdvancedGraph.
• NEW! Object graphs can express dimensions in real-world units: With 8.4 update and AdvancedGraph.
• Loose forward dynamics for "real world" linking and tracking.
• "PID" and "Delay" controllers in SmartGraph for improved realism in object interactions: With AdvancedGraph.
• Time display as: SMPTE.
• NEW! EcoSystem populations can be made to evolve over time: With EcoSystem.
• NEW! Create custom rigged mesh animations.

User Interface

• Productive, uncluttered interface layout.
• Re-posing of Poser meshes directly inside Vue: With 3DImport.
• NEW! Direct re-posing of rigged meshes.
• NEW! Support for mesh morphs.
• NEW! Select and manipulate bones directly in views.
• NEW! Manipulate bones numerically using the Skeleton editor.
• NEW! Support for wired helpers.
• NEW! 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.
• 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 the size of the animation preview in the Timeline: With KronosFX.
• Merge scenes.
• Repeat last operation to create an array (extend or subdivide).
• Alt + move object creates a copy of the object.
• Gizmo object manipulators (optional).
• Adjustable gizmo size.
• NEW! Spherical abstraction gizmos.
• NEW! Dynamic spherical terrain unwrapping allows easy object placement.
• Local, global, camera and parent manipulation modes.
• Multiple object renaming.
• Fully multi-threaded interface for fast response.
• One view/4 view layout.
• Real-time scene preview.
• World Browser scene management.
• Organize objects in layers: 8 layers max/ unlimited with DeepAccess.
• Enhanced World Browser with direct access to materials, texture maps and imported objects for efficient management of complex projects: With DeepAccess.
• Display material hierarchies with direct access to sub-materials: With DeepAccess.
• Easy replacement of textures throughout the entire scene: With DeepAccess.
• Library tab in World Browser shows all objects used several times: With DeepAccess.
• Easily modify all instances of a reference object using the Library tab: With DeepAccess.
• 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: Three operations – With DeepAccess: multiple undo-redo on 64bit OS.
• Resizable viewports.
• Dockable Timeline.
• 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: With DeepAccess.
• Camera group manager in World Browser: With DeepAccess.
• Resizable World Browser and Scene Preview: With DeepAccess.
• Sort objects by size, name or type: With DeepAccess.
• Lock or hide entire layers.
• Run Cornucopia3D third party Python scripts.
• Directly access frequently used scripts.
• Picture printing with user definable DPI resolution.
• Real units for object sizes.
• Display measurements as real-world units (metric or Imperial).
• Coherent display of real-world units.
• Centered or relative to opposite corner object resizing.
• Mesh splitting by material.
• Spotlight view through for accurate aiming (OpenGL only): With LightTune.
• Full-screen mode: With DeepAccess.
• Non-modal object editors.
• Objects can be locked or hidden individually in OpenGL views.
• Incorporation of texture maps in scenes.
• "Only show active layer" preview option.
• Object replacement by other objects: With DeepAccess.
• When replacing plants, use the geometry of the replaced plants to generate the new plants: With DeepAccess.
• Automatic detection and creation of new browser collections.
• NEW! Ability to lock browser collections to avoid accidental modifications: With 8.4 update.
• Cloud layers can be easily hidden/restored: With DeepAccess.
• Linear and angular snapping grids when moving and rotating objects.
• Content files accessible from all system accounts.
• Easily change the location of your content folder after installation.
• 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: With AdvancedGraph.
• "Publish" specific MetaNode parameters for easy access from the level above: With AdvancedGraph.
• Build your own MetaNodes library of commonly used graph snippets: With AdvancedGraph.
• 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 new MetaWater materials.
• Support for 3Dconnexion tracking devices (SpaceNavigator, SpaceExplorer, etc): With DeepAccess.
• NEW! Automatic renaming of Standalone- and HyperVue-generated frames if overwriting: With HyperVue.
• NEW! Global EcoSystem visible as proxy object in World Browser: With EcoPainter.
• NEW! Select and delete Global EcoSystem instances with one click: With EcoPainter.
• NEW! Format specific options accessible through a special button in Save file box, and no longer prompted for each time.
• NEW! Adjustable separator in Timeline to change width of animated items list.
• NEW! Material preview option which displays materials mapped onto a small terrain object.
• NEW! Name of atmosphere appears in Atmosphere editor caption.
• NEW! Name of edited function appears in Function editor caption.
• NEW! Visual motion browser lets you select rig poses or animations visually: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Preview motions/poses before applying them: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Typical motions directly accessible from skeleton rig editor: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Default views are automatically adjusted according to internal units: With 8.4 update.

Real-Time Preview

• High-speed OpenGL real-time preview engine.
• NEW! Choice of 3 OpenGL engines: shader based, fixed pipeline and software provide optimal quality/compatibility options.
• NEW! 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.
• NEW! Preview specular highlights in real time.
• OpenGL preview of EcoSystem instances as billboards, boxes or full geometry: With EcoSystem.
• NEW! Preview EcoSystem instances as shaded billboards: With EcoSystem.
• User definable radius around the camera in which EcoSystem instances appear at full resolution: With EcoSystem.
• NEW! Dynamically populated EcoSystems around the camera can be viewed in viewports: With EcoSystem.
• NEW! Dynamic filtering of EcoSystem shaded billboards to improve accuracy and reduce flickering in realtime preview: With 8.4 update.
• Textured OpenGL preview.
• OpenGL and Wireframe preview modes.
• OpenGL Preview of Boolean operations.
• OpenGL Preview of Metablobs.
• Threaded previewing of procedural terrains with dynamic LOD.
• 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: With Botanica.
• NEW! Sky preview with clouds.
• NEW! Realistic MetaCloud preview.
• NEW! Realistic sun shadows.
• NEW! Colored EcoSystem instance preview.
• NEW! Dynamic plant display optimization.
• Decimated object preview for faster previewing.
• Selected objects appear with a red wireframe.
• Parts of selected objects that use the current material appear highlighted.
• NEW! Selection wireframe always appears on top of other objects that are in front: Optional.
• Selected objects are "ghosted" in red.
• High quality texture and terrain previewing.
• NEW! Rendered images can be displayed in the background of all viewports.
• NEW! Planes are visible from all sides in the OpenGL views: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Accurate OpenGL display of materials in world coordinates: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Status bar can display poly count, free system resources, and used GPU resources: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Ability to hide all layers in the World Browser: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Ability to copy-paste objects into hidden or locked layers: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! When deleting all objects from a layer, the layer is no longer deleted. You need to do this explicitly: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Easily restore default installation folders at install time: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Optimized Full Quality Near Camera option for faster high quality previewing: With 8.4 update.
• NEW! Optimized handling of complex group hierarchies: With 8.4 update.

Import/Export

• Static Poser scene import: With 3DImport.
• Support for Poser dynamic clothes and hair: With 3DImport.
• Animated Poser scene import: With 3DImport.
• NEW! Support for Poser 8: With 3DImport.
• Compatible with Cornucopia3D cost-effective copy-protected 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.
• 2D Import: BMP, BUM, DEM, GIF, HDR, Jpeg, Pict, PNG, PSD, TGA, TGD, Tiff, Vistapro DEM.
• Animated 2D import: With KronosFX: Sequence of pictures, MOV (Macintosh only), AVI (Windows only).
• Vector data import: Postscript and Illustrator up to 3.2.
• Textured model imports as: With 3DImport: 3DS, 3DMF, COB, DAE, DEM, DXF, LWO, OBJ, PZ3, PZZ, RAW, SHD, SKP, VRML.
• Textured and animated Collada file import: With 3DImport.
• NEW! Support for rigged Collada meshes: With 3DImport.
• NEW! Support for Sketchup 7 (Win 32 only): With 3DImport.
• 2D Export: Tiff, TGA, Pict, BMP, GIF, Jpeg, PNG, BUM, DEM.
• Export high dynamic range images (including skydomes): With RenderUp.
• Export 48 bit color images: With RenderUp.
• High Dynamic Range 2D Export: With RenderUp: HDR.
• Embed alpha information in Tiff and PNG formats: With RenderUp.
• Object export (with textures): With Exporter.
• Optimized object and texture map exports: With Exporter.
• Textured object export as: With Exporter: 3DS, C4D, COB, DXF, LWO, OBJ, SHD.
• Sky exports as sky-boxes or sky-domes: With Exporter.
• User-definable mesh and texture map resolution for exports: With Exporter.
• Automatic re-importing of externally modified texture maps and 3D objects: With DeepAccess.
• Advanced unwrap algorithms for low-distortion UV mapping: With Exporter.
• NEW! Optimized terrain exports: With Exporter and 8.4 update.

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.
• Automatic software updating (optional).
• Video-board compatibility checking.
• Automatic checking of OpenGL driver compatibility.
• Embedded error-reporting feature to help reduce time-to-fix.
• NEW! User definable maximum video board memory usage: With DeepAccess.

Miscellaneous

• Multi-processor rendering: Up to 2 CPUs – With RenderUp: resp. 4/8 CPUs on 32/64 bit OS .
• Hundreds of preset atmospheres, objects, materials.
• NEW! Terrainscapes preset terrain material library.
• Optimized for PowerPC and Intel Macs.
• 64 bit version optimized for Windows XP64 and Vista 64.
• Inline help: PDF Manual.
• NEW! Documentation: 600 page manual.
• NEW! Media: 1 DVD.