Will there be a Bryce 8?
tnpir4002_8c3dde19be
Posts: 11
Hi gang,
Back after a long time away, with a question.
If you don't know me, I'm the guy that made a trilogy of Star Trek fan films, with Bryce 6/7 and Poser 7 as my tools. I also participated in the development of Bryce 7 in its current form, and some of the content that shipped with Bryce 7 Pro was made by me.
Well, that was all a long time ago. Now it's 2015, years later, and I notice that there doesn't seem to have been any motion on getting a new version of Bryce out. In the interim, I've largely moved away from moviemaking, but I still do some 3D, and some of Bryce's old flaws are still there, and still frustrate me.
The biggest is that blasted "Out of Memory" error, and other memory problems on my 64-bit machines. There's also some very strange behavior on a computer with a solid-state drive; scenes I create and save just fine on machines with normal spinning-disk hard drives, absolutely will not save properly on the SSD machine (scenes above a certain complexity will appear to save properly, but when they're re-opened, 3/4 of the objects along with the sky I'd saved it with are missing).
None of these problems have been problems I couldn't overcome. But, they point to a serious need for some traction, if only to get a 64-bit version of our beloved program out there.
So, what's DAZ have to say? For that matter, what do those in the know have to say? Has anything been said about possibly bringing new life to this old chestnut?
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Comments
I haven't heard anything from Daz on this subject in years. Very disappointing.
Rashad! Glad to see you're still around.
As much as I was cursing your name when the new light lab was introduced, I've actually come to depend on some of the things you had them make. I still think of you every time I adjust my diffuse and specular channels separately!
Thanks!! I was fortunate to have a clear impression of what I thought the programmers could manage in the time that was available, and they did a beautiful job executing our suggestions. Separating Diffuse intensity from Specular intensity seemed like a long overdo feature to my mind. Now we can use one light to do the work of two, which should mean faster and better looking results for most people. For me Bryce 7 is a totally different game than Bryce 6 and earlier mostly because of the major differences in the lighting options and sky behaviors.
Glad to see you're still around as well. Hopefully these new tools are saving you time and allowing you to have a little more fun as you work on your amazing scenes.
If anyone reading this is unfamiliar with TNPIR's work, check this out. His work is seriously seriously impressive. You might even question if they are Bryce renders at all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTfd2rrQH7E
If I'm not mistaken, the entire "set" was modeled in Bryce, textured in Bryce, and rendered in Bryce as well as animated in Bryce!!!!!! And yet, if no one had told you otherwise, you'd probably swear the footage was real. I'm still completely blown away by what TNPIR can do. Amazing!!!
@tnpir4000 - nice to see you back, Brandon. I can't help you with the SSD issues, but if you haven't made Bryce large address aware yet, here's a short video Bryce Memory Shortage - and what you can do about it that may be of help.
@Rashad: right you are! That's entirely a Bryce construction. Thanks to the lights, it takes forever to animate even a single frame, and the updated version of the studio for season 43 that includes inset lights everywhere is even worse...but the results are all well worth it!!!
@Horo: that's what's strange here. Bryce 7 on the SSD machine is LAA, that's the first thing I did. That's what's so weird about that--the environment is a fresh install of Windows 7, and is identical to another computer where Bryce works (somewhat) better in every way except for the main hard drive being an SSD. Weird!
Just throwin it out there, but maybe its time for a Bring back Bryce campaign :)
But how can you have a bring back Bryce campaign when it has never really gone away. :roll:
That's strange. I've been using a Samsung 840 series 250 Gig SSD for 2 and a half years now and never had that problem.
In my opinion a campaign is more than just a mindset or an agreed upon direction. A campaign is organized and activ, has set objectives and goals etc. It would include things like outreach to DAZ and reporting back info etc.
And this is all in assuming these things aren't already happening obviously!
Well we do try to keep Bryce in the eyes of DAZ 3D. I did manage to persuade them to sponsor the Bryce Render Challenge, which is going strong. http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/51118/
No, there won't be a Bryce 8, nor any further updates. I can state that categorically.
As I stated categorically when Bryce 6 rotted for ages, there would not be a Bryce 7. It was all over and goodnight Vienna. No sir, not a chance.
So there you have it, for sure. Definitely.
Maybe. I don't know. For all that, for example, the virtues of Blender are extolled, there are still plenty of people that use Bryce. On paper Blender is better in every respect and it is free! I've tired it. I'd need to be paid to use it. I've tried a lot of 3D software. The only things so far that I've found come close to being as much fun to use as Bryce are Wings3D and Modo. One of which is free and the other will burn a car sized hole in your wallet. Bryce on the other hand is not expensive and it is nice to use and the results can be good if you put the effort in. None of which is really a guide as to if there will be an update or future version. But that there is still a place for Bryce in the ever evolving software market has got to be a point in its favor.
Which, David, if you re-read my post carefully, is pretty much what I said. ;-)
A work colleague and I have a running joke when he's loading a vehicle for a trip. I state firmly that there's no way on earth he's going to get that lot in the wagon, and yet he always does. My statement has become a part of the loading process.
Sometimes a sure thing just isn't.
Hi tnpir4000,
we have the same question in the Carrara forum in regards to Carrara 9.
Our latest 'update' was (arguably) little more than an update to allow users to use Genesis in Carrara. IE it was an update to allow Carrara users the chance to buy more stuff from Daz.
Daz gives studio away for free. It's primary source of income appears to be selling items you can use in Daz studio and sometimes in Carrara.
I'm guessing it has no financial motivation to work on Bryce and little financial motivation to work on Carrara.
Best thing for Bryce users would be if Daz sold it to someone who cares about it.
Which, David, if you re-read my post carefully, is pretty much what I said. ;-)
A work colleague and I have a running joke when he's loading a vehicle for a trip. I state firmly that there's no way on earth he's going to get that lot in the wagon, and yet he always does. My statement has become a part of the loading process.
Sometimes a sure thing just isn't.
What a ray of sunshine? "We are definitely all going to die on this trip. Definitely. Unless we don't. Like we didn't last time."
Have I got that right?
So.... some way for Bryce to be more integrated with the DS content would maybe be the answer. Which would mean instancing that worked and sub-d support. Also... SSS
I bring a lot of stuff across from DS. The problems I have are with Memory, trying to put too much in a scene and forgetting to save it which always means losing a couple of hours work :) ; Displacement, setting it to more than 1.0 and it crashes or slows down Bryce so much it is nearly unusable; Trees and Plant objects, and I take half the day trying to remember how to get rid of the flat leaves by using transparency (I keep forgetting that one :-) ); Eyes and Skin on figures, another one that I keep forgetting how to do. I get there eventually though. I put it down to an age thing, me not Bryce :-)
Bryce needs to become a 64-bit application. This means a complete rewrite and since Axiom stands in the way, it can't just be recompiled. This is a major undertaking and can't be finished in a month. It needs a lot of dedication and money. We must not forget that the intent for 7.0 was to make it 64-bit. The cycle 6.1 to 6.3 was only to fix the bugs and prepare Bryce for this step. However, it turned out to overrun the budget hugely and hence that project was abandoned. But we must also acknowledge that we got a bunch of new features many Bryce users haven't even noticed.
I agree with head wax that DAZ should sell it to someone who cares. This is what Corel did and found DAZ. And DAZ did a great job, unfortunately it lost all interest meanwhile because they are blind to the potential of Bryce.
I still think it just needs its niche for someone in marketing to plant a hook in for it to take off. Its going to have to have some sort of monetary generation possibilities solidified (and proven) in order for that kind of interest in development can even be brought up in a board meeting.
There are a lot of grass roots in Bryces complete history. DAZ has done an awesome job, not jsut with Bryce, but themselves as a brand. They were too once a very small name in a very large world. And they kinda still are. This leads me to believe one of two things.
1 .There are possibilities.
2. There are no possibilities
:)
As always, the truth lies in between. ;-P
Full agree with Horo, we need a 64 bits development for the next version of bryce.. but I really start thinking that Daz will work on this new step when hens have tooth.
Sell the software to another firm will be great but how many people will use this new version for professional standard graphics? I mean if you look at Vue or Terragen, both of them are able to produce renders and animation for movies and are known and use for this from years. Bryce is a good software for semi professional but have got so several lack when it's time to talk about populate a scene full of grass, shrubs, trees while using real global illumination to render an echosystem. And I don't want to talk about render time that's taking age when Vue can render the same scene in a couple of hours.
So, bryce not just need a 64 bits version, it also need a fully new computation to had stuffs its competitors already got from a while. But rebuilt this new software will costs a lot of money and regain market against e-on or planetside is not that sure. Then we must understand that decide starting recoding bryce is not simple for Daz.
And wich firm will bet on bryce to regain landscape market after buying it and spending money in a new development cycle? I hope someone..
I think Bryce is a dead product.
You couldn't be more wrong, given the vibrant and friendly Bryce forum we have here. :coolsmirk:
I second this :-)
I truly hope to see a version 8 of bryce, also a 64bit version would be amazing!!! ...also an added benefit would if it were able to use GPU memory combined with the regular PC ram and CPU :)
Ah-hem... I know one person who most definitely would. :-)
Despite all it's faults and lack of recent development, despite the fact i have to keep an old Mac with an old OS on it, I use Bryce very often to do commercial work... Would I continue to use it if it were developed to run on a new Mac... Hell yes! :cheese:
I just stumbled upon this thread and here's my take on this:
I still can't believe they've chosen to update DS and Carrara instead of Bryce. To leave Bryce behind is an act of horror - a nightmare to surpass all nightmares. It's sort of like Toyota abandoning their autos to concentrate on making new skateboards.
As for me, the fun, motivation and excitement is gone and I may just give up CG and go back to oil-on-canvas painting. The good old days now seen like centuries ago.
Though money is sometimes an issue, but certainly not to buy an updated Bryce. Is Bryce so much better than other 3D software? I don't know for sure but it is definitely not as awkward to use and even in its advanced age still pure fun to use.
There has yet to be a program that for me comes close to Bryce for encouraging creativity in an enjoyable way. Modo, don't get me wrong, is amazing - but it only allows you to express what you have in mind. Bryce on the other hand, I find, is more likely to germinate new ideas through the imaginative way the various labs were designed.
I find it an irony that Corel let go of Bryce. My experience is that Corel buys products and kills them, either as an outright death because it competes with something they already owned, (such as VideoStudio that they got from ULead and killed), or they remove features or replace them with far less capable tools, (such as Paint Shop Pro that they got from JASC).
In the case of Paint Shop Pro, the most useful version I own is version 8 by JASC. I've used PSP since JASC released a free evaluation version of version 3.5. I fell in love with the "magic wand". I bought every version after. Except, I wish I had version 9, as that was the last JASC release. (I was broke at the time.) I did get version X, which was Corel's first mutilation of PSP. I then got version XI, HOPING they would at least put back the image browser that was in version 8. That browser in version 8 can be pointed to any directory, and find image files that don't even have image file extensions. The newer "cabinet" function is VERY user hostile. You have to tell it what folders on your computer NOT to add into your picture collection. Their "idea" was that it finds all the pictures of KNOWN image file extensions on your computer, then you are supposed to sort them in the "cabinet". That was probably the biggest failure. It does this searching any time it's running ... in other words, taking up CPU cycles you would rather be using for what you are trying to do.
It's true that some of the text formatting features in version XI are what I use it for now and then.
Some of the image enhancement features in version XI are not in version 8, but version XI broke the function to automatically enhance a picture. It now adds noise to the picture and causes pixelation, or the effect that it was converted from 24 bit color to 16 bit color, then back again, losing resolution.
PSP XI also "phones home" to make sure you are allowed to use it. I paid for mine, but, because I block the "phone home" functions, it treats me like I have not registered it. Every time I had to re-image my hard drive, I would have to allow the "phone home" features to use it at all. Last time I tried to get it registered, it failed, telling me I owned an illegal copy. I called Corel, and they said that is their policy ... if a serial number is registered too many times, their computer flags it as a pirate copy with no accounting for the fact that it was registered on THE SAME COMPUTER and ONLY that computer. SO, once a month I have to reply to a dialog, asking it for permission to use the evaluation version for another month. I OWN IT ... HAVE THE BOX, MANUAL, AND INSTALLATION DISK. Needless to say, that was the last version I bought, so it might as well be dead in my eyes. Version 8 has played nice.
However, as Mr. Brinnen points out, for some reason PSP version 8 has started crashing at random in the last year. It used to be extremely stable. I wonder if this is something Corel has managed to orchestrate. I don't have the time to research it.
My point here is; if some other company picks up Bryce to run with it, let's hope it is NOT Corel.
Excuse me, Corel sold Bryce to DAZ 3D, it is not likely to go back there. DAZ 3D has done more with and for Bryce than any one except the original owners. And as DAZ 3D owns Bryce no one else can just pick it up and run with it,