After a long period of silence the journalists that received the pre-release from e-on Software could finally run their story on the new Vue 6. Vue 6 Infinite, xStream, and all the other versions of this 3D application have now been released, and for me the nail biting is finally over: I can tell you how thrilled I was and still am to see what this program has evolved into. A couple of years ago I wrote that I wasn’t impressed with Vue 4’s animation time line.

Today, I can’t say I’m not impressed with any of the features. This program simply knocks you off your socks. Vue 6 Infinite was the version I could test. I asked for Vue 6 xStream, but when the e-on Software marketing manager told me it will only run on Windows, the choice was easy: let’s get our hands on Infinite and see how it goes. I had a pre-release copy of Vue 6 Infinite since December 2006. In its pre-release state, it was already a fairly robust program, but I couldn’t write about it as I had promised not to.

So, here we are now, after a long wait. First let me tell you: ILM --Industrial Light and Magic, the special effects company that was responsible for the effects in Pirates of the Caribbean-- hasn’t chosen Vue 6 as its virtual landscape application because of its pretty interface or its nice logo. ILM chose Vue 6 because it must be the easiest and fastest 3D application for creating virtual landscapes with extremely good rendering characteristics in the market.

So, l’Let’s start with Vue 6 Infinite’s new interface and new features in general. The new interface “engine” lets you set your interface according to your taste. Vue still has a unified window interface, meaning all the tabs, working panels etc, are grouped in one mono-block, but you can set the colour scheme so that it matches Maya, Cinema 4D, or whatever else you’re familiar with.

Two Monitors Not Necessary With Vue 6

The mono-block interface is the only real criticism I have these days with regards to Vue 6. It’s also the reason why I originally wanted to review xStream. xStream allows you to load Vue 6 as a plug-in into your favourite 3D application. In my case, I wanted to load it into Cinema 4D R10, the other 3D application that I’m still reviewing. As xStream is a Windows-only product, I declined, but I would like to have seen if the application would indeed fit into Cinema 4D as a proper chameleon… That would have meant I could use my two monitors to the fullest. With Vue 6’s mono-block approach you’re almost forced to buying a Cinema 30 inch.

Except for the mono-block approach, the interface is still very well designed. It has 4 viewing panels and a column of palettes and if you always work with only one monitor screen, you’ll be happy with the way it’s been set up. In this first release version, I’m still finding some cosmetic flaws, like coloured banding around some of the small flip-out menus at the left side, but these are minor glitches.

The interface isn’t the most important improvement in Vue 6, of course. There’s a lot more to be said about this new version. There are nifty new features. The EcoSystem painting tool comes to mind. The ventilator is a nice second. The Spectral Atmosphere model a spectacular third. The list goes on, which explains why e-on Software is so enthusiastic about this upgrade; and they have every reason to be.

I’m going to start the functionality review with the criticism I had a couple of years ago: the Timeline and animation features. The new Timeline has an animation graph which gives you total control over keyframes, ease-in and ease-out, rotation, position, location, and everything else you need. In fact, I think the animation support in Vue 6 is unparalleled. Except perhaps for Maya, which I found awkward to use, there isn’t a Timeline that is so well designed in any other 3D animation program. The reason why the Timeline is now so easy is because you can start out with the Animation wizard and leave the more complicated elements of the Timeline to the animation whiz kids. But if you need it, it’s there. 

Animating Your 3D Scene Like a Pro

Animating a scene can therefore be done on one of three levels of difficulty. If you’re starting out, you’ll only use the wizard. If you perfectly know how to manipulate the objects in a scene in the viewer windows themselves, you can drag, rotate and position them there while you select the animation cursor at different positions. The auto-keyframe feature will make sure the animation corresponds to whatever you’ve changed. When you’re familiar with the whole Vue 6 way of working, the Timeline with Animation Graph becomes a powerful comrade in arms to further fine-tune the animation.

I briefly touched on the viewer windows. New in these are the manipulators of objects. The one thing I’ve always really liked about Maya were the object gizmos --they give you much real-time control over object manipulations. Unfortunately, not all 3D applications have these. Cinema 4D R10 has them, and now Vue 6 has them as well. However, e-On Software has added a bit of extra to these manipulation gizmos. When clicking on the sizing icon of an object, you’ll see the familiar x-y-z gizmos turn into the well-known resize handles. But there’s no trying to grab the centre of the three axis and failing miserably when you’re trying to resize the object in two or all directions at once. 

The gizmo has two special zones that will resize the object in more than one direction. The smallest one will do so along all three axis, the larger one along two out of the three.

Vue has been known for its EcoSystems feature since version 5. EcoSystems were nice; they made you work faster because you didn’t have to create a forest or a city from scratch. But there was little control beyond creating them and populating a layer with the resulting ecosystem, and they did require a lot of computer power. In Vue 6, EcoSystems have become much more powerful. e-on Software calls the new system EcoSystems Generation II. Except for the new functionality in this area, I was under the impression the EcoSystems feature has become more efficient in terms of computing power and memory consumption. Also, when you fly through an EcoSystem, the version 5 plants and objects would occasionally flicker --very annoying if you want to create high-quality fly-throughs.