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The release version is now 6.6, although the website always refers to it as just “6”. Vue 7 is being kept a secret for another month (it’s due for an all-singing-all-dancing launch at Siggraph on Aug 12). There are however a few things we already know:-
- the xStream system is now sensible at last - all the functions of the standalone UI are available in the plugin mode, so you’re not stuck bouncing back and forth from Vue to Max in order to sort out stuff like material functions. It does of course mean that when running embedded you’d better have a good-sized pile of RAM, but IMO xStream has always seemed a hack rather than a real feature, until now. I’d advise against trying to load Poser-shadered Vue scenes into Max though, unless you have an hour to waste.
- the GI engines have been drastically improved. In 6, spectral and GR worked fine but creaked a lot on complex scenes and soft shadows, and Vue in general didn’t do as well on interior scenes as you’d expect (the GI was optimized for infinite rays as of course it was designed for outdoor views), so Vue 7 has an extra GR option for interiors that’ll give results with the same quality as many of the mainstream architectural engines such as Vray, now that increasing numbers of people are using Vue for interior shots.
- Ecosystems are updated - version 3 is more efficient and apparently has more control options.
No hints that the biggest bugbears are solved though - it’s not getting any closer to being a mesh editor, for example, so modeling without xStreaming the scene is not an option in most cases (beyond the basic primitives and booleans Vue has always offered), and the cross-licensing of renders is limited (while xStream runs great inside Max, you’re limited to what Max renderer you can use for the “max” bits of the scene)
:: UVSAR :: Dave Merchant :: Adobe Community Professional ::
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