Bryce 5.5 Users

CTippetts

I'm one of those, um, poor people that can't afford to buy a new computer capable of the newer Bryce, but I love Bryce, and use 5.5 all the time. Every once in awhile over the years I would come here for tons of info, tips, freebies, etc..

However, now everything pertaining to version 5.5 seems to have been removed, with only casual references to it, (mostly where discussing how it used to work ... still works that way for people like me). Was Bryce 5.5 so terrible that the past has to be denied and hidden away? Is it not worthy of being proud of and include a discussion board for it?

Is there a separate forum I'm missing for us old school users that all that wonderful information has been moved to? Am I just out of luck entirely?

CTippetts

Made this two days ago. Bryce 5.5 still works.

Chohole

I still have Bryce 5 on my PC and use it often.

Many of the tips and tricks posted in this forum will work in Bryce 5, although obviously not those which need the new stuff from Bryce 7.

How old is your computer anyway, that you think it won't run Bryce 7. THe new stuff is cool.

Horo

@CTippetts - welcome to these forums. I'm running Bryce 7.1 on an old Win2000 laptop with 500 MB RAM. And on a XP Netbook as well with 1 GB of memory, and on an XP desktop with 2 GB and on a Win7 desktop with 8 GB RAM. Apart from the render speed, there is no difference. And on all those computers I can run any Bryce version from 4 because I have them all installed.

Bryce 5.5 can do a lot, it's only that 7.1 has so many new options that once you've seen them, you hesitate to go back to an earlier version. But if you have specific questions for 5.5, you can always post them here and we'll try to answer them. And yes, the render looks great.

mermaid010

CTippetts - welcome to the forum. For Bryce 5.5 that’s one awesome render. You will find some tutorials for Bryce 5. 5 here: http://www.bryce-tutorials.info/bryce-tutorials.html

Horo

@CTippetts - I have to add a small thing I forgot. From Bryce 6.0 hence, a bit more memory is needed because the source file is compressed when saved (and de-compressed when loaded) and this is done in memory. I have a couple of tutorials and a few freebies on my website (see sig). The tutorials were made for Bryce 5.01 but are still valid for 7.1

CTippetts

Well, the biggest part of my issue is SP3. I installed it once, and found it conflicted with some DVD software I bought, plus it slowed down my computer enough that it wasn't worth having the Digital Rights Management features, which is about all SP3 was. The parts that were not DRM were available to update separately, so that's what I ended up doing. Fact is; version 7 requires SP3 ... will not install on mine. It's a Dell Dimension 4500, with 1G Ram, and runs at 2.52GhZ.

Hey, though, even if I can't have it, it's great to know so many of you were willing to encourage me. That alone is encouraging. Thank you all!

It's true, the tutes and tips for version 7 give me ideas I try to use. Also give me frustration from wanting better. One thing I'd like that isn't in 5.5 is to convert objects to meshes for quicker rendering. Heck, I'm just starting to learn how to use Daz 3D to make people figures to plug into Bryce scenes. Nice way of providing scale reference. Something that barely looks big looks appropriately huge when you put a person next to it.

David Brinnen

CTippetts said:

Well, the biggest part of my issue is SP3. I installed it once, and found it conflicted with some DVD software I bought, plus it slowed down my computer enough that it wasn't worth having the Digital Rights Management features, which is about all SP3 was. The parts that were not DRM were available to update separately, so that's what I ended up doing. Fact is; version 7 requires SP3 ... will not install on mine. It's a Dell Dimension 4500, with 1G Ram, and runs at 2.52GhZ.

Hey, though, even if I can't have it, it's great to know so many of you were willing to encourage me. That alone is encouraging. Thank you all!

It's true, the tutes and tips for version 7 give me ideas I try to use. Also give me frustration from wanting better. One thing I'd like that isn't in 5.5 is to convert objects to meshes for quicker rendering. Heck, I'm just starting to learn how to use Daz 3D to make people figures to plug into Bryce scenes. Nice way of providing scale reference. Something that barely looks big looks appropriately huge when you put a person next to it.

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Let me put your mind to rest. The convert objects to meshes is not really a feature to become greatly excited about. It looks good on paper but in practice, it is quite easy to break Bryce with this feature, or break the geometry and end up with poor results.

As for the Bridge from DAZ 3D. It's a great way to move geometry but the scaling is arbitrary. What usually matters is 1. Atmospheric effects since they give a large scale guide to the scale of geographic features. 2. Texture scale (which unlike the sky lab atmospheric settings is more or less free to be whatever you set it to be) and finally 3. The camera lens settings - which are again largely independent of any inherent scale restrictions but make more sense to use in a certain range of values just for the display of the numbers and their decimal places in the dialogues.

You can say, there are lower and upper limits to what can be rendered based purely on the processing of the numbers involved. Below a certain level Bryce becomes "granular" and the render engine behaves oddly with certain filters. And above a certain scale - you exceed the world space position of the orthogonal cameras and that makes scene composition tricky.

But within that there is still a huge scope for having objects of different scales. The greatest restriction then becomes in an outdoor scene the atmosphere, since the range of the controls is more of a limiting factor than the scale of the geometry.

So, long story short, take the scale of the bridged figures with a pinch of salt. They can provide a clue to scale, but it is worth remembering that that is only an arbitrary measure and the only clue they provide is relative scale not absolute.

That's not to say my word is the last on this topic. There is always room for other opinions.

Also note that aside from the volumetric fix and the inclusion of the curvature and anisotropic shaders (we don't talk about displacement) the materials system is largely the same for 5.5 as it is for 7.1

CTippetts

Thanks, David. Nicely articulated.

I already knew that a "Bryce Unit" can be a micron or miles, depending on what the artist is doing at the time. In fact, it's something I like about Bryce ... freedom from real life scales, versus restriction in such for a true CAD type of programs. I was really just referring to giving the viewer a better sense of the scale the artist had in mind.

Everything is scalable to a point, but I liked your warning about going too small or too big. I did not know that, and you explained it very well. My only experience of drawbacks due to size is in render time. I have a tendency to make things big, with the intention of shrinking them for actual use, but wanting as much detail as possible to begin with. Starting small and expanding to desired size leaves many issues with detail. However, I hope I never encounter the problems you describe.