You can select dozens of presets for terrains, vegetation and atmospheres, then do some easy camera work and come up with a professional-looking and unique vista. If you are new to 3D design, take note: Vue 9 offers the new user the ability to create hyper-realistic vistas in the first hour with no prior 3D experience. One of my favorites is the new Rocky Mountain Fractal that I’ve used to create everything from mountain ranges to realistic rock displacements. On top of all that, you’ll find fascinating new fractal patterns to use in creating unique mathematical under-structures for your terrains and rocks. Version 9 is a major release with interface improvements, dozens of new tools and enhancements to the render engines. It has only primitives and Boolean operations but it can import objects in many formats to help in composing your scenes and animations. Vue was designed for natural scenery creation, and thus doesn’t feature any sophisticated modeling tools. The latest version of the software features all the sophisticated lighting and atmospheric models you’ll need, a fantastic texture engine, easy access to scripting, and more. Note the aging on the rocks and the natural look of the grasses. The above scene, a recent example made with Vue, was created by Vue developer and artist Dax Pandhi. The rewards are that it offers groundbreaking tools for creating photorealistic images from flower closeups to grand vistas. It is one of the easiest applications to get started with but can take years to master. In the Vue 9 xStream version ($1,495) you even get plug-ins to embed Vue as a tool in your favorite Professional 3D applications such as 3dsMax, Cinema 4D, Maya and LightWave. Each version brings a treasure chest of capability. Created by E-on Software and used to create environments in films from the Pirates of the Caribbean series to Avatar, it’s available in many versions from the free Pioneer, with its various inexpensive upgrades, to full professional packages with all the bells and whistles. I’ve been reviewing Vue for some time now, and 9 is the latest release. Vue 9 Environment Creation Software: Free – $1,790

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