Very Computer

I just got some promotional material for RDD 4.0- $99, including a "bonus"
Vivid Details CD. Is this program a worthwhile 3D illustration package, or
are there other tools in the price range that are considerably better?

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there is absolutely nothing in the price range that is better,
peroid--because the next jump up is $190! Seriously, I looked for a long
time, and RDD is definitely the easiest-to-use modeler and produced the
best-quality output of the under-$500 packages. If you get Ray Dream
Studio ($199?) you will also have full animation capabilites, plus 500
example models and a CD-ROM full of textures & etc, plus some features
(inverse kinematics, plug-in arcitecture, soft shadows, quicktime
rotoscoping) that aren't available on packages costing $1000...

michael

not an employee, just a satisfied user...

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There are many things about RayDream Studio I dislike after using it
for a while.
1: unexplainable surface anomalies in models, i.e., a _flat_ plane
rendered with valleys in it!  I had one simple pill shaped,
flattened sphere that behaved differently in my PPC than it did on
my 040 machine...

2: anti-aliasing in this package stinks--doing 3D for multimedia?  
you only need to render at 72dpi, well, when objects are rendered at
72dpi in RD the anti-aliasing is not that great.

3:  still a bit buggy with crashes, although not as v3.x

4:  no Quickdraw 3d support yet, alhtough it is forthcoming.

You might read MacWeek's review.  It says the same things but in
more detail.

I find that I cannot use the software dependably in my production
environment.

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