NEW RELEASE STRENGHTENS CORE DIGITAL NATURE FUNCTIONALITY
November 05, 2013. Beaverton, Oregon: e-on software, the leader in 3D Digital Nature technologies, today announced the immediate availability of Vue xStream 2014 and Vue Infinite 2014, its newest Digital Nature solutions for CG Professionals.
Other products in the Vue 2014 product line – Pioneer & Theme-packs, Frontier, Esprit, Studio and Complete – will be released later in November 2013.
New features of Vue 2014
Release 2014 focuses on strengthening the core features of Vue - light, atmospheres and EcoSystems. Thanks to dedicated exchange filters, it also pushes integration into existing pipelines.
"With physically accurate sunlight and photometric lighting, FBX import, Multi-layer 32-bit OpenEXR 2.0 support, World Point Position passes, .FBX and .CHAN camera exchange as well as many workflow and interface improvements, Vue is more than ever the go-to solution for digital nature environments", said Nicholas Phelps, president of e-on software.
Here is a shortlist of some of the important new features included in Vue 2014:
- Workflow and Production improvements*: Vue xStream 2014 will import FBX scenes with textured geometries and cameras in both ASCII or binary FBX formats. Camera motion can be imported and exported as .FBX as well as Nuke .CHAN files. Vue xStream 2014 outputs all render layers in a single Multi-layer 32Bit OpenEXR 2.0 file; all passes are available in either 32-bit (floating point or unsigned integer) or 16 bit (half format).
- World Point Position (or XYZ) Pass: Vue 2014 adds a WPP pass to the extensive list of rendering components, masks and information passes that can be generated for added compositing flexibility.
- Physically Accurate Sunlight Model and Photometric Lights: The new scientifically accurate photometric sunlight model uses a real-world, physical simulation of sun and atmospheric light intensities. Users can assign physically accurate values to all light properties, such as color temperature, light intensity (Lumens or Candelas) and IES Profiles.
- Tone Mapping: Vue 2014 lets users select different tone mapping filters to control how raw HDR colors are transformed into the final picture. These filters typically simulate the response of the human eye or chemical photographic film.
- Natural Grain: This new mode produces natural color variations particularly well suited for terrains, ground, or any natural element. Ideal for quick results, the Natural Grain option provides high level access to settings such as contrast, balance and roughness, directly in the Material Editor.
- EcoSystem improvements: EcoSystem Clumping replicates the natural phenomenon whereby plants tend to grow in close patches rather than evenly distributed. Vue 2014 features highly optimized algorithms to accelerate the rendering of EcoSystems containing many small items, such as gravel or grass blades.
- Improved Plant Factory compatibility: Health, Seasonality or any other published plant parameter can be animated directly inside the Vue timeline. When using Plant Factory plants in EcoSystems, a new Quality setting is available in the Population list to define the amount of detail of the plant instances, thus saving memory and reducing render times.
- Interface improvements: The Vue 2014 Function Editor was redesigned for improved performance on modern computer displays. A new option is available that protects the render camera from any unwanted modifications and automatically switches to perspective view whenever the viewport is modified. Vue 2014 can position the sun exactly as it would be in real-life, based on time of day, date and location on Earth.
- Many other improvements such as Foldable EcoPainter, highly optimized flat Area Lights, naming in Render Stack, improved material manipulation, integration into the latest releases of Autodesk 2014 products, Cinema4D R15** and LightWave 11.6, and more...
* These features are available in Vue xStream 2014 only.
** At time of release, Windows only. Compatibility with Mac C4D R15 coming soon.
More details on the new features are available on the e-on software website, at:
www.e-onsoftware.com/infinite and
www.e-onsoftware.com/xstream
Pricing and Availability
Standard Retail Price:
Vue xStream 2014 retails for $1,995 (with one year maintenance), and upgrades start at $439. Vue Infinite 2014 retails for $1,495 (with one year maintenance), with upgrades starting at $359. Upgrades from Vue 10.x are also available (see full product pricelist at http://www.e-onsoftware.com/pricelist for details).
Maintenance is the most cost effective solution for staying up-to-date with your products. Yearly maintenance is available for both products – see www.e-onsoftware.com/maintenance for details.
Educational Licenses and Free Student Learning Versions
Schools and training centers can become member of e-on software’s ATC program and equip themselves with Vue xStream or Infinite 2014 at a massive discount. Site licensing is available for $2000 (max. 30 seats) per year. Individual licenses are available to members of ATC institutions only, for $149 (xStream) and $99 (Infinite) per year.
Owners of an active Vue 11.5 EDU license will receive their upgrade to Vue 2014 for free, however, Educational Licenses will no longer be available to individuals who are not part of an ATC institution (see below).
With Vue 2014, students don’t have to pay to learn Vue!
The Vue 2014 Personal Learning Edition allows any Artist or Student to learn the best Digital Nature tool for free. The PLE now outputs files that can be rendered without limitation using an ATC license. Students can thus work from home using the free PLE and bring their work back to school for use (and final rendering) using their school’s resources.
The Vue 2014 Personal Learning Edition is scheduled for release before the end of November 2013.
Availability:
Vue xStream 2014 and Vue Infinite 2014 are available in English for Windows® XP/Vista/7/8/8.1 and Mac OSX 10.6-10.9 for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.
Vue xStream 2014 is compatible with the following renderers:
- 3ds Max 2008 to 2014: MentalRay (integrated and MR satellites), V-Ray
- Maya 2008 to 2014: MentalRay (integrated and MR satellites), V-Ray, Maya Software
- Softimage | XSI 7 to 2014: MentalRay (integrated and MR satellites)
- Cinema 4D R11.0 to R15*: native renderer
- LightWave 9.3 to 11.6: native renderer
Other renderers are under consideration.
* The initial build of Vue 2014 does not support the Mac OSX version of Cinema4D R15.
Support will be added shortly.
About e-on software
E-on software is the leading developer of solutions for the creation, animation, rendering and integration of natural 3D environments (Vue, Ozone, Plant Factory and Carbon Scatter), as well as real-time immersive visualization tools for Architecture and GeoDesign (LumenRT). Offering a wide array of Digital Nature products and applications, e-on software provides solutions adapted to every project and budget. E-on software products are used worldwide by the film, television, architecture, game, science, educational and entertainment industries.
E-on software products were used in feature films such as as as "Epic","Hunger Games", "Upside Down", "Hugo", "Tintin", "Super 8", "Thor", "Avatar", "Clash of the Titans", "Sucker Punch", "Despicable Me 1 & 2", "Ice Age 4", "The Wolf Man", "2012", "Lovely Bones", "GI Joe – The Rise of the Cobra", "Land of the Lost", "Terminator 4, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", "Indiana Jones 4", "Monster Vs Aliens", "Australia", "The Spiderwick Chronicles", "KungFu Panda", "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" and TV series such as "Spartacus", "Smallville", "Battlestar Gallactica", "Caprica", "Stargate Atlantis", "Stargate Continuum", and more. Read more on these stories in e-on software's Spotlights section: www.e-onsoftware.com/spotlight.
E-on software was founded on the premise that powerful graphics tools should never get in the way of the designer's creativity. By investing significant resources into research and development, e-on software is able to deliver cutting-edge, user friendly technologies that produce stunning Digital Nature scenery.
E-on software is based in Beaverton, Oregon with an European office in Paris, France.
Visit their website at http://www.e-onsoftware.com.
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