Ok, this software is a long way beyond what most people use it for; it’s a VERY handy set of tools for people who want to create, well…a lot of things. I’ll just cut and paste for a description, because even though I can spend hours doinking around with it, I am a complete and total noob, and still love it!
Wikpedia has a big entry on it as well; it’s been around quite a while. New versions come up, and DAZ, the developer, routinely offers free downloads of older versions to play with.
Anyway, the boys, 12 and 14 and hard to get to sit still for long, saw me playing with it and were entranced, so I loaded it up for them on their computers, too.
They have been at it ALL WEEKEND, and are making all kinds of cool landscapes and backgrounds for their computers, even though I can barely offer any help or advice. It’s potentially quite complicated, but it’s still easy to just point and click and play around and come up with something just…neat.
ANYway, I really think a lot of people will like playing with this, and I wanted to share. You can google for the download if you like, but I will include a link to the site that I know also has the serial code right there with it.
When you first start it up, after installing, it asks for name, and a serial number; just cut and paste into the number area, and Bob’s your uncle. That’s it, that’s all, it’s completely legitimate and free and easy and a whole lot of fun.
I rememebr when Bryce was first introduced, and thought it was neat then. Never could justify the cost, but now tha there is a free version will have to check it out.
I’ve used Bryce for years (never paid for it - always one version or another from computer magazine covermount discs). Does this latest free offering still feature the intuitive User Interface designed by Kai Krause?
I…don’t know. >.< It seems to be similar, maybe the same, as the version I used a long, long time ago. I know there’s no watermarking or anything. I could post a screenshot, if that would help. http://i46.tinypic.com/16hp6ol.jpg
I had a housemate who could actually use Bryce. I mean, I can use Bryce to make cool looking landscapes but about 80% of what I come up with is the result of random “gee let’s try this” fooling around. He used Bryce to make 3D models of absolutely anything. If your advertisement needed a slightly rusty 1987 Chevrolet Camaro slewing around a muddy dirt road with pine trees waving in the wind directly overhead, being chased by a 27 foot tall kangaroo dressed in khakis and WW I style flight goggles and weilding a Home Depot garden hose, he’d be the person you’d pay to do the ad and he’d do it all in Bryce.
That’s the one - Kai designed those onscreen joystick-style controls.
Fun thing to try with Bryce: Set up two flat mirror objects parallel to one another, then position the camera between them to get the ‘infinite tunnel’ effect, except you’ll notice that the tunnel turns abruptly black a short way in - this is caused by a limit (there has to be one) in the number of reflections that the raytracing engine will calculate.
