Vue 7 by e-on software released

E-on software has released a new version of their landscape modelling and visualization software vue. According to the offical feature list a number of key methods and technologies have been improved significantly. Amongst the features are ecosystem models, volumetric clouds, tree generation, global ilumination, etc.

A look inside their gallery shows some very detailed and realistic scenes, e.g. the Picture of the Day, Wednesday, December 10, 2008.

Jungle by Maciek Sikora
"Jungle" by Maciek Sikora

I have made some tests with an earlier Version in 2004 and I have to say that it was a lot of fun to work with vue. The main problem was to integrate GIS data and to create realisitc plant distributions. I wonder if this has changed by now, because the visual quality which can be achieved is very impressive.

Sketchup 7 is out now

According to Google, the new publisher of Sketchup, version 7 is out now (Source: Official Google Blog). Among the various new features, the possiblity to assign dynamic behaviour and attributes (only the Pro version) seems particularly interesting to me. In consequence, the construction of semantic models with Sketchup is getting another step closer.

VNS 3

The new VNS version 3 is out now. Details on the upgrade are on: http://3dnature.com/vns3.html