| Lighting | Vue 7.5 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Atmosphere | Vue 7.5 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Extremely detailed Spectral 3 cloud system (for cloud layers and MetaClouds) | - | • |
| Realistic cloud shadowing on objects as well as internal shadowing | - | • |
| EcoSystems | Vue 7.5 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Vegetation | Vue 7.5 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Ultra-realistic SolidGrowth vegetation | 160+ species | 170+ species |
| Terrains | Vue 7.5 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Sculpt terrains in all directions | - | • |
| Create overhangs and grottoes | - | • |
| Sculpt, inflate, free form and smooth brushes | - | • |
| User definable brush tip profile | - | • |
| Automatic subdivision of terrain geometry when sculpting | - | • |
| Adaptive subdivision adds polygons only where needed | - | • |
| Edit terrains in context (view entire scene in editor) | - | • |
| Option to view terrain clipping planes in editor | - | • |
| Option to display the terrain with a shiny surface to enhance details | - | • |
| Constrain painting and effects to clipping zone | - | • |
| Option to display the terrain in wireframe mode to view polygons | - | • |
| Create edition "zones" to modify procedural terrains locally | - | • |
| Create nested "zones" to build massive detail where needed | - | • |
| Erosion types | 8 | 9 |
| Stratified terrains thanks to the recursive strata filters | - | • |
| Modeling | Vue 7.5 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Rendering | Vue 7.5 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Generate color and alpha masks for Global EcoSystem instances | - | • |
| The total amount of RAM allocated to displacement mapping is adjustable | - | • |
| Images can be saved to disk at regular (user definable) intervals during render | - | • |
| Dual destination render option (e.g. display to screen while rendering to disk) | - | • |
| Generate detailed log files during network rendering | - | • |
| Materials | Vue 7.5 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Material presets | Over 530 | Over 550 |
| Separate bump and displacement channels | - | • |
| Constrained displacement (horizontal, vertical, etc) | - | • |
| Ability to control the direction of displacement through the material graph | - | • |
| Displacement smoothing to eliminate noisy displacement artifacts | - | • |
| Normal mapping | - | • |
| Recursive strata and constrained strata filters for stratified effects | - | • |
| Direct access to the alpha channel in the Advanced Material editor | - | • |
| Per material texture anti-aliasing quality boost | - | • |
| Per material simplification of sub-ray effect calculation | - | • |
| Planetary mapping node with ability to set location of origin (latitude and longitude) | - | • |
| Animation | Vue 7.5 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Create custom rigged mesh animations | - | • |
| User Interface | Vue 7.5 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Direct re-posing of rigged meshes | - | • |
| Support for mesh morphs | - | • |
| Select and manipulate bones directly in views | - | • |
| Manipulate bones numerically using the Skeleton editor | - | • |
| Support for wired helpers | - | • |
| Highly optimized mesh skinning for fast refresh during animation scrubbing | - | • |
| Python nodes that can execute Python code inside graphs, with user definable inputs and outputs | - | • |
| Global EcoSystem visible as proxy object in World Browser | - | • |
| Select and delete Global EcoSystem instances with one click | - | • |
| Format specific options accessible through a special button in Save file box, and no longer prompted for each time | - | • |
| Adjustable separator in Timeline to change width of animated items list | - | • |
| Material preview option which displays materials mapped onto a small terrain object | - | • |
| Name of atmosphere appears in Atmosphere editor caption | - | • |
| Name of edited function appears in Function editor caption | - | • |
| Real-Time Preview | Vue 7.5 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Choice of 3 OpenGL engines: shader based, fixed pipeline and software provide optimal quality/compatibility options | - | • |
| Shader-based OpenGL engine maximizes efficiency and visual accuracy on high-end GPUs | - | • |
| Preview specular highlights in real time | - | • |
| Preview EcoSystem instances as shaded billboards | - | • |
| Dynamically populated EcoSystems around the camera can be viewed in viewports | - | • |
| Control minimum size and maximum number of dynamic EcoSystem instances previewed | - | • |
| Selection wireframe color is user definable | - | • |
| Highlighted material selection wireframe color is user definable | - | • |
| Bone highlight color is user definable | - | • |
| Rendered images can be displayed in the background of all viewports | - | • |
| Camera mapping preview in real time preview | - | • |
| Import/Export | Vue 7.5 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Support for Poser 8 | - | • |
| Support for rigged Collada meshes | - | • |
| 32 bit resolution, floating point EXR import and export | - | • |
| System Resource Management | Vue 7.5 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| User definable maximum video board memory usage | - | • |
| Miscellaneous | Vue 7.5 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Terrainscapes preset terrain material library | - | • |
| Optimized for PowerPC and Intel Macs | • | Mac Intel only |
| Documentation | 630 page manual | 668 page manual |
| Media | 2 CDs | 1 Application CD + 1 Extras DVD |
Vue 8 Infinite - Feature List |
| Lighting | Vue 7 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Atmosphere | Vue 7 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Extremely detailed Spectral 3 cloud system (for cloud layers and MetaClouds) | - | • |
| Realistic cloud shadowing on objects as well as internal shadowing | - | • |
| Automatic detail refining for very close-up clouds | - | • |
| Cloud anisotropy setting for advanced control of internal light scattering | - | • |
| Create spherical cloud layers at the surface of your planets | - | • |
| Import real-world cloud density data to recreate existing cloudscapes | - | • |
| Add tornadoes using your favorite paint tool | - | • |
| Efficient model for cross-shadowing of objects on clouds | With 7.4 update | • |
| EcoSystems | Vue 7 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Multi-processor EcoSystem population | With 7.4 update | • |
| Vegetation | Vue 7 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Ultra-realistic SolidGrowth vegetation | 160+ species | 170+ species |
| Terrains | Vue 7 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Sculpt terrains in all directions | - | • |
| Create overhangs and grottoes | - | • |
| Sculpt, inflate, free form and smooth brushes | - | • |
| User definable brush tip profile | - | • |
| Automatic subdivision of terrain geometry when sculpting | - | • |
| Adaptive subdivision adds polygons only where needed | - | • |
| Edit terrains in context (view entire scene in editor) | - | • |
| Option to view terrain clipping planes in editor | - | • |
| Option to display the terrain with a shiny surface to enhance details | - | • |
| Constrain painting and effects to clipping zone | - | • |
| Option to display the terrain in wireframe mode to view polygons | - | • |
| Create edition "zones" to modify procedural terrains locally | - | • |
| Create nested "zones" to build massive detail where needed | - | • |
| Paint material distributions at the surface of terrains | With 7.4 update | • |
| Import, view and edit distribution maps in the Terrain Editor | With 7.4 update | • |
| Terrain effects optionally affect material distribution map | With 7.4 update | • |
| Erosion types | 8 | 9 |
| Infinite procedural terrains | - | • |
| Planetary terrain rendering | - | • |
| Flat, spherical and planetary procedural terrains | - | • |
| Switch between flat, spherical and planetary terrains (geometry may be affected) | - | • |
| Multi-processor procedural terrain construction | With 7.4 update | • |
| Stratified terrains thanks to the recursive strata filters | - | • |
| Modeling | Vue 7 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Rendering | Vue 7 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Create a separate color and alpha mask of clouds | - | • |
| Generate color and alpha masks for Global EcoSystem instances | - | • |
| Hide objects from render and disable lights by clicking their icon in World Browser | Optional with 7.4 update | Optional |
| Multi-processor panoramic rendering | With 7.4 update | • |
| Easy-to-use camera mapping for retro projection of renders onto simplified geometry | - | • |
| The total amount of RAM allocated to displacement mapping is adjustable | - | • |
| Images can be saved to disk at regular (user definable) intervals during render | - | • |
| Dual destination render option (e.g. display to screen while rendering to disk) | - | • |
| Generate detailed log files during network rendering | - | • |
| Materials | Vue 7 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Material presets | Over 530 | Over 550 |
| Separate bump and displacement channels | - | • |
| Constrained displacement (horizontal, vertical, etc) | - | • |
| Ability to control the direction of displacement through the material graph | - | • |
| Displacement smoothing to eliminate noisy displacement artifacts | - | • |
| Normal mapping | - | • |
| Recursive strata and constrained strata filters for stratified effects | - | • |
| Direct access to the alpha channel in the Advanced Material editor | - | • |
| Per material texture anti-aliasing quality boost | - | • |
| Per material simplification of sub-ray effect calculation | - | • |
| Planetary mapping node with ability to set location of origin (latitude and longitude) | - | • |
| Animation | Vue 7 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Save and reload entire object graphs in a single file | - | • |
| EcoSystem populations can be made to evolve over time | - | • |
| Create custom rigged mesh animations | - | • |
| User Interface | Vue 7 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Direct re-posing of rigged meshes | - | • |
| Support for mesh morphs | - | • |
| Select and manipulate bones directly in views | - | • |
| Manipulate bones numerically using the Skeleton editor | - | • |
| Support for wired helpers | - | • |
| Highly optimized mesh skinning for fast refresh during animation scrubbing | - | • |
| Spherical abstraction gizmos | - | • |
| Dynamic spherical terrain unwrapping allows easy object placement | - | • |
| Save individual G-Buffer channels directly from the interface | - | • |
| Python nodes that can execute Python code inside graphs, with user definable inputs and outputs | - | • |
| Automatic renaming of Standalone- and HyperVue-generated frames if overwriting | With 7.4 update | • |
| Automatic renaming of RenderNode-generated frames if overwriting | With 7.4 update | • |
| Global EcoSystem visible as proxy object in World Browser | - | • |
| Select and delete Global EcoSystem instances with one click | - | • |
| Format specific options accessible through a special button in Save file box, and no longer prompted for each time | - | • |
| Adjustable separator in Timeline to change width of animated items list | - | • |
| Material preview option which displays materials mapped onto a small terrain object | - | • |
| Name of atmosphere appears in Atmosphere editor caption | - | • |
| Name of edited function appears in Function editor caption | - | • |
| Real-Time Preview | Vue 7 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Choice of 3 OpenGL engines: shader based, fixed pipeline and software provide optimal quality/compatibility options | - | • |
| Shader-based OpenGL engine maximizes efficiency and visual accuracy on high-end GPUs | - | • |
| Preview specular highlights in real time | - | • |
| Preview EcoSystem instances as shaded billboards | - | • |
| Dynamically populated EcoSystems around the camera can be viewed in viewports | - | • |
| Control minimum size and maximum number of dynamic EcoSystem instances previewed | - | • |
| Sky preview with clouds | With 7.4 update | • |
| Realistic MetaCloud preview | With 7.4 update | • |
| Realistic sun shadows | - | • |
| Colored EcoSystem instance preview | - | • |
| Dynamic plant display optimization | With 7.4 update | • |
| Selection wireframe color is user definable | - | • |
| Highlighted material selection wireframe color is user definable | - | • |
| Bone highlight color is user definable | - | • |
| Rendered images can be displayed in the background of all viewports | - | • |
| Camera mapping preview in real time preview | - | • |
| Import/Export | Vue 7 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Support for Poser 8 | - | • |
| Support for rigged Collada meshes | - | • |
| Support for Sketchup 7 (Win 32 only) | With 7.4 update | • |
| 32 bit resolution, floating point EXR import and export | - | • |
| System Resource Management | Vue 7 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| User definable maximum video board memory usage | - | • |
| Miscellaneous | Vue 7 Infinite | Vue 8 Infinite |
| Terrainscapes preset terrain material library | - | • |
| Optimized for PowerPC and Intel Macs | • | Mac Intel only |
| Documentation | 630 page manual | 668 page manual |
| Media | 2 CDs | 1 Application CD + 1 Extras DVD |
