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Vue 7 xStream and Infinite shipping now

e-on Software today released Vue 7 xStream and Vue 7 Infinite. Vue is a 3D landscape generation product that has been used on many features including Pirates of the Caribbean 2 and 3. Infinite is the stand-alone version and xStream integrates fully into 3D modeling packages such as Maya and Cinema 4D.

The best feature in my opinion is the Ecosystem technology. This allows you to change a few parameters and automatically create a forest or some grassland or a desert, complete with random plants and rocks. Each object is varied slightly to give the impression that each rock and tree is completely unique. This makes it very realistic. It can also be used for other tasks, such as the vast robot army in the Vue 7 trailer.

Vue 7 takes this even further with Ecosystem III, which intelligently places objects according to the shape of the terrain. For example, it places fewer trees on a slope than on a flat area, as they would grow in reality. You can also create dynamic Ecosystems that stretch into the horizon without slowing your machine to a crawl. The Ecosystem Painter gives you precise control over your Ecosystem.

What's great about Vue is just how much you get "for free". If you add an Ecosystem to your terrain and then create some global wind, the plants will animate realistically with no input from you. Animating the sun and clouds creates realistic shadows on the terrain below.

There's also Solid Growth IV which minimizes flicker on far-off vegetation, the ability to render 360 degree panoramas (I love this), and something I've been waiting for - a water editor. Water was always pretty realistic but now you have a lot more control. You can now import camera tracking information from Boujou, MatchMover and SynthEyes (but not PFTrack it would seem) which is a big bonus.

Finally, it incorporates a new OpenGL engine that can render up to 4 times faster and the application has been optimized to take full advantage of multi-core systems.

e-on has released a cool trailer showing what Vue 7 can do. Well worth checking out.