Bryce 5.5

In order to appeal to the lucrative Cad market, most 3D graphics programs concentrate on modelling - designing complex 3D objects such as buildings and cars.

The developers of Bryce, in their wonderfully eccentric way, have always gone in a different direction. The software concentrates almost entirely on creating 3D landscapes full of trees, hills, fluffy clouds and snowy mountaintops. In other words, it is targeted at those who are more interested in art than the stuffy old Cad market, which is probably why it's spent the past few years being passed from one developer to another.

Thankfully, it has now found a home with 3D specialist Daz, which has upgraded it and cut the price. This isn't a massive upgrade, but it does have at least one feature that is long overdue.

Bryce can create very complex 3D scenes but, in the past, previewing options have always been slow and limited. This version uses the OpenGL features of your PC's graphics card to provide faster and more realistic previews, so you can see materials, such as rocks and snow, as you apply them to objects within scenes.

Rendering times for finished scenes have also been improved, and there's a new option that allows you to import additional 3D objects, such as human figures, that have been created with any of Daz's other 3D programs.

Best of all is the low price. It means anyone interested in 3D graphics can buy Bryce and spend hours doodling around with its amazing tools.

System requirements:

• Windows NT, 2000 and XP
• 500MHz processor
• 512MB Ram
• 100MB hard disk

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