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Pricing, Licensing & FAQ

Artwork by Alen Vejzovic

Find The Right Product

On this page, you will find detailed information about our licensing and pricing systems, the difference between the Creator and Professional versions, system requirements and the most frequently asked questions. If you need further assistance, please contact us.

VUE & PlantFactory Creator and Professional

 
VUE is bundled with PlantFactory. You can choose between VUE & PlantFactory Creator and VUE & PlantFactory Professional. Both Creator and Professional include all core features of each product.
 
In Creator, export of any VUE assets or scenes is not available and render size within VUE and PlantFactory is limited to 4k. The VUE and PlantFactory integration plugins are not included. Render Cows for network rendering of VUE scenes are limited to five. Creator is an affordable alternative to Professional if you do not plan to use VUE & PlantFactory in conjunction with other softwares.
 
Professional includes all export functionalities and integration plugins for both VUE and PlantFactory and it has no render size and Render Cow limit. Further, you can extend VUE by utilizing a Python API. For a detailed comparison between VUE Creator and Professional, check out the comparison chart below.
 
In addition to these two versions, we offer an Enterprise Solution which is a bundle of the Professional version of VUE & PlantFactory as well as full access to our PlantCatalog library. The PlantCatalog is a separate product and can also be purchased standalone at a later time with no financial penalties. For more information about PlantCatalog, please visit our PlantCatalog page here.

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VUE Comparison Chart
Feature / Category Creator Solution Professional Solution Enterprise Solution
Terrains
Heightfield terrains
Procedural terrains
Infinite terrains
Planetary terrains
Real-world terrains
3D terrain sculpting
Terrain export
EcoSystem instancing technology
Material-based EcoSystems
Global EcoSystems
Dynamic EcoSystems
360° EcoSystem Population
Paint EcoSystem instances
EcoParticles
Export EcoSystem populations
Vegetation
Built-in Plant editor
Compatible with PlantFactory
Vegetation assets Over 175 Over 175 Over 175
Atmosphere, Skies and Clouds
Standard atmospheric model
Spectral atmospheric model
Photometric atmospheric model
Atmosphere presets Over 160 Over 160 Over 160
Procedural Volumetric 3D cloud layers
Standalone 3D Metaclouds
Convert meshes to Clouds
Cloud morphing
Import OpenVDB
Export standalone and cloud layer zones to OpenVDB
Export skies as HDRI
Modeling
Primitive and Boolean modeling
3D Text edition tool
Metablobbing
Hyperblobs
Export baked hyperblobs
Splines
Built in Road Construction toolkit
Random rock generator
Export rocks
Texturing and UVs
Material presets Over 600 Over 600 Over 600
PBR
Substance support
Node-based procedural materials
Volumetric materials and Hypertextures
Stacked UVs
Unwrapped UVs
Ptex
Interoperability, integration and export
Export single assets to generic 3D formats
Full scene export
Integration plugins
Import and Export Camera data as FBX and Nuke.chan
Python API
ZBrush GoZ bridge
Animation
Animate objects, materials, atmospheres, clouds, waves...
Automatic wind and breeze
Localized wind effects per plant / per EcoSystem population
Omni and directional ventilators for local modifications of plants
Time spline editor
Automatic keyframe creation
Automatic synchronization of cameras and lights
Animation export as AfterEffects
Import motion tracking information
Lighting
Global illumination, Global Radiosity, Ambient occlusion
Subsurface Scattering
HDRI image based lighting
Point light, Quadratic point light, Spotlight, Quadratic spotlight, Directional light
Use IES distribution profiles on photometric lights
Area lights, light panels, light portals
Physically accurate caustics computation
Rendering
Render with Ray Tracer yes (limited to 4k resolution max) yes (unlimited resolution) yes (unlimited resolution)
Render with Path Tracer yes (limited to 4k resolution max) yes (unlimited resolution) yes (unlimited resolution)
Stereoscopic rendering
360/180 VR Panorama Render Option
Spherical panoramic rendering
Tone mapping options
Multipass & G-Buffer
Network rendering with HyperVue / RenderCows 5 unlimited unlimited
Network rendering with RenderNodes no Upon Request 25 included
PlantCatalog
Includes access to the full PlantCatalog

Licensing Options

 
We offer monthly and annual licenses for each of our solutions. This system is very flexible and easy to use, because it allows you to mix and match license types as needed without the need to deal with the difficulties of upgrades or sidegrades. For example, if you need a feature from the Professional version for a specific project, you can purchase a monthly Professional license while keeping your annual Creator license untouched and running. Each license you purchase is separate and does not affect any other already purchased license in any way.
 
Monthly licenses auto-renew each month until cancelled and are billed monthly. Annual licenses do not renew automatically after a year and cost less per year than monthly licenses. Annual licenses can be also installed on two distinct machines.
 
Annual licenses can be activated at any time. They are not tied to the day of purchase. This allows to purchase multiple annual licenses in advance and only activate them once you need them.
 
Licenses are available as both floating (for Enterprise only) and node-locked.

Pricing

VUE & PlantFactory Creator Solution

Includes VUE and PlantFactory with all creative features – an affordable solution for all artists who work, design and render mainly inside of VUE & PlantFactory. Available as node-locked license only.

Annual license
$199 per year.
Save two months compared to a monthly license.
Buy Creator Annual
Monthly license
$19.95 per month
Buy Creator Monthly

VUE & PlantFactory Professional Solution

Includes VUE and PlantFactory with export functionalities, unlimited render size, multipass and integration plugins – a solution for seamless pipeline integration. Available as node-locked license only.

Annual license
$750 per year.
Save two months compared to a monthly license.
Buy Professional Annual
Monthly license
$75 per month
Buy Professional Monthly

VUE & PlantFactory Enterprise Solution

Bundles VUE, PlantFactory, 25 RenderNodes Network Rendering licenses, and the PlantCatalog – an ever-growing library of vegetation species. Available as floating (upon request) and node-locked licenses.

Annual license
$999 per year.
Save two months compared to a monthly license.
Buy Enterprise Annual
Monthly license
$99 per month
Buy Enterprise Monthly

FAQ

 
We are currently updating our FAQs and will have VUE-specific answers on this page very soon. In the meantime, please head over to our global FAQ section. There, you will find answers to both licensing and VUE questions, including backwards compatibility with older versions.

System Requirements

VUE is a 64-bit application, designed for 64-bit versions of Windows 8, Windows 10 and Intel Mac OS X 10.10+ platforms. Like all 3D packages, it is highly demanding in terms of computer power. Although the application is totally multi-threaded to ensure the smoothest possible response, you must realize that there is a lot going on when you work in VUE.

 

Recommended System Specs

  • Windows 64 bit (Windows 8 or Windows 10), Mac OS 10.13-11*,

  • Multi-core CPU (Intel Core I7, I9, AMD Ryzen or Mac Pro), AVX compliant,

  • 8GB+ of RAM,

  • 4GB+ of free Hard Disk space (on the drive hosting the OS),

  • We recommend a graphics card containing at least 4 GB of VRAM with a 3D Mark score of 10,000 or better.

 

Compatible Hosts:

  • Autodesk MAYA 2016-2020 (Win/Mac)

  • Autodesk 3ds Max 2015-2021

  • Maxon Cinema 4D R16-R23 (Win/Mac)

  • Newtek Lightwave 11.6-2020

*Please note that VUE and PlantFactory 2021.1+ will only run on the ARM based Apple computers through Rosetta 2 at this time.

Supported Render Engines

The convert tool for 3DS Max, Cinema 4D and Maya supports automatic material creation for the following render engines:
3DS Max:

  • V-Ray 5 and older for 3DS Max
  • Arnold for 3DS Max
  • Scanline & ART renderer
 
Cinema 4D:

  • V-Ray 5 and older for C4D
  • Arnold for C4D
  • C4D standard and physical renderer
 
Maya:

  • V-Ray 5 and older for Maya
  • Arnold for Maya
  • Maya Software renderer
 
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