Monday, August 19th, 2019 Posted by Jim Thacker

e-on software ships Vue R3 and PlantFactory R3


e-on software has released the latest versions of its digital nature tools, Vue and PlantFactory, referred to variously as the ‘August 2019’ updates, or Vue R3 and PlantFactory R3.

Landscape creation tool Vue R3 gets a new orthogonal projection camera for rendering architectural scenes, while both applications get improved support for Substance materials.

The updates are the second to the software since Vue switched from its old system of separate perpetual licences to subscription-only product bundles with quarterly updates last year.

Vue R3: new orthographic camera, support for V-Ray Next
The main new feature in the update is the new orthogonal projection camera in Vue R3, shown in the video above, and intended for rendering architectural scenes, or for previewing game levels.

Feature updates include support for ice rings and rainbow effects when using the photometric atmospheric rendering model, and autoconversion of gamma settings when importing old Vue scene files.

The Vue plugins for 3ds Max and Maya are also now natively compatible with V-Ray Next, the current version of Chaos Group’s popular production renderer.

Other than that, the changes are primarily workflow and performance improvements, including a new export progress bar and “much faster” reading and writing of large Maya scenes.

Both applications: better support for Substance materials, changes to trial licenses
Both Vue R3 and PlantFactory R3 get improved support for materials in Substance format, including support for opacity maps.

Scenes created in either application using a trial licence can also now be read by a commercial licence installed on the same machine.

PlantFactory R3 also now generates normal maps when exporting plants as billboards: although again, its changes are largely bugfixes, workflow and performance updates.

Pricing and availability
The latest versions of Vue and PlantFactory are available for 64-bit Windows 7+ and macOS 10.13+ as rental-only product bundles.

A Professional subscription costs $75/month or $750/year, while an Enterprise plan costs $99/month or $990/year for node-locked software licences; $1,490/year for floating licences.

Both include integration plugins for Maya 2015+, 3ds Max 2015+, Cinema 4D R15+, and LightWave 11.6+.

A Creator subscription, which includes the software’s core tools, but lacks any export options or Python scripting, costs $19.95/month or $199/year. You can see a comparison chart here.


Read an overview of the new features in Vue R3 and PlantFactory R3 on e-on software’s website

Read a full list of new features in Vue R3 and PlantFactory R3 in the online changelog