The more I play with Carrara, Hexagon 2 and Daz Studio, the more I would like to see certain components intergraded. Here is my wish list for add-ons or Carrara 6

1)      3D paint similar to Hex 2 but with brush modifiers (Smudge, Blur, Sharpen) and the option to resize a texture from within the program.

2)      Character animation tools like Pantomime this really works well for me, maybe as a new setup room.

3)      DirectX load and save options and DX9 shaders.

4)      Improved sound support like attaching a sound to an object, setting up virtual microphones and 3d sound out put.

5)      True volume materials similar to Cinema’s SLA shaders.

6)      And of course Cloth, Hair and liquid.

7)      Scripting language.

I hope most of 6 will be implemented but would sure like to see 3, 4 and 7. What would other people like to see?

ide be happy with just six, as for the sound stuff, learn some sound enganerring and you'll never need it

Have you looked at primivol? Didn't you ask about the demo? 1,6, 7 have definitely been talked about and I understand are planned in that direction. Hopefully existing D|S plugin devs can get the sdk and start trying to port plugins. I don't see that kind of sound dev, at least not for awhile. Maybe some mixing, but there are areas that need some improving that are more in carrara's true area. Like better shader management and some improvements in animation tools.

Not much of a sound person, I have C4D ce+ and currently does all my sound stuff in there as it does what I would like to see in Carrara. I have purchased a lot of software to address these features but would like to start eliminating some of them in preference of using just one or two programs.

As Carrara is the one I feel the most comfortable with I sure would like to see it happen for this program. 

With that said I have a work around for everything I listed and sure enjoy Carrara as a tool and a toy. (Works both ways) 

I do have to agree 6 would be my choice as the most important; I could live with out the hair as long as I had a solid cloth simulation. (Hair dynamics can always be faked)

The guys at Inagoni recompiled the demo of Primvol for version 5 of Carrara, I have been playing around with it and will purchase it soon, as it seems to do what I want but would like a manual or maybe more examples on animation.

Carrara5 has just about everything I ever dreamed of back when I primarily used Bryce. About the only thing missing from my own previous "want list" is fluid dynamics, or water simulation, but as I get more well-versed in the use of  animated displacement maps and particles this isn't a real lack in Carrara AFAIC. I may change my mind when I start catching-up with some of you guys.

The particles can do a pretty good job on fluid, it is the cloth/fur/hair that needs to happen.
Yeah, the plugin documentation like everything else would be good to have more. You may want to check 3dxtract tho. Great articles in there.

I kinda looked at Pantomine. Powerpose is nice, easier than carrara's method. If Pantomine is that much easier might be worth a look. You could then do a basic animation, as a pz2 and tweak it in Carrara. (At least you should be able to, haven't tried exporting a pz2 animation out of D|S) I have been bringing that one up a bit. :D Carrara's animation tools need to be tweaked a bit. D|S really has great OGL interaction. If Carrara had that, man what a difference. Both need a way to reuse motions.  I don't care for D|S not having a freely available SDK. Anybody know what the fee for that is?

It’s not just the look of liquid but the way different liquid masses react, for example lava behaves different then water as does goo running down a wall. I have a plug-in for Truespace that does a really good job of liquid dynamics and thought with all the advancements in Carrara it would fit well with in their software.

Take a look at www.nextlimit.com maybe this will explain a little more of what it is I would like to see.

I know there is a lot of work arounds for almost any need but I feel that Carrara is so close to giving us the same things that you can only get in higher cost software.

I'm still amazed at the new cloud primitives. The development team is very talented.

The SDK is $995 but there is some kind of deal that after so many sales Daz will refund you money back so long as you sell you product on thier site.

The scripting SDK is free and from what other users have said it works very well.

I knew script sdk was free. That's a bit steep for D|S (a free app) wow. Somehow that makes me doubtful they will get a lot of 3rd party plugin devs. Hope I am wrong. I know what you mean about fluid dynamics. No it is not the same. I have seen some pretty good examples of water doing many things tho in Carrara. Using animated displacement adds alot. Markus did an amazing trailer w/ very realistic waves and spray.

My wishlist for Carrara so far - in general I tend to use simple scenes and models and create the effect with lighting, and this is an area where Carrara is weak IMHO. I'd like to see

• 3D shadows and visiblevolumetric light on bulb and tube lights - there seems to be no way to create e.g. a ball with light streaks coming out of it, without resorting to the glow channel. IF THERE IS A WAY, PLEASE LET ME KNOW.
• use shaders as gels (without having to buy a plugin)

Also, would be good to have fluid simulation.

I thought volumetric light through transparency was implemented in 5.1? Haven’t tried it yet will try it out when I get home.

It was, but the only object that can emit volumetric light (as far as i can see) is a spot light, which isn't much use if you want a spherical light source.

my wish would be for a renderer have the option of using my GPU, not just the CPU
if i dont want to use it, i can uncheck it, but it be nice to have the option, i figure my
high-end gaming cards could get a bit of a boost to render time, especially
when this comp has 4 cards in it =/

My wish would be animate trees/plants with wind effect that works well with cloth, hair, and softskin dynamics too.

Well the wind works well so lets hope for other soft body dynamics.

Wind effect worked on plants in C6 ?

They added a nice wind effect in 5.1 along with  several other enhancements.

So plants have wind effect in C5?

Yes, you can do very nice wind-blown tree effects in Carrara5 Standard, or Pro since the 5.1 patch/update. The AnythingGrows plug in from DCG also lets you animate grass, flowers, or other things by use of a "wiggle shader".

Attached Link: http://www.eovia.com/products/carrara5/carrara_new_features.asp

I noticed that the leaves dont move :-(

Well its my other wish for C6

in 6 I'd like to see a shader that can chage color by proximity to make foam in water that's close to shore for a look like terragen or vue.

I think there is a plugin being worked on now. You might be able to do something like this with a custom shader and the sss proximity plugin. Shoe String Shaders are worth having anyway.

Thanks Renmem for mentioning those shoestring shaders. I demoed them once but din't try the proximity one. May i should look at those again.

ddaydreams, I think the new EnhanceC shaders plugin from Eric at DigitalCarvers Guild includes just what you want.

Attached Link: http://market.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?message_id=2651926&ebot_calc_page#message_2651926

Here is a link to a previous post that included some videos of wind on trees.

Kinda looked like it had everything, but the kitchen sink bwtr. I will have to demo it.

ddaydreams. The water/foam shader  plugin will be soon I hear. Probably called Terrain Tools and from DigitalCarversGuild.  Will be well worth the wait.

heres a nice plugin to make

i run my screen res rather high, and so i get the choice to either render my samples at
a small size (normal size, that the end pic will have, but only 50x50 pixels) and view it
on my monitor, which looks rather small, and not easy to pick out fine details
or use a 2nd camera and zoom in on the object, and render it around 100x100
doing the latter adds render time though, and trying to avoid that

when we render a pic, we can already pan the image around
so how about letting mouse wheel zoom in/out? like most image editing software
i know what enlarging does to a pic, i can easily accept that, but be nice feature

I'm looking forward to that water/foam plug! Thanks for the info.

The water/foam plugin wil be a handy tool.

I have a free version of Worldbuilder 3.6 from a mag and this program will do shoreline foam and wakes around objects.