sliske :: e-on VUE and PlantFactory are now abandonware.

Image source: CGW 2013.
This page has been cross-posted to Pillowfort and Tumblr.

Apparently e-on VUE and PlantFactory have been abandoned as of May 2024. Their current owner, Bentley Systems, has made them free-to-download with the following notes (that I have slightly edited for clarity):

You may use the programs commercially. This includes any renderings created with VUE and PlantFactory or assets exported from this software. You may retexture, remodel and resell any of the stock content which ships with VUE and PlantFactory. This includes both meshes and textures.

Despite PlantCatalog also being freeware, all pre-made plant models therein are copyrighted by Bentley Systems. You may use the models commercially (e.g., embed them into games, share them with clients, or embed them into project files) and you may create renderings, both still or animated, using PlantCatalog models.

However, you may not individually resell any models derived from PlantCatalog content on marketplaces. If you want to sell individual or packaged plant models, you may create your own models from scratch in PlantFactory while making sure to not use any textures or metanodes from pre-made PlantCatalog plants.

Recommended system specs:

• Windows 64 bit (Windows 8, Windows 10, or Windows 11), macOS 10.14-12
• 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)

I must stress how ridiculously useful this is for terrain and vegetation creation. The previous commercial license for smaller teams ran $75 per month or $750 per year. The development team's videos are still up on YouTube, including tutorials and old example reels and such. Go look.