Ease of Use:  

Last year's review knocked Realtime Landscaping Plus for not having "all the extra bells and whistles" of a competitor's product. While technically true it was a little misleading, and we noted that Realtime Landscaping Plus had it where it counts.

It still does, and IDEA Spectrum have made us eat our words about bells and whistles. They have managed to add a boatload of new features to Realtime Landscaping PLUS 5 and still keep the same easy and dare we say, fun interface. We'll reuse some of last year's corny copy, because it still rings true:

Realtime Landscaping PLUS 5 is as easy as one two three, and as pretty as a picture. In no other software we tested could we create such staggeringly beautiful designs in so little time. It costs slightly more than the rest, but in our opinion it’s more than worth it.

Like the name implies, everything is done realtime and in 3D. Even on our slower systems, Realtime Landscaping Plus ran surprisingly fast, and rendering times were many times less and still produced a much more smooth video than competing software.

Features & Tools:  

Some software companies, regardless of their market, seem to “pile on” feature after feature after feature, resulting in complicated and unwieldy interfaces that hide core functionality and useful extras. IDEA Spectrum cleverly packed Realtime Landscaping Plus 5 with over 200 more 3D accessories and over 20 new features, and still kept their software still infinitely simple, with the most desirable tools for both novice and pro alike front and center.

Last year's version of Realtime Landscaping PLUS made it clear that additional 3D objects were free and a few clicks away in Google's 3D Warehouse. We took advantage of that and made several "serious" landscape projects, but also made some fun ones featuring spaceships, sci-fi battle tanks and more. Many design products allow importing of 3D objects, but a lot of novice users haven’t the slightest clue where to obtain them. We had a great time downloading models and tossing them into the 3D playground. For professionals, the ability to grab free, high quality models can help impress the most distinguishing clients.

If for some reason Google doesn’t have a 3D model you like, you can import a picture using the Import Photo Wizard, or IDEA Spectrum would even create a model for you for a reasonable fee. This year Realtime Landscaping PLUS 5 has an integrated set of 3D modeling tools that are surprisingly easy to use. Even if you find the process confusing, IDEA Spectrum have easy to follow tutorials to help you get started.

Anyone familiar with photo editing and illustration programs is also familiar with the concept of layers, and while other programs can divide up the design into nicely layered chunks, it can be a pain to set it up. Realtime Landscaping Plus makes it a snap to add, modify, and delete layers at will.

Whether you have a large yard with multiple acres to landscape, or the smalles lot your city's zoning ordinances will allow, you need the ability to add rows of various plants easily, without having to tediously add one at a time. Version 5 now has convenient Plant Fill and Plant Row tools, for adding multiple plant varieties to an area. The Plant Row tool lets you add rows of trees along a driveway or property boundary, flowers along edging, and more.

When editing images or even home videos, you can often apply artistic styles to make them resemble real world art. Realtime Landscaping PLUS 5 can do the same, unleashing your inner Monet with impressionistic rendering styles, and other effects like watercolor and colored pencil.

Obviously this doesn’t cover everything unique to and uniquely brilliant about Realtime Landscaping Plus, so if you have more questions, feel free to check out IDEA Spectrum’s Landscaping Plus Tutorials.