MapZone

Yes I knew about it but didnt feel right posting about competitive software here
its preaty capable software but the front end is lacking in comparison

Yes, MapZone is a cool thing. I've been following it since it has been announced.

I like their particle engine -- it's not very easy to figure out but is quite powerful. The particle shape and blending mode is hard-coded though, which IMO is a limitation -- but on the other hand this can improve the rendering speed. I wasn't very impressed by their ability to move/scale/rotate individual particles (didn't feel practical to me), but I think this may be important for their target market (game textures generated on demand).

As for the downsides, I think MapZone has several serious problems in the precision department, namely anti-aliasing and color depth (please correct me if I'm wrong here). And the user interface is way too complicated -- I spent several hours just to get started.

I didnt really think of it as competition, just a different tool for the arsenol....but it is safe to say mapzone is not very intuitive.

Rawn