Personal preference for rendering engines

[Gamerprinter]

Well, Gare, you mentioned Corel twice, and honestly, I was a fan and user of Micrografx Designer and Picture Publisher back in the day, I'd used Micrografx for 10 years before and the first years operating a graphic design studio. CorelDraw was in direct competition with Micrografx, and Corel having more money bought them out then flushed Designer and Picture Publisher down the drain. I still used Micrografx for 5 years or so using the last version. I finally moved to Xara X1, rather than to ever look at Corel - they did me wrong, so I was not going to look at their software ever... I don't have anything nice to say about Corel.

[gidgit]

That's so funny, as Simply 3D was our first experience in 3d... We also used the app suite to initially learn web design... haha... I used PhotoImpact back in the day, until I required easier to manipulate vectors, and that's when I started to explore Xara.... likened to Wings is straight forward.... just slightly different lol. But heck yeah, MG had it going on back in the day.... and for 3d font, Simply 3D was superb, in fact I think they started quite a thing for other apps to start in at such a small price point... opened up the market ... Cheers

[theinonen]

I have latest Carrara installed on my computer, but I hate that dark interface and everything is just too small on high resolution displays causing unwanted eye strain.

Realsoft 3D is my personal favourite and is now in version 8, but just for the modelling it is very hard to beat Metasequoia.

[gidgit]

Re- the original question... Carrara is no longer a serious player by today's standards of the big 3D apps, to be sure... This said, for the hobby artist, or small business, in the hands of someone who knows how to bring out it's good features, including rendering, imho, it can still stand the test for many tasks. At a price point of but 105 bucks US, for Carrara 8.5 studio, it's kind of hard not to still carry around in the ole toolbox.

Carrara's dark interface and tiny text? That one is easy, just go into Preferences and change such as to how you like things.

Our oldest son just got into 3D design lately, so we went out and got a couple of new desk top computers, and we have been going over the various app options out there, and wow on all the pricing changes... hmmm.

Realsoft 3D, now there's one we have haven't thought about for quite some time now... just revisited their site, and well, at least one still purchase such lol... judging by their gallery, the renderer in Realsoft looks like a viable option to be sure. At 225 US, not such a big hit to the ole pocket book, if it ends up working for you I suppose
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