can you recommend a good & fast renderer?

[Grafixman]

You're right. Jens should seriously consider Messiah. It looks like one kickass renderer.

[jens g.r. benthien]

Hi guys,

thanks a lot for your info. I've dl Vue 5 Studio Demo and all I can say is: awesome! Though it doesn't have a displacement option, the renderer is FASSSST, even with radiosity. At least 5 times faster than Cinema with radiosity. And it supports OpenGL to the max, which is perfect with my monster ATI graphic card in the laptop. With 2 GB RAM and a 1.7 MHz Pentium M it doesn't require long coffee breaks.

If you are on a broadband connection, you should do yourself a favour and dl their movie:

http://www.e-onsoftware.com/Products...te_480x270.avi

You need the DivX 5 plug-in for the media player, but hell, it's worth it. Really breathtaking.

For architectural purposes it's great because of the very realistic plants which you can just drag and drop into the scene. Stunning.

I didn't say I want a free renderer - as good as POVRay is, I don't have the time to crack my fingers on the command line for the shaders.

The best rendere is Renderman in regards of precision, speed and handling, but it's kind of out of reach at this very moment - I don't have US$ 3.000 laying around on the floor.

For a real good tool I'm willing to spend up to 1.500 US$ or Euros.

Maxwell renderer: yes, looks good, but I don't want to pay for an alpha product. A Demo is what I need to evaluate the critical points in a software.

I'll keep you posted and let you know on which solution I will sink my funds

[jens g.r. benthien]

Mike,

your post from yesterday disappeared - what's wrong with the forum software?

Ok, I've dl the Messiah demo but couldn't handle it. It's totally different to operate compared to Rhino, Sketchup, Cinema etc - the GUI is very sleek and modern, but far from being intuitive. I couldn't even manage to get the camera out of my model.

So far I'm tending to Vue, because it's easy to operate, fast, offers the plants for site environments and has fantastic render options - the ambient and environmental rendering is very close to radiosity but yet fast enough.

In addition I've contacted Maxon for the render options in C4D and they sent me some good tricks for the renders, which are NOT mentioned anywhere in the manual. With the new settings I could reduce the rendering time for one particular pic down to 9 minutes from 79 minutes - that's something. But of course still no trees...

Flamingo for Rhino: maybe interesting in version 5, but not at this moment. Now that Rhino comes up with animation I'm not sure about the future of it (they should stick to their core competence and not fool around with features that others have implemented in a better way).

BTW, instead of spending the money on Flamingo, you could use Rhinoman and 3Delight - a first class free rendering solution compatible to Renderman - only the materials/shaders need a lot of manual coding. 3Delight is fast and delivers superb results if you don't need bitmap textures.

[Mike Bailey]

So far I'm tending to Vue, because it's easy to operate, fast, offers the plants for site environments and has fantastic render options - the ambient and environmental rendering is very close to radiosity but yet fast enough.

Hi jens, You can't go wrong with Vue 5, plus, all the other goodies are iceing on the cake.
Vue 5 infinity gives you several more options than Pro studio, there's a comparison list on the Vue site.

When you open the atmosphere editor (F4), there is a button to turn on global radiosity.

[Mike Bailey]

Here is a couple of primitives rendered with 1 light source, Global radiosity and soft shadows, the images are actual rendered size, Vue does a good job of rendering small images.

[Mike Bailey]

Same lighting, I used an eco system material, a goodie thats inside Vue 5 Infinity.

[Mike Bailey]

3Delight is fast and delivers superb results if you don't need bitmap textures.

Daz Studio (Free from Daz Productions) uses 3Delight rendering engine.

I couldn't even manage to get the camera out of my model.

I think the demo is just the animation software, I didn't see the renderer as a demo download. The camera may be disabled.
I haven't tried the demo as its new and I will have to download in the late night when I can let it ride for a couple of hours. I don't have broadband.

[rssk]

In addition I've contacted Maxon for the render options in C4D and they sent me some good tricks for the renders, which are NOT mentioned anywhere in the manual. With the new settings I could reduce the rendering time for one particular pic down to 9 minutes from 79 minutes - that's something. But of course still no trees...

Any chance you might be able to pass on the tricks from Maxon? Anything that speeds up renders will be a godsend.

[jens g.r. benthien]

Bummer!

I've made a test rendering with C4D and Vue 5, where I tried my very best to apply identical setttings and the identical scene. I exported the scene as a wavefront file and imported it into Vue 5 Studio.

Rendered in C4D with Radiosity and in Vue 5 with Superior, Radiosity, Soft Shadows.

The results speak for themselves: C4D does a better job. Hell, I didn't trust my eyes on the artifacts Vue 5 produced.

This is the C4D rendering - completed in 1:16 @ 640 x 480:

[jens g.r. benthien]

This is the Vue 5 Studio rendering - completed in 2:28 @ 640 x 480: