mental ray vs. vray

[Eugene Damaso]

I've been working with 3dviz 2005 and mental ray for the past 6 months. I've gotten to the point where I know what I am doing and I know how to get the scene rendered well with materials, lighting and all. But my problem is time. I have found that for myself that mental ray seems a bit time consuming. I've been looking at other posts to see what the opinions are about vray and mental ray and I haven't found too much. I found that there is a preference for vray over mental ray on a poll on this site, but I would like to hear some opinions about the production time of vray vs. mental ray, as well as the it's pros and cons, learning curve etc. I downloaded the free version and found it somewhat simple to navigate through.

[Markus Byron]

Can't say for Vray, at least not yet, but I am currently beginning comparisons between Final Render, Mental Ray, VRay, and, eventually, Brazil.

So far, Final Render is just faster to render and faster to set up (which pretty much confirms what everyone is saying - MR is slower and mroe complex).

But I've only played with MR for a few days, so it'll take more to make a conclusion.


I'd try VRay free/demo, or what ever they have, and ask Turbo Squid for a Final Render demo (fully functional 30 day demo).

[Fernando Lino]

Hi Eugene, I am using finalRender and Vray, both are great tools. fR is pretty fast, you have easier settings to control quality and speed and they are pretty clear, Vray has the way to control that but they have their own vocabulary..., so it took me more time to understand it....Vray has an excellent displacement, and fR has great shaders..I prefer fR for interiors and vray for exteriors...I have tried to use MR, but it's very very slow, and two engines for GI is enought for me!

Good luck!!!

[patrick deno desamparado]

<I started first with mental ray(most of my uploads here are) & later learned vray(latest uploads). Here's my say:
<Although both are realy capable softwares, BUT Vray have an edge in terms of :
<great online references, which leads to
<lesser set up time.

[Eugene Damaso]

Thanks guys for replying to my post. It's interesting because i before you fernando and markus replied, I didn't consider using fR at all. I haven't heard or seen too much on it. It seems to me that Vray is a bit more popular and accessible. But it definitely sounds like if I'm looking to increase my speed that I should dump mental ray. I still have a question about the materials/shaders that come with fR and Vray. Are they equivalent to mental ray shaders? Are they as complex as mr shaders? What is the learning curve like for the two renderers? ... how similar is it to mental ray?... i guess I still have alot of question that could probably be answered by getting demo versions of each and trying them out...that sounds like alot of time

[Markus Byron]

You could try posting on their forums. fR has a 'paid' section and a 'not paid section', so keep in mind that the one you don't see is more extensive than the one that is accessible to everyone.

Here's fR's forum:

http://www.cebas.com/forums/cebas/

Shader post:

http://www.cebas.com/forums/cebas/viewtopic.php?t=1665

Recent renderings I"ve done:

http://www.cebas.com/forums/cebas/viewtopic.php?t=1559

http://www.cebas.com/forums/cebas/viewtopic.php?t=1551

I used standard fR materials, which are simple to set up. I've not tried the fR materials that now ship with it (they were available for purchase after I bought it, but I've seen some very nice things with them).

I think VRays' forum is www.chaoticdimension.com

[Eugene Damaso]

I don't hear any objection from mr users about the time factor in mr vs. vray

[Adam Flack]

I've been using MR for about 6 months now but I am really struggling with it. I can get pretty decent results but it doesn't seem to matter how many photons I use I can never get a really clean solution especially on Internal Images.

I too am looking at VRay, its good to read other peoples opinions though!

[Travis Schmiesing]

both will produce great results, so you are not going to lose choosing one over the other. however, if you are going to network render, especially if your farm has any size to it, vray will be the better choice based on no additional cost for netwrok render nodes.

[kadir somuncuoglu]

hi. i've downloaded teh vray109 on its own page.but it does not have materials and lights.
can anyone write me any link???