3dsmax renderers

[mean_pixel]

First post, so take it easy on me, and buy me a drink first

 

Which renderer provides the best solution for indoor and outdoor photon lighting? (V-ray, Final Render, etc)?

 

Any recommendations greatly appreciated, and in the interest of being thorough, assume an unlimited budget (HAHAHA-WooHoo!). Sorry, I get that way when I hear those two words put together.

[mbr]

Try a search, it's been discussed countless times (although maybe before this forum existed - try the Max forum).

 

I use Final Render and like it a lot. Either Vray or fR would be great. Brazil, too, but I don't even know if they are around anymore.

[manta]

So as I understand correctly...you only want to use photon mapping ??

Is that true ?

[mean_pixel]

Actually no, irradiance, photon, etc, all of it. It seems like VRay seems to be on the top of the list, no?

[manta]

Well it seems that "almost" every render that catches my eye, either here or over at CGTALK.com, ends up being a vray render, I'de say an average of 85%,

Now there are those that will tell you, that its all about the person doing it, and not the render engine, so that just tells me that most of the talented people went out and bought Vray, somehow that seems unlikely...

 

I myself have seen a dramatic difference in my renderings since switching to vray, now I'm not saying that you can't get great results with whatever you use, I have seen great stuff made with every software on the market, including free software (POVRAY for instance), but it must have something to do with ease of use or predictability, that is responsible for the large numbers of great renderings made with Vray...

[mean_pixel]

Thanks for the quick reply here. I just grabbed the eval version and will jump right into it next week.

[Brian Cassil]

Now there are those that will tell you, that its all about the person doing it, and not the render engine, so that just tells me that most of the talented people went out and bought Vray, somehow that seems unlikely...

 

Actually, what happened is Vray took the approach of making something easy to use and FR took the stance of give people 5 different ways of adjusting the same thing. Also, someone over at Cebas (the FR company) has pissed a lot of people off during his carreer and they haven't put the effort into marketing like they should have. And now, content developers are devloping materials and training material for v-ray which is a big appeal to a lot of new-comers.

 

You can find some pretty awesome stuff done in Brazil, and FR I promise.

[DavidR]

This one's easy: arch viz is owned by Vray because it does indirect lighting better than anything else except, arguably, Maxwell. Forget mental ray and Brazil for interiors lit only by sun coming through tiny windows; they only do photon mapping and you end up with a dark cast, esp. in wall/ceiling joints, etc. Also, Vray's lightcache allows you to see your lighting almost instantly so you don't sit around for 12h waiting for a final gather map to compute, only to see that your render is crap. mental ray may be great for movies, but arch viz interiors are best served by Vray, and the user base is huge, lots of tutorials, materials, etc, and it's very well priced with unlimited network rendering. I don't care what I use for exteriors, really, but interiors are far harder for a renderer, generally speaking.

[mean_pixel]

Thanks for all the replies, this community is very active. I've been tinkering with the Vray demo this morning.

[AJLynn]

Don't harsh mental ray - there's a reason so many Hollywood projects use it. It's powerful, though hard to use correctly. Take a look at forums like cgtalk and you'll see amazing stuff done in it.

 

Of course, it's harder to use correctly, harder to optimize for fast rendering, and Vray is easier and similarly powerful, especially when you're not the kind of person who has a 1,000 node render farm and employees who know how to write shaders. Go with Vray, and since you have a good budget, use the Shop link at the top of this page and find it bundled with the Chris Nichols Exteriors DVD, and also get the DVD on Interiors. They'll help you get a fast start.