Side by side renderer comparison

[Francois Yenny]

I've read quite a few different posts on the differing qualities of 3rd party renderers for Max (Brazil, Vray etc.)compared with the built in Max 5.1 renderers (including scanline, radiosity and photonmaping), but havn't seen many side by side rendering of identical objects in identical (or as close to it as possible given the possibilities)lighting setups, with the different render times etc.

 

Has anyone run these kinds of tests? The reason I ask is that I'm an architect, working on AutoCad ADT 2004 and wanted to acquire Max for rendering stills and animated walkthroughs of my projects and wanted to know if I should budget the purchase of one of those 3rd party renderers.

 

I think MentalRay ships with Max 6, so how does it compare to the others?

 

One last thing, I've often read that it's not the tool but the user... And although I agree with this premise, it's also true that some tools are more effective or user freindly etc. than others.

 

Thanks for any replies,

 

François Yenny