Is V-Ray worth the purchase?

[fcaustic]

Hi, I've got Max 2009, and I've been using Mental Ray for my renders so far. I'm just wondering whether V-Ray's worth purchasing in terms of render times and quality. Also would it take long to get used to V-Ray coming from mostly using Mental Ray?

[gerard]

Hi

Heres an old post, you might want to check it.

http://www.cgarchitect.com/vb/33763-mental-ray-vray.html

[Trevor Tizard]

Hi,

 

I would give the demo version a try first and see how you like it. I prefer VRay, but that's just my opinion.

[Thablanch]

Lots of reasons.. but it does worth every penny!

(I would say that now, archviz features in MentalRay are about the same,)

There is so many engines out there, I guess it really depends on your needs, But I still think that Vray is the best time vs. value vs. quality product out there. For how long.. who knows.

[WAcky]

Vray does offer more control (IMO) but many people don't need that level of control. MR is a bit of a "preset" renderer out of the box but can be very powerful (and still has a few features i'd like to see vray implement) but overall I think Vray's value for money is second to none and always seems to be one step ahead of MR (then again MR is free )

 

The deal breaker for me (at the time) was proxy's (which MR now has) but most of all is Vray's memory management. You can throw so much at Vray and it will just keep on keeping on.

 

If you have the money and you can justify its purchase over just using MR, then go for it but if you haven't got a great grasp of MR then don't expect VRay to be a walk in the park.

 

Try the demo because you can work out how to get a style and consistent workflow down before you throw your cash at vray and possibly get frustrated with it.

[manta]

Well just one great thing about Vray is its development is much quicker...they listen to their client base and implement the things that are needed...there are many other great things about it, that's just one...

[WAcky]

Another good point is the community is tight as mentioned above and are constantly trying to push vray to its limits while exposing needed updates and fixes.

[odouble]

There is no reason to purchase gray if you are using mental ray... Especially in this economy. There have been numerous gray vs mental ray questions and t all boils down to the user. They are both tools that can produce great results in very good times. I think it wiser to buckle down and takeyour existing mental ray knowledge to the next step. It is the smart decision in this economic state. Plus you don't have to start learning new software.

This is acually coming from a gray used

[Ray]

Another way to look at it is that now that things are slow, you may have more time to learn the new engine before trying to use it on a big project. I highly recommend Vray, and not just because they used my name for their product.

[Justin Hunt]

only reason is that its considered the indusrty standard so it will give you more opportunities for other jobs.

 

Feature for feature they are so similar it is a non debate. Personally very time I give vray a seriouse go I always end up going back to mentalray. For some reason we just dont get along:D

 

jhv

[Bugga_Guy]

Mental Ray does the same thing that Vray can do and its free with max. If you know Mental save the $$$.

[manta]

Mental Ray does the same thing that Vray can do and its free with max. If you know Mental save the $$$.

 

could you please point us to your favorite MR renderings, so that we all know what you're talking about when you say they do the same thing...thanx

[Matt McDonald]

We use Mental Ray and I really like it but there are a couple of points I'd give to V-Ray.

 

First V-Ray is compatible with more 3rd party material plugins. Bearcon maps, dark tree, Blur Plugs, etc.

 

Mental Ray may be free but it seems to me that many of the V-Ray users are plenty happy running older copies of Max (thus saving the subscription or upgrade fees). IMO the Max 2008 & 2009 upgrades were mostly about Mental Ray improvements which a V-Ray user wouldn't have cared about. If you were a V-Ray user and sat out on those upgrades you saved more with V-Ray than you would have by staying current with your "free" Mental Ray.

[Crazy Homeless Guy]

Keep in mind, no matter what render engine you choose, ....it will take a year of production use before you really know it.

[Tommy L]

I agree with Travis. Most people will say they like what they use. Not many people consistenly use Vray AND Mental Ray. This is because they are very similar. Stick with MR, save some cash, get good at your primary tool before diversifying. Why water down your learning over two platforms that are really very much the same?

[Bugga_Guy]

could you please point us to your favorite MR renderings, so that we all know what you're talking about when you say they do the same thing...thanx

 

http://www.mentalimages.com/gallery/architecture.html

 

Click on the Mies van der Rohe Farnsworth House

Artist Alessandro Prodan

 

rendered with mental ray.

 

The point is Mental Ray is just as powerful as Vray, it depends on how well you know it - not to offend anyone using Vray, they both are good renders, however the only way to get a good rendering depends on the knowledge of the user.

[Camby1298]

I'd have to say depending on what field youre in. If your working in Arch Viz, then yes defo invest in Vray. It, as previously mentioned, is the industry's standard. Whereas mr focuses more on Vfx and secondary to Arch viz. A lot of new implemented shaders mr has come up with; Vray already had. Now granted mr can do some pretty decent renderings (I use mr exclusively) but I would argue, when it comes to Arch Viz, Vray is tops.

[Claudio Branch]

Yes.

[ihabkal]

not really

[Michael J. Brown]

I've gotta agree with Tom and Travis here. I was a devout MR user before my employer purchased seats of V-Ray. And while I love the results I was able to get almost right out of the box, after a year using it I still have yet to get my render times down to what they were with Mental Ray.

 

I'm pushing out so many renderings a week that I just don't have time to learn precisely what each variable controls, and which ones best reduce render times without unduely sacrificing image quality.

 

For example, a recent 15sec animation took 9 hours to run with MR. While a similar one took me 24 hours with V-Ray. I may still switch back to MR once I purchase Max 2009 (for my own use). But I've got so many V-Ray proxies already created....I'm really not looking forward to re-doing all those things.

[Thablanch]

For example, a recent 15sec animation took 9 hours to run with MR. While a similar one took me 24 hours with V-Ray.

 

For me.. it is the exact opposite, MR will take me twice the time for half the quality.. it really comes down to what you know to use the best.

[REMOTE-RENDER]

Mental Ray does the same thing that Vray can do and its free with max. If you know Mental save the $$$.

 

 

What you say may be true to a certain extent.

 

However, we run a 3ds Max and V-Ray Render Farm and I can assure you that there is a huge quality difference between the renderings we process for Max/MentalRay and Max/V-Ray. Not even in the same ballpark...

 

Why is that so? It may be easier to do with V-Ray, more controls with less penalties.

 

In addition to that, I can also tell you that, quality pixel for quality pixel, V-Ray renders faster (and thus cheaper).

[REMOTE-RENDER]

For example, a recent 15sec animation took 9 hours to run with MR. While a similar one took me 24 hours with V-Ray

 

This is highly unusual... Something in your render settings was out of step.

 

V-Ray usually requires, give or take, 50% of the time to match MentalRay.

[Justin Hunt]

I did a test , some scene with Vray and mentalray. As close as possible settings in light, material and rendering.

 

To be sure I asked serveral people who are more familiar with Vray than I am to double check the settings.

 

Vray 2 hours

Mentalray 20 minutes

 

The Vray scene would only run on a 64bit machine the mental one just got away with it on a 32bit machine.

 

This is not a one off experience, I have really given Vray a good go many times, yet time and time again I return back to mental.

 

At the end of the day, both are tools so work with the one that works for you, not the other way round.

 

jhv

[REMOTE-RENDER]

Justin,

 

Something must have gone awfully wrong with your V-Ray settings.

 

We don't really do tests here. We render Max and V-Ray, day in and day out. Your experience with V-Ray is, in my view, rather unique.

 

Also, V-Ray works equally well in 32-bit as in 64-bit, the latter being faster, obviously.

 

Overall, V-Ray is clearly much faster and consistently produces higher quality renders than Max/MR.

 

It would be interesting to have your Max/MR test scene. I will gladly provide you with the equivalent (probably higher) quality in V-Ray and the render times will be lower. Give it a shot! It will make you, as many others before, a believer...