Which Photorealistic Renderer?

Zoom123 · 9 Aug 2009, 20:18

Hello,

I am fairly new to Sketchup (free version) and I have only a very limited experience with other more complicated 3D apps (I did a Lynda video course on 3DS Max more than a year ago, and I've done a POV-Ray course in College, but that was many years ago).

I want a Photorealistic Rendering plugin for Sketchup and I hope you can help me to decide which one. I would prefer a free one, which is easy to learn and use (preferably within Sketchup) and produces good results. I don't want something which will be expensive and very difficult to learn, even if it gives the best results. Also I don't want one that will be very easy to use but will not give realistic results, since it will be a waste of my time.

Thank you!

solo · 9 Aug 2009, 20:24

What industry?

In other words what do you intend to render most often like architectural or product, interiors or exteriors. IMo there is no one product that does all best so finding the right one for your needs should be the first step.

Zoom123 · 9 Aug 2009, 22:13

Hello Solo,

Architectural, both interior and exterior.

@unknownuser said:

IMo there is no one product that does all best so finding the right one for your needs should be the first step.

This is what I assumed as well. So the best one for my needs would be free, easy to learn and use, and can create realistic renders of good quality for Architectural projects. If it can work from within Sketchup it will be a bonus.

I am guessing that the rendered that will produce the absolute best results is probably one which will be expensive and hard to learn, but I hope there is a renderer out there which will be free (or low cost) and easy to learn without sacrificing too much in the quality department. And I don't mind if the resulting images are relatively small, or they have a small watermark. I can live with that. (I say this because I noticed that some of the renderers offer a free version with these limitations)

Thank you

solo · 9 Aug 2009, 22:36

Okay...

I do not know your experience or level of render skill, so I will assume you are a total noob okay.

I would suggest trying the free version of Podium first, it is limited to render size and AFIK there are no watermarks, this will help you getting to grips with a render engine, learning things like light setups, bump maps, reflections and general material setups for rendering, you may even find this a great engine for your needs and adopt it as your main ap. If and when you decide to up your game and go for something with more bells and whistles then I'd suggest KT or Indigo, they are both very powerful and free, and by that time you would know the difference between biased and unbiased render engines to guide you to which one you would like best (KT has both options available)
If you get to this point and finances are looking better and you decide to splurge then I'd absolutely suggest Vray as an all in one solution, it is capable of amazing renders both interiors and exteriors and also has a very large following on these forums resulting in quick and concise help when needed. Vray will come with a learning curve but with the basics attained from Podium you would pick it up pretty fast (many here have reached high levels of render using this path)

Good luck.

(There are many other render engines besides the ones I mentioned above that would work for you, please do not assume my suggestions above as an endorsement of one above another)

Zoom123 · 10 Aug 2009, 00:12

Thanks Solo.

So from what you say Vray is the absolute best, but expensive and with steep learning curve.

KT and Indigo come second in quality and are free, but are still hard to use (but easier than Vray?)

Podium is free, easy to learn and use but not as good as the above in quality (but possibly good enough)

Did I get it right so far?

Also do you know how IDX Renditioner compares to the above? It has a free version like Podium. How does it compare in terms of ease of use and quality?

Thanks!!

holmes1977 · 10 Aug 2009, 01:19

Hi there Zoom
I agree with everything Solo has said.
I'd push for you to look into Podium. Its a great program to start the ball rolling in the rendering world. If you head over to the Podium site you will see so fantastic examples of work done.
http://www.suplugins.com/
It’s simple and renders fast. One of the best things I have found with working on Podium is the forum support, which is helpful with learning a new program.

I have now moved on to working with V-Ray (because of the need of more options.) This is a truly amazing piece of software. But is differently a much harder program to use.

Can't comment on any other renders, because I haven’t used them.

Good luck.

Zoom123 · 10 Aug 2009, 02:14

Thanks holmes,

I will give the free version of Podium a try!

decipher · 10 Aug 2009, 07:19

I have always used Maxwell, for an unbiased renderer the interface is fairly intuitive and there is a wide library of free (and excellent) materials available. It probably costs a fair bit however, i'm not sure as i am not in charge of licensing at our place!

Solo, i had no idea KT was free.. I just assumed any decent renderer costs money. I will definitely be looking into learning that!

honoluludesktop · 10 Aug 2009, 07:35

Hi Zoom, When it comes to selecting render software, you will be hard pressed to find agreement. I have tried Podiun, KT, PovRay, and IDX. All of them have different strong, and weak points. In addition, after you work with one for a period of time, you become vested in it, and will tend to prefer it over others. It hard to know what you want until you try several.

I made my selection on ease of learning, use, but if I was looking for more sophisticated renders, I might have continued searching. So my advice is to down load all the free ones, and give them a spin. After you get the feel of making renders, download the "free to try" ones, and see if they give you the results you need. Only in this way will you figure out what you need.

remus · 10 Aug 2009, 08:46

@zoom123 said:

So from what you say Vray is the absolute best, but expensive and with steep learning curve.

KT and Indigo come second in quality and are free, but are still hard to use (but easier than Vray?)

Podium is free, easy to learn and use but not as good as the above in quality (but possibly good enough)

I wouldnt say KT and indigo produce second class renders, i think its more to do with the adaptability and speed of vray.

Gaieus · 10 Aug 2009, 08:48

I absolutely agree with Honoluudesktop and Pete in a kind of learning curve like this:
[list=][*]try the easiest ones that work from inside SU and which have some kind of free/eval versions such as (for instance)

Podium (eval size limit: 500x500)
IDX Renditioner (eval size limit: 640x480)
iRender NXT (30 day trial)
I could also mention LightUp (30 day trial) with a totally different approach
Indigo (still has the free version although for the current one, has gone commercial)
[]then I'd go for Kerkythea (standalone but totally free with a great support community) as it has a UI which is generally "similarly built up" as many "pro" rendering engines and you can "finish" your learning curve of all the basics there.
[]finally, when you are experienced enough, go for the (generally time limited) trial versions of the "big, expensive" engines as now you won't waste your time (and your limited edition) with learning the basics of rendering in general but only the "specialities" of these apps.[/list]
Of course, you may find yourself stuck with any of the above

pichuneke · 10 Aug 2009, 08:52

We need exporters for opensource renderers. Like Lux Render.

Serge.N · 10 Aug 2009, 11:04

To extend the topic, does anyone know how much photorealistic are all theses tools?

I mean is there a way with one of them to know light levels and so verify the IEQ credits 8.x of LEED?

Thanks
Serge

pichuneke · 10 Aug 2009, 11:30

@serge.n said:

To extend the topic, does anyone know how much photorealistic are all theses tools?

I mean is there a way with one of them to know light levels and so verify the IEQ credits 8.x of LEED?

Thanks
Serge

Not what you are asking for, but I have found this for Blender. Anyway I hope it helps:

(abhishekfx.jimdo.com)

decipher · 10 Aug 2009, 12:08

@serge.n said:

To extend the topic, does anyone know how much photorealistic are all theses tools?

I mean is there a way with one of them to know light levels and so verify the IEQ credits 8.x of LEED?

Thanks
Serge

If this is what you want, there are packages designed specifically for this... such as Ecotect - i believe it was recently bought by Autodesk?

wmanning · 10 Aug 2009, 17:07

@gaieus said:

free/eval versions such as (for instance)

Podium (eval size limit: 640x480)

IDX Renditioner (eval size limit: 500x500)

Just an FYI, but you got those backwards.
It's Podium 500 x 500
IDX Renditioner at 640 x480

Not that it makes too much difference.

-- William

Gaieus · 10 Aug 2009, 17:16

Oh Sh*t, William, sorry. My mistake, you are right. I'll correct it right now.

Serge.N · 10 Aug 2009, 20:08

@decipher said:

@serge.n said:

To extend the topic, does anyone know how much photorealistic are all theses tools?

I mean is there a way with one of them to know light levels and so verify the IEQ credits 8.x of LEED?

Thanks
Serge

If this is what you want, there are packages designed specifically for this... such as Ecotect - i believe it was recently bought by Autodesk?

You're right, Ecotect as Green Building Studio are Autodesk's products. 3DS Max is another one and is also able to assest the LEED IEQ 8.x credits. IES is also providing very interesting tools (just not to speak about only one brand).
Another way to answser this point is to use Radiance. There's a plugin to translate a SU file into one radiance can proceed. But it's not a very simple process. It also takes a lot of time. At one point I heard about another plugin for SU that would be accurate and very fast. But not news since then. Anyone knows what I'm speaking about and has some insights?

Whatever, somewhere my question is also "how much" photorealistic are all the tools you are speaking about? Clearly they gives nice pictures but (sorry guys I'm not going to make friends there) is architecture only about nice pictures?

Regards
Serge

Zoom123 · 11 Aug 2009, 04:03

Thank you all for your help! I installed 2 renderers so far and I will soon try the other free ones you suggested in this thread! (I will go only for free ones for now, since I am only an amateur)

I installed Podium and IDX and I played with both for an hour or two. IDX seems to have more options (more control over light and materials, while Podium seems to only have 2 sliders - "Light" and "Reflect"), the UI is more intuitive on IDX, and the resulting image is larger (for the free versions). But of course the result is what matters most and I need more time to decide on that. What I can say about the result is that the two renderers render the scene in a very different way and I wouldn't call the results of either photorealistic. But I guess that has to do more with my model and the amount of work I did rather than the renderer! Am I right to assume that to get photorealistic (or near) result I should tweak every surface and every light on the scene?

@unknownuser said:

Hi Zoom, When it comes to selecting render software, you will be hard pressed to find agreement. I have tried Podiun, KT, PovRay, and IDX. All of them have different strong, and weak points. In addition, after you work with one for a period of time, you become vested in it, and will tend to prefer it over others.

This is what I am afraid actually! That I will get used with the UI and workflow of one program and then it will be hard to move to something better! I understand that people can have different opinions but I would like to hear your opinion and the pros and cons of each one of those programs.

Thanks!

Pixero · 12 Aug 2009, 08:31

@unknownuser said:

This was done with Irender Nxt it to 2hours to render.

Two hours for 800x600 pixels?
Sorry, but I think that is laughably slow at that resolution.
I have tried IrenderNxt but quickly gave it up because of its utter slowness.
Once again, sorry. Nothing personal.