Purpose for each renderer?
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Hi all,
Perhaps a newbie question, but with Twilight, Kerkythea, and now Thea all being owned by the same company (or at least I think that is the case), might I ask what is the intended purpose of each of those Renderers? Is one better suited for a particular type than another? What is the justification for multiple renderers by the same company?
From what I read, Twilight is the quick renderer that has many presets (but is only available to the PC world). Kerkythea is a free renderer that has some powerful features and some built-in presets, but more customizable. Thea is alot more being able to tweak settings and seems alot faster than Kerkythea. Both Kerkythea and Thea ARE available for Mac. I am VERY impressed that Thea has multiple platform licensing and am leaning heavily in that direction.
I have been playing with a simple wine glass in both Kerkythea and Thea to see what setting does what. But my real interest for a renderer is landscaping - I need alot more time before I jump into that.
Thanks for any insights and discussion.
Rick
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Hi Rick,
It is not exactly as you perceive. Kerkythea is freeware and also available to developers to create their own render engine from it. Kerkythea was built upon another renderer called Phos, has been developed through many years and has "children" like Twilight and Thea that have been made by different people.
I am neither pro nor developer, so please someone correct me if i'm wrong!<< About the features you seem to be right, but as I am only using Twilight, I can't confirm in detail.
Twilight gives really beautiful results with a low learning curve (and has a perfect lighting system, what is important for my work).
If it is landscaping you are after, have a look at the work of SCF-member Stu. He is known around here for professional landscaping renders. Afaik Stu is using mostly Twilight and Podium. Podium is another render engine for SketchUp - I would recommend you to have a look at how simple and fast exterior scenes can be set up and rendered with Podium (you even get a plants and trees cutout library that comes with it).Good luck
alex -
I believe thea is built on a new rendering engine whereas kerkythea is on an older version of the engine, so i imagine theres some fairly major technical differences there that will show through at the user end (not that i know what they are
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It's actually very, very simple...
Kerkythea was the first GI render application, which Giannis started back in 2003-2004...
You can read much more about Kerkythea at the official About - KT web-site...@unknownuser said:
The development of the Kerkythea (KT) application began in September (2004) without having much time to invest on the application at that time. The good thing, is that it started with the kernel and libraries of Phos (an older render engine), so a big part of the source code was already tested and well structured.
It took more than half a year before Kerkythea was finally born (April 2005)!
Back in the fall of 2008, Giannis realized that the development of KT took more and more time and he decided to quit his normal job and focus on the new Thea Render...
The Thea render is a new render application build from scratch, but (of course) based on a lot of knowledgement gained from the years developing KT...The Twilight Render is a plug-in for Google SketchUp but the engine behind is Kerkythea 2008 Echo...
The people behind TWR is KT Team members, whoi have established a company who have licensed the KT SDK from Giannis...Another application using the KT SDK is Podium...
(It's worth mentioning that Podium is about to release a v. 2, which will seperate from the KT SDK and use another engine to run under the hood...)Both Twilight Render as well as Podium are plug-ins for SketchUp, enabling users to render their models inside SU...
KT is a freeware application...
Twilight is a plug-in made specifically for users of Google SketchUp...
Thea is a brand new render application with many significant differences and advantages compared to KT and will become available as a stand alone Studio version and with a number of plug-ins for various modelling applications (i.e. Blender, 3dsMax / Maya / SolidWorks, Cinema4D, Modo, Rhino, SketchUp and more)...Hope this clarifies things a little better...
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@frederik said:
Modo
Naaaah.
It'd be nice if they were a plugin for Modo, though. In fact, when there's one released, I'll be seriously considering buying Thea.
SU for basic modeling > Modo for refining the model + uv mapping + setting up cam & lights > Thea for rendering.
That would really work for me.
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Rick said:
@unknownuser said:
But my real interest for a renderer is landscaping
I have to say Vue, nothing out there comes close for landscaping.
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@solo said:
I have to say Vue, nothing out there comes close for landscaping.
Totally agree on this...
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@frederik said:
@solo said:
I have to say Vue, nothing out there comes close for landscaping.
Totally agree on this...
Well, maybe I should have said money IS an object (as opposed to money is no object)
I just took a look at the Vue site and almost fell on the floor after seeing the pricing!
But I am in the process of downloading the Vue8PLE for Mac to see what its all about.
I have to be honest and say that I'm really liking Thea so far out of the Mac demos I have been able to get. And if you haven't heard me say it before - I REALLY applaud Thea for their multi-platform licensing (one licensing to rule them all - sorry LOTR fans)
Thanks all (so far) for your responses. I know that this is purely subject to opinion, but as a newbie I'm trying to glean as much render info as I can.
So, back to my wine glass!
Rick
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I noticed on the Thea Roadmap for the future document that the first major version upgrade V1. to V2 ,(and correct me if I'm wrong, there will be a cost to this upgrade even for license holders) is adding an environment module (for lack of a better word). I was wondering if the Thea developers have recognized a need in this area and will tackle something similar to Vue?
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I saw the 'roadmap' too, must say I'm liking the hybrid plans of GPU/CPU and then the ecosystems.
I am guessing it will be great for landscape renders.
Not sure about licenses and upgrade costs however, I'd assume version 1.XX will be free and version 2.XX an upgrade cost.
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Another thing I like about Thea, upfront about price and all... See third paragraph.
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Stinkie wrote:
@unknownuser said:
It'd be nice if they were a plugin for Modo, though. In fact, when there's one released, I'll be seriously considering buying Thea.
SU for basic modeling > Modo for refining the model + uv mapping + setting up cam & lights > Thea for rendering.
That would really work for me.
Giannis just wrote on Thea forum:
@unknownuser said:
Well, the developer has joined us but I want to have an official agreement first before rushing and making announcements. This might happen at any moment or may delay a week or so.
best regards
giannisLooking up Stinkie.
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Cool.
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Stinkie, I was under the impression Modo has a great render engine built-in... what is your response/experience with it? Since I see you saying Thea would be a must-have for you as a modo user.
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Modo's render engine isn't bad, far from it. Certainly not given its price.
However, it's no match for Vray or Maxwell. Have a look at the gallery over at Luxology.com. Not that many great looking interior renders in there. There's a handful, certainly, but those came into being, I'm sure, at the expense of very high render times.While I quite like Modo's renderer, I wouldn't mind an extra option.
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