sketchucation logo sketchucation
    • Login
    ℹ️ Licensed Extensions | FredoBatch, ElevationProfile, FredoSketch, LayOps, MatSim and Pic2Shape will require license from Sept 1st More Info

    What is your favorite overall rendering engine for SketchUp?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Extensions & Applications Discussions
    extensions
    91 Posts 41 Posters 29.5k Views 41 Watching
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • jason_marantoJ Offline
      jason_maranto
      last edited by

      I can easily set up a poll for those specialties after my current one gets done -- but it does already have a question regarding animation support as a major factor for selecting an engine...

      Best,
      Jason.

      I create video tutorial series about several 2D & 3D graphics programs.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • IdahoJI Offline
        IdahoJ
        last edited by

        As a longtime user of POVray, I'm finally looking for another rendering option to use with SU. I've been using Didian Bur's POvray plugin, but it's engineered to give good basic POVray functionality. I have to do a lot of tweaking to the exported files to get the final results. These days, I'd rather render more, and tweak less ... πŸ˜‰

        I'll be looking forward to the results of your poll Jason.

        Cheers

        "For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen."

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • FrederikF Offline
          Frederik
          last edited by

          Wonder how many new members SCF have gained because of this thread...? πŸ˜•
          The other day, Maxwell was far behind Thea and Vray... Now it's a close race...
          Strange, cause I don't seem to recall seeing that many renders made with Maxwell in the Gallery section... πŸ˜’
          (I don't want to start a debate here... I acknowledge Maxwell is a great render app, but for SU renders made with Maxwell are few and far apart...)

          BTW... I agree 100% with JD Hill, who's one of the developers at Maxwell... πŸ‘

          @jd hill said:

          Please don't take it wrong, but I generally think such polls are akin to: which is the best overall tool?

          • hammer
          • screwdriver
          • paint brush

          Cheers
          Kim Frederik

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Rich O BrienR Offline
            Rich O Brien Moderator
            last edited by

            @Fred

            welcome back πŸ‘

            Download the free D'oh Book for SketchUp πŸ“–

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • andybotA Offline
              andybot
              last edited by

              @frederik said:

              Wonder how many new members SCF have gained because of this thread...? πŸ˜•

              It's a balance, lose some in the corner bar, gain some in the plugin competitions πŸ˜†

              http://charlottesvillearchitecturalrendering.com/

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • jason_marantoJ Offline
                jason_maranto
                last edited by

                So far the results of the separate (but related) survey I'm doing shows very similar results to this one -- but that should be expected since it's the same user base.

                BTW I set it up so that anyone can see the current results by completing this survey so there's no need to wait to see what the current consensus important features are... just bookmark that page when you get to it.

                Best,
                Jason.

                I create video tutorial series about several 2D & 3D graphics programs.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • soloS Offline
                  solo
                  last edited by

                  @unknownuser said:

                  So far the results of the separate (but related) survey I'm doing shows very similar results to this one -- but that should be expected since it's the same user base.

                  Quite different actually:

                  results.jpg

                  http://www.solos-art.com

                  If you see a toilet in your dreams do not use it.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • jason_marantoJ Offline
                    jason_maranto
                    last edited by

                    I meant for the amount of votes -- when the vote count was similar here the results were similar.

                    I'm not sure why anybody would get bent out of shape about this -- as far as I know nobody is getting any incentive for voting, this is purely voluntary... considering there are over 100,000 SketchUcation members, many of whom never (or rarely) post I think any presumptions about what we "know" are pretty premature.

                    Isn't that the point of asking in the first place?

                    BTW not answering the questions really is a crappy move as there are only 100 chances for people to answer -- whoever did that (just so you could put in a vote for Thea), you just took away a chance from somebody else to be heard on the real points of the survey... very uncool and selfish.

                    Best,
                    Jason.

                    I create video tutorial series about several 2D & 3D graphics programs.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • E Offline
                      Ecuadorian
                      last edited by

                      People in different countries tend to like different software, and it's always interesting for me to see such differences.
                      It would be really cool to have a much bigger sample (say, 10K votes), and also the country of each vote. But for so many people to vote, you would probably have to offer something in return, say, entering every voter into a sweepstake for an iPad. πŸ˜†

                      -Miguel Lescano
                      Subscribe to my house plans YouTube channel! (30K+ subs)

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • jason_marantoJ Offline
                        jason_maranto
                        last edited by

                        @ecuadorian said:

                        People in different countries tend to like different software, and it's always interesting for me to see such differences.
                        It would be really cool to have a much bigger sample (say, 10K votes), and also the country of each vote. But for so many people to vote, you would probably have to offer something in return, say, entering every voter into a sweepstake for an iPad. πŸ˜†

                        You are totally right -- but I don't believe we could organize something like that without corporate sponsorship and then it gets into the messy parts of who has access to the information and for what purposes... plus which you would have people entering who don't even own rendering software, just to get a chance to win, which would skew the results.

                        It's plainly obvious which softwares the regular posting and browsing SketchUcation users prefer -- but the longer something like this goes on the more likely you'll get input from people who maybe only come here infrequently... which I'm afraid is a sizable chunk of the SketchUp using population, if you believe SketchUp usage numbers (which I do).

                        I'm not so interested in which softwares people use, but why -- and taking that information into account when you see their choices... of course the assumption you have to make is that they chose based on knowledge of the options.

                        Best,
                        Jason.

                        I create video tutorial series about several 2D & 3D graphics programs.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • Z Offline
                          Zoom123
                          last edited by

                          I own a forum which is running the same forum software as Sketchucation (phpbb) and I installed a mod where the choice of each member in a poll can be publicly shown(if this option was chosen when the poll was created). I also have the forum setup in a way that newly registered members can not vote in polls.

                          This way the results have more substance. You don't only get a vague number as a result but you can also see who exactly voted for what option and judge the results accordingly.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • jason_marantoJ Offline
                            jason_maranto
                            last edited by

                            Realistically by the end of the day there will be more people who joined SketchUcation today than have voted in this poll thread (it's almost there already) -- the participants are a very small (but vocal) minority.

                            Getting too upset over the results when it represents roughly 0.1% of the membership of this forum is pretty strange if you ask me -- and SketchUcation membership only represents about 10% of the total SketchUp userbase (which means this poll represents only 0.01%)... we are dealing with an infinitesimally small sampling here.

                            There's alot more to the SketchUp world than what we say here -- which I believe is the point Ecuadorian is trying to make.

                            Best,
                            Jason.

                            I create video tutorial series about several 2D & 3D graphics programs.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • E Offline
                              Ecuadorian
                              last edited by

                              @jason_maranto said:

                              Getting too upset over the results when it represents roughly 0.1% of the membership of this forum is pretty strange if you ask me

                              I always find it funny how some people believe their native language is the "most expressive and complete one", or how their particular dialect or accent is "the only neutral one in the language", or how their national food is the "best in the world". πŸ˜’ Most of my friends are like this, with the big exception being one who has mastered Chinese and English besides her native Spanish, befriending native speakers in the process.

                              Truth is, you only realize the shortcomings of your own language/dialect/cuisine/favorite software/etc when you truly learn and appreciate another.

                              -Miguel Lescano
                              Subscribe to my house plans YouTube channel! (30K+ subs)

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • R Offline
                                roland joseph
                                last edited by

                                Lumion - render time 14 seconds. No postpro, no 2d or billboard or clips...all3d and movie ready.
                                The movie from which this was taken is 45 seconds long and rendered in just over an hour.
                                Seems hard to beat.


                                grassbig.jpg

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • P Offline
                                  prostata123
                                  last edited by

                                  Hi guys
                                  I'm new here but I follow your forum from a very long time πŸ˜‰

                                  Well well, what do we have here
                                  a Render Engine comparison for Sketchup!

                                  Just what I needed!

                                  Let's say a couple of things
                                  I've tryied Lumion and I really don't like it!
                                  I loved the idea but it's a way to slow o my PC (mobility Eadeon HD 5400)
                                  The Cryengine 3 instead, works very well, but I just tried Crysis 2 not the SDK (I think it would be too complicated to me)
                                  And I also tried Keyshot and I've found it very very useful, but it's mostly for product design and not for Architecture.

                                  And so I'm still looking for a render engine
                                  something quick and "wow" like keyshot but for exteriors / interiors etc
                                  What about Fryrender?
                                  No one voted it but I remember a very useful function to swap the materials post rendering (without having to re-render the scene).
                                  But I'm not able to find any updated information about it in their website.

                                  What do you think?

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • BurkhardB Offline
                                    Burkhard
                                    last edited by

                                    If you like Keyshot, take a look at Bunkspeed Shot. The Pro Version contains lightsources.

                                    Fryrender or Maxwell doesn't take to much.

                                    Depends of your hardware ( when you want to update ) take a look at Octanerender, very fast but GPU based.

                                    From the list you'll see the leaders here.

                                    [http://www.ia-plus.de(http://www.ia-plus.de)]

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • HieruH Offline
                                      Hieru
                                      last edited by

                                      @prostata123 said:

                                      No one voted it but I remember a very useful function to swap the materials post rendering (without having to re-render the scene)

                                      Thea has that via Colimo. Very useful when working with interior designers.

                                      www.davidhier.co.uk

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • BurkhardB Offline
                                        Burkhard
                                        last edited by

                                        The best is to have alook at the Product Galleries or in the forum over there.
                                        Btw. Maxwell will have the colimo integration too ( it is in pipeline ) and has with multilight a very nice feature.
                                        Maxwell has a free and a small fee standalone Sketchup application,
                                        Thea can be a lot faster ( biased and unbiased )and is much cheaper with a full package to start with.
                                        Both are great.

                                        [http://www.ia-plus.de(http://www.ia-plus.de)]

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • P Offline
                                          prostata123
                                          last edited by

                                          Thank yoo for all the answers πŸ˜‰

                                          Well, I think that Bunkspeed shot it's very similar to Keyshot (except for the lightsources)
                                          and it's still very product design oriented (am I wrong?)

                                          And so, maybe I have to learn how to use Maxwell or I have to try Thea render that it's very popular around here

                                          Do you have some exterior renderings to look at?
                                          thank you in advance

                                          Edit:
                                          I'm just trying Thea Render
                                          It seems to be just what I was looking for, even if I have no materials now.
                                          But I still want to see your works

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • S Offline
                                            sawhack
                                            last edited by

                                            I was a sole user of Vray since I seriously started learning about rendering, but lately I freqeuntly encounter error in rendering in Vray such as "you dont have enough space in temp", error rendering, materials disappear and became just color, applied bump gone, sketchup crash(bugsplat), etc. I don't know if its right to move from another rendering or find some solution in this bugs, because i'm quite sure other rendering engine have also bugs that i haven't met neither. I'm looking forward in learning more on vray and i'm trying to learn Kerythea as my alternative to vray. πŸ˜„

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • 1
                                            • 2
                                            • 3
                                            • 4
                                            • 5
                                            • 4 / 5
                                            • First post
                                              Last post
                                            Buy SketchPlus
                                            Buy SUbD
                                            Buy WrapR
                                            Buy eBook
                                            Buy Modelur
                                            Buy Vertex Tools
                                            Buy SketchCuisine
                                            Buy FormFonts

                                            Advertisement