Sketchup render engine
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I am wondering why sketchup does not have its own internal render engine instead of having to import or buy one?
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Sketchup does have its own basic rendering tools - with various styles, fog-effects, shadow settings etc - but it lacks reflections, lighting, bump-mapping etc - BUT there are several free or inexpensive renderers that do a good job - some of which are pretty seamlessly integrated too...
I expect it's an attempt to keep it simple at its core - e.g. the 2d side is limited but with Pro you get Layout 3 which is now a very workmanlike 2d publishing add-on with live-links to SKPs, rtf-files and images etc... -
I can still imagine they change their mind one day and buy up a small company with its product and then integrate it into SU (which they also bought BTW).
I am not sure SU really needs that "particular" engine though. Which one then? What should be the features (and what could be considered as "too much luxury"?)?
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I for one like that SketchUp is lean in itself and let you pick your own set of tools that fit your own need instead of adding tools that tries to cover everything for every user. That would lead to bloat - which there is plenty of examples of out there.
What suits you doesn't need to suit the next user.
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I also like that sketchup does NOT have a rendering engine built in. As already mentioned, there are better, purpose-built engines already that integrate very well with SU. I doubt google would be able to improve on them and even if it did it would be at the expense of any other development. I would probably still use thea even if they did come up with a competitive rendering engine.
The the areas that I would like SU to improve are:
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support for the ruby community. I am only an end-user so I can't begin to say what would be helpful, but the more accomodating SU is in this regard, the better.
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Core modeling improvements. Better selection tools, more accuracy, subdivision, better ability to detect (and correct) enclosed areas (or areas that are MEANT to be enclosed)
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NURBS modeling IF it could be implemented in-line with the pushpull methodology. Maybe it doesn't need to be NURBS (that's just what I'm familiar with) but I would like geometrically "pure" arcs/circles rather than the polygonal, faceted versions we currently have. The "on-surface" plugin seems largely able to do this, it would be nice to see it more integral, though.
This list makes me interested in looking into MOI3d again. Hm....
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@steved said:
I am wondering why sketchup does not have its own internal render engine instead of having to import or buy one?
Actually that's not a bad question, I'm talking about something like 'Light-up' IMO it goes hand in hand with SU on many levels, it's easy to use, real time, has lighting, reflections, etc.
I say Goggle needs to make an offer (Adam don't let them off cheap
)But regular ray-tracing rendering I am very glad they are third party, I get to pick and choose the one that best suits me, In prefer studio based as I do not like being restricted to SU's poly limit. And frankly I doubt they'd do a good job at it.
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Why would Google run to improve Sketchup? It already has very big number of users because of its ingenious interface. I don't think they'll try another product for other features SU doesn't have. At least not soon.SU doesn't have a competition. It is unique, one and only. It is like Volkswagen Beetle, @Last hardware
. It was not made for "every year" new profit, like Windows. @Last software was good name for it.
It doesn't need improvements besides its golden plugins. Not yet. The only thing that could happen is to move more features (old or new) to Pro version...
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