Looking for a rendering program

sojourner · 11 Apr 2012, 04:11

Hey guys,
I am a long time Kerkythea user but am getting tired of the issues with it so I thought I would ask here about other rendering options. This is a hobby for me so I can't afford to really purchase a renderer. Is there anything else out there that is free (or costs about the same as a computer game), doesn't watermark, and doesn't limit the output size, or am I stuck with Kerky?

I see alot of Maxwell render threads and I tried to checkout the website, but it seems to be down. Are they still around or did I miss my chance to get Maxwell?

Ecuadorian · 11 Apr 2012, 04:42

Site seems to be working for me:
http://www.maxwellrender.com/index.php/maxwell_for_google_sketchup

sojourner · 11 Apr 2012, 05:17

Yeah, NOW it's working, lol. Meh, it's limited to tiny 800x600 images for the free version.

tridem · 11 Apr 2012, 07:04

actually I believe it's hard finding something better than KT especially if you're used to its flexibility and powerful material editor.
At least not for free!... unless you move to blender and the engines related to it like yafaray and lux

ninopiamonte · 11 Apr 2012, 08:11

I don't think so if you already know Indigo Renderer . Pro. Pibuz & Cotty has been using it, yeah.

tridem · 11 Apr 2012, 08:25

@tridem said:

actually I believe it's hard finding something better than KT
..
At least not for free!

valerostudio · 11 Apr 2012, 14:27

If you like KT than it would seem to me that Thea is a good choice for a paid rendering engine. The same guys that develop KT developed Thea.

Ecuadorian · 11 Apr 2012, 14:45

Oh, yeah... I forgot that Lumion has a free version. If you have a powerful graphics card, it's really fast. My clients love the Lumion look, and my friends tell me my animations made with Lumion "look more real" than the ones I've made with other programs (Kerkythea, Twilight, LightUp). This is quite ironical, as from a technical point of view Lumion is actually the fakest of them all, as it uses only SSAO to simulate indirect lighting. But people who don't have this technical knowledge simply love the final product. And who am I to go against the preferences of non-nerds?

The free version is limited in resolution and adds a logo. However, the full paid version is €1499. If you don't mind the logo, the resolution limit of 1920x1080 for stills and 1280x720 for animations, and the limited library of people/vegetation/stuff, give the free version a try.

pilou · 11 Apr 2012, 14:57

Take a look here for another free one (1920 x 1080) very fun and easy!

By Ronen Bekenman

sojourner · 11 Apr 2012, 21:16

Yeah, Kerky has been acting strange for me. for the last couple months I have had 2 issues.

If I set the sky setting to background color and use a nearly black color, I instead get a bright blue background.

Or if for example I use sky color, suddenly I can't turn off some kind of global lighting. Even if I have no other lights in the render besides the sun and reduce it or disable it, the rendered image still looks like it was done with the sun at %100.

Here's the kicker, I built a new machine last week. fresh install of windows, sketchup, kerky, everything. New hardware except for the drives which were formatted clean. Start a new drawing, I still have the same issue. The only thing I can think of is that I am still using an Nvidia chipset video card and there must be something in one of the driver updates from the last couple of months.

sojourner · 11 Apr 2012, 21:17

@valerostudio said:

If you like KT than it would seem to me that Thea is a good choice for a paid rendering engine. The same guys that develop KT developed Thea.

-2 points for not reading the original post.

andybot · 11 Apr 2012, 23:15

You could look at Luxrender

Ecuadorian · 11 Apr 2012, 23:41

@sojourner said:

(or costs about the same as a computer game)

I agree that the "same cost as a computer game" price point, that is, US$60, is a non-explored market. For a hobbyist, even a $99 program can be too expensive. If there were more in that price, I'd collect them like videogames.

vidy · 12 Apr 2012, 02:37

@sojourner said:

Hey guys,
I am a long time Kerkythea user but am getting tired of the issues with it so I thought I would ask here about other rendering options. This is a hobby for me so I can't afford to really purchase a renderer. Is there anything else out there that is free (or costs about the same as a computer game), doesn't watermark, and doesn't limit the output size, or am I stuck with Kerky?

try digging some information from page below:

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=80&t=42561

http://forums.sketchucation.com/viewtopic.php?f=81&t=3220

and after that, if you already have specific interest, try to download the free trial software.. i know that this could take some time, and maybe make you boring.. but its the best solution to get what is you need from a renderer software..

regards,

tridem · 12 Apr 2012, 06:22

@sojourner said:

Yeah, Kerky has been acting strange for me. for the last couple months I have had 2 issues.

If I set the sky setting to background color and use a nearly black color, I instead get a bright blue background.

Or if for example I use sky color, suddenly I can't turn off some kind of global lighting. Even if I have no other lights in the render besides the sun and reduce it or disable it, the rendered image still looks like it was done with the sun at %100.

Here's the kicker, I built a new machine last week. fresh install of windows, sketchup, kerky, everything. New hardware except for the drives which were formatted clean. Start a new drawing, I still have the same issue. The only thing I can think of is that I am still using an Nvidia chipset video card and there must be something in one of the driver updates from the last couple of months.

Since KT works with cpu, the graphic card doesn't affect the render, only viewport issues could be. It's a very strange behaviour what you described. Can you post some screenshot and a sample scene, here or at KT forum?

notareal · 12 Apr 2012, 14:05

@tridem said:

actually I believe it's hard finding something better than KT especially if you're used to its flexibility and powerful material editor.
At least not for free!... unless you move to blender and the engines related to it like yafaray and lux

Have to agree (even one might think I am biased)! Blender has neat interactive renderer, but UI might be hard for some, still definitely worth to look if you have time to invest learning it... Lux is quite potent. Mitsuba might be worth to try, even it's pretty new, it has some interesting features There also a new educational ray tracer from the developer of Mitsuba, called Nori).

notareal · 12 Apr 2012, 14:32

@sojourner said:

Yeah, Kerky has been acting strange for me. for the last couple months I have had 2 issues.

If I set the sky setting to background color and use a nearly black color, I instead get a bright blue background.

Or if for example I use sky color, suddenly I can't turn off some kind of global lighting. Even if I have no other lights in the render besides the sun and reduce it or disable it, the rendered image still looks like it was done with the sun at %100.

Here's the kicker, I built a new machine last week. fresh install of windows, sketchup, kerky, everything. New hardware except for the drives which were formatted clean. Start a new drawing, I still have the same issue. The only thing I can think of is that I am still using an Nvidia chipset video card and there must be something in one of the driver updates from the last couple of months.

Display adapter does not affect on render result of Kerkythea. Only where GPU drivers can affect is viewport as KT uses OpenGL, but if you can use viewport and start rendering issue is somewhere else. Sorry, cannot recall hearing this issue before.

sojourner · 13 Apr 2012, 17:38

@tridem said:

Since KT works with cpu, the graphic card doesn't affect the render, only viewport issues could be. It's a very strange behaviour what you described. Can you post some screenshot and a sample scene, here or at KT forum?

The follow images where created with just the selected only object imported from sketchup, no lights added. All renders were done using the preset "photonmap - medium + AA 0.3".

This first image all settings were default except for changing the sky to background color using red 7, green 9, blue 26. In other words, nearly black. Except for the sun there are no lights in the following renders

This image was created by just changing the sky setting from the image above from background color to sky color.

This image was created using the settings from the above image but reducing the sun radiance color setting to .4.

This image was created with the same settings except the sun was disabled.

I have attached the kerky file saved from the above images.

notareal · 13 Apr 2012, 21:04

@sojourner said:

I have attached the kerky file saved from the above images.

I think the scene is missing.

tridem · 13 Apr 2012, 21:05

Interesting...I get the same result. I never use background or sky colors then this is the first time I notice it.
In background color mode the render shows the color at full intensity value, like you had set 1.00 in the wizard
In sky color mode, but only with Photon Map, there's kinda ambient light depending from the hue but not affected by the intensity color.
I cannot figure out... perhaps is related to echo boost version?