Best Rendering Software

massimo

...Also, I am new to SketchUcation and I did a post yesterday and replied to the Post but my reply does not show up -- what happened? I hit the "Submit" button but it does not submit.

Thanks

New members must wait for the approval of a moderator for the first couple of posts.

JGA

There are so many good rendering engines available for SKUP, but iin the end it's down to the user. Kerkythea is a good starting point being free with a good.forum support. Twilight builds on this, then you can migrate to Thea if you want to develop further. It's also compatible with other.modelling packages.

Daniel

A lot of software companies offer a free trial personal learning edition. You might consider taking some for a test drive before buying the car. Which software is best is subjective to the user...and the size of your wallet.

jman0war

I have been out of the loop for awhile.
I used to use SU6.
I had purchased SUPodium for rendering inside SU but it was way too slow.
I then moved on to Vue Pro Studio. Results were amazing, but again very slow.

So i'm looking for a suggestion for rendering inside SU (after i buy the latest version).
It's primarily for exterior architectural scenes.
I'd like to be able to include 3d trees, lush grass and my own textures.
Bump maps or even Normal mapping support would be good too.

Any suggestion?

Daniel

You might try Vue by eon software. Besides the full version (Vue Infinite), they offer two architectural bundles at lower prices.

jiminy-billy-bob

Vray!

JGA

You seem to have a good basis with Podium & Vue. Perhaps you need to upgrade your PC?
If you have a 64 OS, it may be an idea to have a renderer separate from SKUP, as it remains a 32 bit application - which also limits the built in renderer package.

jman0war

@jga said:

You seem to have a good basis with Podium & Vue. Perhaps you need to upgrade your PC?
If you have a 64 OS, it may be an idea to have a renderer separate from SKUP, as it remains a 32 bit application - which also limits the built in renderer package.

Ah ok, i didn't realize that.

Thing is, it would take a very long time to setup my scenes in Vue.
I want to omit the whole - exporting my model and all the nuances involved like triangulating faces, re-naming texture files etc.
If I could model in SU, and render there too, that would be best.

I won't be going with SUPodium, while I had the very original first release, it's just not perfect way too slow.

I haven't used VRAY, what about that Kerkythea?
Can i render my scenes without exporting etc?
Then add detail into my modeland render again?

jiminy-billy-bob

With Vray, everything is done inside SU. You can even render with 64bit without leaving SU.

jiminy-billy-bob

Thea also seems very powerfull, though I haven't deeply tried it.
Octane seems promising, but it has not been released yet.

Stinkie

@jman0war said:

I won't be going with SUPodium, while I had the very original first release, it's just not perfect way too slow.

Try the latest version. I am confident you'll be surprised.

jman0war

@jiminy-billy-bob said:

With Vray, everything is done inside SU. You can even render with 64bit without leaving SU.

Sounds and looks great, but $835.00 is way, way too much to spend.

pilou

Mitsuba it's free !

mitcorb

Hello:
Here is a listing you may not have seen:
http://sketchucation.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=81%26amp;t=3220#p15472

Or, here:
http://sketchuprendering.com/

jman0war

Mitsuba looks interesting.
But it looks a little crude yet.

Fake Grass via Motion Blur is a cool and creative solution, but I remain a little unconvinced.
Do you know of any large renderings of outdoor architectural scenes where I can see the results?

Krisidious

I don't do any paid renders and I'm not very good at it... But I can tell you which one I've been wanting. Thea Presto.

http://www.thearender.com/cms/index.php/plugins/thea-for-sketchup.html

jman0war

@krisidious said:

I don't do any paid renders and I'm not very good at it... But I can tell you which one I've been wanting. Thea Presto.

http://www.thearender.com/cms/index.php/plugins/thea-for-sketchup.html

Sure, but you have to export the model.
That's exactly the step i'm looking to omit.

Krisidious

Are any of them truly, actually inside sketchup? What's the problem with exporting? are you on freemake?

solo

@jman0war said:

@krisidious said:

I don't do any paid renders and I'm not very good at it... But I can tell you which one I've been wanting. Thea Presto.

http://www.thearender.com/cms/index.php/plugins/thea-for-sketchup.html

Sure, but you have to export the model.
That's exactly the step i'm looking to omit.

No you do not, I use Thea 100% in SU, never export to studio.

andybot

@krisidious said:

Are any of them truly, actually inside sketchup? What's the problem with exporting? are you on freemake?

Kris - is Presto inside SU - as opposed to Thea which has that studio thing? Or does Presto have to export to a studio as well? I am assuming jman0war is referring to a manual export process - where it's possible to make changes in an external studio that are not necessarily transferred back to SU.

Edit: I see Pete has answered...