Sure it's been asked - but vray or Thea for mac freelancers
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Hi
I'm looking to purchase a render program soon for sketchup to do freelance work with and am having trouble deciding between vary and thea render.
I know that vray is the industry standard and probably has the best online community and the most features but it is more money and going by the trial version has much more of a learning curve.
Thea seems simpler and only slightly lesser quality from renders that I've seen as well as half the cost but there does seem to be less of a online presence and obviously there are less features.
I currently use the iMac 27" 5k retina (2015?) model to do my modelling on but I do have a MacBook Pro 15" 2010 model as well (the first model with the thunder port connection I believe) which I could use solely for the actual render processing time if need be
Obviously vray/Thea may function slightly differently on a mac vs a pc which may affect which program may work better
I get the impression that Thea is better for those smaller businesses starting out whereas vray may be better for those more established but there is little comparson on the web
Any advice and opinions would be much appreciated - thank you
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Good Afternoon
This is a very good question as I am also in the same situation.
I'm running Sketchup Pro 2017 on an i5 2014 iMac and a MacBook Pro i7 (2016).
I've tried both on trial, and am still evaluating Thea on the trial version.
For some reason, with V-ray, it would cause Sketchup to just suddenly quit. I googled it to death and did find something about Sketchup Autosave interfering with it. I've also had a similar problem with Thea, although since disabling the Autosave, it does seem to be stable.
From my first impressions, the results from each are similar. I must admit, rendering is not my sole business and I'm just looking at being able to offer it to enhance my freelance work. As they say, a picture speaks a thousand words.
One thing I do like about Thea is that it comes with Thea Studio, which is a standalone programme which seems very in depth.
I find the features in both fairly similar. The interface for V-ray has everything in one place, whereas in Thea the Render settings are controlled in the Render window. Minor difference really.
Thea is cheaper which is a bonus although V-ray does offer a subscription method. Although at £30 + VAT per month, that adds up to quite a bit.
I must admit, I'm still torn between the two, mainly because of, like you say, the online presence. At this stage I'm inching towards Thea.
Mike
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Both are excellent renderers, but have you considered Twilight Render?
The advantages of it are that you don't need a powerful Nvidia graphics card to get the best out of it, plus you can apply templates to your materials to help improve the realism of your renders.
All the render engines users forums are full of very helpful fellow users.
Finally, it's much cheaper & has a proven track record with use in SketchUP.
Worth a thought. -
That is right both of them are good Renderer, Thea for fast production for me.
I just started Vray and getting good results in rendering. both of them running on my
MacBookpro. good thing is Laubwerk Plugin works bothways. -
Try the demo of both and see which you prefer. Which to choose depends on many things. Cost, workflow your knowledge level of rendering, time to learn, setup times, etc.
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