@solo said:

There are trials and demo's for all these render solutions, try before you buy.
Pick the one you enjoy, remember the render engine is only 50% your enjoyment and skill is the other 50%

+1

There are not that meny build in renderers for SU. So you can try those quite quickly. Also, I would take a look on the forums of those products. Personally, I would start from Twilight

@tallbridgeguy said:

There is no way I can compete with the last two renders so I cheated and added a diversion....and tried to add a story. I used Kerky with no clue about what I am doing....it seemed so simple in the brochure. (ha)
Trying to make a decent render shows how hard it actually is (well for me.)

Thanks for the challenge!

I assume you have already read getting started tutorial and tutorials master list.
Add more light and use some nice materials from file repository or Documentation and Sharing > materials and turn on soft shadows. Perhaps you could use some IES lights, easy to set, but you need to get definition files from manufacturers website. Bevel all edges... or use DOF to soften sharp edges.

@pichuneke said:

By the way, you have to visit this guy. I am his number one fan.

Error 404 (Not Found)!!1

(sketchup.google.com)

He does a model in just one week. I enjoy rendering for fun his models with kerkythea, this is my last one based on his Trajan's Forum.

Thanks for the hint!

I like it.

@michaliszissiou said:

Here's a quick modeling, the left imported from SU to blender, (blender produces similar topology after a boolean operation), on the right a different topology without triangles (the good one). This, on the right, doesn't seem to cause these photon problems in render engines. That's why you should expect lighting problems near arcs. See this nice link, kerkythea has some similar problems there.
IMHO

Good tip. If SU could create proper edgeloops, that would help a lot with modelling too, or with KT internal subdivision feature.

@al hart said:

@notareal said:

Is this related to http://nxt.accurender.com/forums/t/2645.aspx
" Hi,

I just purchased the license and then followed up to update my previous version with the latest one and since then I seem to be getting this crazy visual c++ bug every time

Is the problem you are having related to twilight, or is it a completely different problem.

If you have twilight installed, rename the .rb file to a different extension, and see if that fixes your problem. If you do not have it installed, then this is a different problem, and we will have to find a different fix for it.

But I though that was MSVC 2005 vs MSVC 2008 problem, so basically the same that with Twilight? So you never did go to MSVC 2008... or is there some other dll that might conflict, like freeimage? Anyhow perhaps you should continue solving this private.

Beated me, Chris. Good old dll hell.

Is this related to http://nxt.accurender.com/forums/t/2645.aspx
" Hi,

I just purchased the licence and then followed up to update my previous version with the latest one and since then I seem to be getting this crazy visualc++ bug every time I either try to edit materials or render. I've found for some strange reason that if I use nxt stable edition I can modify the textures but not render and if I use the Beta version I can render but not modify the textures. As I might not be making myself clear I've put a ling to a screencap ... was wondering if it has happened to anyone and if anyone knows how to fix this problem.

thanks.

http://www.creationscoquerel.com/irender_bug.jpg
Filed under: visual runtime error"

So would the problem be in Visual C++ Runtime, not in .net?

@al hart said:

@frederik said:

I'm definitely not the right person to ask when it comes to ruby-codes and how to avoid this...
Hopefully those involved knows what needs to be done...

I have our man trying to trace down the problem. It appears that we are loading different versions of the .NET DLLs into SketchUp. We will try to come up with a fix.

Some older version?

@olishea said:

frederik.......is it possible to increase the AA of the alpha mask preset?

In my knowledge no, but if you render alpha mask with 2-3x greater resolution and scale it down in photoshop, you will get AA + Supersampling.

Thea Render technology previews is updated with a sneak peak at the material system.
http://www.thearender.com/forum -> Technology Preview (registration required).

There are several free recovery software available.

3. is my favorite.

Google finds two results for antivirusoftwaretry. It claims to be cnet certified, but it is not and so... scam or pirated software.

@solo said:

I see there is also an open beta date, so I assume the closed beta is under way.

I believe plugin writers are still picking they testers...

Thea render pricing policy and opening date is announced. More at Thea Render Forum.

@unknownuser said:

split the code and do the calculations in an extension using native threads

Agree, far more efficient way.

I like the style. I can imagine using something like this instead of clay render.