Which renderer is best

We will try our best to keep it updated, nonetheless, some information may not be fully correct or may be out of date. This article on 3D Renderers was difficult to put together. As a result, there is a lot of information to digest. Indeed, I hope this will be a highly used resource.

My goal was to create a document to help artists decide which 3D renderers work best for their work while presenting only facts.

No opinion. So, users can compare 3D Renderers on a logical level. This comes with a lot of terminologies of which you must have a basic understanding.

Then a bit more about each 3D rendering engine with some videos. Note: Pricing and system requirements are accurate as of the publishing of this article.

We will keep this document updated when we get around to it. Please check for current versions. Think of the central processing unit, or CPU, as the brain and control center of your computer. The CPU is based on single cores so it works on one bit of data at a time. The GPU is designed for parallel processing so they can work with a lot of data at once.

In contrast, a GPU is composed of hundreds of cores that can handle thousands of threads simultaneously. Biased means that the renderer will estimate values, or do a bit of educated guessing using mathematical functions, and not calculate every single pixel. The downside is that the results may not be absolutely accurate. Unbiased, on the other hand, means that every pixel is calculated with no interpolation between pixels. Biased rendering methods include light tracking, path tracing, bidirectional path tracing, and metropolis light transport.

Global Illumination is the algorithm that the software uses to recreate natural lighting from the real world. There are several types of algorithms such as radiosity, ray tracing, beam tracing, cone tracing, path tracing, Metropolis light transport, ambient occlusion, photon mapping, and image-based lighting.

Even more, these can be used on their own or in combination with each other to create better results. While this video is targeted to Cinema 4D, much of the information applies to any other 3D software. This is a common algorithm for photo realism used by 3D software and it seems to be tied in with probability in gambling! The little open-source rendering program that could.

Blender has gone from indie artist darling to full-blown commercial phenomenon. Why not? It also happens to be one of the most capable programs on this list. Couple that with a user community that has been carefully cultivating the program through input and experimentation, and you have one of the most important pieces of rendering software on the planet. Back before the virtual dearth of rendering engines hit the market, there were really only a handful of choices when it came to personal preference.

Maxwell was one of them, and continues to be a giant in the architectural visualization industry. The renderings Maxwell is capable of producing are simply awe-inspiring, all packaged in a program that is relatively user-friendly and easy to learn. There really is no other choice for the top spot.

VRAY pioneered computer generated graphics and has continued to innovate even when it could sit comfortable upon the throne based on reputation alone. If you are a pro at basic landscape designing , then Octane Render is a good option. The best feature of this rendering software is its rendering engine which is a lot faster and more powerful than the other free rendering software available on the market. If you are a design professional looking for a deep feature set, then surely consider Octane Render.

It will let you lay your hands on a large pool of materials and textures, backed by a solid rendering engine. Read also — Best Home Design Software. Another popular rendering software particularly suited for architects who need to work with a lot of exteriors, is Lumion 3D.

Its easy user interface and set of powerful tools let you create distinctive designs with minimal effort. Apart from that, it is compatible with almost every rendering software available in the market including CAD. This feature is especially useful when you have to deal with juniors or other fellow architects who prefer other software for rendering. So no matter your CAD software, no matter your previous rendering experience, you can import your model s into Lumion and, within minutes, begin sculpting and shaping the real-life or conceptual context around your design.

Read also — Best Floor Plan Creator. Arnold is another great software primarily for gamers that allows for real-time 3D rendering, making it easy to add any changes to ongoing calculations during the rendering. This allows users to achieve desired looks in a more time-oriented fashion and provides excellent control over the compositing stage.

Arnold also supports volumetrics and has a material editor which is node-based, making the process highly intuitive. A number of presets are available for out-of-the-box and additional node solutions. Arnold is great for particle and demolition effects as well.

A day trial version is available to download. Read also — Best Interior Design Games. Despite the fact that Corona lacks some capabilities, such as velocity render, it is one of the quickest rendering software solutions presently available. The software program additionally enables complete integration with 3DS Max, so you can very easily rent complicated 3d models without ever thinking about compatibility troubles.

Viz Render is a product of Autodesk. It is a powerful compositing, real-time 3D rendering, and video playout platform that forms the foundation for a range of graphics and video production use cases.

It has multiple render pipelines included which can all run simultaneously. The standard pipeline is used for typical live motion graphic elements, the Fusion pipeline supports Physical Based Rendering PBR and is optimized for Virtual Sets and Augmented Reality immersive graphics, and the Unreal Engine 4 pipeline can provide an additional level of photo-realistic backgrounds. It not only offers powerful visualization and a set of diversified and powerful tools, but it also makes learning other Autodesk products easier.

This rendering software can be your entry point in the Autodesk ecosystem. This software is free of cost and renders animations in HD, 4K, and beyond.

Read also — Best Interactive Presentation Software. Mental Ray is often viewed to be closely similar to VRAY, yet Mental Ray has managed to carve a niche in the world of rendering software. Makers of the software have attempted to make a powerful rendering engine with versatile tools and features. It has an easy user interface, making it more accessible to new users. Read also — Best Kitchen Design Software. Keyshot not only gives a smooth, straightforward user interface, but its toolset also presents an amazing learning curve that makes getting the intricate details a breeze.

The program offers ease of use and is generally popular for delivering a real-time rendering engine, which permits clients to consider lighting and materiality as you work on the detailed rendering works. Its real-time 3D rendering displays results instantly and reduces the time to create realistic product visuals. Key Shot is trusted by brands around the world for its speed, ease of use, scientifically accurate materials, and advanced material editing capabilities. Read also — Best 3D Architecture Software.

Artlantis has amazing lighting features for creating numerous lighting possibilities for both indoor and outdoor scenes like spot, bulb, directional light, heliodon, sky as well as effects atmospheres, turbulence, diffraction, halo, depth of field and manages transparent materials like the effects of light on curtains. Soft shadows and blurs are easy to set with an interactive cursor. You can also edit a specific object contour, image or scene, and thus manipulate the light rays and soften the general ambiance of scenes and animations.

Furthermore, its built-in render manager helps you in dealing with computing load and evenly distributing on local PCs, which makes rendering extremely fast. You can create both high-resolution still images and high-resolution animation and degree panorama on two versions of this rendering software. The materials inside Artlantis are programmed in order to achieve photorealistic results.

Unbiased engines tend to be very difficult for artists to render with as they are much more precise with their calculations regarding processes like lighting physics. However, Redshift is a biased engine, meaning there is much more freedom for the artist to get the desired render without having to overwork settings — meaning you can focus solely on creating.

Redshift is easily integrated into programs such as Cinema 4D, Maya, and Houdini, making for very powerful workflows and beautiful results. Octane Render is a GPU-based renderer that handles processor-heavy algorithms with ease. Making use of its interactive real-time viewport system, it smoothly speeds up your workflow by essentially displaying your final render as you work, edit and place materials, and frame compositions.

It works as a standalone program, or it can be easily implemented as a plugin for many industry-standard programs including 3ds Max, Cinema 4D, Maya, and Blender just to name a few.

An ideal contender for architectural visualization, this rendering software also boasts that along with its comprehensive interface yielding beautiful results fairly quickly, its processing speeds dwarf that of other GPU-based plugins by 10—50 times.

KeyShot is a completely different beast compared to all other rendering solutions on this list. Your workflow can be completely localized to the application window.