Indigo's impact..

General Forums Blender and CG Discussions
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I’d seen recently quite a few decent renders from the Indigo renderer. Although it’s in it’s early stages, it’s looking quite promising.

The good news for people running Linux based operating systems is that this renderer can be run using the help of WINE. The bad news is, I’ve a hunch the render times might suffer because of this. I’d like to see a Linux variant of Indigo.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that it’s fairly slow. Maybe it’s because it’s still in it’s early stages of development - or maybe it renders in a drastically different, possibly slower way to both Yafray and Blender internal. Heck, I don’t know.

Just wanted to see what you guys thought.

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I don’t think it’ll have much impact. It’s nice for testing and to make cool ultra realistic things. Though it’s completely overhyped. Aren’t “unbiased” renderers just the simplest type of renderer out there? No cool tricks, just pure calculation.

Another overhyped renderer is Maxwell. Look at their site, you won’t find a single word about render times. Their forums are locked to anyone but buyers of the software. What do they have to hide? The render times. The physical correctness is their main attraction, which is great. Something really wanted especially in architectural test images.

I guess the reason why this trend of unbiased renderers is starting now is because computers get within reasonable speed to get a render done within a couple of days. But I don’t think you can use such a renderer to get work done. Not at print resolution.

I like realistic renderers a lot, I really like light:) And the physical correctness is great up to a point. But I don’t think people will automatically start making better pictures, because the time for feedback is so long. Give me the speed of photon mapping instead. Just the other night I did a test with an interior rendering. At 3200x2400 pixels, I got an almost spotless YafRay render in 2 hours and 20 minutes. At that size.

So I’m in for some physical rendering, but preferrably with the clever render tricks smart coders have devised in recent years. Why should we suddenly throw all that out of the door? But hey, it’s probably great to play around with. And the gallery has some very nice pictures!

Have fun,

Wybren van Keulen

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Aren’t “unbiased” renderers just the simplest type of renderer out there? No cool tricks, just pure calculation.

Not necessarily. This is a MLT renderer, it mutates paths of light using a complex algorithm. Nick, the creator, is coding bi-directional MLT at the moment. Have a look at some of the maths behind it. It is much faster than calculating the path of every ray.

Their forums are locked to anyone but buyers of the software.

What? I’m registered and I havent bought it.

I don’t think people will automatically start making better pictures, because the time for feedback is so long.

Actually, you can see a rough render after about 20 seconds.

Why should we suddenly throw all that out of the door?

Because for realism, there is something better?

Give me the speed of photon mapping instead.

Fine, but I have used indigo to render images by simulating a camera. It handles working out the caustics at the back of the camera, it actually produces an image on the back. Now, photon mapping couldn’t handle something like that, it is fine for estimating the light levels, but sometimes you want more accuracy. Therefore, you need a new technique. Take a look at some prism scenes to see what I mean.

I’m not saying it is the best renderer to use, it depends on what you want. A lot of the time I want unrealistic results, because they look nicer.

However, with Indigo, there is no need to play around with photon mapping settings, or quality settings, I just hit “go” and it goes.

It is also great for running in parallel, you can set up a single master and then add or remove slaves as and when you want.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that it’s fairly slow. Maybe it’s because it’s still in it’s early stages of development - or maybe it renders in a drastically different, possibly slower way to both Yafray and Blender internal. Heck, I don’t know.

Yeah it renders in a different way. This is why it is slow, but also why it is more realistic.

The good news for people running Linux based operating systems is that this renderer can be run using the help of WINE. The bad news is, I’ve a hunch the render times might suffer because of this. I’d like to see a Linux variant of Indigo.

The render times seem to be pretty similar.