Just wondering what renderers people would recommend - particularly for internal natural light views.
I am an architect who among other things does most of the 3d stuff in our office. I largely model in sketchup (excellent interface for architectural modelling) but often want more than the image quality it can provide (although excellent for some purposes). I have primarily used Blender for rendering and can get pretty good external renders in a reasonable time, but internal daylight views are more problematic. I would like something that works with very little fussing about with settings - or could be set up once as a good template scene that I just needed to drop the model into. I have used Lux and got a very good render with very little manual intervention once the materials were set up, however it did take a weekend to render one print quality image with five computers working on it. I have used Radiance in the past and tried Yafray, although not with the greatest of success. Octane looks nice but I don’t have access to a suitable graphics card. I would prefer a free solution, but if commercial it would have to be fairly cheap as currently there is little money to invest in new software or hardware.
Yafaray and Luxrender are the current most attractive free alternatives. Luxrender being unbiased should offer little to no setup, but also quite high rendertimes (until it gets to the GPU as planned for 0.8). Yafaray offers very good results at reasonable time with a bit of tweaking in the settings.
When talking about commercial options, I second VRay: the exporter works very nicely and the program renders pretty decent images amazingly fast. It took me significantly longer to learn than LuxRender or Maxwell, but that time will pay back by making it easier to make deadlines. When getting the VRay standalone version (that works with Blender) the price is very reasonable, even when including a voluntary donation to the exporter developer.
Unfortunately I can’t comment on Yaf(a)ray as I have never used it.
VRay, Yafaray and Lux are all available for Sketchup, early days for Yafaray on SU currently and Vray for SU is pretty cheap, so if you only use Blender for rendering which entails import time and clean up of the SU models, you could cut Blender out altogether?
Sunflow is another alternative, some lovely interior renders on the forum over there and again has a SU exporter so no need for blender.
Thanks for the advice. I may look into some of the ones running direct from Sketchup, although Blender is more suited to setting up the cameras, lights etc.
I have used Blender for years, but when it comes to ease for architectural modelling Sketchup wins (particularly for punching windows through walls etc). Blender beats it hands down when it comes to organic modelling.
I have used Blender for years, but when it comes to ease for architectural modelling Sketchup wins (particularly for punching windows through walls etc). Blender beats it hands down when it comes to organic modelling.
I think that depends on what point in the process the 3D ‘architectural modelling’ starts.
Our office use it extensively as a tool for architectural concept work, after sketching with pen and paper. and for design development and presentation when time is tight, ie not looking for something a little more ‘photorealistic’.
But for main presentation work or when a design has developed in 2D via AutoCAD then I’d say Blender or Max or Modo are better as the ‘architectural modelling’ tool than Sketchup going from CAD.
and for design development and presentation when time is tight, ie not looking for something a little more ‘photorealistic’.