I have noticed that people are starting to use Yafray a lot, but as I haven’t tried it out yet I just wonder: What is so fantastic about it? Why not use Povray, which has been out there for ever, and which has taken a huge leap forwards with ver. 3.5? Is Yafray better, or is the Yafray export script better? 
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Thanks for letting me know!
well i use it because of Yable - the exporter.
And the program is really easy and fast to use - moreover the .xml files are a breeze to manually edit.
I would like to try lightflow but im somehow intimedated by it.
And YafRay is opensource… 
The currently most important reason is of course the excellent exporter, just as Claws says. It’s closer to total integration Blender->External render than we’ve previously experienced.
That aside, there’s really no good reason to use YafRay just yet, since it’s very immature. However, its development will be further stimulated by the fact that there’s a lot of ppl using it.
Well IMHO povray files are a lot easier to edit. Just because XML is man readable doesn’t mean it’s easy to edit.
And povanim by jms is an excellent export script (blender -> povray), you just have to understand povray to use this script with all its functionallity.
povray is unrealisticly slow.
yafray is much faster, and the export script is easier to use!
I use Yaf because its OSS, and casue I can go shout “yo!” and the magical beings who write it will answer me.
I think one of the reasons that yafray is quite popular among Blender users is that it was created by Blender users. From what I’ve seen, I personally think it has a lot more potential than povray - most of the images I see rendered with povray don’t look that good to me at all.
Well YAFRAY it’s nice and it’s even nicer cos it was created by a blender user, but to say that it has more potential than PovRay it’s a bit too entusiastic! PovRay includes a number of technologies that is amazing, it’s developed by undreds of genius and it has a long long story. Its power becomes clear if you look at what it can produce. Try to pay a visit to places like
http://www.oyonale.com/new_en.htm
or
http://www.povray.org/community/hof/
You (Funkychild) say that you just saw pictures you dont like, but that’s not a good reason to say that the “pov look” is bad. It depends on what someone create with his/her software. I could similary say that i saw really good gfx out there, done with this tool.
YAFRAY renderings have the typical GI look, and that’s cool, cos it’s the trend of the moment. But it has a lot of road to do before getting complete like PovRay.
Anyway, talking about the reasons behind using Yafray, i can say that it’s obviously a trend. Yafray is made by a great blender user and gives to blender the capability of rendering using GI without getting hysteric with the native radiosity model. The Yable script is also a great thing, cos it gives the illusion of having a kinda integrated suite. These are the main reasons, i think. Trend and love toward blender-stuff. It is like a child of this great family, and we all love it.
I hope it can keep on growing like that, and i exprime my complete esteem toward Alejandro. Si si. Adios y buen trabajo!
¡Hasta siempre!
El Sup
:Z
I use it because of the unique look it produces. It’s perfect for product visualisations. The soft shadows of the global illumination combined with the soft grainy look and all that at a very fast speed! I think a lot of renderers render stuff too clean, that sums it up. I want dirt! 
Have fun,
Wybren van Keulen
Funny Farm
I have yet to see a GI image done well in pov. If you can show me, that would be ver appreciated.
What do you mean for “a wll done GI image” ? If you mean a good image done with GI algorhitms, you can check the links i provided before : many of the images, as you can read in the text regarding them, are made with GI.
If you mean “images that you can clearly say they are GI cos you can see the funny cool smooth shadows and the great grainy noise etc”, you can pay a visit to the official Pov radiosity tutorial, for instance :
http://www.povray.org/documentation/view/103/
but of course there are a lot of examples on the subject.
The problem is : should we use GI cos we want our images to look GI, or should we use it to make our image better?
I keep on repeating it : I admire Jandro and his work, and i hope that yafray will keep on growing like that. But we should never start on this “fanatism” about software. There are better softwares out there, and it’s good for an artist to get the better instruments he/she can afford. Pov is free and better, and i chose it, though i like to play with Yafray too.
I am not a fanatic neither. I dont give a damn about pov being considerated the best free tracer. I just use it cos it gives me instruments to develop my fantasy. If you are confortable with Yafray for serious work, that’s good : go and use it. But to say that Yafray’s GI is better than Pov one it’s not true, and there are tons of scientific documents on the subject, if you just look for them.
Dont take me wrong.
¡Hasta siempre!
El Sup
:Z
PS : of course i am talking of PovRay 3.5. Adios.
Hi!
I agree with you sup, yafray has still a long road to walk. Maybe it could be better in some aspects, but lacks a lot of features. That could change of course, if it takes the way of other opensource projects it could become very good. I hope so I’m very happy with all blender users who like it and make those awesome renders. We’ll try to improve it and add the missing features. More developers would speed up things of course
Hola Jandro!
I am glad you wrote this reply. And i am agree with all your words. I am a coder too and i understand how painful can be to create complex enviroments like a renderer. That’s why i admire you, cos you are going on and you are giving a good instrument to all the people out there that wanna use it.
I hope you didnt get me wrong, with my ideas and thoughts. I am not a fanatic, i just try to do the best i can with the instruments i can afford. The thing that was worrying me was that : we should avoid the “trends”, cos they can put the light over a sofware but also turn it off when this trend ends. If i explained it well. Mi englés es muy malo, lo sé
(With “trend” I was referring to GI of course. The new trend at the moment is, i think, on subscattering surfaces, and before it was on montecarlo… but following trends brings nothing good i think, cos it turns off the real opportunities of application. )
Yafray is really good and i hope it will get better every day.
I am sincere when i say it.
Gracias por responderme, y buen trabajo.
¡Hasta siempre!
El Sup
:Z
I stand corrected
I prefer yafray’s excellent export script - the only one - so far I havent tried povanim since im happy- that has given me good results (No destroyed geometry!) . I looked for - And silly GI images have been the ‘trend’ for 3 years and counting - the fad hasn’t stopped yet.
mmm
– never said GI images are silly
– my words were concerning the quality of the renderer and the features of it, not the export script – and they were the answer to some other questions
– povanim is quite good too, anyway, specially now that support pov 3.5
– the radiosity “trend” we are discussing was born moooooooooooore than 3 years ago, i can remember some rendering techniques dated around 10 years ago…
anyway i think this discussion is getting a bit looooooong
so i give my last 2 cents : yafray is a renderer… pov is a renderer… there are some export scripts… everyone should go and see what he/she finds better. I dont think i have nothing more to say. Adios!
¡Hasta siempre!
El Sup
:Z