Hey everyone, I see yafaray everywhere on this forum, but what makes it better than blender internal? Why does everyone prefer it, I can’t even think why it would be better. I was just hoping someone could shed some light on the subject, because I haven’t a clue.
More photo-realistic.
Yeah, but how so, how does it make it better than bi, just because more coding put into it?
better algorithms while still keeping render times low.
Is this easier to use in blender 2.5? Because I always thought it was hard to use in 2.49.
Well I haven’t tried in 2.5, but it was never that hard in 2.49.
It’s fully integrated into the interface in 2.5 now instead of being relegated to a scripts window, so it would replace all the BI settings with Yafaray settings.
Well, some people say they hate yafaray, cause it’s dificult to get it to work (well I did have problems in 2.49 XP ), some others use it to get more photo realistic renders without having to wait indefinitely like in LuxRender (though I think LuxRender renders look cuter 
)…
In the end, it’s a personal decision, like the decision to use Blender instead of (or in addition to) a commercial program 
for animations i use yafaray
it produces global illumination realy fast
for realy big renders like a house or a scene i use luxrender
but yafaray is better i think.
you can switch between biased and unbiased rendering in one program and do not set up materials twice.
sry for my bad english.
So Blender Internal dosn’t really exist anymore, its just Yafaray? So like I open blender and hit F12 its a yafaray render?
No, definitely not.
Yafaray is still a separate renderer, I think what AD is saying is that it will be an alternate selection for the renderer in the rendering options (like it used to be a while ago)
The current stable version is to be used in 2.49 only. 2.5x versions are being worked on I believe.
You might also want to read up on the features of Yafaray - http://www.yafaray.org/documentation/features
Ive used it a while ago and it was nice, but lately I havent been able to get it to install, I make progress and then another bug appears, more difficult to defeat than the last. This went on for days, then I gave in and got Luxrender. Which installed in a matter of seconds, and works very nicely with Blender. Just be prepaired for long render times in both programs, a decent render can take anywhere from a couple of hours to days. I usually leave it running overnight for ~12 hours to get a good render.
You might also want to look into Octane which is a very fast gpu based renderer, although thats one youll need to pay for. LuxRender is going the same way (kinda) soon.
Ok, thanks AD-Edge, well I believe that means it is currently not in 2.54, which is the one I’m using at the moment. And I must admit, now that I am learning where everything is, its super fun, although messes up a lot, but still, its a WIP. Yeah I think I’ll check out Yafaray Website and learn more about them.
So is it better than Blender Internal in all cases?
No, definitely not.
It really depends on what your doing… If you want a really realistic looking render with very realistic lighting and you dont mind it taking a while to render then yafaray, luxrender etc are great, but having said that Ive seen some pretty photo-realistic stuff done with Blenders render too.
At the same time, if you want a (potentially) faster render then go with Blender, and blenders renderer is also great if you want to target a certain style of rendering (especially with the help of its nodes). Im by no means saying that Blenders renderer is faster either, some renders can take a huge amount of time here as well…
In summary you really cant say if one or the other is better, because they are each designed in such different ways, for different purposes.
A good artist would think of it as adding another tool to their skill-set. If you master both the internal engine and some other renderers (like the ones mentioned in this thread) then you will have a much wider scope of rendering abilities to choose from depending on the project your working on and how you want the end result to turn out.
nope all render engines have their own particular strengths and weaknesses so its best to know them and use the right tool for the job. One strong point of yafaray is that it can handle materials with glossy reflections pretty fast so too with ray traced lights that have soft shadows. Its anti aliasing on the other hand is pretty involved set it wrongly and your render times will balloon.
the current yafaray is not feature complete and lacks certains mayterials such as SSS.
they google summer codes are being implemented currently
once done yafaray is getting very good again
Octane is awesome, and well worth the money.
I mean, c’mon, Brecht is working on it … Brecht!
Is there any renderer for a blender user that is “feature complete”? I find it a little frustrating that all of the renderers (Luxrender, Yafaray, Thea, V-Ray) that I have looked into are still in the process of developing basic functionality.
JR
they are way beyond basic functionality.
V-Ray is fully working, but the problem might be that exporter for 2.5x, but Blender is still in beta.
2.49 is pretty stable. So with 2.4 you will have a perfect running production line.
Thea while still in beta is very feature complete, same with Octane.
Keep in mind each software grows and new versions will come out.
If the Yafaray team would have more dedicated man power they would be at a
different stage and trust me I am sure they would love to be able to.
Claas, thank you for replying because I know you are current on the state of most of the blender-capable renderers.
I think it would be useful to have a running list of the capabilities/limitations of each of the versions.
For example (and please correct me),
Thea does not support texture baking (yet).
V-Ray does not support blender procedural textures nor tangent normal maps (I think).
Luxrender does not support tangent normal maps and procedural textures must be mapped to global coordinates.
Yafaray does not allow procedural textures to be used in stencils, the stable version does not support tangent normals.
I am sure there are more functional limitations–particularly in support of hair, grass, particles.
From my analysis:
Thea is attractive because there is commercial support for both the renderer and the exporter, they have a roadmap and development is steady. (Of course, you have to pay for this.)
V-Ray is attractive because it is well known and respected in the industry. I understand that it is fast and produces excellent images. The support for the exporter is a question mark. I have played with the 2.49 exporter a demo copy of V-Ray for Maya Standalone but it no longer works in my system. The demo expires? I am hesitant to buy a license when I don’t know if the exporter will be around to use it.
Yafaray is attractive because it is free, the documentation is good and has produced some good results for me using Pathtracing for exterior scenes. However, I see lots of problems reported in their forums and the pace of development is slow.
So, I realize that all renderer solutions will (should) be in continued development. I just don’t see any solution for blender that anyone would say is beyond beta.
Is sad that this applies even to Blender’s internal Renderer XP…