SoftwareGraphic DesignRealisticRenderingPBRModelling

What are the best renderers?

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Considered

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Recs.

Jan 29, 2024

Last
Updated

Cycles Render vs V-Ray vs Radeon ProRender

vs Unreal Engine 4 vs Renderman vs Luxrender vs Arnold vs Maxwell Render vs Eevee vs LightWave 2018 vs DreamWorks Animation OpenMoonRay vs YafaRay vs Octane Render vs Prerender

Specs

Languages

C++

Scripting language

Python

OpenGL

2.0

Platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

Console targets

3D

2D

VR targets

Graphics API

API Support

Supported platforms

Languages

Scripting language

OpenGL

Platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

Console targets

3D

2D

VR targets

Graphics API

API Support

Supported platforms

Languages

Scripting language

OpenGL

Platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

Console targets

3D

2D

VR targets

Graphics API

API Support

Supported platforms

Languages

C++, Blueprints (Visual Scripting)

Scripting language

OpenGL

Platforms

Windows, Mac OS X, Linux

Desktop targets

Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, SteamOs, HTML5

Mobile targets

iOS, Android

Console targets

PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch

3D

Yes

2D

Yes

VR targets

SteamVR/HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, OSVR, , Google VR/Daydream, Samsung Gear VR

Graphics API

DirectX Versions: 10, 11, 12(Experimental), Vulkan SM5, OpenGL

API Support

DirectX 10, DirectX 11, Vulkan (SM5), OpenGL

Supported platforms

Languages

Scripting language

OpenGL

Platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

Console targets

3D

2D

VR targets

Graphics API

API Support

Supported platforms

Languages

Scripting language

OpenGL

Platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

Console targets

3D

2D

VR targets

Graphics API

API Support

Supported platforms

Languages

Scripting language

OpenGL

Platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

Console targets

3D

2D

VR targets

Graphics API

API Support

Supported platforms

Languages

Scripting language

OpenGL

Platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

Console targets

3D

2D

VR targets

Graphics API

API Support

Supported platforms

Languages

Scripting language

OpenGL

Platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

Console targets

3D

2D

VR targets

Graphics API

API Support

Supported platforms

Languages

Scripting language

OpenGL

Platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

Console targets

3D

2D

VR targets

Graphics API

API Support

Supported platforms

Languages

Scripting language

OpenGL

Platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

Console targets

3D

2D

VR targets

Graphics API

API Support

Supported platforms

Linux, MacOS

Languages

Scripting language

OpenGL

Platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

Console targets

3D

2D

VR targets

Graphics API

API Support

Supported platforms

Languages

Scripting language

OpenGL

Platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

Console targets

3D

2D

VR targets

Graphics API

API Support

Supported platforms

Languages

Scripting language

OpenGL

Platforms

Desktop targets

Mobile targets

Console targets

3D

2D

VR targets

Graphics API

API Support

Supported platforms

Pros + Cons

Pro
Interactive viewport rendering

Allowing user to quickly get an overlook of the render, manage objects and materials in real time.

Comment

Pro
Physically based

Cycles supports Monte Carlo Path Tracing (Pure and recursive).

Comment

Pro
Very flexible node based material system

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Powerful procedurals

Really good at creating procedural imagery what is crucial for fitting a large scene on a GPU.

Comment

Con
Does not support spectral rendering

[add description]

Comment

Con
Very few rendering and sampling algorithms

Path tracing (Pure and Recursive) is currently the only available rendering method with Sobol and Correlated multi-jittered as the available samplers.

Comment

Con
Hard to make good looking

It has no algorithm to render without noise. So noise removal after render or a lot of samples required to make noise invisible.

Comment

Con
Does not support IES Photometrics

Lacks IES Photometrics support in older versions.

Comment

Pro
Very popular

This makes learning and getting support really easy.

Comment

Con
Complex/hard material nodes

Makes the learning curve rather steep.

Comment

Pro
Speed

It's one of the fastest rendering engine of the "time"

Comment

Pro
Can use CPU and GPU at the same time

Unlike other renderers, Pro Render is capable to using CPU and GPU at the same time, increasing render speed tremendously. Pro Render can also use your system RAM and GPU vRAM at the same time to increasing efficiency in complex scenes.

Comment

Pro
Hardware Agnostic

Runs on AMD, Intel, and NVIDIA so you don't have to worry about it on some hardware.

Comment

Pro
Free

Radeon Pro Render is free to use.

Comment

Pro
Developers have full control of the engine and source code

UE4 gives full access to the C++ source code allowing editing and upgrading anything in the system.

Comment

Pro
Lots of resources to learn from

Epic provides multiple official video tutorials, lots of free example projects and content, an extensive wiki and regular streams showing how to use latest features.

Comment

Pro
Dynamic global illumination with voxel cone tracing decreases the computational power needed

Voxel cone tracing is a similar algorithm to ray tracing, but uses thick rays instead of pixel thin rays to be able to vastly decrease the amount of computational power needed. The lighting information generated is then stored in the form of voxel data (3D texture) and applied to the scene.

Comment