Why do Yafray, Menta Ray, Brazil renders look better than Blender's renders?

[artificial3D]

'looking better' is relative and does not necessairly depend on the renderer.

[paintbox]

As Andy said, but also dependent on what you mean. If you mean the GI renders (with or without HDRI) looking more realistic, than yes those renderers are 'better', because GI-type renderers use a more realistic lighting model than raytracing. And I believe the default render-engine of Blender is just raytracing I believe (I am new to Blender so correct me if I am wrong)

[Apollux]

The main reason for those renders looking better is that they are been done by better CG artists. Remember that you are talking about profesional and very expensive rendering engines, the ones that a BIG studio or a seasoned profesional would afford to buy.

On the other hand, Blender is more popular among newcommers and people just strarting in 3D, so you can't expect the same level.

But , if you where to give proper Blender training to those Pro/Seasoned users, I bet you that their renders would be as good or even better than the ones you see comming from Mental Ray.

In fact, I ve been involved with Blender since a really long time, and still once-in-a-time i bump with Blender renders that I just can't believe were done in Blender... (hint: Ada89's works).

It is all in how you domain the lighting system used on the render engine. Conquer that and your renders will put actuall photos to shame.

[xeetstreet]

'looking better' is relative and does not necessairly depend on the renderer.What I meant was, "Why are the renders technically better?". Is GI or SSS not an implementable option for Blender's internal renderer?

[Apollux]

no, SSS is not implemented. Chances are that it will be implemented first on Yafray, and then backported to blender.

GI is already on Yafray since the very start.

[xeetstreet]

no, SSS is not implemented. Chances are that it will be implemented first on Yafray, and then backported to blender.

GI is already on Yafray since the very start.(I am referring specifically to Blender's Internal renderer; that's what this post is about.)

[Apollux]

I know. The answer is that the internal render doesn't have SSS, and the only GI option availble on the internal render is a Radiosity Solution.

I mentioned Yafray because it is an extension to the Blender's internal rendering engine... that was it's purpose from the early start of the Yafray Project.

[bbirras]

blenders renderer is a hybrid renderer- scanline and raytracer

the raytracing functions are very limited in blenders native renderer.

other render engines offer more functions...

a renderer has to be seen like a camera, as it takes the actual photo of the scene, so yes, the used render-engine has a lot to do with the final quality of the shot..
you can not expect to get the same quality picture with a cheap camera and a profesional one.

BUT: (important part!!!)

If you dont have a clue about photography and lighting, than the professional camera wont help you a lot and a good photographer with the cheap camera will most propably achieve better looking pictures with any cheap little camera.

It comes down to this: its all about lighting and skill!
------

off course, other render engines offer more functions and are very helpfull to achieve a better looking picture, with photons and caustics and ..and and...just like the professional camera has more tecnical functions like a better objective......shutter adjustment , filters...

check the resource threat here for links about lighting or serch te web for links about photography
-------

than learn about faking stuff...your renderer cant do it? fake it!

[xeetstreet]

blenders renderer is a hybrid renderer- scanline and raytracer

the raytracing functions are very limited in blenders native renderer.

other render engines offer more functions...

a renderer has to be seen like a camera, as it takes the actual photo of the scene, so yes, the used render-engine has a lot to do with the final quality of the shot..
you can not expect to get the same quality picture with a cheap camera and a profesional one.

BUT: (important part!!!)

If you dont have a clue about photography and lighting, than the professional camera wont help you a lot and a good photographer with the cheap camera will most propably achieve better looking pictures with any cheap little camera.

It comes down to this: its all about lighting and skill!
------

off course, other render engines offer more functions and are very helpfull to achieve a better looking picture, with photons and caustics and ..and and...just like the professional camera has more tecnical functions like a better objective......shutter adjustment , filters...

check the resource threat here for links about lighting or serch te web for links about photography
-------

than learn about faking stuff...your renderer cant do it? fake it!Excellent observations.

[wrecktangle]

blender's internal raytracer is less than a year old, give it some time!
that being said, gi/sss are being developed experimentally right now (search blender.org forums for a link to some test images)...

[xeetstreet]

blender's internal raytracer is less than a year old, give it some time!
that being said, gi/sss are being developed experimentally right now (search blender.org forums for a link to some test images)...I understand. ;) I did a search yesterday to see if anyone was involved in implementing GI and SSS; it turns out someone is. If anyone hasn't seen the first stages of it, here are some sample shots:

Blender Internal with the GI patch:
http://apieceofstring.com/albums/screens/MADCOW.jpg

Environmental Lighting:
http://apieceofstring.com/albums/screens/sky.jpg

Caustics:
http://apieceofstring.com/albums/screens/caustic.jpg
http://apieceofstring.com/albums/screens/caustic2.jpg
Note: The GI patch and testing builds (with more test images) can be found at http://wiki.blender.org/bin/view.pl/Blenderdev/FullGIAndSSS?rev=1.10

[bbirras]

blender's internal raytracer is less than a year old,

this is not quite right...ok its less than a year that it is integrated, but the code is quite old!

blenders native renderers goal was allways maximum speed !!
and
as a matter of fact, it was only integrated, because computers nowadays have much more processing power and can reduce rendertimes!

a raytracer 5 years ago, well the story was quite different then and rendertimes where not acceptable for blenders philosophy: speed, speed, speed!!!

as for functions, the allready existing raytracing functions in blenders native, make it possible to achive quite good quality renders, with supperb rendertimes when compared to other render engines.

as for GI- well GI takes a lot of time to render, and takes the task of setting up the lighting, but rendertimes for some animations would be unexeptable....(big scene settings)

even raytracing is avoided whenever there is another solution....

I would recommend learing how to achieve good looking renders without raytracing first, then start using (abusing) it..as for GI, well as I said, one step at the time.

walk before you run, run before you jump, learn swimming before you jump in the water

my 99c :)

[harkyman]

Even with the speed at issue, I would love to see Blender's internal renderer become as robust as possible. Full GI - pathtracing with color bleeding - bring it on! There are several projects that are working on distributing rendering over a network, some just doling out animations on a frame-by-frame basis, but others are using the border rendering feature (you can render a specific area of the final image) to split a single frame up among clients. If I want to use Blender's internal renderer and could get results approaching Mental Ray etc., but at the cost of time, buying 10 used $130 Dell PIII's for a renderfarm would definitely be an option. Remember - no license fees per node for a Blender-based render farm.

Push the render quality as far as it can go. Too slow? Don't use it. But these days, processing speed is within everyone's grasp.

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