Do you use an external renderer?

[AdamTSC]

I just use the internal renderer, but I've just been learning Blender for a few months now :)

[KintaroTheBrave]

I briefly worked in indigo and then expiremented with yafray, but eventually you become good with the build in renderer and dont bother with other ones... although.. I'd like light particles and caustics in Blender internal already for stills >.<

[RedSquirrel]

Well strangely enough I just downloaded Indigo earlier today. I found the images in the gallery impressive. Rendering times are so long though. Its not something I would use for animations then again I haven't had time to fully play with it.

[dyf]

there was a sort of big thread earlier about external renderers.. i couldn't find it for some reason..
anyway, i've used LuxRender for quite a while.. rendering times are long for almost any unbiased renderer because of the global illumination algos used..
read here for more about unbiased renderers:
http://cgafaq.info/wiki/Bias_in_rendering

[201]

there was a sort of big thread earlier about external renderers.. i couldn't find it for some reason..
anyway, i've used LuxRender for quite a while.. rendering times are long for almost any unbiased renderer because of the global illumination algos used..
read here for more about unbiased renderers:
http://cgafaq.info/wiki/Bias_in_rendering

Is it possible have LuxRender stop rendering at a certain point or is it suppose to keep rendering to eternity (and adding more and more details to the image)?

[Ian Jones]

Internal... It really works well and it's being looked at seriously for improvements in GSoC

[dyf]

Is it possible have LuxRender stop rendering at a certain point or is it suppose to keep rendering to eternity (and adding more and more details to the image)?
it is supposed to render for as long as you think is enough..
you can set it to automatically stop using the haltspp parameter in the Output tab (0 means infinity)..

[epontius]

I've been using Yafaray...takes a little getting used to as you have to set up most of your materials in Yafaray's script and doesn't support everything in blender in regards to textures and such.
I've also experimented with Lux, which just seems to take a really, really long time to render anything.

[Spectre-7]

I've been using Yafaray...takes a little getting used to as you have to set up most of your materials in Yafaray's script and doesn't support everything in blender in regards to textures and such.
I've also experimented with Lux, which just seems to take a really, really long time to render anything.

Concerning Lux, that's sort of the nature of unbiased rendering engines. They're trying to simulate realistic light interactions as accurately as possible, and in fact, Lux has its origins in PBRT, which is an academic ray tracer rather than an artist's tool. The upside is that you can get really dazzling results out of it, but they're always going to take a while to produce.

[Sandking]

As for now I'm using Yafaray and I test Luxrender a lot since it has great potential. I do architecture stuff and YR works excellent. If I were into less realistic things and more artistic expression I think I'd stay with internal since it's far more compatible with advanced composition/nodal options in Blender.

[petersjoberg]

I use the internal, it gives a good result and although I haven't tried other renderers I've understood they take their time in comparison.

[RendoGog]

I use Indigo and internal. Indigo where I want specific items without faking so accurate caustics or for arch vis, other then that I use internal especially I've moved more to it since the node based materials arrived...

[Ayreon]

For stills I use luxRender, for animation internal. Lux ( and indigo also) give such beautiful results that it is worth the longer rendering times. And the exporters for both are very good now.

Ayreon

[RendoGog]

I'm tempted by Lux, now that indigo has gone commercial, I'm not sure if I want to pay the license fee they are asking (I can keep using my current version in perpetuam but no new toys over time...)

[Thomaz]

I do a lot of architectural work and things like glass are a pain with both the internal renderer as with Yafray (why should you set a material to receive transparent shadows !!??).

This week I started with Luxrender. And I really really like Luxrender!
In 20 sec. you get a very grainy render, but it's always a great lightning preview.
Just wait some hours and you get a photograph!
The setup of materials and lightning is very easy with the new exporter.
And it's free.

Because it will not render to pixels directly you can always save a render and continue later.
Network rendering is also supported, so you can abuse all pc's in a network.
Multicore is also supported and you can turn off/on cores. That's very nice. I sometimes turn off one core in Luxrender so I can continue working on my pc with the other core.

[tyrantmonkey]

I use four render engines three ( internal, yafaray, lux and aqsis) am fairly comptent with one am still learning (aqsis)

Lux and Yafaray are great for doing a hard surface rendering the both have physically based shaders so the more accurate and easier to set up.

In times of speed it depends on how you use each engine you can use direct lighting algorithms with both Yafaray and Lux. which are pretty fast.

With Yafaray using direct lighting and A.0 I have gotten considerably faster times than with Blender internal 2.49 engine, though there has been considerable work done on internals raytracer and in 2.50 builds I hear its a lot faster in some cases.

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