Rendering Engines- Which is the best?

[Anonymous]

Ok, so to set up the reason why I am asking this question: A co-worker of mine at an architecture firm( summer interns) told me that I should not bother using mental ray at all any more because Maxwell Render is sooo much better he says. In fact, his attitude was a little sneery when I told him I use Mental ray or Radiosity to render my scenes for school. I got the impression that he was trying to make mental ray sound like its outdated and a has been software.

This is really the first time I have heard of this about mental ray. I have seen Maxwell render used on student projects and I didn't feel blown away by the results. Comparable yes. 'Sooo' much better? No. So I wanted to know what the latest trend was when it comes to rendering. Is maxwell the best out there now? Is it worth an investment of time and money because it is the wave of the future? Or is it just another option...

Thanks for your replies.

[Anonymous]

Hello,

Since this thread is from 2008 I thought I would ask if thoughts have changed concerning rendering engines. We're rendering single indoor room images and looking for the best rendering engine that balances high quality with good rendering times.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

This is my personnal opinion, i think that one person who master V-Ray, Mental ray or any other professional render engine will achieve the same quality of images  for about the same render time in any of those engines.

If you add external plugins to your workflow, consider this recurrent cost for the futur.

If you have a large material library and many scenes created with one Render Engine, maybe you want to use them and keep your workflow simple and functional.

For some people or company, it's also important to consider external team, freelancers, customers, developers, render farm, etc.