Hana Trieu | iRender Cloud Rendering Service https://irendering.net " Simple and fast cloud rendering solution " Sat, 27 Jul 2024 06:36:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://irendering.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/cropped-512Favicon123-32x32.png Hana Trieu | iRender Cloud Rendering Service https://irendering.net 32 32 How to render with multiple GPUs in Redshift efficiently? https://irendering.net/how-to-render-with-multiple-gpus-in-redshift-efficiently/ Sun, 14 Jul 2024 06:00:42 +0000 https://irendering.net/?p=30169 Redshift, a powerful GPU-accelerated renderer, can significantly speed up rendering times by utilizing multiple GPUs. But to get the most out of this powerful feature, you need to know the secrets of efficient multi-GPU rendering. In this article, we'll explore the best way to render with multiple GPUs efficiently in Redshift, helping you reduce rendering times and boost productivity.

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How to render with multiple GPUs in Redshift efficiently?

Redshift, a powerful GPU-accelerated renderer, can significantly speed up rendering times by utilizing multiple GPUs. But to get the most out of this powerful feature, you need to know the secrets of efficient multi-GPU rendering. In this article, we’ll explore the best way to render with multiple GPUs efficiently in Redshift, helping you reduce rendering times and boost productivity.

Redshift uses multiple GPUs for rendering

Redshift was developed by Nicolas Burtnyk, Panagiotis (Panos Zompolas), and Rob Slater of Redshift Rendering Technologies Inc., a California-based tech company founded in 2012. Initially released in 2014, Redshift was a biased production render engine designed to utilize NVIDIA GPUs. In 2019, Maxon, a German 3D software company – the developer of Cinema 4D acquired Redshift along with all the rights to its software product.

Redshift is a powerful GPU-accelerated render engine. It is built to meet the specific demands of contemporary high-end production rendering.

Circus by Tavo 

Redshift can be configured to utilize all compatible GPUs on your machine (the default) or any subset of those GPUs. It’s even possible to mix and match GPUs of different generations and memory configurations. Redshift supports a maximum of 8 GPUs per session.

Redshift multi-GPU scaling

When rendering in Redshift with multiple GPUs, there are two options:

    • Rendering a single frame by using all your GPUs
    • Rendering multiple frames at once by using a combination of GPUs

In some cases, rendering a single frame by using all available GPUs can’t produce a linear performance gain. For example, 4 GPUs can’t render an image 4 times faster than using 1 GPU. They can sometimes render about 3,6x faster.

Redshift 3.5.09 rendering performance scales across multi-RTX 4090 configurations (Source: Puget Systems)

Redshift does scale as additional GPUs are added to the system. However, the scaling is not linear; there are some levels of diminishing returns as more GPUs are added to a single system. The reason is that there is a certain amount of per-frame CPU processing involved that cannot be sped up by adding additional GPUs.

Let’s break it down to better understand:

Generally, a rendering process in Redshift consists of 3 phases after you hit the render button:

    1. Preparing the scene
    2. Render the scene
    3. Save the finished results and AOVs to storage

The second phase (the actual rendering phase) usually takes up the most time. A great thing about this phase is that it is easily parallelized, which means that Redshift makes great use of all the GPU cores to run through this phase. 

However, the first phase here – preparing the scene is the one that underutilizes the hardware. This phase is very dependent on the single-core performance of your CPU. Most of the calculations in this phase are single-threaded, meaning they can only be run on a single-core (CPU with many cores wouldn’t help). During this phase, the rest of your PC’s performance just sits and waits idly until it is done so it can ramp up and utilize the full potential of its resources.

An important note is that this preparation time is a fixed amount of time per frame. It doesn’t get longer if your overall rendering time is longer. As a result, if your frames take hours to render, a minute of preparation time is not much. But, if they just take a few minutes, a minute of preparation time will waste a lot of resources.

Rendering with multiple GPUs in Redshift the most efficiently

Instead of rendering a single frame using all the GPUs, we can render multiple frames at once to speed up the preparation time per GPU. If you have a computer with 8 GPUs, you can render 4 frames simultaneously, each frame using 2 GPUs. This method helps because when rendering multiple frames at once, you are forcing your CPU to do more work (for example, extracting multiple frames at once). This often improves the CPU-GPU performance ratio.

We can render multiple frames at once by using render managers, such as DeadlineDeadline supports this Redshift rendering option out of the box. In Deadline, there is a feature called “GPU affinity”. 

Source: docs.thinkboxsoftware.com

These GPU affinity settings can be used by Deadline’s application plugins to set the GPUs to use for the render if the job’s render engine supports it. GPU affinity settings are used by many plugins such as the Maya and Softimage plugins when a GPU-based render engine such as Redshift is being used. 

For example, if you have 3 Workers running on a machine with 6 GPUs, you can set their affinity so that Worker 1 uses GPUs 0 and 1, Worker 2 uses GPUs 2 and 3, and Worker 3 uses GPUs 4 and 5. When these Workers render Redshift jobs, they will pass the GPUs they want to use to Redshift so that each render only uses 2 GPUs.

Conclusion

What we usually render with Redshift in a multi-GPU computer is rendering a single frame by using all the available GPUs. For example, if you have an 8-GPU rig, you will have 8 GPUs working together to render one frame and then move on to the next frame in the frame sequence until the entire sequence is rendered. This method is not wrong, but it’s not the most efficient, especially, when the overall rendering time is just in a few minutes. Within the scene preparation time by the CPU, all of those 8 GPUs will sit idly, which wastes a lot of resources. 

A solution to this problem is to render multiple frames simultaneously. On a computer with 8 GPUs, we can use a render manager (like Deadline) to run 4 or 8 jobs at a time. Each of these jobs renders a frame in our image sequence, and each of these jobs has been assigned one of the GPUs so they don’t interfere. This way will help us utilize multiple GPUs efficiently to get the best multi-GPU scaling in Redshift.

iRender - The best render farm to speed up Redshift rendering

iRender powers up your creativity with unlimited GPU rendering resources. Our GPU render farm houses the most powerful 3D rendering machines. Configure from 1 to 8 GPU with top-tier RTX 4090/RTX 3090, Threadripper Pro CPUs, 256GB RAM and 2TB SSD storage – iRender’s machines can handle any Redshift project demands. 

Once you rent our machines, you will use them as your personal private workstations. Therefore, you can use Redshift with any software and plugin versions you want. 

As an official partner of Maxon, we currently provide pre-installed Cinema 4D and Redshift machines to streamline your pipeline further! Let’s explore how our service works:

Wondering how to estimate the rendering cost for your projects? This video will clarify:

This July, we are offering an attractive 100% Bonus Program for our new users making the first deposit within 24 hours of registration. As a result, you can effectively double your recharged credits.

Enjoy our FREE TRIAL to try our RTX 4090 machines and boost your Redshift rendering now!

For further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at hangtt@irender.vn or mobile: +84915875500

 

iRender – Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Reference source: maxon.net, pugetsystems.com, thinkboxsoftware.com 

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Best multi-GPU render engines for Cinema 4D https://irendering.net/best-multi-gpu-render-engines-for-cinema-4d/ Sun, 07 Jul 2024 06:00:40 +0000 https://irendering.net/?p=30086 As 3D projects grow in complexity, the need for faster rendering speeds becomes increasingly urgent. For Cinema 4D users, the solution lies in leveraging the combined power of multiple GPUs to accelerate the rendering process. But with various render engines supporting multi-GPU on the market, it can be hard to determine which one is best suited for you. In this comparison, we'll delve into the top multi-GPU render engines for Cinema 4D, exploring their strengths, weaknesses, features, compatibility, etc., to help you make an informed decision.

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Best multi-GPU render engines for Cinema 4D

As 3D projects grow in complexity, the need for faster rendering speeds becomes increasingly urgent. For Cinema 4D users, the solution lies in leveraging the combined power of multiple GPUs to accelerate the rendering process. But with various render engines supporting multi-GPU on the market, it can be hard to determine which one is best suited for you. In this comparison, we’ll delve into the top multi-GPU render engines for Cinema 4D, exploring their strengths, weaknesses, features, compatibility, etc., to help you make an informed decision. 

Cinema 4D and top multi-GPU render engines for it

Cinema 4D is a professional 3D modeling, animation, simulation, and rendering software developed by Maxon. It’s a popular choice among motion graphics designers, visual effects artists, and 3D animators due to its ease of use, flexibility, and powerful toolset. With a wide range of tools and features, Cinema 4D allows artists to create stunning 3D models, animations, and visual effects for film, television, and other media. 

Released on April 10, 2024, the current latest Cinema 4D – version 2024.4 delivers new features that 3D VFX artists and motion designers can use to create complex scenes easily. One of the most important features is the new Cinema 4D Particles. It’s integrated into Cinema 4D’s Unified Simulation System, allowing users to orchestrate interactions with Maxon’s collection of simulation types, including Cloth, Pyro, soft bodies, and rigid bodies. Cinema 4D Particles is GPU-accelerated; it can process higher numbers of particles – and produce more detailed results, thus giving artists creative options for starting any project.

Cinema 4D 2024.4 Particles (source: maxon.net)

Cinema 4D has its own powerful CPU and GPU render engines, including Redshift, Standard, and Physical. But its capabilities extend far beyond that, as it also supports a wide range of third-party render engines. What’s particularly noteworthy are the multi-GPU render engines, which allow artists to utilize the power of multiple GPUs to accelerate their rendering processes.

Among the top multi-GPU render engines compatible with Cinema 4D, four options stand out for their outstanding performance: Redshift, its native renderer; Otoy OctaneRender; Autodesk Arnold GPU; and Chaos VRay GPU.

A comparison of the best multi-GPU render engines for Cinema 4D

Detailed review of each render engine

Redshift

Redshift of Maxon is a fully GPU-accelerated biased render engine, designed to meet the specific demands of contemporary high-end production rendering. As of Cinema 4D 2024, Redshift is set as the default renderer. It has been tailored to support creative individuals and studios of all sizes, by providing a suite of powerful features and integrating with industry-standard CG applications.

Source: maxon.net

Strengths:

    • Incredibly fast: Redshift’s biggest advantage is its incredible speed. By avoiding wasting samples on less important regions with its biased approach, Redshift produces clean rendering results much faster than unbiased methods.
    • Multi-GPU support: Redshift supports a maximum of 8 GPUs per session. It is very good at utilizing multiple GPUs simultaneously to speed up rendering time. 
    • Great multi-GPU rendering scalability: Redshift scales very well with multiple GPUs and can significantly improve your render times.
    • Feature-rich: Redshift offers an impressive feature set including Shading & Texturing, Lighting,  Cameras, AOVs, etc. Its core features are Volumetric Rendering, Hair rendering, Tessellation and displacement, Global Illumination, Out of core geometry and textures, Proxies, Denoising, Baking, CPU rendering. 
    • GPU compatibility: Redshift supports both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs, giving users a wider GPU selection.

Weaknesses:

    • Effort for Realism: Redshift’s biased method requires more tweaking to minimize artifacts and achieve realism.
    • Complicate to learn for new users: Redshift’s biased method lets you tweak and define settings, but it’s more difficult to learn and master, especially for new users.

OctaneRender

OctaneRender of Otoy is an unbiased, spectrally correct render engine. By leveraging RTX hardware to its fullest extent, OctaneRender can render accurate images quickly right in the viewport.

52HZ by Cornelius Dämmrich

Strengths:

    • Realism: OctaneRender is an unbiased, physically correct renderer; it generally generates cleaner, sharper render results out of the box. It’s a great choice for product design that requires the highest physical accuracy. 
    • Multi-GPU support: OctaneRender supports multiple GPUs in one workstation. It is very great at using multiple GPUs simultaneously to speed up rendering.  In Network Rendering, users can connect a maximum number of 40 GPUs/networked slaves.
    • Excellent multi-GPU rendering scalability: Adding additional GPUs greatly improves OctaneRender’s rendering speed since OctaneRender’s performance scales perfectly with the number of GPUs, without the need for SLI.
    • Octane supports a lot of features: Some highlight features are Volumetric Rendering, Deep Pixel Rendering, OSL, Live Texture Baking, Speed, Interactivity, Flexibility, Lighting, Materials, Toon Shading, Octane Denoiser, and Out of Core Geometry, etc.

Weaknesses:

    • For complex scenes: OctaneRender’s lack of a biasing method means longer render times compared to biased render engines. 
    • GPU compatibility: OctaneRender only supports NVIDIA GPUs on Windows and Linux, which limits the GPU selection to its users. 

Arnold GPU

Arnold is an advanced unbiased, physically-based, Monte Carlo path tracing render engine that helps deliver beautiful and predictable results. Arnold was originally a production-proven CPU rendering engine but was later pushed to a GPU one to deliver 1:1 results. Arnold GPU rendering is supported with Arnold 6 and higher.

Source: autodesk.com

Strengths:

    • Realism & High-quality: Arnold is an advanced unbiased, physically-based, Monte Carlo path tracing renderer that produces high-quality, realistic scenes with minimal tweaking. It’s well-known for being the top rendering engine for feature-length animation and visual effects.
    • Multi-GPU support: Arnold GPU supports a maximum of 8 GPUs on one single workstation. 
    • Good multi-GPU rendering scalability: Adding multiple GPUs to your system will significantly improve performance. From version 7.2.5, a large part of the Arnold GPU has been rewritten using NVIDIA’s new OptiX 8, thus allowing for better scaling on multiple GPUs.
    • Arnold GPU supports complex shading networks, SSS, hair, atmospherics, instancing, procedurals, etc. 

Weaknesses: 

    • GPU compatibility: Arnold GPU uses Optix 6.0 from NVIDIA and it supports only NVIDIA GPUs of the Maxwell architecture or later. Compared to Redshift, users have limited GPU selection to choose from. 
    • Operating System: Arnold GPU is not available for macOS.

V-Ray GPU

V-Ray GPU of Chaos is a feature-rich GPU-accelerated production render engine.  V-Ray GPU is included with every V-Ray integration. It is designed from the ground up for V-Ray artists who want the fastest possible results from their hardware. 

Cu-Ti Bot (source: chaos.com)

Strengths:

    • V-Ray GPU delivers physically based final frame qualities and highly interactive rendering to support the real-time creative process. It can use CPUs and/or GPUs with perceptually identical results. 
    • Multi-GPU support: V-Ray GPU uses all GPUs recognized by the system, although only 4 GPUs are officially supported.
    • Good multi-GPU rendering scalability: V-Ray GPU is scalable with multiple GPUs to increase speed – within the workstation, across the network, and to GPU clusters or cloud services. It scales very well with both GPU processing power and when adding multiple GPUs.

Weaknesses: 

    • GPU compatibility: V-Ray GPU is developed with NVIDIA CUDA. Only NVIDIA GPUs of the Maxwell architecture or later are supported. Compared to Redshift, users have limited GPU selection to choose from. 
    • Expensive: V-Ray GPU is the most expensive among the four render engines. 

Render faster in Redshift, Octane, Arnold, and V-Ray GPU with iRender

iRender powers up your creativity with unlimited GPU rendering resources. Our GPU render farm houses the most powerful 3D rendering machines. Configure from 1 to 8 GPU with top-tier RTX 4090/RTX 3090Threadripper Pro CPUs256GB RAM, and 2TB SSD storage – iRender’s machines can handle any 3D project demands.

Once renting our machines, you can use them as your personal workstations. Therefore, you can install and use any render engines, plugins, and/or other 3D software of all versions (even the newly released ones). 

Try our new beast – GPU Server 9S, with 8x RTX 4090s, powered with AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 5975WX @ 3.6 – 4.5GHz and take your multi-GPU rendering to the next level!

Let’s watch our tutorial video and see how the service works:

This July, we are offering an attractive 100% Bonus Program for our new users making the first deposit within 24 hours of registration. 

Enjoy a FREE TRIAL to try our RTX 4090 machines and boost your multi-GPU rendering now!

For additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at hangtt@irender.vn or mobile: +84915875500

 

iRender – Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Reference Source: maxon.net, otoy.com, autodesk.com,chaos.com 

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Best multi-GPU render engines for Blender https://irendering.net/best-multi-gpu-render-engines-for-blender/ Sun, 30 Jun 2024 06:00:07 +0000 https://irendering.net/?p=29971 Rendering is essential for any 3D artist's workflow. It's crucial to have a fast and efficient render engine to produce high-quality renders quickly, allowing for increased productivity and timely deliverables. Blender, a widely used open-source 3D software, supports multiple render engines that can leverage multiple GPUs' parallel processing power to speed up rendering times. In this article, we evaluate and compare Blender's top render engines optimized for multi-GPU configurations. Let's dive in!

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Best multi-GPU render engines for Blender

Rendering is essential for any 3D artist’s workflow. It’s crucial to have a fast and efficient render engine to produce high-quality renders quickly, allowing for increased productivity and timely deliverables. Blender, a widely used open-source 3D software, supports multiple render engines that can leverage multiple GPUs’ parallel processing power to speed up rendering times. In this article, we evaluate and compare Blender’s top render engines optimized for multi-GPU configurations. Let’s dive in!

Blender and its supported multi-GPU render engines

Blender

Blender is a widely used, open-source 3D creation software that supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline from modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, motion tracking, and video editing to game creation.

Image Credit: Blender Studio

One of Blender’s key advantages is its ability to support multiple render engines. Its open-source nature allows developers to create and integrate new render engines into the software, making it a highly customizable and extensible platform. 

A significant benefit of Blender’s support for multiple render engines is its ability to support render engines that can harness the power of multiple GPUs. By leveraging multiple GPUs’ parallel processing power, these render engines can speed up rendering times, allowing artists to produce high-quality renders quickly. This is particularly important for 3D artists who require fast rendering times for increased productivity

By providing a flexible and powerful toolset that can be tailored to their specific needs and workflow, Blender has become an ideal choice for 3D creation and rendering.

What to look for in a multi-GPU render engine for Blender

When choosing a multi-GPU render engine for Blender, there are several key factors to consider. Below are some of the most important ones. 

    • Pricing: The render engine’s pricing model, includes one-time purchases, subscriptions, and free options.
    • Integration Type (plug-in, built-in): can affect its performance and compatibility with Blender. Built-in engines are generally more stable and better integrated, while plug-ins may offer more features and flexibility, but usually require additional setup.
    • Render engine type  (biased, unbiased): Biased engines are typically faster but may sacrifice some accuracy, while unbiased engines are more accurate but may be slower.
    • Rendering Technology (OpenCL, CUDA, OptiX, HIP, etc) and GPU Compatibility: The rendering technology and GPU compatibility of the render engine can affect its performance and compatibility with different hardware configurations.
    • Ease of use: The render engine’s user interface and ease of use, especially for artists who are new to rendering.
    • Performance: The render engine’s ability to utilize multiple GPUs efficiently and render scenes quickly.
    • Supported OS and Blender version: can affect its compatibility with different OS, and Blender versions, thus increasing or decreasing the scope of use for a render engine.

A comparison of the best multi-GPU render engines for Blender

Detailed review of each render engine

Cycles

Cycles is Blender’s physically-based path tracer for production rendering. It’s built to provide physically based results out-of-the-box, with artistic control and flexible shading nodes for production needs.

Source: cycles-renderer.org

Pros

    • Free: great choice for artists on a budget.
    • Open-source: easy to customize.
    • Built-in: no additional setup required, compatible with all Blender versions, and seamlessly integrates with the rest of the software’s features and workflows.
    • Unbiased: produces physically accurate and realistic render results.
    • Hardware compatibility: Cycles supports multiple rendering technologies and GPUs, meaning it can be used on a wide range of hardware, including NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, and Apple GPUs.
    • Multi-GPU rendering support for a faster rendering process. 
    • The most feature-rich renderer: Cycles offers a rich set of rendering features, including powerful PBR shading nodes, accurate subsurface scattering, vector displacement and adaptive subdivision, volume scattering and absorption, cryptomatte support, and more.
    • Documentation and Community: Cycles has comprehensive documentation and an active community support system, making it easier for new users to get started.

Cons:

    • Unbiased: For complex scenes, Cycles’s lack of biasing means longer render times.
    • Caustics: Cycles is currently less capable in areas such as caustics than other engines. LuxCoreRender beats Cycles in both accuracy and speed.

OctaneRender

Otoy’s OctanRender is an unbiased, spectrally correct render engine. By leveraging RTX hardware to its fullest extent, Octane can render accurate images at a fast speed right in the viewport.

52HZ by Cornelius Dämmrich

Pros

    • Unbiased: produces physically accurate and realistic render results. Octane generally provides cleaner, sharper results out of the box. It’s better for product design which requires the highest physical accuracy. 
    • Multi-GPU support for a faster rendering process. 
    • Excellent Multi-GPU rendering performance and scalability: OctaneRender scales almost perfectly with multiple GPUs. In other words, if you use two GPUs, your renders will complete twice as fast as they would with just a single GPU.
    • Free version available (with limited features).
    • Advanced rendering features: Octane supports a wide range of advanced rendering features, including motion blur, caustics, displacement mapping, subsurface light scattering, volumetric rendering, hair and fur rendering, physical sky and sun, etc. 

Cons

    • Monthly subscription: OctaneRender is a commercial render engine. To access Octane’s full features, users need its license. 
    • Hardware compatibility: Octane supports CUDA, and thus only works with NVIDIA GPUs. This limits the GPU choice for its users. 
    • Plug-in: requires additional setup.

LuxCoreRender

LuxCoreRender is a physically based and unbiased open-source render engine. Based on state-of-the-art algorithms, it simulates the flow of light according to physical equations, thus producing realistic images of photographic quality.

Source: luxcorerender.org

Pros:

    • Free: can be used on commercial projects, a great choice for artists on a budget.
    • Open-source: easy to customize it to fit your specific pipelines and contribute to the project if you have the needed coding skills.
    • Unbiased: produces physically accurate and realistic render results. 
    • Multi-GPU rendering support for a faster rendering process. 
    • The design philosophy of LuxCoreRender is a no-holds-barred, fully physically accurate model when computing the render. As a result, it gives some of the most impressive and accurate results out of the box. It also outclasses traditional path-tracers like Cycles with a bevy set of features in place to compute light information even in the most challenging scenes. This makes LuxCoreRender incredibly potent for rendering scenes that focus on heavily refractive objects and caustics, or dimly lit interiors.
    • King of caustics, great SSS.

Cons:

    • Pretty complicated and has many options, but a lack of solid documentation.
    • Limited Blender versions support: Stable LuxCoreRender only works with older Blender versions.  
    • Not a production-based render engine, so there are no provisions for animation and/or temporal accuracy (for example, flickering prevention) for animations.

Radeon ProRender

AMD’s Radeon ProRender is a powerful physically-based path-traced render engine that allows professionals to create stunningly photorealistic images. 

Source: amd.com

Pros:

    • Free: great choice for artists on a budget.
    • Open-source: AMD Radeon ProRender is available under SDK, allowing developers to adapt and integrate it into their applications. 
    • Multi-GPU rendering support for a faster rendering process. 
    • Hardware compatibility: supports AMD HIP (beta support), OpenCL, or Apple Metal. This allows Radeon ProRender to work seamlessly with a variety of AMD GPUs and CPUs, as well as those from other vendors.
    • Full Spectrum Rendering mode: leveraging its Vulcan API backend, allows the combination of both ray-tracing (such as cycles) and rasterization (such as Eevee) to create visually appealing images while still having an interactive real-time viewport experience.

Cons:

    • Plug-in: requires additional setup. 
    • Not be as feature-complete as other render engines such as Cycles.
    • Not be as fast as other GPU-based render engines, such as OctaneRender.

Redshift

Maxon’s Redshift is a fully GPU-accelerated render engine, designed to meet the specific demands of contemporary high-end production rendering. Redshift has been tailored to support creative individuals and studios of all sizes, by providing a suite of powerful features and integrating with industry-standard CG applications.

Artist: Can Erduman

Pros:

    • Biased: makes Redshift incredibly fast. By avoiding wasting samples on less important regions with its biased approach, it delivers clean renders much faster than unbiased render engines.
    • High level of customization and flexibility: Redshift provides tons of control and customization options to hone in on the exact level of visual fidelity versus speed you require out of the render.
    • Multi-GPU support: Redshift supports a maximum of 8 GPUs per session for a faster rendering process. 
    • Excellent multi-GPU rendering performance and scalability: Redshift scales very well with multiple GPUs and can significantly improve your render times.
    • Impressive feature sets: volumetric rendering, tessellation and displacement, hair rendering, dedicated skin shader, and many more.
    • High level of customization and flexibility

Cons:

    • Plug-in: requires additional setup. 
    • Monthly subscription: Redshift is a commercial render engine. To use it, you need a license. Its monthly subscription is nearly twice as much as OctaneRender.
    • Realism: Redshift’s biased method requires more tweaking to minimize artifacts and achieve realism.

Render faster in Cycles, Octane, LuxCoreRender, Radeon ProRender, and Redshift with iRender

iRender powers up your creativity with unlimited GPU rendering resources. Our GPU render farm houses the most powerful 3D rendering machines. Configure from 1 to 8 GPU with top-tier RTX 4090/RTX 3090Threadripper Pro CPUs256GB RAM, and 2TB SSD storage – iRender’s machines can handle any 3D project demands.

Once renting our machines, you will own them as your personal workstations. Therefore, you can install and use any render engines, plugins, and/or other 3D software of all versions (even the newly released ones). 

Try our new beast – GPU Server 9S, with 8x RTX 4090s, powered with AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 5975WX @ 3.6 – 4.5GHz and take your multi-GPU rendering to the next level!

Let’s watch our tutorial video and see how the service works:

We are  offering an attractive 100% Bonus Program for our new users making the first deposit within 24 hours of registration. 

Enjoy a FREE TRIAL to try our RTX 4090 machines and boost your multi-GPU rendering now!

For additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at hangtt@irender.vn or mobile: +84915875500

 

iRender – Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Reference Source: blender.org, otoy.com, luxcorerender.org, amd.com, maxon.net

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Choose Blender or KeyShot for Rendering? https://irendering.net/choose-blender-or-keyshot-for-rendering/ Sun, 23 Jun 2024 06:00:57 +0000 https://irendering.net/?p=29884 With the powerful rendering engines available today, choosing the right 3D rendering software is an important decision that depends on the specifics of each project. Two of the most widely used and full-featured rendering applications are Blender and KeyShot. While both can produce realistic renders, they each have different strengths that make one potentially better suited than the other for certain tasks. In this article, we will provide an overview and comparison of the key rendering capabilities of Blender and KeyShot to help you determine the better option for your needs.

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Choose Blender or KeyShot for Rendering?

With the powerful rendering engines available today, choosing the right 3D rendering software is an important decision that depends on the specifics of each project. Two of the most widely used and full-featured rendering applications are Blender and KeyShot. While both can produce realistic renders, they each have different strengths that make one potentially better suited than the other for certain tasks. In this article, we will provide an overview and comparison of the key rendering capabilities of Blender and KeyShot to help you determine the better option for your needs.

Blender and KeyShot Overview

Blender

Blender is an open-source 3D creation suite that supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline from modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing, motion tracking, video editing to game creation. Blender is and will always be free.

Sprite Fright - Blender Open Movie (Image Credit: Blender Studio)

Blender is cross-platform, running on every major operating system including Windows, Linux, and macOS. Its interface utilizes OpenGL to provide a consistent experience. In addition, advanced users can employ Blender’s API for Python scripting to customize the app or write specialized tools.

KeyShot

KeyShot is a standalone, real-time ray tracing and global illumination program to create 3D rendering, animations, and interactive visuals. 

Source: keyshot.com

KeyShot is famous as an accurate rendering solution for your 3D data. It is built on Luxion’s internally developed, physically correct render engine, which is based on research in scientifically accurate material representation and global illumination.

Should we choose Blender or KeyShot for rendering?

Blender vs KeyShot: Rendering capabilities

Blender and Keyshot have powerful rendering engines designed to harness the power of both CPU and GPU. They also have real-time rendering capabilities, allowing users to identify issues early on before wasting time on a full render. 

Blender rendering capabilities

Blender (from version 2.8) includes three render engines – Cycles (physically based path tracer), EEVEE (physically based real-time renderer), and Workbench (for layout, modeling, and previews). 

Cycles is Blender’s ray-trace based production render engine. It’s designed to provide physically based results with artistic control and flexible shading nodes for production needs.

Source: blender.org

Cycles is featured with:

    • Unidirectional path tracing with multiple importance sampling
    • Multi-core CPU rendering with SIMD acceleration
    • Hybrid rendering (CPU + GPU)
    • GPU rendering with:
      • NVIDIA: CUDA, OptiX
      • AMD: HIP
      • Intel: OneAPI
      • Apple: Metal
    • Multi-GPU support
    • Unified rendering kernel for CPU and GPU

EEVEE (Extra Easy Virtual Environment Engine) is Blender’s real-time render engine built using OpenGL. It is focused on speed and interactivity while also achieving the goal of rendering PBR (Physically Based Rendering) materials. 

Source: blender.org

EEVEE can be used interactively in the 3D Viewport and also produce high-quality final renders. It is not a ray trace render engine, it uses rasterization to estimate the way light interacts with objects and materials using numerous algorithms. As a result, it is not perfect for physically accurate renders like Cycles. 

Workbench render engine is optimized for fast rendering during modeling and animation preview. It is not intended to be used for final rendering. Its main task is to display a scene in the 3D Viewport during the work process. 

Source: blender.org

KeyShot rendering capabilities

Keyshot has an advantage in real-time rendering compared to Blender. Real-time rendering in KeyShot is faster and more versatile. Everything inside KeyShot happens in real-time. It uses unique rendering technology that allows users to see all changes to materials, lighting, and cameras instantly. The KeyShot Real-time View is the main viewport in the KeyShot user interface where all real-time rendering of 3D models occurs. Users can navigate the scene using the camera controls, multi-select objects, and right-click directly on the model or in the area around it to view more options.

Source: keyshot.com

In Keyshot (from version 9), there is an option to select the Render Engine as either CPU Mode or GPU Mode. This allows users to use either the CPU or GPU to render. Depending on the selected Render Engine, users can control CPU or GPU usage, to limit the number of CPU cores used or specify which GPUs are assigned for the render job. 

Blender vs KeyShot: GPU rendering performance

Blender’s GPU rendering performance

Both Cycles and EEVEE support GPU rendering to speed up renders. 

Cycles supports 5 different technologies depending on the particular GPU manufacturer and operating system. 

    • CUDA – NVIDIA: Supports NVIDIA GPUs with compute capability 3.0 and higher.
    • OptiX – NVIDIA: OptiX takes advantage of hardware ray-tracing acceleration in RTX GPUs for improved performance. It requires NVIDIA GPUs with compute capability 5.0 and higher. 
    • HIP – AMD:  Requires AMD GPUs with the Vega architecture or newer.
    • oneAPI – Intel: Requires an Intel Arc GPU with the Xe HPG architecture.
    • Metal – Apple (macOS): Supported on Apple computers with Apple Silicon, AMD, and Intel GPUs.

One of the most important features in Cycles is the ray tracing acceleration. This refers to improvements made to Blender’s general rendering pipeline to help a specific GPU architecture render samples faster. About five years ago, NVIDIA OptiX was added to Blender, and it immediately demonstrated the immense benefits that dedicated RT cores could bring. More recently, in Blender 3.6, this same ray tracing acceleration was extended to AMD Radeon (through HIP-RT) and Intel Arc (through Embree) GPUs as well.

Source: techgage.com

AMD Radeon and Intel Arc are making progress, we can see that the improvements are incredible. Even the lower-end AMD Radeon RX 6500 XT and Intel Arc A380 have shown dramatic performance gains in the Scanlands projects. However, NVIDIA OptiX remains the best technology for Cycles rendering. While AMD Radeon and Intel Arc are catching up, they are still significantly slower than NVIDIA OptiX.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 with OptiX is currently the fastest GPU, followed by the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 with OptiX. The AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX with HIP-RT is the fastest AMD GPU, but it still lags far behind the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060Ti with OptiX.

If you aim for the fastest rendering speeds, NVIDIA OptiX with the RTX 4090 is the way to go. However, if you are on a budget, AMD Radeon and Intel Arc are increasingly becoming competitive options.

Blender also supports multiple GPUs in its Cycles render engine, allowing for parallel processing of frames or tiles and thus speeding up rendering. However, it’s important to note that running multiple GPUs does not increase the available VRAM since each GPU can only access its own memory.

KeyShot’s GPU rendering performance

KeyShot can utilize the full GPU-accelerated ray tracing power of NVIDIA RTX with OptiX. Available for real-time rendering and local render output, KeyShot’s GPU Mode allows GPUs to be accessed with one click to take advantage of multi-GPU performance scaling and the dedicated ray tracing acceleration hardware in NVIDIA RTX-capable GPUs. 

KeyShot’s GPU ray tracing supports NVIDIA GPUs built on the Maxwell microarchitecture and CUDA Compute Capability 5.2 or later found in the Quadro M6000 or GTX 980 and above.

Source: techgage.com

Currently, the fastest GPU for rendering in KeyShot is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (24GB). It outperformed all other GPUs by a significant margin. However, the degree to which it outpaces competition depends on the specific scene complexity. For a Character render, the 4090 delivered literal 2x faster speeds compared to its predecessor – RTX 3090. With a more modest Circuit Board scene, it reduced total render times by approximately one-third compared to the RTX 3090.

Final Thought

Both Blender and KeyShot are powerful 3D rendering applications, each with its own strengths and intended uses. The choice between Blender and KeyShot depends on the specific needs and goals of the project. When it comes to achieving photorealistic quality, particularly for film, television, or game assets, Blender’s Cycles renderer is superior. It can efficiently harness the power of robust GPU and multi-GPU systems for optimal performance. On the other hand, KeyShot offers a more straightforward and streamlined workflow, making it ideal for product visualization, design iteration, and prototyping. Its real-time materials and feedback enable faster preview and iteration of changes. While Blender offers greater flexibility and customization through complex node-based materials, KeyShot’s parameterized materials are easier to learn and manipulate for realistic results. Therefore, Blender is generally recommended for projects requiring production-quality renders or leveraging sophisticated render farms, whereas KeyShot excels at rapid prototyping, design refinement, and presentation of realistic products and visuals through its optimized real-time viewport and materials. 

Render faster in Blender and KeyShot with iRender

iRender powers up your creativity with unlimited GPU rendering resources. Our GPU render farm houses the most powerful 3D rendering machines. Configure from 1 to 8 GPU with top-tier RTX 4090/RTX 3090Threadripper Pro CPUs256GB RAM, and 2TB SSD storage – iRender’s machines can handle any 3D project demands.

Once renting our machines, you will own them as your personal workstations. Therefore, you can install and use any render engines, plugins, and/or other 3D software of all versions (even the newly released ones). 

Try our new beast – GPU Server 9S, with 8x RTX 4090s, powered with AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 5975WX @ 3.6 – 4.5GHz and take your Blender and KeyShot rendering to the next level!

Let’s watch our tutorial video and see how the service works:

This June, we are  offering an attractive 100% Bonus Program for our new users making the first deposit within 24 hours of registration. 

Enjoy a FREE TRIAL to try our RTX 4090 machines and boost your multi-GPU rendering now!

For additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at hangtt@irender.vn or mobile: +84915875500

 

iRender – Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Reference Source: blender.org, keyshot.com, techgage.com

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Quick Reference Guide in Octane for Cinema 4D https://irendering.net/quick-reference-guide-in-octane-for-cinema-4d/ Sun, 16 Jun 2024 06:00:36 +0000 https://irendering.net/?p=29792 While Otoy has provided over 30 specialized guides that delve deeply into various topics within OctaneRender, exploring each guide extensively would require a very long time. To address this, this Quick Reference Guide in Octane has been drastically condensed to focus only on the most important information per topic that we would need quick access to. Let’s explore with iRender!

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Quick Reference Guide in Octane for Cinema 4D

While Otoy has provided over 30 specialized guides that delve deeply into various topics within OctaneRender, exploring each guide extensively would require a very long time. To address this, this Quick Reference Guide in Octane has been drastically condensed to focus only on the most important information per topic that we would need quick access to. Let’s explore with iRender!

The Live Viewer

The Live Viewer is where we will interact with Octane most of the time.

Similar to a C4D viewport, the render area allows us to navigate around the scene, apply materials directly to objects, set the focus, and access other options via right-click menus.

The command bar contains controls for basic render functions like starting/stopping the render process, opening Octane settings, and selecting focus and materials. The Lock Resolution button should be always on since it displays the render at an actual 1:1 pixel size, hiding non-rendered areas to provide an accurate representation of the final composition and allow for better estimation of render times.

The menu includes access to all the lights, cameras, materials, objects, and other scene elements. It also shows A/B comparison controls and additional useful tools. Through the File menu, we can save renders and sequences directly without using C4D’s Picture Viewer (ensure the Lock Resolution button is enabled first). This allows for saving results when non-standard color management is in use. The settings here are generally self-explanatory. There are also options to save render passes in EXR or PSD format once AOVs are configured in the C4D settings. 

Environments

Environments provide both overall scene lighting and reflections that can be seen in shiny materials. An environment is required for Octane to render anything, as it will default to a 90% default white environment if no Environment is added to the scene. 

The Octane Environment object is a C4D Sky object with an Octane Environment tag on it. It comes in three configurations which are Texture, HDRI, and UVW. These configurations can be toggled between via the little blue and green half circle icons in the Main tab of the Octane Environment tag.

Rotating the C4D Sky object itself has no effect – any rotation must be applied within the Environment tag. The Power control alters the intensity of the light cast from the environment.

The Texture Environment uses an attached RGB spectrum node to produce a single color. We can modify that color by clicking the little square preview.

The HDRI environment has an Image Texture node preconfigured for HDRI images. Important note: The HDRI images need to be loaded into the Image Texture node  (click the long bar saying ImageTexture to get into this node, then drop the image in the File field). Don’t replace the Image Texture node with an image file or anything else.

The UVW Environment works with gradient or pattern textures, allowing the environment tag’s rotation controls (Rot.X and Rot.Y) to function properly.

We can set different environments for lighting/reflections versus just background visibility by changing the type to primary or visible (Primary is lighting/reflections, Visible is the background).

The Octane Daylight rig simulates an outdoor sun and sky system.

Physical Lights

Physical lights refer to directional light panels that can be moved around to have more control over scene lighting. The size, shape and coordinates of the ligh are set within the C4D Light Object. Meanwhile, the color, intensity, and other illumination attributes are configured through the Octane Light Tag. 

As mentioned previously, Octane needs an environment to produce any renders. If one is not added, it will use the default environment in the Octane Settings > Settings Tab > Env. Subtab. By default, this is a 90% white environment, so it impacts the scene. For full control of our lighting, it’s best to set this to black to disable it. Relying only on physical lights to illuminate the scene to avoid washes of color from the default environment.

An Area Light simulates an illuminated panel. Most Octane light types are simply C4D Area Light with an Octane Light tag configured to different settings.

Temperature is measured in the Kelvin number that is found on lights in hardware stores. Lower values (2000-5000) appear more yellowish and reddish, while higher values (7000+) are more blueish. 6500K is a neutral white.

Textures affect color and patterns similar to gels or gobo atop the light. RGB values provide coloring beyond temperature controls. If we check “Use Color”, will take on the color in the C4D Light Object’s General tab. This will blend with the Temperature color. Therefore, if we do this, we always need the temperature at 6500K, or neutral white.

Distribution determines the emitting portion, accepting grayscale images or IES data to simulate realistic lights with differently shaped glass lenses. IES light is an area light; it has the ImageTexture node already set up properly for IES textures which are based on real-world light fixtures. 

The Volumetric Spotlight uses a C4D Spotlight object with scattering in its cone, to simulate fog in it. This can produce some nice effects, but it takes a lot longer to render cleanly.

Materials

Materials control how light interacts with objects in the scene. Octane’s material system entirely replaces C4D’s one. Therefore, it does not build on standard C4D objects like environments and lights do.

Materials are found in their own menu in the Live Viewer. While there are many types, the Universal Material is currently the best and most versatile option, replacing legacy Diffuse, Glossy, Specular and Metallic materials. Layered and Composite materials work well for highly complex situations, though the Universal Material can also handle layers if not too complex.

Materials can be edited in either C4D’s Material Editor (by double-clicking the material or single-clicking and looking in the Attributes Manage) or through Octane’s Node editor. C4D’s Material Editor is good for easy edits like tweaking a color or specular value. Octane’s Node editor is better and easier for more complex edits.

All materials are made up of channels that control individual properties of the material. Different material types support different channels, but the Universal Material includes all options. Some channels override others (for example, Metallic overrides Specular), and some channels work in conjunction (for example, IOR and Transmission).

Most channels contain a 0-1 linear Float slider to set the effect level. The Color Picker overrides the float slider. Anything other than 0/0/0 (black) in the color picker will override whatever float value is there. The Texture field (drives the channel with an image or procedural texture) overrides the Color Picker, though there is a Mix slider that blends these two.

Camera

The Octane camera is a standard C4D Camera object with an Octane Camera tag on it. The C4D Camera object controls position, scale, and rotation in the Coordinates tab, along with focal length, focus distance and focus object in the Object tab. However, the Octane Camera Tag handles most other important aspects like depth of field (DoF), motion blur, perspective settings, and options to override the Imager and Post-Processing.

Depth of Field (DoF) in Octane can be tricky to understand. The aperture value ultimately controls the blurriness of objects both in front of and behind the focal point – a larger number means more blur. This relates to real-world F-stops where lower values mean more blur. Strangely, a new Octane camera defaults to f/2.8 yet shows no DoF in the render, even though f/2.8 typically produces shallow DOF. Properly, it should default to infinity (f/), like when manually setting the aperture to 0. Once either the aperture or f-stop is adjusted from their initial states, DOF works as expected. The default values just initially cause confusion until tweaked.

After setting up DoF, we can set the focus in two ways. 

    • Go into Focus Picker mode (F icon in the Live Viewer) and click somewhere in the window.
    • Go into the C4D Camera object’s attributes and manually set it or pick a focus object to track.

Settings

Settings for Octane can be found in both C4D’s Render Settings and Octane’s Settings. 

Octane Settings (Gear icon in the Live Viewer)

This is mostly about things that affect the render engine itself.

    • Kernels tab: optimizing speed/quality for a scene
    • Imager tab: color management and other image controls
    • Post tab: Bloom/Glare/other post stuff
    • Settings tab: other odds and ends like UI controls, account settings, default environment, etc.

You can save your Octane settings presets here by using the Presets menu at the top.

C4D’s Render Settings (Ctl-B or Cmd-B)

This is where you can set the Output Settings (like pixel dimensions, frame range, frame rate, and stuff like that). Regardless of how you are saving your files (directly out of Octane via the Live Viewer or via C4D’s Picture Viewer), these settings need to be set here. 

The Save section: set your path here if you are using the C4D Picture Viewer to render images. You can skip this section if saving from the Live Viewer. We don’t need it if we’re saving from the Live Viewer. 

Multi-pass will turn on if you enable AOVs.

Other sections including Anti Aliasing, Options, Stereoscopic, Team Render, and Material Override are all for C4D’s built-in render engines. For Octane, you will ignore them.  

Octane Renderer section: There are four tabs in this section. 

    • The Main and Overwrite kernel Settings tabs mainly deal with how Octane interacts with Cinema 4D when saving to the Picture Viewer. The Main covers settings such as network rendering, color management, motion blur, GPU usage, etc. The Overwrite kernel Settings when enabled, shows all the kernel settings in the Octane Settings and uses those settings instead of the ones in the Octane Settings. This is useful if you want to build C4D presets with specific Octane settings. It does not override Post and Imager settings, but those can be overridden in a Camera if you want.
    • The AOV groups and Render AOV groups tabs handle AOVs (multi-pass rendering). Both for exporting in the Picture Viewer and directly out of the Live Viewer.

Speed up Octane rendering to the faster with iRender

iRender powers up your creativity with unlimited GPU rendering resources. Our GPU render farm houses the most powerful 3D rendering machines. Configure from 1 to 8 GPU with top-tier RTX 4090/RTX 3090Threadripper Pro CPUs256GB RAM, and 2TB SSD storage – iRender’s machines can handle any Octane project demands.

Once you rent our machines, you will own them as your personal private workstations. Therefore, you can use Octane with any software and plugin versions you want. 

As an official partner of Maxon, we provide pre-installed C4D machines to streamline your pipeline further! Currently, we provide one free C4D license for all our users.  Let’s see a workflow using C4D and Octane through our desktop app.

Wondering how to estimate the rendering cost for your projects? This video will clarify:

This June, we are  offering an attractive 100% Bonus Program for our new users making the first deposit within 24 hours of registration.

Enjoy a FREE TRIAL to try our RTX 4090 machines and boost your Octane rendering now!

For further information, please do not hesitate to contact us at hangtt@irender.vn or mobile: +84915875500

 

iRender – Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Reference source: otoy.com

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Is Thea Render or Indigo Renderer better for you? https://irendering.net/is-thea-render-or-indigo-renderer-better-for-you/ Sun, 09 Jun 2024 06:00:51 +0000 https://irendering.net/?p=29685 Thea Render and Indigo Renderer are two powerful GPU render engines, each with unique features. Thea Render is known for its versatility and state-of-the-art unbiased GPU engines. Indigo Renderer, on the other hand, prides itself on its ability to produce high-quality, photorealistic images through accurate physical light simulation. In this article, we will compare these two rendering engines to help you choose the one that fits your needs better.

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Is Thea Render or Indigo Renderer better for you?

Thea Render and Indigo Renderer are two powerful GPU render engines, each with unique features. Thea Render is known for its versatility and state-of-the-art unbiased GPU engines. Indigo Renderer, on the other hand, prides itself on its ability to produce high-quality, photorealistic images through accurate physical light simulation. In this article, we will compare these two rendering engines to help you choose the one that fits your needs better.

Thea Render and Indigo Renderer Overview

Thea Render

According to Altair Engineering, Inc., Thea Render is the most versatile 3D render engine featuring state-of-the-art unbiased and GPU engines.

Image Credit: Jean Thiriet

Thea Render is packed with two render engines – unbiased and GPU (Presto). The unbiased engine produces accurate and stunning photorealistic images. The GPU engine – Presto, runs on both CPU and GPU to generate interactive photorealistic images. Both engines operate within the same framework and switching from one to another is simple with just a click.

Thea Render’s key features: 

    • CPU and GPU accelerated: get immediate feedback on production quality due to Thea Render’s fast, interactive response.
    • Adaptive tracing: solves difficult lighting scenarios like caustics.
    • Volumetric and SSS: optimized volumetric scattering techniques solve Sub-Surface Scattering (SSS) with full accuracy.
    • Beveled edges: smooth out the edges of an object.
    • AI denoising: supports NVIDIA and Intel AI denoisers, providing GPU and CPU accelerated denoising for interactive and production rendering.
    • High performance and accuracy: Thea Render uses innovative techniques and algorithmic optimizations to help achieve high performance. Also, all paths of lighting transfer are explored to give high accuracy. 

Thea Render is available under a standalone application and an integrated plugin. Thea Render plugin for SketchUp helps explore all possibilities in architectural visualization, while Thea Render plugin for Rhino is a great solution for product and automotive.

Source: thearender.com

Thea Render v4.0 Pre-Release was just introduced on May 22, 2024. Highlighted in this version is an all-new render engine. Not only built for improved performance and quality, but this engine also works out-of-the-box by utilizing hardware ray tracing cores on all modern NVIDIA, AMD, Intel discrete, and Apple Silicon GPUs.

Indigo Renderer

Indigo Renderer is an unbiased raytracer photorealistic GPU and CPU render engine that produces ultimate image quality by accurately simulating the physics of light. Simulating the physics of light accurately, Indigo creates many realistic effects that otherwise need to be manually created. Because of this, it takes far less set-up time than traditional biased or ‘global illumination’ render engines. 

Source: indigorenderer.com

The latest stable version of Indigo Renderer is 4.4. This version brings a new multi-GPU engine – Indigo’s OpenCL-based GPU engine. This engine provides industry-leading performance on NVIDIA and AMD GPUs. With a single modern GPU, Indigo can now render approximately 10x faster than before. By supporting multi-GPU, it can quickly render great 4K images and animations. 

Indigo Renderer offers a bundle of features. Among these, accurate light simulation is the key one making Indigo famous for producing natural-looking renders.

Source: indigorenderer.com

Other key features include Multi-GPU rendering, Physically accurate camera, Light layers, Aperture diffraction, Realistic materials, Effective compositing tools, Seamless networking, Orthographic camera, IES lighting, and more. 

A comprehensive comparison between Thea Render and Indigo Renderer

Thea Render vs. Indigo Renderer

Pricing and Free trial:

    • Thea Render for SketchUp and Thea Render for Rhino plugins are available under Floating Lease Licenses, priced at $280/year and $675/3-year. Currently, these plugins are also available to try. The trial versions include 3.5 and 3.2. 
    • Indigo Renderer ver4 is priced at $835. This is the GUI license for one PC with unlimited cores or CPUs. This license is also valid for Indigo Renderer ver3 and includes two free node licenses. Indigo’s early (pre 2.0) versions were available for free. Glare Technologies also offers a free trial of the current version Indigo versions, but it has limitations of 0.7 Megapixels maximum resolution, Indigo logo, not for commercial work, and no support.

CPU and GPU rendering:

Firstly, Thea Render

Thea Render version 4 has two GPU interactive and highly photo-realistic engines: Presto and Nitro.

    • Presto is an advanced engine written from the ground up for fast and interactive rendering. It is optimized for simultaneous GPU + CPU rendering. For the CPU, an Intel SSE3 CPU (or compatible) is required. For GPU, it requires NVIDIA CUDA GPUs (Compute Capability 3.x / 5.x / 6.x / 7.x / 8.0 / 8.6) with the latest graphics drivers, and AMD GPUs (Beta support for select GPUs) with the latest OpenCL and graphics drivers. 
    • Nitro is a GPU-only render engine that uses raytracing cores for improved performance. It supports all GPU vendors from NVIDIA, AMD, to Intel and has native support for macOS. Supported GPUs include NVIDIA RTX 20 Series or newer & GTX 10 SERIES, AMD RX6000 series or newer, and Intel Arc GPUs A310-A770. 

Secondly, Indigo Renderer:

Indigo Renderer supports CPU rendering and GPU rendering. It uses multi-threaded to take full advantage of the multi-core CPUs. GPU rendering is based on OpenCL, meaning both NVIDIA and AMD GPU(s) are supported. 

Indigo requires an SSE4 CPU, and either an NVIDIA GPU supporting OpenCL 1.1 (GeForce 9800 GT or newer), or an AMD GPU supporting OpenCL 1.1 (Radeon 4xxx or newer). For GPU acceleration, it’s recommended to use:

    • CPU: Quad-core or greater Intel or AMD 
    • GPU: Either NVIDIA GeForce GTX5xx/Quadro 4000/Tesla C2050 or newer, or AMD Radeon 5xxx /FirePro 3DV3800/FireStream9350 or newer

Supported OS and DCC apps:

    • Thea Render integrated plugin is available for SketchUp and Rhino. It supports SketchUp versions 2017–2024, on Windows (8.1/10/11) and macOS (11/12/13/14). On the other hand, Thea Render for Rhino is only available for Windows (8.1/10) and compatible with Rhino 6, 7, and later versions. 
    • Currently, Indigo Renderer is officially available for Cinema 4D, Blender, 3ds Max, SketchUp, and Revit on Windows, Linux, and macOS. You can still use Indigo with other software by exporting your model as a .dwg or .obj file and importing it into Blender.

Thea Render and Indigo Renderer: GPU Rendering

Thea Render GPU rendering performance

Thea Render Benchmark Results for GPU (data from thearender.com)

Currently, the best single GPU for Thea Render is the NVIDIA RTX 4090. It achieves the highest performance in the above benchmark, with a score of 37111 samples per pixel. 

Thea Render supports multi-GPU and can effectively utilize multiple GPUs to accelerate rendering. It scales well with multiple GPUs. As shown in the chart, the 2x RTX 3090Ti configuration achieves a score of 47394 samples per pixel, which is higher than the single RTX 4090 score. 

Indigo Renderer GPU rendering performance

Indigo has a multi-GPU render engine, which can speed up renders of 10x, or more, without losing the high image quality. It uses OpenCL, meaning GPU rendering works on both NVIDIA and AMD GPU(s).

IndigoBench Multi-GPU Results (data from indigorenderer.com)

NVIDIA GPUs generally perform better than AMD GPUs for Indigo Renderer. At the time of writing, the best-performing NVIDIA GPU for Indigo Renderer is the GeForce RTX 4090. 

As a multi-GPU render engine, Indigo scales well with multiple GPUs. The performance increases as the number of GPUs increases, with the 6x GeForce RTX 4090 configuration achieving the highest performance of 390.1 MS/s for the Supercar Scene and 192.99 MS/s for the Bedroom Scene. 

In conclusion, if you’re looking for the best single GPU for Thea Render and Indigo Renderer, the NVIDIA RTX 4090 is the way to go. Additionally, both render engines scale very well with multi-GPU for better performance. Therefore, if you’re looking to maximize performance, using multiple GPUs will provide even better results.

Render faster in Thea Render and Indigo Renderer with iRender

iRender powers up your creativity with unlimited GPU rendering resources. Our GPU render farm houses the most powerful 3D rendering machines. Configure from 1 to 8 GPU with top-tier RTX 4090/RTX 3090Threadripper Pro CPUs256GB RAM, and 2TB SSD storage – iRender’s machines can handle any 3D project demands.

Once renting our machines, you will own them as your personal workstations. Therefore, you can install and use any render engines, plugins, and/or other 3D software of all versions (even the newly released ones). 

Try our new beast – GPU Server 9S, with 8x RTX 4090s, powered with AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 5975WX @ 3.6 – 4.5GHz and take your Thea Render and Indigo rendering to the next level!

Let’s watch our tutorial video and see how the service works:

This June, we are  offering an attractive 100% Bonus Program for our new users making the first deposit within 24 hours of registration. 

Enjoy a FREE TRIAL to try our RTX 4090 machines and boost your multi-GPU rendering now!

For additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at hangtt@irender.vn or mobile: +84915875500

 

iRender – Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Reference Source: thearender.com, indigorenderer.com 

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Radeon ProRender vs. Iray: Which one suits you better? https://irendering.net/radeon-prorender-vs-iray-which-one-suits-you-better/ Sun, 02 Jun 2024 06:00:39 +0000 https://irendering.net/?p=29599 Both AMD Radeon ProRender and NVIDIA Iray utilise physically-based rendering to achieve maximum realism. However, how do they differ in terms of features, integration, and performance? Let's delve into the key contrasts between Radeon ProRender and Iray!

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Radeon ProRender vs. Iray: Which one suits you better?

When photorealistic rendering is a must, your choice of render engine matters greatly. Two of the leading solutions in this space are AMD Radeon ProRender and NVIDIA Iray. Radeon ProRender is a path-traced render engine that uses GPUs/CPUs from AMD and other vendors to produce stunningly lifelike images. On the other hand, Iray can leverage both CPU and GPU, but it exclusively uses NVIDIA GPUs to produce photorealistic images for both interactive and batch rendering workflows. Both engines utilise physically-based rendering to achieve maximum realism. However, how do they differ in terms of features, integration, and performance? Let’s delve into the key contrasts between Radeon ProRender and Iray!

A brief overview of AMD Radeon ProRender and NVIDIA Iray

AMD Radeon ProRender

AMD Radeon ProRender is a powerful physically-based path-traced render engine that allows professionals to create stunningly photorealistic images.

Built on AMD high-performance Radeon™ Rays technology, AMD Radeon ProRender’s ray tracing engine uses open industry standards to harness GPU and CPU performance delivering swift and impressive results. The render engine supports both AMD GPUs and CPUs as well as those of other vendors.

Source: AMD

AMD Radeon ProRender is available under SDK and Plug-ins. The SDK is for developers to adapt and integrate into their applications. AMD Radeon ProRender plug-ins integrate the Radeon ProRender engine into popular 3D modelling software and they can be used to render anything from product designs, architectural visualizations, and visual effects to anything that you can imagine and create. The Plug-ins are free and currently available for 3ds Max, Inventor, Maya, Blender, Houdini, and Unreal Engine.

NVIDIA Iray

NVIDIA Iray is an intuitive physically based rendering technology that produces photorealistic images for both interactive and batch rendering workflows. 

By using AI denoising, CUDA, NVIDIA OptiX, and Material Definition Language (MDL), Iray delivers high performance and stunning visuals at a rapid rate, especially when used with the latest NVIDIA RTX-based hardware.

Source: NVIDIA 

Iray offers physically based lighting and materials.  It is a high-performance, global illumination rendering technology that generates images by simulating the physical behavior of light interaction with surfaces and volumes. Images are progressively refined to provide full global illumination. NVIDIA Material Definition Language (MDL) defines materials properties for Iray, including surface color, reflection or refraction properties, surface light emission, and scattering and absorption properties of volumes. 

When combined with AI, Iray brings the power of deep learning to both final frame and interactive photorealistic rendering. Iray also supports VR from panoramic snapshots to fully immersive experiences.

Users can get Iray with Plugs-in or SDK Integration. Currently, Iray offers plugins for 3ds Max and Maya, both of which take advantage of Iray technology. The Iray SDK is available through NVIDIA’s partners – Siemens and migenius. Iray SDK provides a state-of-the-art, and easy-to-implement, photorealistic rendering solution with a robust C++ API for seamless integration into 3D applications and/or creating powerful client/server applications. 

A comprehensive comparison of Radeon ProRender and Iray

Radeon ProRender vs Iray

Pricing and Free trial

The AMD Radeon ProRender is a powerful rendering tool that is available for free, making it an accessible option for many users. It offers an open-source software development kit (SDK) under the Apache 2.0 license, which allows developers to customize and enhance the rendering capabilities. Additionally, free Radeon ProRender plug-ins are freely available for various popular 3D DCC applications, including 3ds Max, Inventor, Maya, Blender, Houdini, and Unreal Engine. 

On the other hand, the NVIDIA Iray, while a robust rendering solution, is not available for free. The licenses for the Iray for 3ds Max and Iray for Maya plugins are priced at $295 for a one-year subscription. However, both plugins offer a 30-day free trial, allowing users to explore their features and functionality before committing to a purchase.

CPU/GPU rendering

Radeon ProRender can simultaneously use and balance the computing powers of multiple GPUs and CPUs on the same system and at the same time. It uses open standards and supports AMD HIP (beta support), OpenCL or Apple Metal. This allows it to work seamlessly with a variety of AMD GPUs and CPUs, as well as those from other vendors, as long as they support OpenCL or Apple Metal.

Similarly, Iray supports any number or combination of GPUs and CPUs on one machine. It also gives you control over which is being used for rendering. Multi-GPU systems are generally recommended for optimal performance when using Iray. Using CUDA and OptiX, Iray supports NVIDIA CUDA-capable GPUs only. 

Supported OS and DCC apps

Radeon ProRender works across Windows, Linux, and macOS. It’s important to note that as of now, Radeon ProRender’s Linux support is only available for Modo and for the Blender and Houdini plug-ins. AMD Radeon ProRender’s macOS support is currently only available for Modo and Cinema 4D, and for the Maya, Blender, and Houdini plug-ins.

In response to market trends, NVIDIA changed its product strategy for NVIDIA Iray plugins and transferred the development, sales, and support of the plugins to Lightworks (part of Siemens now), 0X1 Software, and migenius on November 20th, 2017. Siemens is responsible for Iray for 3ds Max, 0X1 Software handles Iray for Maya, and migenius manages Iray for Rhino and Iray Server.

Unfortunately, as of January 31st, 2023, the Iray for Rhino product was retired and is no longer available for sale. Currently, only two plugins remain – Iray for 3ds Max, which is available for Windows only, and Iray for Maya, which supports both 64-bit Windows and Linux.

Radeon ProRender vs Iray: GPU rendering

Radeon ProRender GPU rendering 

We know that AMD emphasizes strong CPU rendering performance with Radeon ProRender. However, GPU rendering performance in Radeon ProRender is still noticeable. You can use one or multiple GPUs or use both CPU and GPU devices simultaneously. While CPU + GPU rendering can be slower or faster depending on the relative performance of each component, GPU (especially multiple GPUs) is always recommended as it will accelerate rendering. 

The Radeon ProRender plugin (particularly the one for Blender) is becoming much better optimized all of the time. We see a pronounced uplift in the GPU rendering performance from one version to another version of Radeon ProRender. 

AMD Radeon ProRender (Blender Plugin 3.3.15 vs 3.2.2) GPU rendering performance (Source: Techgage)

This GPU rendering performance improvement has seemingly come from under the radar and is so impressive. It’s a sign that AMD cares deeply about optimization, and eking as much performance as possible out of their GPU hardware.

Iray GPU rendering 

Iray has two different render modes: Iray Photoreal (interactive, ray-tracing-based render mode) and Iray Interactive (interactive raytracing render mode, faster but less accurate than Iray Photoreal). Both leverage NVIDIA CUDA-capable GPUs and require GPUs with CUDA compute capability 5.0 and higher. If a machine doesn’t have a CUDA-capable GPU, it will automatically run on the CPU. While rendering on the CPU can still produce the same images, it typically takes longer to complete compared to GPU rendering.

Multi-GPU systems are the preferred choice for Iray applications for faster rendering and better performance scaling. 

Source: NVIDIA 

Render faster in Radeon ProRender and Iray with iRender

iRender powers up your creativity with unlimited GPU rendering resources. Our GPU render farm houses the most powerful 3D rendering machines. Configure from 1 to 8 GPU with top-tier RTX 4090/RTX 3090Threadripper Pro CPUs256GB RAM, and 2TB SSD storage – iRender’s machines can handle any 3D project demands.

Once renting our machines, you will own them as your personal workstations. Therefore, you can install and use any render engines, plugins, and/or other 3D software of all versions (even the newly released ones). 

Try our new beast – GPU Server 9S, with 8x RTX 4090s, powered with AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 5975WX @ 3.6 – 4.5GHz and take your Radeon ProRender and Iray rendering to the next level!

Let’s watch our tutorial video and see how the service works:

This June, we are  offering an attractive 100% Bonus Program for our new users making the first deposit within 24 hours of registration. 

Enjoy a FREE TRIAL to try our RTX 4090 machines and boost your Radeon ProRender and Iray multi-GPU rendering now!

For additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at hangtt@irender.vn or mobile: +84915875500

 

iRender – Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Reference Source: amd.com, nvidia.com, irayplugins.com, techgage.com

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Should we use FStormRender or Maxwell? https://irendering.net/should-we-use-fstormrender-or-maxwell/ Sun, 26 May 2024 06:00:18 +0000 https://irendering.net/?p=29510 FStormRender and Maxwell are two popular render engines for architects and designers. As a GPU-based plugin made exclusively for 3ds Max, FStormRender is renowned for its speed, quality, and ease of use. Maxwell, on the other hand, is a standalone as well as plugin-based render engine known for its outstanding physical accuracy. In this article, we compare FStormRender with Maxwell to see where each renderer excels and which may be the better fit for you.

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Should we use FStormRender or Maxwell?

FStormRender and Maxwell are two popular render engines for architects and designers. As a GPU-based plugin made exclusively for 3ds Max, FStormRender is renowned for its speed, quality, and ease of use. Maxwell, on the other hand, is a standalone as well as plugin-based render engine known for its outstanding physical accuracy. In this article, we compare FStormRender with Maxwell to see where each renderer excels and which may be the better fit for you. 

FStormRender and Maxwell Overview

FStormRender

FStormRender, developed by former OctaneRender developer – Andrey Kozlov, is a GPU-based unbiased plugin renderer available only for 3ds Max. Since 2015, it has been being developed by PinkSoft LTD. Due to its speed, quality and simplicity, FStormRender has become the most popular GPU renderer among architectural 3D artists. 

It does not use any existing solutions implemented in other renderers and relies solely on in-house technologies, delivering outstanding, unique, and photorealistic results.

Image credit: fstormrender.com

FStormRender is deeply integrated into the 3ds Max environment and supports all necessary features. One of its key features is a built-in scene converter which converts any scene from Corona, V-Ray, and OctaneRender easily and carefully. This converter is extremely helpful as you don’t need to spend hours in material and light conversions. 

FStormRender is currently active and receives regular updates. At the time of writing, the latest stable version is V1.5.5K, released in March 2024. A newer V1.5.6H test version was also available for download in May 2024.

Maxwell

Maxwell is a physical-based unbiased 3D render engine, developed by Next Limit Technologies in Madrid, Spain. Maxwell acts as a stand-alone software with Maxwell Studio used in architecture and product design, as well as in film, animation and VFX. It also offers various plug-ins for 3D/CAD and post-production applications such as Rhino, Cinema 4D, 3ds Max, SketchUp, Maya, ArchiCAD or form·Z. 

Image credit: maxwellrender.com

As an unbiased spectral ray-tracing engine, Maxwell is designed to simulate light and materials exactly as they behave in the real world. It also offers an interactive engine that gives immediate feedback for lighting, materials, and camera setting adjustments. With the multilight feature, light intensities can be changed during and after rendering, saving as many images as needed from just a single render. Additionally, Maxwell Studio has a V-Ray scene importer that allows users to import native V-Ray scenes and convert them to Maxwell automatically. 

Maxwell was slow in the past, but Maxwell 5 has changed that. With a fully rewritten multi-GPU core, Maxwell 5 delivers final results in minutes and accurate previews in seconds, while keeping physical accuracy intact.

Comparing FStormRender with Maxwell

A comprehensive comparison between FStormRender and Maxwell

FStormRender is available on a rental-only basis, priced at $25/month/PC. On the other hand, Maxwell Studio and its integrated plug-ins are offered with perpetual licenses at the same price of $495 for a node-locked license or $695 for a floating license. Both prices include an additional Maxwell render node. 

Both render engines offer free trial versions.  Fstorm has a free watermarked version, which you can try before purchasing the rental. Maxwell also offers a demo version with restrictions of a 30-day limit, node-locked license, watermarked render, and maximum render size of 1280 x 1024.

FStormRender and Maxwell are unbiased render engines. While FStormRender is a GPU-based render engine, Maxwell supports both CPU and GPU rendering. 

    • FStormRender is based on CUDA. It requires an NVIDIA GPU series 4xx or higher. It supports modern NVIDIA GeForce GPUs only. Professional Tesla and Quadro GPUs don’t have any benefits for rendering in FStormRender.
    • Maxwell has a GPU engine and a GPU engine. In the CPU engine, the CPU is the most important component for fast renders. The more cores and the higher speed of the CPU, the better. Maxwell’s CPU render speed scales almost linearly when adding more cores, processors and computers to contribute to the render process. In the GPU engine, a CUDA-based GPU is required. Maxwell render supports NVIDIA GPUs of the Maxwell, Pascal, Volta, Turing, Ampere, and Ada Lovelace architectures. 

Maxwell is available for Windows 7+ and Windows Server 2008+, Linux, and macOS 10.11+. Maxwell GPU is CUDA-based, requiring an NVIDIA GPU, so it’s not supported on macOS. The same goes with FstormRender, as it’s also a CUDA-based render engine. 

FStormRender is a plug-in available only for 3ds Max. On the other hand, Maxwell works as both a standalone software (Maxwell Studio) and a plug-in for other 3D/CAD and post-production apps like Cinema 4D, SketchUp, ArchiCAD, 3ds Max, form·Z, and Rhino.

FStormRender and Maxwell: GPU Rendering

Maxwell GPU rendering performance

Maxwell’s GPU engine is an alternative to its CPU counterpart. The engine allows using the GPUs to compute the renders. GPUs are usually much faster than CPUs, especially when using multiple GPUs. 

Maxwell now allows you to use all the GPUs on your computer to calculate the render.

Benchwell benchmark - Maxwell version 5.2.1.49 (data from maxwellrender.com)

While single GPU options like the RTX 3090Ti and RTX 4080 perform admirably, it is clear that the NVIDIA RTX 4090 currently reigns supreme for Maxwell rendering. The 4090 excels in multi-GPU setups, with the dual RTX 4090 achieving a score of over 21,000 and the 3x RTX 4090 exceeding 31,000. The most remarkable performance comes from the 5x RTX 4090 configuration, which achieves an outstanding benchmark result of over 38,000. No other combination of GPUs, even utilizing 6 or 7 of the best professional cards, RTX A6000, comes close to matching the horsepower delivered by this 5x RTX 4090 rig. 

FStormRender GPU rendering performance

While Maxwell supports various NVIDIA GPUs, from gaming to professional models, FStormRender is designed for gaming cards only. According to the developer PinkSoft LTD, modern GeForce GPUs such as NVIDIA’s RTX series tend to work best. Additionally, it supports multiple GPUs to render, so the more GPUs you use, the better the rendering performance.

The below benchmark results reveal the tremendous potential of powerful GeForce GPUs in FStormRender. 

FStormRender Benchmark Scene 2 (data from FStormRender Forum)

Particularly impressive is the RTX 4090, currently setting new standards for rendering speeds. Multiple RTX 4090 rigs achieved the fastest render speed for both full HD and 4K quality outputs in FStormRender Benchmark Scene 2.

For those seeking to maximize rendering performance using FStormRender, the RTX 4090 is highly recommended. Its GPU computing power surely produces photorealistic images at blistering speeds.

Speed up FStormRender and Maxwell rendering with iRender's RTX 4090s

iRender powers up your creativity with unlimited GPU rendering resources. Our GPU render farm houses the most powerful 3D rendering machines. Configure from 1 to 8 GPU with top-tier RTX 4090/RTX 3090Threadripper Pro CPUs256GB RAM, and 2TB SSD storage – iRender’s machines can handle any 3D project demands.

Once renting our machines, you will own them as your personal workstations. Therefore, you can install and use any render engines, plugins, and/or other 3D software of all versions (even the newly released ones). 

This May, we are happy to announce a new beast, GPU Server 9S, with 8x RTX 4090s, powered with a stronger CPU – AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 5975WX @ 3.6 – 4.5GHz. Don’t forget to give it a try and enjoy the next level of multi-GPU power for your FStormRender and Maxwell!

Let’s examine how iRender multi-GPU machines speed up FStormRender and Maxwell rendering.

We are also offering an attractive 100% Bonus Program for our new users making the first deposit within 24 hours of registration. 

Enjoy our FREE TRIAL to try our RTX 4090 machines and boost your FStormRender and Maxwell GPU rendering now!

For additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at hangtt@irender.vn or mobile: +84915875500

 

iRender – Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Reference Source: fstormrender.com, maxwellrender.com

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V-Ray GPU vs Arnold GPU: A Comprehensive Comparison https://irendering.net/v-ray-gpu-vs-arnold-gpu-a-comprehensive-comparison/ Fri, 17 May 2024 06:00:50 +0000 https://irendering.net/?p=29377 Whether in VFX, Animation or Architectural Visualization, Arnold and V-Ray are two of the most widely used renderers on the market. Both V-Ray GPU and Arnold GPU harness the power of NVIDIA graphics cards to achieve photorealism faster than ever. However, they take different approaches under the hood. In this article, we will take a closer look at how these two render engines compare to each other.

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V-Ray GPU vs Arnold GPU: A Comprehensive Comparison

Whether in VFX, Animation or Architectural Visualization, Arnold and V-Ray are two of the most widely used renderers on the market. Both V-Ray GPU and Arnold GPU harness the power of NVIDIA graphics cards to achieve photorealism faster than ever. However, they take different approaches under the hood. In this article, we will take a closer look at how V-Ray GPU vs Arnold GPU compare to each other. 

Overview of V-Ray GPU and Arnold GPU

V-Ray GPU

According to Chaos, V-Ray GPU is the world’s most feature-rich GPU-accelerated production render engine. 

V-Ray GPU is included with every V-Ray integration. It is designed from the ground up for V-Ray artists who want the fastest possible results from their hardware. Also, it can utilize GPUs and/or CPUs while maintaining perceptually identical results.

Image credit: Chaos

V-Ray GPU utilizes dedicated ray-tracing hardware that is available in the latest NVIDIA Ada Lovelace, Ampere, and Turing GPUs to accelerate rendering. With smart sampling and scene adaptivity, V-Ray GPU produces renders that are free of noise, making it easy for artists to focus on shading and lighting rather than optimizing scenes and sampling settings.

V-Ray GPU enhances interactive performance by utilizing all of your GPUs and/or CPUs — and delivers virtually identical results to the original image. It can use as many GPUs as your operating system detects. 

Arnold GPU

Arnold is an advanced unbiased, physically-based, Monte Carlo path tracing render engine that helps deliver beautiful and predictable results.

Characters from The Addams Family rendered with Arnold (Image credit: Autodesk)

Arnold was originally a production-proven CPU render engine but was later pushed to a GPU one to deliver 1:1 results. The first version of Arnold GPU (Arnold GPU Beta) was released with Arnold 5.3 in March 2019  as the longest-awaited change to Arnold’s feature set. 

Arnold GPU has undergone numerous updates since its release, with the most recent version being 7.3 launched in March 2024. Autodesk has revamped GPU rendering by extensively reworking a large part of the GPU renderer using OptiX 8, which is NVIDIA’s newest GPU ray tracing framework.

V-Ray GPU vs Arnold GPU: A comprehensive comparison

Compare and contrast V-Ray GPU and Arnold GPU

Similarities of V-Ray GPU and Arnold GPU:

    • Rental-only
    • Offer a trial version for 30 days
    • Available for Windows and Linux
    • Support multiple GPUs for rendering
    • Use NVIDIA rendering architecture and support NVIDIA GPUs of the Maxwell architecture and later

V-Ray GPU vs Arnold GPU: Differences

Arnold GPU is cheaper than V-Ray GPU. 

    • Node-locked V-Ray Solo subscriptions priced at €74.90/month or €454.80/year, floating V-Ray Premium subscriptions priced at €109.90/month or €658.80/year, and Enterprise V-Ray priced at €538.80/year. 
    • Arnold GPU subscription is $50/month, $400/year, or $1200/3 years.

V-Ray GPU is a biased or unbiased render engine, while Arnold is a solely unbiased one.

    • V-Ray GPU uses biased raytracing (global illumination algorithms, including path tracing, photon mapping, and irradiance maps). It exposes all our settings, so it is technically possible to be unbiased.
    • Arnold GPU is an unbiased path-tracer Monte-Carlo renderer that generates realistic, high-quality scenes with minimal tweaking. Because of the realism of its rendering algorithms, many studios adopted Arnold as their primary render engine. It is also well-known for being the top VFX and film production renderer used in many famous films and TV Series such as Alice in Wonderland, Thor, Captain America, X-Men, Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars and others.

Both render engines use NVIDIA rendering architecture, but V-Ray GPU uses CUDA while Arnold GPU uses Optix.

    • V-Ray GPU is developed with NVIDIA CUDA. It delivers physically based final frame qualities and highly interactive rendering to support the real-time creative process. There are two modes when rendering V-Ray GPU with NVIDIA GPUs – CUDA or RTX modes. All compute cores are used in either CUDA or RTX mode, with RT cores exclusively being used in RTX mode. Although only RTX-class GPUs can utilize RTX mode, they can also fully utilize CUDA mode (and in doing so, the system’s CPU(s) can also be used as well).
    • Arnold GPU uses Optix 6.0 from NVIDIA. In its 7.3 version, its Arnold GPU rendering is largely rewritten to use the new NVIDIA’s OptiX 8.

V-Ray GPU and Arnold GPU support multiple NVIDIA GPUs but differ in the maximum number.

    • In V-Ray GPU, all GPUs recognized by the system are usable, although only 4 GPUs are officially supported.
    • Arnold GPU supports up to 8 GPUs.

While Arnold GPU is only available for Windows and Linux, V-Ray GPU can also run on macOS. 

    • Arnold GPU is not available for macOS because it uses Optix 6.0 from NVIDIA. Unfortunately, there is no version of Optix 6.0 for macOS. Also, the driver versions Arnold GPU requires are not available for macOS as well. 
    • V-Ray GPU is only supported on currently shipping macOS versions when running in CUDA x86 mode. V-Ray GPU can still be used with CUDA render engine on macOS utilizing C++/CPU devices. This might be very helpful for executing Distributed Rendering between MacOS and Windows/Linux machines and rendering V-Ray GPU-ready projects.

V-Ray GPU vs Arnold GPU: GPU Rendering Performance

Firstly, V-Ray GPU

V-Ray GPU is a separate render engine from V-Ray CPU. GPU rendering enables V-Ray to perform the raytracing calculations on the NVIDIA CUDA or RTX GPU(s) installed in the system, rather than the CPU. Because GPUs are specifically designed for massively parallel calculations, they can significantly speed up the rendering process by an order of magnitude. 

V-Ray GPU scales very well with both GPU processing power and when adding multiple GPUs.

Typically, each new generation of NVIDIA GPU provides roughly double the performance of the predecessor. This trend holds true for V-Ray GPU as well. NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 is twice as fast as the RTX 3090. In fact, it is faster than dual RTX 3090s due to the imperfect nature of GPU scaling.  Compared to older GPUs, the gains are even greater – the 4090 is approximately four times faster than an RTX 2080 Ti.

Image credit: Puget Systems

V-Ray GPU performance scales nearly linearly across multiple GPUs as shown in this scene from Chaos.

Image credit: Chaos

In the CUDA mode: scaling of 99.61% for 2 GPUs, 96.08% for 4 GPUs and 88.47% for 8 GPUs.

In the RTX mode:  scaling of 101.13% for 2 GPUs, 96.26% for 4 GPUs and 92.35% for 8 GPUs​.

Secondly, Arnold GPU

Arnold GPU works on NVIDIA GPUs of the Ada, Ampere, Turing, Volta, Pascal, and Maxwell architectures. See the full list of supported GPUs here.

Following the trend, NVIDIA Geforce RTX 4090 continues nearly halving the render times of an RTX 3090 in Arnold. 

Image credit: Techgage

Arnold GPU supports up to 8 GPUs on a single system. Using multiple GPUs will significantly improve performance. Starting from Arnold 7.2.5, a large part of the GPU renderer has been rewritten using NVIDIA’s new OptiX 8, allowing for better scaling on multiple GPUs. 

The render time scaling with multiple GPUs has been improved, particularly in scenes with many AOVs. For example, when adding a second GPU, the following robot soldier scene with 9 AOVs goes from having just a 1.1x speedup in the previous version of Arnold to a 1.7x speedup in Arnold 7.2.5.

Image credit: Autodesk

Arnold GPU and V-Ray GPU stand out for their ability to utilize multiple GPUs, enabling great performance scalability on multi-GPU systems. Let’s optimize the full potential of this multi-GPU benefits with iRender!

Speed up V-Ray GPU and Arnold GPU rendering with iRender

iRender powers up your creativity with unlimited GPU rendering resources. Our GPU render farm houses the most powerful 3D rendering machines. Configure from 1 to 8 GPU with top-tier RTX 4090/RTX 3090Threadripper Pro CPUs256GB RAM, and 2TB SSD storage – iRender’s machines can handle any 3D project demands.

Once renting our machines, you will own them as your personal workstations. Therefore, you can install and use any render engines, plugins, and/or other 3D software of all versions (even the newly released ones). 

This May, we are happy to announce a new beast, GPU Server 9S, with 8x RTX 4090s, powered with a stronger CPU – AMD Ryzen™ Threadripper™ PRO 5975WX @ 3.6 – 4.5GHz. Don’t forget to give it a try and enjoy the next level of multi-GPU power.

We are also offering an attractive 100% Bonus Program for our new users making the first deposit within 24 hours of registration. 

Enjoy our FREE TRIAL to try our RTX 4090 machines and boost your V-Ray and Arnold GPU rendering now!

For additional information, please do not hesitate to contact us at hangtt@irender.vn or mobile: +84915875500

 

iRender – Thank you & Happy Rendering!

Reference Source: chaos.com, autodesk.com, pugetsystems.com, techgage.com

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Cycles vs LuxCoreRender: A Comprehensive Comparison https://irendering.net/cycles-vs-luxcorerender-a-comprehensive-comparison/ Sat, 11 May 2024 06:00:27 +0000 https://irendering.net/?p=29288 Since its initial introduction in 2011, Cycles has come a long way to become the go-to physically-based path tracer for production rendering in Blender. The super cool train demo by Brecht in 2011 captured our attention and marked the beginning of Cycles' journey. With its widespread use among Blender users, Cycles is undoubtedly the primary render engine for most. However, there are other available path-tracing render engines that can be used alongside Cycles. LuxCoreRender is one such alternative. In this article, we will compare and contrast Cycles vs LuxCoreRender and help you determine which one may be better suited for your specific needs.

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Cycles vs LuxCoreRender: A Comprehensive Comparison

Since its initial introduction in 2011, Cycles has come a long way to become the go-to physically-based path tracer for production rendering in Blender. The super cool train demo by Brecht in 2011 captured our attention and marked the beginning of Cycles’ journey. With its widespread use among Blender users, Cycles is undoubtedly the primary render engine for most. However, there are other available path-tracing render engines that can be used alongside Cycles. LuxCoreRender is one such alternative. In this article, we will compare and contrast Cycles vs LuxCoreRender and help you determine which one may be better suited for your specific needs.

Overview of Cycles and LuxCoreRender

Cycles

Cycles is Blender’s physically-based path tracer for production rendering. It’s developed to provide physically based results out-of-the-box, with artistic control and flexible shading nodes for production needs.

Source: cycles-renderer.org

Cycles was first incorporated into Blender 2.61, back in 2011. Over the years, it has introduced support for a wide range of rendering possibilities, including NVIDIA and AMD. Similarly, it has grown to include support for many features including hair, motion blur, smoke and fire, major shaders and materials, adaptive subdivisions, and much more.     

At the time of writing, the latest version of Blender is 4.1. Cycles render engine in Blender 4.1 now features GPU-accelerated OpenImageDenoise, making full-quality denoising available at interactive rates in the 3D viewport.

LuxCoreRender

LuxCoreRender is a physically based and unbiased render engine. Based on state-of-the-art algorithms, LuxCoreRender simulates the flow of light according to physical equations, thus producing realistic images of photographic quality.

Images by Charles Nandeya Ehouman (Sharlybg)

LuxCoreRender was formerly known as LuxRender. It was rebooted in 2018 with a change of name, a new project website, forum and online documentation. It is a physically based render engine with a range of production features. LuxCoreRender 2.0 supports hybrid C++/OpenCL rendering on both CPUs and GPUs.

LuxCoreRender 2.6, which was released in December 2021, is the most recent stable version of this render engine. Odilkhan Yakubov, the developer of the Corona & LuxCore Renderer Addon, recently announced the news about the latest update, version 2.8 alpha released in December 2023.

Cycles vs. LuxCoreRender: A comprehensive comparison

Compare and contrast Cycles and LuxCoreRender

Cycles LuxCoreRender
Price Free, Open-Source Free (and will always be free as claimed on the site), Open-Source 
Rendering algorithm Unbiased Unbiased
Rendering modes GPU, CPU, and Hybrid (GPU + CPU) GPU, CPU, and Hybrid (GPU + CPU)
Rendering technologies CUDA – NVIDIA 

OptiX – NVIDIA

HIP – AMD

oneAPI – Intel

Metal – Apple (macOS)

OpenCL 

CUDA – NVIDIA

OptiX – NVIDIA (from LuxCoreRender 2.5)

 

Supported GPUs NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, and Apple GPUs NVIDIA GPUs, OpenCL compatible GPUs
Supported OS Windows, Linux, and macOS Windows, Linux, and macOS

Both Cycles and LuxCoreRender are free and open-source unbiased renderers available on Windows, Linux and MacOS. Their source code is available under the Apache License Version 2.0 and can be integrated into both open-source and commercial software. Find more information about the API of LuxCoreRender here and the source code of Cycles here.

LuxCoreRender can be used either as a standalone application or as a plugin. Similarly, Cycles can function as both an integrated renderer within Blender and as a standalone render engine. However, note that the Cycles standalone application is still in development, and is not ready for production usage. It can be used for testing purposes and integration with other 3D programs and pipelines.

Both render engines support CPU rendering, GPU rendering and a combination of both CPU and GPU rendering (Hybrid). Cycles offers support for NVIDIA, AMD, Intel, and Apple GPUs. LuxCoreRender supports NVIDIA GPUs and OpenCL-compatible GPUs.

Cycles and its rendering technology

Cycles supports different technologies for GPU rendering depending on the GPU manufacturer and operating system: 

    • CUDA- NVIDIA: CUDA is supported on Windows and Linux. It requires NVIDIA GPUs with a compute capability of 3.0 and higher. 
    • OptiX – NVIDIA: OptiX takes advantage of hardware ray-tracing acceleration in RTX GPUs for improved performance. It’s supported on Windows and Linux and requires an NVIDIA GPU with a compute capability of at least 5.0 and a driver version of 470 and higher. 
    • HIP – AMD: HIP is supported on Windows and Linux. It requires an AMD GPU with the Vega architecture or newer. Both discrete GPUs and APUs are supported.  The supported GPUs include the Radeon RX Vega Series (Excluding the Radeon VII); Radeon RX 5000 Series, 6000 Series, 7000 Series; Radeon Pro WX 9100; and Radeon Pro W6000 Series. For Windows, the minimum driver versions required are Radeon Software 21.12.1 or Radeon PRO Software 21.Q4 and for Linux, Radeon Software 22.10 or ROCm 5.3
    • oneAPI – Intel: oneAPI is a computation library supported on Windows and Linux. It requires an Intel® Arc™ GPU with the Xe HPG architecture. Supported GPUs include Intel® Arc™ A-Series.
    • Metal – Apple (macOS): Metal is supported on Apple computers with Apple Silicon, AMD and Intel GPUs. To support all features and graphics cards, macOS 13.0 or newer is required. However, note that using AMD GPUs with Metal has several limitations.

LuxCoreRende and its rendering technology

LuxCoreRender has come a long way in terms of GPU rendering technology. From version 2.5 onwards, LuxCoreRender supports three GPU rendering technologies: OpenCL, CUDA, and OptiX

From the very beginning, LuxCoreRender has supported GPU+CPU rendering thanks to OpenCL CPU devices. However, the performance of OpenCL CPU devices is often disappointing, as they are much slower than C++ code and can even slow down the GPU performance. As a result, GPU+CPU rendering is often slower than GPU-only rendering. To solve this problem, LuxCoreRender has introduced OpenCL/C++ hybrid rendering. OpenCL is used to run the rendering on GPUs while native C++ code is used for CPU rendering.

Starting from version 2.0, LuxCoreRender supports hybrid C++/OpenCL rendering when rendering on both CPUs and GPUs. This architecture provides much better performance than the old, purely OpenCL-based architecture.

From version 2.4 onwards, NVIDIA’s CUDA was introduced alongside OpenCL-based render paths. From LuxCoreRender 2.5, the CUDA backend could utilize RTX hardware ray tracing through the OptiX library. The rendering speedup benefit depends on the complexity of the scene, with more triangles in the scene resulting in a bigger speedup.

Cycles vs LuxCoreRender: Strengths and Weaknesses

Cycles:

Strengths: 

    • Cycles is free and open-source.
    • It’s a production-proven renderer available in Blender and is heavily maintained and updated. 
    • It is the default render engine in Blender, which means it seamlessly integrates with the rest of the software’s features and workflows.
    • In Blender, Cycles is the most feature-rich renderer. It offers a rich set of rendering features, including powerful PBR shading nodes, accurate subsurface scattering, vector displacement and adaptive subdivision, volume scattering and absorption, cryptomatte support, and more.
    • It has comprehensive documentation and an active community support system, making it easier for new users to get started.

Weaknesses:

    • It’s not as suitable as LuxCoreRender for architectural works that require quite the tweaking and results are subpar compared to more specialized render engines.
    • Cycles is currently not as capable in areas such as caustics as other engines. LuxCoreRender beats it in both accuracy and speed.

LuxCoreRender:

Strengths:

    • It’s free and will always be free, and thus can be used on commercial projects. It’s open-source, allowing you to customize it to fit your specific pipelines and contribute to the project if you have the needed coding skills. 
    • The design philosophy of LuxCoreRender is a no-holds-barred, fully physically accurate model when computing the render. As a result, it gives some of the most impressive/accurate renders out of the box. It also outclasses traditional path-tracers such as Cycles with a bevy set of features in place to compute light information even in the most challenging scenes. This makes LuxCoreRender incredibly potent for rendering scenes that focus on heavily refractive objects, caustics, or dimly lit interiors.
    • It is the king of caustics. Its SSS is also great, among other things. 
    • It also plays well with Blender. It’s available as a plugin, as well as able to parse Cycles material nodes.

Weaknesses:

    • It is pretty complicated and it has many options, but a lack of solid documentation, so it may be intimidating for new users.
    • One has also to choose the version of LuxCoreRender compatible with the installed Blender version carefully. 
    • It is not a production-based render engine, so there are no provisions for animation and/or temporal accuracy (for example, flickering prevention) for animations.

Cycles vs LuxCoreRender: GPU Rendering Performance

Both Cycles and LuxCoreRender offer a wide range of GPUs to choose from. If you’re looking for the best rendering performance, you can consider looking at rendering performance tests and benchmarks to compare the performance of different GPUs. This can help you make an informed decision when choosing which GPU to use with either render engine.

First, Cycles rendering performance:
The below graphs show the performance differences between enabling RT and disabling RT.

Cycles GPU rendering performance: AMD HIP, Intel oneAPI, and NVIDIA OptiX (Image credit: Techgage)

Testing Cycles in Blender 4.0 with different scenes on various GPUs from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel:

Image credit: Tom's Hardware

You can also see here for more information on comparing more GPU devices for Cycles. 

Second, LuxCoreRender rendering performance: 

LuxCoreRender 2.6 - Scene: LuxCore Benchmark - Acceleration: GPU (Image credit: openbenchmarking.org

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Reference Source: blender.org, cycles-renderer.org, luxcorerender.org, openbenchmarking.org, tomshardware.com, phoronix.com

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