There is something about the way Vray handles light that I just love. *sigh*
To be sure this is an outstanding example of modeling and texturing work, and there's lots of detail put in there. But really with an "average" renderer, the results would look technically good, but not necessarily make you go "wow". It's the subtle lighting and color handling that "sell" the image IMHO, and that comes down partly to skill in lighting the scene on the artist's part, and partly to the qualities of the GI system in Vray. You see pretty consistently high quality results out of Vray (and generally out of Maxwell and many "unbiased" renderers too), but that's less true of other renderers that don't go the "unbiased" route. Certainly something like MentalRay is capable of similar results, but I can't help thinking that the reason we see this level of work less often from a renderer like that is that it's at the least harder to achieve.
- Oshyan
