VRay or Maxwell

[rcallicotte]

Which is the better renderer and why?   

[Will]

Depends what you need in my opinion. Maxwell is amazing for stills and architectural stuff while V-ray is generally better for animation and film...at least in my experience. Keep in mind though that I've only used both briefly.

[sjefen]

What about mental ray?

I went to school so I could learn 3ds max. I have never tested VRay or Maxwell, but mental ray comes with 3ds max. I was the only one in my class that always used mental ray. I loved it. Very powerful render once you learn it.

[lightning]

if you want a quick yet high quality render i would use vray
but if you have a bit more patience go with maxwell it generates a lot higher quality images than vray

[rcallicotte]

Is it true that VRay isn't as 3D software modeler friendly as Maxwell?  It also seems to me that the VRay renders I've seen look so amazingly real.

[Oshyan]

if you want a quick yet high quality render i would use vray
but if you have a bit more patience go with maxwell it generates a lot higher quality images than vray

Is that based on personal experience, or examples you've seen? From almost everything I've seen Vray can equal Maxwell in the majority of situations (there are some special scenes that have complex interplay of light transport, unusual in the real world, that Maxwell does better because it's "unbiased"). And it's generally a good deal faster, too.

- Oshyan

[rcallicotte]

Thanks for this input.  It's invaluable.