hi guys! i think this topic was posted before but i cant find it in the archives.... the question is, without considering Carrara 2.1's GI, Caustics, etc, and only using the Hybrid RayTracer, which is better? Carrara 2.1's render engine or FireFly....at first when i got Carrara i said this is waaaay superior to FireFly, not considering GI, caustics, etc. but later on...as i got more used to FireFly, i discovered that with the correct light settings, high res textures, high res models, etc, the resolution of FireFly renders are almost undistinguishable from Carrara 2.1 renders using the same figures/textures, etc. is it just my eyes or have any of you noticed this too? heres a sample Firefly render....i think it looks pretty good...no postwork done except for her name spray painted

[ Note: You're supposed to mark "Nudity" on posts like this ]

Not familiar with Carrara, but here's a nudity tag for you.

Attached Link: http://larry.curiouslabs.com/poser/Poser/TestsAndMemorabilia/_renderman_vs_poser.html

http://larry.curiouslabs.com/poser/Poser/TestsAndMemorabilia/_renderman_vs_poser.html

ooopps.....forgot the nudy thingy

what is renderman?

Attached Link: https://renderman.pixar.com/products/whatsrenderman/index.htm

RenderMan: see the link. With such simple scenes as a testing object, there's going to be no visible differences between any renderers - a simple textured phong shaded surface (like your average Poser figure) looks virtually the same everywhere.

this is probably a stupid question but, is renderman for sale? i mean, the website says "product news" so what pops up in my head is something is for sale. or is it just their service that is for sale, and that they are just telling you that Pixar's service uses RenderMan, one of their 3D tools? will DAZ Studio have RenderMan capabilities? i've read some posts here that DAZ Studio will have something RenderMan-like.

There are two things under the name RenderMan: 1. Pixar's Photorealistic RenderMan, short PRMan, which is a renderer produced and sold by Pixar. You can buy that renderer directly from Pixar if you like. 2. RenderMan as a standard for the interface/API to a renderer. In theory, any renderer that complies to that standard can be used with any application that complies to that standard. In practice it may require a little hand-editing of the resulting RIB files. Since RenderMan is only a interface standard and says absolutely nothing about the implementation, RenderMan compliance has nothing to do with image quality or rendering algorithms. For example, many RenderMan compliant renderers do not support raytracing, some do. Most of them don't support radiosity. Pixar's PRMan itself didn't support raytracing until november 2002, btw. Poser supports the RenderMan interface ever since, thus you are able to use RenderMan renderers to render Poser scenes. However, since that export is a little dated (e.g. not supporting transparency maps or Poser 5 hair), I wrote my own RenderMan export that can be downloaded for free from my web page. The FireFly renderer in Poser 5 is mostly, but not completely RenderMan compliant. It uses the same algorithm as PRMan does (REYES.raytracing hybrid). 3Delight, the renderer that will ship with Studio is RenderMan compliant (which implies that you can use it with any version of Poser already). It is also a hybrid REYES renderer/raytracer.

thanks stewer! i learned some new stuff there. =)

I'm betting that if you put a Carrara GI render next to a Poser Firefly render using the identical pose and camera angle, the Carrara render would be more pleasing, softer, better. Even if you added dozens of lights to Poser in an attempt to cheat (fake GI).

Of course is Carrara better at GI - how should FireFly compete at a feature it doesn't have? If you want color bleeding and caustics, use Carrara. On the other hand, FireFly wins at displacements, depth of field or motion blur. There is no renderer that is the best in every discipline, they all have their advantages and their drawbacks. There is only the right tool for a job.