The Maya renderings are impressive but keep in mind many of the veg elements used in the scenes were effectively alpha maps of photos. He did a great job of integrating those elements together beautifully. You can achieve very similar results in Vue with the right lighting and atmosphere setup. I haven't done any architectural/veg scenes but I've rendered a few nature veg scenes that are quasi photo-real like these:

There are many other artists like Ken Was, Rutra, Sacada, and Czarnay that have done stuff that is totally photo-real.

Forum: Vue

Subject: Semi OT: a photo or a render?