Quote - What I find objectionable is that the marketing hype is overloading the reality - it's not easy to use and it requires a skill set that is being misled.  And, I say this as an ex-Reality DS user.

I'll have to disagree. I found Reality extremely easy to use. Paolo's Reality Users Guide is the best manual I've ever read, and I've read a lot of them over the last 14 years.

What skillset is Paolo being misleading about?

 

Quote - To use Reality effectively, one must understand the basics of lighting.  It's not a tool for people who are lacking that skill set.

If you want to use any rendering engine effectively you must understand the basics of lighting.  If people are lacking that skill set, they need to learn it. If you want to be an artist, whether you are using a rendering engine, paint, pencil, ink, camera etc, you need understand the basics of lighting. If you know the basics of real lighting, you'll take to Reality/Lux like a duck to water.

Yes, the lighting is different. Reality/Lux uses the physics of real light. It's not like the lighting hacks, fakes and workarounds we use in Poser and DAZ Studio to attempt to recreate real lighting.

Quote - Then, there's the understanding of shaders and texturing knowledge required to use the tool effectively.

That's true of any rendering engine. Yes, you have to learn something, but the RUG, (Reality Users Guide), makes it very easy to do so.

 

Quote - I don't see any of that in the marketing statements that are being made here. 

I don't see Smith Micro, DAZ or the makers of any software that uses a rendering engine saying that you'll need to learn how to use the their rendering engine. That's pretty much a given in the 3D world.

 

 

Coldrake