Thanks Fenric for your feedbacks.

I guess we both agree that Intel has designed the hardest part of a renderer, the part that's in the realm of rocket science, i.e. the raytracing routines.

The fact that Embree is already implemented in some world-class apps like VRay, C4D and Simlab is a proof positive that Embree is itself a world-class technology.

Also since Embree is already in C4D, we can be sure that soon it will be in 3D apps in roughly the same price range, i.e. Lightwave and Modo.

And since Embree is also implemented in a $249 app like Simlab, we can be sure that soon even the cheapest of 3d apps will follow suite, including Project Messiah, Cheetah3D, Shade and Poser Pro 2016.

So where does that leave Carrara? Probably in the middle of nowhere wondering what's going-on.

I wanted to review Yafaray and 3Delight as possible rendering solutions too, before running some numbers. But I will first do a cost vs. benefit between Octane and Embree. I will get to the other 2 renderers later.

I will base all my price comparisons on non-discounted list prices, for all products involved.

First let me state that Embree has been designed to be integrated in a host application, not as a plugin, and that is how I will evaluate the costs.

We agreed that Embree can be incorporated into Carrara by a developer who knows what he/she is doing in six months. I add to this a part time art student to test as the work progresses, so the final result is a carefully tested industrial-strength production-quality product, not some useless bug-ridden junkware.

I think it is more than reasonable to say that the cost of a programmer in Utah, plus a part time student to do the tests will not be more than $100K for six months, including employer's overhead and extra-costs.

Carrara Pro's list price being $549.-, the Embree implementation costs will amount to roughly 200 copies of Carrara.

I believe that with Embree implemented, Carrara's sales could go through the roof, to the point that 200 copies of it will be sold in only few days.

The same Embree could impact Carrara's sales so positively that Carrara developments could become self-sustaining through the revenues generated by its own sales.

So for a mere 6 months/$100K investment, Daz will get a Carrara with a super-fast, state-of-the-art renderer, could become the preferred tool for some small production studios, could probably run even on a laptop, and could improve Daz's sales so it doen't have to continuously discount its prices to the bone to generate some cash-flow.

In my next post I will look at the cost versus benefits of Carrara + Octane + Octane plugin + A high-power NVidia card to run Octane.