Gurus, Power users, Master of 3d!

I'd like an honest analysis and comparison of these render engines. It could help many users make purchase choices and see the pros and cons of each system. I for one am confused as to eaches' flexabiliy vs. limitations.

From a Blender Site:

" LuxRender vs Cycles : How do they compare ?

They both seem to be very similar projects solving the same problem (General Illumination). They difference I have noticed are the following:

1. Cycles is very tightly integrated with blender. The live preview is great.
2. Cycles can use nodes for materials, making it more powerful.
3. Cycles comes with GPU support.

Whereas:
1. Luxrender is faster (in my experience, YMMV).
2. More mature project, hence more material types and materials are available.
3. Can simulate volumes (eg: light scattering through dusty air).
4. GPU support is in the works but is far away from supporting all features.


Can you guys give any more comparisons regarding how they differ and in what situations would you use one over the other ?"

Just to get us started.

Currently having more experience with the Cycles Render and because it is part of Blender I have to say in many areas it is amazing one of the key elements to get the most out of it is the node editor which can be a challenge to learn. But because it is part of Blender you have all your tools all in one place. I have tried Lux which is available as a free plug in for Blender as well and it does come with a few advantages of its own and if you do not have GPU graphic card has some advantages over cycles in Blender with out GPU support is a bit slower. I know that the upcoming release of Poser Pro 2016 is incorporating cycles into a new render engine called SuperFly I think will bring many advantages to Poser. So in my opinion learning Cycles would be advantageous to everyone

This is the kind of stuff I need to know. Also ... those who know and use "Reality 4", how does it compare? I know it uses LuxRender.

Smiles I also own Reality just recently purchased it and the main reason was to see how it well it would work in comparison to Cycles and the one thing that does come to mind with Reality is that it's interface I find more user friendly than the Lux interface by itself. Have not had tested speeds as of yet but does look like a very worthwhile compliment to LuxRender

This is great Lobo, if you check out my duplicate of this question in the Poser Forum ... I've added a few things you might be able to clarify for me. Cheers! And Thank you!

Hi Boni

First looked at your duplicate post in the Poser forum and I will be honest some of the info you posted from other forums sort of went warp speed over my head me is only an amateur novice still learning myself on many fronts lol. But this is my thought on the this render vs that render and in all honesty like what was stated not all things are going to fit perfectly into one is better than this one. I think yes much depends on the job your are doing and second what you can afford. I think and feel from seeing much of the art that is shared here that one Cycles has allot of potential as it continues to be developed and Luxrender with the Reality plugin and it's reasonable price for a hobbyist using Poser or Daz also has many advantages as well. I think long run it truly depends on the tools you are going to use and which might fit better into one circumstance or another. There are scripts that can be used to take advantage of Cycles for Daz and some can be modified for Poser as well, is there room for improvement of course but the same holds true for Lux. I do not think I answered all your questions but hope my personal insight helps in some form.

Reality is the go IMO since the 4.1 release this week Boni - 4.1 is a killer update/purchase for speed I think it comes with a copy LuxRender 1.5 just in case you don't have it installed. I am running it in Daz and PP2014 - Windows 10. All have their pro's and Cons I always found Lux a bit slow compared to all the other slow ones LOL. There is video on reality website check it out it explains everything. Most do a good job though as Lobo says depends what your doing with it. I can see a need to run most of them as all give different feel in the final result.

Great help guys, thank you!