Photorealism is such a relative term when it comes to 3d rendering... some photos look absolutely fake and unbelievable and some 3d scenes look absolutely real to others.

Ok. A little more in depth. I apologise for the longwinded critique I'll be gushing you with but I do it because you are aiming for just that which I am aiming for as well.. photorealism in 3d. A scene of the mind made real.

Ok The first thing to pay in mind when you want to make something look realistics is: How do(es) the object(s) get treated in Real Life. And example. The corner of a wall next to a door will be touched much more by people then the middle and higher regions of a wall, which impacts the way that the wall looks. This counts for all objects, the couch.. the floor.. the spots on the floor in front of the couch where people put their feet. Wear and tear is what realism is all about. So, the first advice is add lots... I mean LOTS of wear and tear. Don't make it tooo obvious, no need to tear a carpet in half to make if look worn, but some of it's edges might be overlapping or light wires may come out at the ends.

It's also a good idea to take long and hard looks around in your livingroom and other rooms and look at simple materials like painted woods and the walls or the ceiling and floor and try to imagine how to make that material inside 3ds's material room. This translation process from real life to virtual life is crucial before putting effort into making any scene look realistic. :)

In regards to your scene there a couple of simple things you can do to make it look more realistic. The first thing I noticed were several moire and repetetive patterns in the textures. Try using supersampling on them in the materials rollout. The bump on the table looks a little too thick and reflective, I got the feeling that my hand would get stuck on it, if I would touch it. ;)

The last easy thing you can fix is the pixelation of the couch against the light and in other parts of the image. Try a different videosampling filter(Render rollout). Standard it's set to Area but there are better filters that you can use. I haven't rendered in Vray though, I use Brazil and the standard scanline render only. But there should be a filter setting somewhere in Vray too.

Hope this helps!

Very nice DG! Excellent lighting. I agree with all the above said by Datjongetje. Maybe this is a modern minimalistic room but I think it would look better if you crammed lots more objects in there. Pictures on the wall and stuff. Also are the walls concrete? The red on the wall from the seats caused by the radiosity looks a bit strong to me. Almost like the walls a little reflective. Only other thing that bothers me is the rug/carpet in the middle of the floor. It looks a bit flat and not as real as the floor surrounding it. Maybe it needs an edging too where it joins the rest of the floor. Other than that it looks great! This only needs a few touches to make a great render.

I agree with all the above comments as well...The things that really stand out that are hurting this image is the over saturated colors. The lighting is pretty good, but your shadow areas are still to dark to be realistic. You had to turn your lights up really bright to get enough light in the room, however, as a result you've completely blown out all the detail you had in the window opening. That said...I think this is your best render to date. Watch out for that dirty word..."photorealism"....people won't hesitate to point out every flaw when you say it. Which is a good thing actually if photorealism is your goal. BTW...the back of the sofa on the left is intersecting the window sill.

I like the lighting, The floor is great as is the table. More stuff in the room would really add to this image. Need to see something out the window or put some drapes up :) The plant is too squared off on the ends. Some moulding along the floor would help. I also think the red bounces a bit too far up the wall. The glass looks nice too. All that said it's still a very nice render.

Well Well Well, I dont like posts with HUGE image sizes. Makes things a bit hard to view as a whole, the your scrolling around and seeing things from an ants perspective. Other than that, I really have to say, I am proud of you ma' boy! I have taught you well! This is a GoOd StArT =) haha , just messing, looks awesome. Though my computer sucks and is showing it with sharpened edges for some odd reason. I cant really see any details. Though I can still see the amount of color bleed, which is some how exaggerated in your light settings. Yea I wouldnt Jump onot PHOTOREALISM YET, YOu know peopel Like Mbaker, might ask you for a wire IF it loosk too good ya know!! HAHAHAHAHA GOOD SHIT BRo!!

I agree with a lot that has been said. I think it looks more like a showroom then a real house where somebody should live... I do like the toning of the shadows and especially the reflection from the light through the window at the floor at the left side of the carpet.

lots of comments...in 3 words: very nice job

I wann be short, so all I wanna say is, This is really good, but since U wanted me to critise it here it is...You need some better lighting, shadows and some textures. Other than that Excellent work!!! :)

Your windows look like Vray lights. I have noticed that this is a common practice, but I think it's not a good habbit.