Maxwell for SU VS Twilight

[lwbscenic]

Yeah at $800 for VRay you could get the full Maxwell Render Suite for less at $700 which offers much more room to grow beyond just working inside SketchUp.

The others I don't know very well, so hopefully somebody else can comment.

Best,
Jason.

Ive seen this mention of the Maxwell render suite for $700 a few times. Is this still the case somewhere? It appears that it is currently going for $995.

[jason_maranto]

That promotional sale expired a little while ago -- Next Limit does sales like that every so often (maybe 1-2 times a year)... so keep your eyes open and you'll get a deal.

Best,
Jason.

[lwbscenic]

Jason

If I purchased the paid plugin would there be a upgrade to the suite, or is it still a full purchase?

[jason_maranto]

I'm not sure on that -- you would probably need to contact Next Limit directly to find out... although I cannot imagine them not offering some upgrade path.

Best,
Jason.

[lwbscenic]

So Next Limit Replied to let me know that they would only charge me the difference between the cost of the plug-in and the cost of the suite should I decide to upgrade.

Nice

LB

[jason_maranto]

That's good to hear, though I'm not surprised -- they are generally one of the best companies when it comes to their (IMO) liberal licensing policies (cross-platform, cross-product).

Best,
Jason.

[solo]

Tested this scene with Thea.

Firstly we must not forget that everyone's computers are different, even if you have identical rigs the difference could be in seconds or minutes.

I tested on a first generation i7 with 24GB ram

First we have biased tests (like Vray)

First is the default Thea BSD setting, it is by default set to use maximum cores and normal super-sampling, This was pretty fast at 58 seconds but quality is questionable IMO:

bsd default normal supersample 58s.png

Then I upped the super-sampling to high and it took 2m21 secs:

bsd default high supersample 2m21.png

Here I used one of my own presets, used for actual work when I need to get lots of renders out fast and client does not need unbiased level quality, yet still getting a decent result, 3m34 sec:

BSD preset solo interior good 3m34.png

And lastly the unbiased version, for when you want a good result, note, I never needed to change a thing in order to render biased or unbiased just a matter of choosing before hitting render.

TR1 30 mins high sampling.png

[Ecuadorian]

Pete, there are two basic types of biased settings in Thea...

-Bucket rendering, which finishes one square at a time and has a well defined "completion" point (Works similar to Vray and Mental Ray)
Examples in Thea:
Adaptive BSD
Photon Mapping
Final Gather

-Progressive rendering, which you can stop anytime when satisfied (Works similar to unbiased modes, but is "biased" instead of "unbiased"... Can't tell the difference by just looking at the result.)
Examples in Thea:
Progressive BSD, which for me looks like a biased version of TR1
Adaptive (AMC), which seems to be a biased version of TR2

All these five biased modes are present in Thea. Which ones did you use for the test?

[solo]

BSD.

[Ecuadorian]

There's two BSD modes:
Progressive BSD (progressive) and Adaptive BSD (bucket rendering).

I guess it must be Progressive BSD, right?

[solo]

Ah, sorry, I used adaptive for these tests

[nomeradona]

im sold out with BSD now Pete.. nice tests... i came for thea for the unbiased and handling of multi-poly models, but seeing your Biased render, it made me rethink twice and thrice.. thanks for putting this gallery.

[Pixero]

@Pete: I would be interested in seeing your tweaked settings.

[jpalm32]

I don't understand the window reflection on her shirt.

[Rich O Brien]

I don't understand the window reflection on her shirt.

She's a semi opaque 2d face me. You're a seeing through her.

[Fletch]

For future reference on the Twilight Render website there is a "Tutorials" link.
There you will find the video tutorials for Twilight Render SketchUp plugin. They are made in such a way that people that do not understand spoken English so well can still learn how to use the plugin. (Videos are also available in Spanish and Japanese)

The next place to go for beginners would naturally be the FAQ section of the user forum. In this case, it is not a list of some odd made-up words that no one actually ever asks about. No, it's actually a list of the most frequently asked 'beginner' questions.

Warming up the sky: There are many controls for physical sky, and color of sun, sun radius (how soft the sun shadows are) in the Light Editor dialog for Twilight. Check these tips for beginners wanting to warm up the sun and sky, and speed up renderings and general working in SketchUp:
Default Sky Setting for Twilight... and speed up SU (includes an excellent default sun and sky .skp template file)
First thing to do to warm up the Sun and Sky
In addition of course you can use any spherical sky image in .hdr or .jpg format.

If somehow the User Manual (comprehensive, fully hyper-linked, well organized, and searchable) does not have an answer to your question, you can check out the Best Of Tips and Tricks - The Master List

Lastly the Twilight Render community forum is very friendly, helpful, and welcoming to all. It is very similar to the lovely folks here at the SketchUcation forum.

Finally, users of the free trial still get free support from our user forum. People who purchase a Twilight Render license get access to the Red Carpet Section of the user forum, a lot of free advanced video tutorials, user content, scenes, etc.