Rendering Engines for Sketchup 8

[garystan]

Hi everybody :

I've been trying to find a rendering addon for Sketchup 8. I tried Bright 3D which was quick but didn't have to much in the way of options. ArielVision seemed okay. But,again, had limited options. iRender nXT DID render a scene I put together, but it always came out grainy. I'm trying to find a solution to this dilemma. I REALLY like Sketchup for the fact that I can create just about anything. But, Sketchup, in itself, IS limited in its rendering. Most of the rendering addons were costly. And complicated to use. I've seen addons for as much as $3800. This kinda cuts into the environment of creativity for the average user. The "samples" shown on the websites look nice. If only the rendered scene / model that I created could look that good. My computer System consists of Windows 7 Professional 32-bit, NVidia Geforce GT610, 2x2GB RAM Chips, Intel Core i3-3220 CPU and Sketchup 8. I'm thinking that I need to upgrade my entire System and upgrade from Sketchup 8 to be able to use the rendering addons. Advice ?

garystan

[pilou]

Twillight Render 2 Hobby is free!
Try it, it must work on your computer!

I've seen addons for as much as $3800

What is this by curiosity ? It's one addon or several ? I see the "s" but....

[juju]

Oooh, rendering engines, there are soooo many to choose from (depending on your intended use), but if free / low cost ones are what you're after then look at (in no specific order of preference):

- Ambient Occlusion (payware)
- Blender Cycles (free) but ptobably best to use plugin to export from SketchUp to Blender (like BlendUp, payware)
- Kerkythea (free)
- Keyshot (payware)
- Indigo (payware, slightly more costly)
- Lightup (payware)
- LuxRender (free)
- Maxwell (payware, slightly more costly)
- Mitsuba (free) export models to collada/dae for use here
- OctaneRender (payware)
- Podium (payware)
- PovRay (free) I don't know who still uses this though
- TheaRender (payware)
- Twilight (payware)
- Visualizer (free)
- V-Ray (payware, slightly more costly)
- Yafaray (free)

There are still more, you can do a search on these forums as well that will yield some results.

You might want to check them out for compatibility before downloading / installing / buying...

[garystan]

Oooh, rendering engines, there are soooo many to choose from (depending on your intended use), but if free / low cost ones are what you're after then look at (in no specific order of preference):

- Ambient Occlusion (payware)
- Blender Cycles (free) but ptobably best to use plugin to export from SketchUp to Blender (like BlendUp, payware)
- Kerkythea (free)
- Keyshot (payware)
- Indigo (payware, slightly more costly)
- Lightup (payware)
- LuxRender (free)
- Maxwell (payware, slightly more costly)
- Mitsuba (free) export models to collada/dae for use here
- OctaneRender (payware)
- Podium (payware)
- PovRay (free) I don't know who still uses this though
- TheaRender (payware)
- Twilight (payware)
- Visualizer (free)
- V-Ray (payware, slightly more costly)
- Yafaray (free)

There are still more, you can do a search on these forums as well that will yield some results.

You might want to check them out for compatibility before downloading / installing / buying...

REPLY :
I think I found the "one". It's Shaderlight. At a more reasonable price. I tried a few quick models I put together. I'm impressed with the results. I'm going to check out these other rendering engines you mention. Thanks-----garystan

[garystan]

Twillight Render 2 Hobby is free!
Try it, it must work on your computer!

I've seen addons for as much as $3800

What is this by curiosity ? It's one addon or several ? I see the "s" but....

REPLY:

I currently have the Twilight Render Hobby Plugin. The results seems fairly good.
garystan