[richardyot]

I tested Octane fairly intensively against Maxwell and Modo and I would say it is a touch faster than Maxwell (not by much though!), especially with simpler materials.

If you you really need speed though you should look at a biased renderer such as Modo or Vray - they will be much quicker, especially if quality isn't important. If you set up some materials and render settings in advance you should be able to get results much better than the one you posted above in a minute or less - and both these engines have real-time previews you can use for your final output as well, meaning you work in real-time much like in Octane but with better and faster results.

To give you some idea of the difference in speed between a biased and unbiased renderer here are some images, the render times are visible in each one:

clay render:

Octane



Maxwell



Modo



Still Life:

Octane



Maxwell



Modo



I matched the render tests in terms of graininess since that is what I was looking to test. The Maxwell renders are all clearly the best, there is no doubt about that at all, but the Modo ones are considerably faster. Octane falls between two stools IMO, being neither the best nor the fastest. These tests were done in the summer so all of the applications have had updates since then, but the results will be similar.

I would reiterate though that with a biased solution it will be crucial to have render settings and materials set up in advance that you can simply apply to your scene, otherwise you could spend unnecessary time tweaking.

[JTB]

Very useful tests... Modo looks really nice too... However the "I would reiterate though that with a biased solution it will be crucial to have render settings and materials set up in advance that you can simply apply to your scene, otherwise you could spend unnecessary time tweaking." is really true and that's why I don't think using biased renderers is any faster than Fire...
I have an Octane license and although it is really cheap and with great results, not having a decent plugin is a real problem... when I want to make changes...

I love Maxwell and I use Fire all the time... it is fast and really good...

A CPU update is not so expensive (cheaper than a good GPU card update) and not so frequent...so I would suggest Fire and a fast PC...
To be honest I havent tested Fire with interior renderings to see how it behaves...

[richardyot]

I have just done a simple test using Modo's Preview render, the following image renders in about 8 seconds on my system (980X CPU):



You can download a video of the file being opened, mini-preview then full-size preview fully rendered, all in under 15 seconds (the poor quality is only my video capture software, the preview quality is exactly the same as the image above, but you can see the speed):

http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/misc/modopreview.avi

I use both Modo and Maxwell in my work, and I do a lot of previewing. FIRE is really good, but Modo previews scenes much faster (very close to instant in many cases) because it is a biased engine doing much simpler calculations.

Yes you do need to optimise your render settings, but for a situation like this you would set up a template and re-use it each time. For what it's worth my settings were:



They're optimised for quick and dirty results, but by god they are quick.

[LiW]

Great!

Big thanks for sharing the image comparisons. I will give Fire a try this weekend and see if it fits the studio workflow.
The reason why I have started looking for gpu renderer is the instant preview.
Of course we could use some biased engine (looking forward for vray rt gpu reviews) but I find it really useful NOT to push the render button every time some slider position changes. Enough of that;)
Let me start with the problem again: too much cheap and low quality stuff is being sold here around. People got used to see crap. We hate crap but need to be as cheap and fast as these market-ruining guys in some situations. Not talking about price dumping but having better results, better deadlines with no price/time investment in the rendering field. With gpu renderer, as we have tried it in practice, it is possible to beat the *** out of the regular cheap rendering guys - they simply have no time to learn new technologies because of the amount of cheap "jobs" they do. That simple.
We can make 10 images in 10 minutes - they need at least 1-2 days. Try to look at it from the client's point of view - faster=better (sic!)
Our milestone projects always get top quality presentation, however you don't always run the company doing the top projects;)
Even my recent architecture students don't know how to use new software, maybe 1 in 20 people pursues quality presentation skills. That's why I posted here, the place where people care about stuff;)

thanks again!
j

and edit: take a look at maxwell/octane comaprison above. Most regular people won't see the glass quality difference in architectural project.

[richardyot]

The reason why I have started looking for gpu renderer is the instant preview.
Of course we could use some biased engine (looking forward for vray rt gpu reviews) but I find it really useful NOT to push the render button every time some slider position changes. Enough of that;)

Both FIRE and Modo give you instant preview, watch the video I posted - you don't click the render button. Every time you move the camera or change a setting the preview updates, just like in Octane.

[richardyot]

Here's another video showing the interactive render in Modo, you'll see that when the camera is moved or settings are changed the render updates - this is exactly the same workflow as in Octane or indeed Maxwell's FIRE, but it's much quicker in Modo.

http://www.itchy-animation.co.uk/misc/m ... active.avi